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So what is harborage? Well let’s break down the word. We all know what a harbor is. So, a harborage, in the context pertaining to pests, is a temporary or permanent sanctuary or refuge for pests to live and or rest. Harborage is a very important thing in our field. Often times, if you don’t find or locate with some precision where a pests harborage is, you won’t get control over the pest. It’s that simple. Kitchen cockroaches, for example, cannot be eliminated from a structure unless their individual harborages are treated. Fly infestations can’t be solved until the harborages that they are breeding from are addressed. Being aware of the various harborages that are used by pests will mean the difference between having a good experience with your pest management professional and having a bad experience.

Lets talk about common harborages, then we can go into some more complicated or unseen harborages. One of the most common refuges for pests is an underground box. This can be an irrigation valve box, a cable box, a water meter box and a power box and the reason is simple; dark, damp and confined. These boxes can be home to cockroaches, spiders, scorpions, springtails, and a myriad of other small insects. They are also a common home for bee hives. In my experience, another one of the most common kinds of harborages is any flat object laid against another flat object. This can be step stones laying on the ground, or retaining walls made of bricks or roof tiles stacked on top of each other. Basically, anything flat on top of something can provide a safe , cool and moist home for nearly every that can be considered a pest. Scorpions are very partial to this kind of harborage. You also have harborages that double as food sources. Dry-wood termites with nest in wood, unlike their subterranean cousins. Fly larva use the animal carcasses the feed on as harborage, until they move into their pre-pupate form. There are all kinds of harborage for pests in the natural and man-made world.

In the man-made world, our concrete jungles have provided everything pests need to survive and thrive. Sewer systems are home to untold billions of rats and cockroaches. Restaurants are almost always harboring cockroaches (usually under the sink or behind wall trim) and flies. Bedbugs harbor under our bed frames, headboards, mattresses and furniture if the infestation gets big enough and apartment buildings can have every pest you can imagine, from birds to scorpions. Man has always imported pests to new locations and given said pests everything they need to survive; food, water and shelter. Take our little valley here. Normally in a climate like this, most of the pests we deal with in Las Vegas don’t naturally live here. However, after you build, homes and apartments and business and service buildings, you inevitably bring a home for pests. Then we install air conditioning and refrigeration and bring all the things we need to live. All those things are the same thing that pests need too.

Ultimately, harborage is key to getting control over any kind of pest, whether it’s birds or scorpions or anything in between. Finding the harborage requires one to have a strong knowledge of the pest itself. The greater that knowledge means the better one is at hunting down pests. That is why it is so important for you to take your pest control service company and the service representative seriously. We train to know everything we possibly can about all the critters that make your skin crawl.