Did you know that as recently as 1935, before widespread mosquito control, 4,000 Americans died every year from malaria?

In fact, modern, professional pest control has improved the quality of our lives in many ways. Because of it, many insect-transmitted diseases have been greatly reduced in this country. We live longer, healthier lives, without fear of sometimes deadly diseases like malaria, yellow fever, and louse-borne typhus.

Yet there are other pest-transmitted diseases that we have to watch for vigilantly. Tick borne diseases including Lyme disease are flourishing, and there are deadly pest-transmitted diseases like hantavirus, encephalitis, and plague, plus those that cause common everyday illnesses, like food poisoning.

Of course bed bugs, which people previously knew only through nursery rhymes, have come back with a vengeance. These nasty blood-suckers over the last decade have become more and more common. Cockroaches can cause asthma, and rats bite 45,000 people annually—mostly children and babies. Stinging and biting pests like fleas, ticks, wasps, and spiders would inflict harm on even more people and pets if it weren’t for professional pest control. Professional pest control also enables us to better protect our homes and property from pests. Termites, carpenter ants, and other wood-destroyers left uncontrolled can severely damage a building. And other pests damage or spoil stored food, fabrics, and many other important household items.

These are just some of the many ways professional pest control greatly improves the quality of our daily lives.