Through my years in pest control I’ve seen clients in a lot of bad situations. The most distressing were when the pest infestation was gone but the client was completely convinced the pests were still there. Although it may not seem to be a real problem, the conviction would eat at people. Any sound is the one mouse that’s still there, every itch is a bedbug bite, tiny specks are cockroach droppings or sawdust form carpenter ants. For most people this feeling would fade as time passed and monitoring showed no evidence of pests. In a few though there didn’t seem to be anything I could do to help them believe the infestation was gone. The worst pests for this were bedbugs and second were rodents. People effected could be any age, rich or poor, with a big family or living alone. The one thing they all had in common was the infestation had been in their home for a long time. For Men’s Mental Health Month I wanted to talk about the often less considered, and definitely less studied, mental harms of pests.
A 2018 study (Housing Quality and Mental Health: the Association between Pest Infestation and Depressive Symptoms among Public Housing Residents) found “individuals who lived in homes with current cockroach infestation had almost three times the odds of experiencing high depressive symptoms” and “Dual infestation (cockroach and mouse) was associated with over five times the odds”. It was not possible to determine if the infestation caused the depression or if the depression predated the infestation. There are a variety of reasons pest infestations could contribute to depression or other mental health harms. I’ll raise two I’ve seen.
Isolation: Most people when they have bedbugs, mice, rats, or cockroaches they are embarrassed. Especially with bedbugs. Clients would almost always try to explain that they were clean and that the bedbugs must have come from some hotel or their kids friend’s house or, if they lived on an apartment building, one of their neighbouring apartments. And you know what? They were probably right. Anybody can get bedbugs and when someone first get’s them it is almost never their fault. I say almost never, because there is always a small chance someone got them on purpose, but I have never seen a single case where I felt the client had caused their infestation. This is part of the problem. Good friends don’t share bedbugs. So while the problem persists they don’t have friends over or go over to friend’s homes. With rodents and cockroaches, which are associated with being dirty, people just don’t want to be seen as filthy. Cockroaches and rodents can happily live in very clean places, but the shame causes people to keep the issues hidden.
Stress and Anxiety: Are there rats in my food? Did cockroaches make me sick? How much is this going to cost? Are bed bugs crawling towards me right now? Questions like these, and the sounds of rats scurrying in the attic, can keep you up at night and worrying non-stop. Knowing there is a problem can make the moment you sit down after a long day full of worry instead of relaxation. Lack of sleep, constant unease and, when attempts to eradicate the pest fail, building frustration can strain relationships and reduce concentration.
What can you do about it? This is the part where I say “Hire a professional”. That is what we are at Garden City Pest Control after all and I’ll get that, but first I want to say take pest infestations seriously as a problem that can be solved. I know you’ve heard the horror stories, maybe even told some yourself, but the problem can be solved. Eliminating infestations takes time and money whether you do it yourself or hire a professional and the sooner action is taken to tackle the problem the quicker and simpler it will be. Second share the load with someone. Whether that’s a friend to set traps for you or a professional having, someone on your side against the pests can really relieve the crushing pressure of the problem. Third, here it comes, seek professional help. Sometimes the problem is just too big or complicated to handle without a professional. Bedbugs and cockroaches are a good example because they are very difficult to conquer. They have education and experience in handling these problems that most people don’t and professionals have access to tools and pesticides that are simply unavailable to unlicensed people. A Garden City Pest Control technician will help you understand what the problem is, how it may have started, when it’s done, and what you can do to reduce the chance of it happening again.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6181819
https://pestech.com/blog/emotional-effects-of-pest-infestations
https://ncceh.ca/sites/default/files/Full%20Document%20EN%20-%20R%20Lam_1.pdf