Pest Control Blog

Do pests cause allergies?




Flower power!

The most common seasonal allergies come from plants that are emerging in the Spring. Pollen tends to be the most common cause and it can come from a variety of plants becoming more active during warmer weather.

Some typical allergens are from pollen by trees, grass, flowers, and weeds. Similar to pollens are spores from molds and fungi. Depending on what part of the world you live in, seasonal allergies can start for many as early as February, and can last even into late Summer.

While warmer weather and things starting to green up can be great after many months trapped indoors from the cold, plants unfortunately aren’t the only thing becoming more active once winter is over.

Warmer weather brings prime time for pest activity

You’ve probably heard of being allergic to cats or dogs, but do insects and arachnids cause allergies as well? The answer may surprise you to know that all kinds of pests can be a contributing factor to allergies around your home, especially during the spring time.

Beyond pollen, pets and pests can cause allergies in a variety of ways. Pests like rodents, for example, can leave hair, dander, urine, saliva and droppings around your home and sometimes throughout your air vents as well.

As temperatures warm, many pests will try and enter your home from the outside to escape spring showers or summer heat through various cracks and crevices, gaps in windows and doors, and even through dryer and exhaust vents. They do this as an upgrade in shelter as well as looking for new food and water sources.

On top of that, many pests that may have entered your home during the fall that went into hibernation, now start to emerge and become active as well. As these pests start to breed and move about your home, they can spread all they have to cause allergies in your home as well.

Pests like roaches and bed bugs can cause allergies in your home as well

Rodent pests aren’t the only pests to cause allergies in your home. Insect pests like roaches and bed bugs can also trigger allergies as well. Similar to rodents, roaches will leave droppings and saliva, as well as body parts they may shed, which can cause allergy symptoms in your home.

Bed bugs are another pest that can cause allergies in your home as well. Studies have shown that bed bugs can raise histamine levels in your home by over 22 times the average numbers without a bed bug infestation.

Even worse is bed bugs will typically live and breed where you sleep triggering allergies as well as causing sleep issues for many people It’s even been shown that after removal of the bed bugs the histamine levels continue to remain high for a time leading to increased allergy symptoms.

Most of us have heard of anti-histamines as a combatant for allergies, but you probably don’t really know what they do. Your body actually uses histamines as a form of a defense mechanism against potential harm.

It’s not the most exciting for you, but your body will activate these histamines to try and rid your body of potentially harmful things. This makes your body do things like itching, inflammation, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, and more.

Certainly after removing pests the amount of allergies and histamines will go down, so getting them out of your home as quickly as possible can help reduce or eliminate allergies caused from pests.

So if you happen to be a frequent allergy sufferer or someone in your family is, it may be worth having your home serviced by a pest control company to eliminate or prevent any potential allergy causing pests this spring.





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