Some of the most common indoor bugs we see anywhere in the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. No-one likes to have a bug indoors, so most people will go to just about any extremes to get rid of these common indoor bugs. The less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are no less wanted.

It does not matter where you are in the world, it can be very difficult to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors closed all of the time, which is quite impossible. I live in Thailand and I know that this is not an option.

So, just what can you do about it? Well, let’s sort out all the flying insects first, as of all the common indoor bugs, I think they are the most obnoxious indoor bug. They are very irritating, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can produce painful sores and besides that, all flies spread disease. I cannot bear to see them walking on food, knowing that they have probably just come off some dung heap somewhere and now they are spitting on my food in order to taste it with their stinking feet!

My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not expensive and can be added retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they can cover only one half of a window at a any one time, but I do not find that a problem. You can still set up cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposite sides of a room. I love to see the flies on the mesh trying to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is best to switch on as little light indoors as possible so as not to attract these common indoor bugs.

My second line of defence is natural predators – lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house much either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are hard to keep outside and they do eat hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I especially like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to struggle its way through the wires.

My third line of defence is an indoor bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a toy tennis racquet. The come in two forms: battery and rechargeable kinds. They are brilliant at catching and annihilating any flying bug. The bug literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really should. They are most satisfying. These three defences will keep your house quite much free of flying insects.

The crawling common indoor bugs are less of a problem really. Door screens on self-closers will keep 99% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in very easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they stay away from me, as they eat other insects too. They are on our side really. However, for those who can not bear to trap them and throw them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works well on spiders too.

Fleas can be a problem, if you keep cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep those common indoor bugs under control quite easily. However, there are two final measures that we employ. Every week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with an insect killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you follow these measures, you will be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and any less common indoor bug too.

Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you want to get an indoor bug zapper, please click one of the links to our web site or blog.