CREATING H EALTHY FAM I L I ESTHROUGH H EALTHY P EST MANAGMENT

A H EALTHY HOME = A H EALTHY YOU

Your Family Your Home Pests

Asthma Respitory Issues Lack Of Sleep

Caulk Cracks Wipe Counters Clean Floors

Use the information in this brochure to learn about the health risks pests pose to you an your family and the healthy solutions you can use to create a healthy living environment. For more informatin contact the Baltimore City Health Department Healthy Homes Division at 443-984-2460 or 1800 N. Charles St, 5th Floor Baltimore, MD 21202.

Skin Sores

Cover Trash

health & your home

The Air Inside Your Home Can Be More Harmful Than The Air OutsideIndoor air pollution can be caused by many things: cigarette and cigar smoke; wet, or dampness in carpet floors, ceilings, and walls; high humidity; products we use for cleaning and maintenance; the use of oil, gas, kerosene, coal and wood; some building materials; radon gas; and other sources of outdoor air pollution.

Also, pests in homes and products used to control the pests can make the air in homes dirty and make people sick. For example, did you know that cockroaches can trigger asthma attacks? Usually don’t think about it, but pests can trigger asthma attacks, cause respiratory problems, and spread disease.

1

a healthy home = a healthy you

You can keep the air in your home clean. You don’t have to get sick from dirty air in your home. You have the power to make your home healthier for you and your family!

You can control pests in your home without overusing pesticides. Many times you will not need to use pesticides at all.

All of us have had pests in our homes. Pests are everywhere in Baltimore. They can destroy property and cause fires by damaging electrical wires. The damage that pests cause to our homes is expensive. Pests, such as cockroaches and rodents, can also cause asthma attacks and problems with breathing. This is because they make the air in your home dirty. Pests can also carry disease.

pests & your health

2

There are approximately 600,000 people living in Baltimore, and many of us live very close to each other, in row homes, in duplexes, and in apartment complexes.

Once pests enter a building, it is easy for them to pass from one home to another to find the things they need to live–food, water, and a place to sleep and bear offspring.

It is easy in urban areas for pests to become our neighbor’s pests, and our neighbor’s pests become our pests. Everyone needs to work together to solve our pest problems.

pests & baltimore city

cockroaches

6 months

(18,000 roaches)

(1 roach)

How Can I Get Sick from Cockroaches?

How Quickly Do Cockroaches Multiply?

Cockroaches can trigger asthma attacks. In pre-school-aged children, cockroaches can even cause asthma. They also can cause or aggravate allergens.

Breathing the dust that comes from their shed skin and their poop triggers and causes asthma.

They are also carriers of many different diseases, possibly as many as 32 bacterial and 17 fungal-related diseases, three protozoa - related illnesses and two viruses. We absorb these germs when we come into contact with food and surfaces cockroaches have been on, such as countertops, sinks, and eating utensils.

Cockroaches multiply very rapidly. If you see one, there will be more to come. One pregnant cockroach in January, may yield over 18,000 cockroaches by July!

stopping one cockroach does a lot!

What Do Cockroaches Eat?

crumbs cardboard glue

trash grease

* one drop of grease can feed 20 roaches!

Where Do Cockroaches Drink?

sinks counters

pipes

floors

drip pans & gaskets

pet bowls

air conditioner units

showers

How Do You Know You Have Roaches?

Where Do Cockroaches Live?

You often won’t know you have cockroaches until you see their shed skins, their poop, or dead cockroaches. Cockroaches usually don’t come out unless it’s dark. If you see cockroaches during the day, your home may be infested!

Cockroaches live anywhere in buildings, but they prefer to be near a source of water, and they need food and warmth. They also like to be in tight-fitting spaces, where their bodies touch surfaces both above and below them.

mice & ratsHow Can I Get Sick from Mice & Rats?

When you breathe the dust caused by rodent poop, it can cause asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.

Mice leave little drops of urine wherever they go. Mouse urine can also trigger asthma attacks in sensitive people.

Mice and rats also carry various infectious diseases, including Salmonella and Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis a serious disease for pregnant women. When you come into contact with rodent poop or pee, or eat or drink food that has been contaminated by their poop or pee, you can ingest the germs.

Rats may bite people when threatened. Babies are especially at risk since the rat may be in the crib with them, feeding on spilled milk.

How Quickly Do Rodents Multiply?Mice and rats multiply very rapidly. If you see one, there will be more to come. From one pregnant mouse, you can have up to 4,500 mice in one year!

Mice can mate when they are one month old and give birth 19 days after mating. There have 4–7 young per litter and eight litters per year.

1 year

(4,500 rodents)(1 mouse)

stopping one mouse or rat does a lot!

mice can enter your home through holes as small as 1/4 of an inch!

rats can enter your home through holes as small as 1/2 of an inch!

1/2”

1/4”

MOUSE

RAT

How Do You Know You Have Rodents?Mice and rats are much more difficult to detect than cockroaches.

Droppings are often the first evidence you will find. Rodent feces are pointed. Mouse feces are about the size of fat ice cream sprinkles; rat droppings are larger—about the size of olive pits. Rodent urine often smells.

Sometimes you can hear scratching sounds, from within walls that indicate a rodent presence.

You often have to look for evidence of their presence such as: points of entry; gnawed wood, wires, or other household materials; food being moved (and stored) from one place to another; and nests (or the collection of nesting material).

Holes or spaces in foundations, walls, and floors (and under doors), provide a place for mice and rats to enter a building.

What Do Mice & Rats Eat?

Where Do Mice & Rats Drink?

Basically, rodents like to eat the same things you do, but they don’t care what it looks like. Food in garbage is a perfect meal for a mouse or rat.

All food containers and garbage cans must be covered with a tight fitting lid to keep mice and rats out.

If you have a mouse or rat in your home and notice what it is eating, you can use that same type of food in mouse/rat traps.

Mice can go a month without drinking…they get most of their water from food. They like to nibble many times during the night. They need less than an ounce of food per day.

You know where mice and rats can get their food. Where do they get water? They get water from many of the same places as cockroaches – from leaking pipes, in sinks and tubs, air conditioning units – and in places like plant saucers and even condensation on windows!

mice & rats

sinks counters

pipesplants

floors

drip pans & gaskets

pet bowls

air conditioner units

showers

Where Do Mice & Rats Live?Mice and rats make nests, often from soft household materials.

Mice will often nest inside homes. Mice normally do not wander more than 10 feet from a nest; seeing a mouse may indicate where to look for its nest or entrance into a building or room.

Rats usually nest outside homes in burrows. Rats may travel up to 150 feet from their burrows to get to your home.

imagery/graphic

imagery/graphic

They do not transmit disease, but they do cause secondary infections when we scratch their bites. They also cause us to lose sleep, spend money to exterminate them and they can cause us lots of stress!

Bed bugs feed on our blood and the blood of our warm-blooded pets, like dogs and cats. In this way they are like fleas.

They don’t fly, jump, or burrow into the skin. They crawl, and similarly to cockroaches, are active mostly at night.

Bed bugs go through 6 stages of life, becoming larger and darker as they age. Their eggs are extremely small and translucent, which makes them very hard to find. During the last stage of life, as adults, bed bugs are dark and the size of an apple seed.

If you see even one bed bug in your home, you should act as quickly as possible to determine the extent of the problem and exterminate them.Also, bed bugs multiply very rapidly and cause your family a lot of stress. For example, from one pregnant bed bug in January, you can have up to 31,700 bed bugs in July!

How Can I Get Sick from Bedbugs?

How Quickly Do They Multiply?

bedbugs

6 months

(31,700 bedbugs)(1 bedbug)

We usually suspect we have bed bugs when we see bites on our skin.

Bed bug bites often come in rows of 2 or 3 bites in a line. The bites are raised and very itchy.

We may also see blood spots on our sheets and mattresses or discover their shed skins.

But we need to be absolutely sure we have bed bugs and not another type of pest before we try to exterminate them, and to do this we need to find live bed bugs.

Bed bugs feed on blood and can survive 18 months without it.

They live in all kinds of small spaces, cracks and crevices, such as behind wall paper, wall sockets and moldings, inside furniture and picture frames, along the edges of baseboards, in seat cushions, carpeting, clothing, and most commonlu bed mattresses and box springs.

How Do We Know We Have Bedbugs?

What Do Bedbugs Eat & Drink and Where Do They Live?

healthy solutions

3

Even when safely used, the dangerous chemicals in the pesticides stay inside your home – in the air, on your floors, on your counters, on your furniture – and you can’t see them or smell them. Some pesticide chemicals may stay suspended in air up to one week! Your family breathes them and touches them without knowing it.

Scientists believe that over time these pesticides may cause cancer and problems with breathing (your respiratory system), ability to produce healthy children (reproductive system), and the ability to control how you think and move (nervous system).Your potential exposure to harmful chemicals increases each time youuse pesticides.

Pesticides may kill some pests, but they often don’t kill them all. Pesticides usually kill only the pests that come into contact with the chemicals. But pests are smart and hide or flee when they sense poisons in their environment. Many times, pests survive our use of pesticides. And there are always more pests outside that are waiting to come into our homes. We’ll never kill them all! We need to stop using poisons in our homes.

For many years, we have used traditional methods, like pesticides, to get rid of roaches, mice and other unwanted pests. Pesticides are still very common. You see them everywhere, in grocery stores, in hardware stores, in people’s homes. Even though pesticides are for sale, that does not mean they are safe for used in homes and especially around children.

Why Are Pesticides Unhealthy?Labels on the sides of the pesticide containers and packages indicate the level of danger they present and how to use them.

Even when safely used, the dangerous chemicals in the pesticides stay inside your home – in the air, on your floors, on your counters, on your furniture – and you can’t see them or smell them. Some pesticide chemicals may stay suspended in air up to one week! Your family breathes them and touches them without knowing it.

Scientists believe that over time these chemicals may cause cancer and problems with breathing (your respiratory system), ability to produce healthy children (reproductive system), and the ability to control how you think and move (nervous system).

Your potential exposure to harmful chemicals increases each time you use pesticides.

traditional pesticides are unhealthy

Pests live in your home because they can get food and water and have a place to hide in your home. Pests are inside your home because they have a way to get in.

There is good news: we can control pests without using harmful pesticides and exposing ourselves to the dangerous chemicals they contain.

There is a HEALTHY, LESS EXPENSIVE and MORE EFFECTIVE way to control pests!

YOU CAN MAKE YOUR HOUSE A CLEAN AND HEALTHY HOME!

YOU CAN CONTROL PESTS WITHOUT OVERUSING PESTICIDES! SOMETIMES YOU DON’T NEED TO USE PESTICIDES AT ALL!

The Baltimore City Health Department is promoting a different, healthy way to control pests. This different way is safe and effective.

Is more effective at getting rid of pests (and keeping pests away!)

Improves your family’s health

Saves you money!

blocks the places where pests enter your home

eliminates places where pests hide in your home

eliminates the pests’ sources of food and water in your home

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Healthy Pest Management is much better than using pesticides!

This different way to control pests:•blocks the places where pests enter your home•eliminates places where pests hide in your home• eliminates the pests’ sources of food and water in your home

Remember: If pests can’t get into your home you won’t have pests.

Remember: If pests can’t hide and don’t have food or water, they won’t stay in your home!

imagery/graphic

Everyone

Tenants and Families:

Contractors, Landlords & Supers

Avoid foggers, bombs and sprays. Use boric acid, roach motels, and traps instead.

Always store any chemicals out of reach of children.

Don’t leave food or trash out. Instead, store food in tightly sealed containers.

Wash and dry dishes after each use.

Reduce clutter and empty your kitchen trash every day.Clean your counters, dining tables, and sinks daily with soap and water.

Clean your kitchen and dining area floors at least twice a week with soap and water.

Clean any food or beverage spills when they happen.

Empty plant saucers of any water.

Fix leaks quickly. Check for leaks around sinks, bathtubs, toilets, and pipes.

Use caulk and plaster to seal holes and cracks in walls, floors, and ceilings. This includes spaces around pipes or ducts.

things you can do

How Can I Get Rid of Cockroaches?Boric Acid! Use boric acid under refrigerators, behind cabinets, and in cracks before you seal them.

Place cockroach bait stations—roach motels— where you see cockroaches or their poop, behind or along the sides of refrigerators and cabinets, and other areas where you store food.

rodent controlHow Can I Get Rid of Rodents?

Use snap or glue traps. Make sure the bait side of the snap trap is against the wall. Rodents always move with their sides against a wall.

imagery/graphic

bedbug controlHow Can I Get Rid of Bed Bugs?

Why are Bed Bugs so Difficult to Exterminate?

A Professional Exterminator is Needed to Determine:

Can I Change Residences to EscapeBed Bugs?

Bed bugs are extremely difficult to exterminate and we advise that you not try to exterminate them yourself. In almost all cases, after spending money and time trying to exterminate bed bugs themselves, people have to call a professional exterminator anyway.

Never use foggers or bombs on bed bugs!!!)

Bed bugs can live up to 18 months without feeding, and no one product or method is equally effective against all stages of the bed bug’s life: some that are effective against, say, younger bed bugs, may not work as well against adult bed bugs or their eggs, for example.

the extent of the bed bug presence;

the mix of products and methods needed;

how to apply products safely and effectively so that all bed bugs, including those that are hiding in hard to reach places, are killed.

NO! Bed bugs are very good at hiding and you will likely transport the bed bugs to your new home. This will spread the problem to any place you move to.

bed bug controlMake Sure Your Exterminator:

Provides references

Provides a 90 day warranty

Insists on at least 3 treatments

Independently assess extent of bed bug presence (rather than defer to customer’s account)

Uses bed bug monitors

Uses extermination methods in addition to pesticides that may include vacuuming, steaming or heating, and diatomaceous earth

Strongly suggests use of mattress and box spring covers

Insists on adequate preparation of residence for treatment

imagery/graphic

Preparation of a residence for bed bug treatment is extensive and must be followed for extermination service to succeed with the least possible adverse effects on human and pet health.

Preparation Steps to Follow Before the Exterminator Comes to Your Home:

Make preparations for you, any other occupants, and your pets, to be out of your home for a minimum of 3 hours after the treatment.

Do not change where you sleep in your home. Bed bugs will usually find you and cause the infestation to spread.

Remove electrical outlet wall covers in every room, even in closets

Remove all objects that are mounted to walls in every room.

Move all items away from walls and leave at least one foot between the walls and any item in each room of your home.

Remove all objects from under bed frames or mattresses.

All fabrics (e.g.drapes), clothing, bedding, linens and similar materials should be washed with hot water/soap and placed in a drier at the highest setting for a minimum of 30 minutes. After drying they should be placed in a sealed plastic container or bag. All clothing may be returned to original areas the next day.

Completely cover pet cages and fish tanks. Turn off fish tank filters/pumps.

Remove pet food and water dishes.

RENTERS’ RIGHTS

You have the right to live in a property that is not a threat to your life, health, or safety. Landlords must disclose known lead hazards in their property. Your Landlord must provide a copy of “Tenant’s Rights” and “Protect Your Family From Lead In Your Home” pamphlets, as well as a report of a lead inspection. If they do not offer these materials, you must ask them —it is against the law for them to deny you these materials.

For more on your rights, visit: http://www.oag.state.md.us/Consumer/landlords.htm

Landlords CANNOT

Discriminate against families with lead-poisoned children.

Ask for a child’s lead level or ask that the child be tested for lead before accepting a rental application.

Evict a family for sending a Notice of Defect.

Raise a family’s rent for sending a Notice of Defect.

Landlords CAN

Evict a family for failing to pay their rent (v Rent Escrow)*

*Rent Escrow is a legal process which allows the tenant to pay their rent into the court instead of to the landlord, if the landlord refuses to make repairs. The landlord doesn’t get their money until repairs are made.

RESOURCES & INFORMATION

General Information,Help, & Free Lead Testing:Baltimore City Health DepartmentHealthy Homes DivisionLead, Asthma and Injury Prevention Bureau1800 N. Charles, 5th FloorBaltimore, MD 212101Phone: 443-984-2460

Legal help, advocacy and other support services:Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning2714 Hudson StreetBaltimore, MD 21224Phone: 410-534-6447Toll Free: 1-800-370-LEAD

Legal Aid Bureau500 East Lexington StreetBaltimore, MD 21202Phone: (410) 951-7777, (800) 999-8904

Getting help to fix lead hazards in your home:

Baltimore City Health DepartmentHealthy Homes DivisionLead Abatement Action Project1800 N. Charles, 5th FloorBaltimore, MD 212101Phone: 443-984-2460

Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning2714 Hudson StreetBaltimore, MD 21224Phone: 410-534-6447Toll Free: 1-800-370-LEAD

To get a list of certified visual inspectors to dust test your house:Call the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) at: 410-537-3825

To get a list of certified lead-safe workers to work on your house:Call the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) at: 410-537-3825

To find out if a property has a lead certificate:

Call the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) at: 410-537-3859

nutrition Resources:

WIC (Women, Infants and Children)Phone: 410-396-9427

To report a possible housing violation:

Call 311. Don’t forget to write down your tracking number.

If your landlord refuses to repair problems in your home, consider Rent escrow:

Rent EscrowBaltimore City District Court501 East Fayette StreetBaltimore, MD 21202Phone: 410-878-8900

If you need smoke detectors installed in your home (this is a FRee service):

Baltimore City Fire DepartmentSmoke Detector Hotline: 410-396-SAVE