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If you have an elderly parent who lives alone at this time, you may experience surprises regarding their living situation with shocking regularity. For example, you may learn on a visit to your mother or father’s home that he or she is experiencing what amounts to a significant pest problem at the premises. Indeed, you may even perceive that the pest infestation at the residence fairly can be classified as rampant.
If you have learned that your mother or father is facing a significant pest problem in their home, you may wonder what are the best steps to take. You may wonder how you go about addressing a pest issue at your parent’s home when you are not the owner of the property.
Rapid Action Is Key
When it comes to a parent experiencing pest infestation at his or her home, rapid action is fundamental. Because of this reality, you will want to consider the propriety of taking a do it yourself or DIY approach to eradicating pests that have infiltrated our parent’s residence.
The reality is that a DIY approach to eliminating pests from a home can be something of a hit and miss endeavor. In addition, in many, many cases, the DIY approach to pest elimination from a home proves to be less that thorough. In other words, some of the pests end up left behind. Because some pests remain, they are able to breed and multiply – resulting in nothing more than pause in the infestation before a significant problem exists again in the not too distant future.
Understanding limitations associated with a do it yourself approach to pest elimination at your parent’s home, you are wise to seriously consider engaging the services of an experienced exterminator or similar type of pest elimination professional. As an aside, if you do take a DIY eradication approach in the first instance, you may find yourself faced with the need to hire a pro after spending time and money attempting to eliminate pests on your own.
Pest Eradication Is Step One
We’ve already begun the discussion of exterminating or otherwise eliminating pests from your parent’s home. Many people think dealing with a rampant pest infestation in residential property is a one-step venture. In fact, exterminating pests or removing them from the premises in some other way is only step one.
An example of a subsequent step is repairing damage to the premises that has been caused by the presence of a certain type of pest. The stark reality is that certain types of pests can cause what amounts to significant damage to a home. Moreover, damage to the premises actually can occur in what really is a relatively short period of time.
Biohazard Remediation Possibly Is a Necessary Step Two
Depending on the type of pest that has infiltrated your parent’s home, biohazard remediation might be necessary. The fact is that the presence of certain types of pests in your home can result in the accumulation of potentially hazardous biohazards. A prime example of a trailing biohazard are the droppings or feces left behind after a rat or mouse infestation.
Rodent droppings can contain highly dangerous pathogens that can cause serious disease or illness. The removal of droppings can be dangerous in and of itself if the process is not undertaken by a trained, experienced, professional rodent droppings cleanup company like Eco Bear.
What to Do if Your Parent Won’t Cooperate
There are situations in which an elderly person has a pest problem at his or her home but that individual attempts to block an adult child from assisting in the resolution of the situation. A number of relatively commonplace reasons exist for a parent to initially decline the assistance of their child in resolving an issue associated with a pest problem in that parent’s home:
- Despite significant evidence to the contrary, an elderly parent might not recognize that a pest problem exists
- An older parent might deny that a pest problem exists, even in a situation in which that parent recognizes the problem
- An older parent might attempt to block assistance for a pest issue from an adult child out of fear that a more significant problem will be discovered (like hoarding)
- Elderly parent may have notable fears about the costs associated with eradicating a pest problem
When any one of these hurdles exist, or if there is something else that is causing a parent to balk at undertaking the eradication of a pest problem, an adult child should consider enlisting the support and assistance of a professional or another third party to assist in convincing an older person of the needs to address the pest issue. These professionals and others include:
- Counselor of therapist
- Trusted family member or friend
- Clergy person
