United States first · Global Tier 1 coverage
Pest Kill is a field directory for rodents, insects, and nuisance wildlife. Each entry covers identification, infestation signs, health and property risk, and a control sequence based on integrated pest management — not slogans, and not graphic “kill videos.”
If you searched a common name, start with a guide: how to get rid of rats, mice, or cockroaches — or an identification split such as house centipede vs millipede — then open the species page.
Species pages have the full control sequence. Rat, mouse, and cockroach searches start with a decision guide. Identification pages split look-alikes so you treat the animal you actually have.
If you searched how to get rid of rats, you do not have one pest. The United States has two commensal rats that use…
If you searched how to get rid of mice, identify the rodent before you buy bait. A house mouse in a kitchen is an…
Cockroach is not one job. A German cockroach infestation is a kitchen and appliance story. An American cockroach…
These pages answer comparison questions, then send you to the matching species article for control — house centipedes, fire ant mounds, small flies, termites, widows, and yard rodents.
A hole in the yard is not one pest. Norway rats burrow at dumpsters and slabs. Voles run on the grass. Chipmunks stack…
After rain, people find many-legged animals and search both names. A house centipede is a fast wall hunter. A…
Tiny flies are not one kitchen fogger job. Fruit flies hover on fermenting produce. Fungus gnats run on wet potting…
This guide is the mound: shape, what happens when you disturb it, and when the pile of dirt is a different ant…
Most dark cobweb spiders in US buildings are not black widows. False identification drives panic spraying and missed…
Wrong termite group is a wrong four-figure invoice. Subterranean colonies live in soil and build tubes. Drywood…
Sowbugs and pillbugs are crustaceans, not insects. Pillbugs (roly-polies) roll into a ball. Sowbugs usually cannot…
Late-summer “kill the hornet” searches mix two jobs. Yellowjackets scavenge picnics and often nest in the ground…
Shot-holes in oak are not oval holes in pine. Powderpost beetles and old house borers both live in wood, both get…
Species pages stay the source of truth. These pages answer one search — can rats climb walls, what temperature kills bed bugs — then send you back to the pest article. Full list in questions.
Shopping searches land here: the trap, bait, or piece of exclusion hardware that matches the job. Full list on buying guides.
The best mouse trap is the one you will set in quantity, on the edge the mouse already uses. A single trap in the…
Buy a rat trap, not a mouse trap with ambition. A Norway rat needs a larger jaw and a set on the ground-level runway…
The best roach bait is a slow bait placed where German cockroaches already hide: hinges, cabinet corners, the motor…
The best ant bait is the one workers will carry home. For odorous house ants and other sweet-feeding kitchen ants…
The best bed bug encasement traps bugs already in the mattress and gives you a smooth surface you can inspect. Buy a…
The best yellowjacket trap is a lure trap hung at the edge of the property, where it intercepts {pest:yellowjacket}…
Amazon-linked traps, exclusion hardware, and a few labeled products — the same catalog that sits on species pages. Filter by job in the shop.
Hardware
Placement beats brand: perpendicular to the wall, on the runway, enough traps. Peanut butter stays on the pedal. A 12-pack is the right unit, not one trap in…
See also: House mouse , Deer mouse , White-footed mouse
Hardware
Rats need a larger trap than mice. Set several along the actual runway, in boxes if pets or children use the room. Pre-bait unset for a night if they are shy.
See also: Norway rat , Roof rat , Pack rat (woodrat)
Hardware
Stuff quarter-sized and smaller holes after you know the runways. Steel wool rusts and gets pulled out. Mesh is not a substitute for a door sweep on a…
See also: House mouse , Norway rat , Roof rat
Hardware
The gap under an alley or garage door feeds more rats than a bait station on the wrong wall. Measure the gap. A sweep is exclusion, not a gadget.
See also: House mouse , Norway rat , Earwig
Group pages exist so you can compare look-alikes — roof rats versus Norway rats, drywood versus subterranean termites — before you spend money on the wrong tactic.
Rats, mice, voles, squirrels, and other gnawing mammals in and around buildings.
German, American, Oriental, brown-banded, and smokybrown cockroaches in kitchens, drains, and mulch.
Subterranean, Formosan, drywood, and dampwood termites — structural wood destroyers.
Carpenter, fire, Pharaoh, odorous house, Argentine, and other structural ants.
Bed bugs, mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, lice, and kissing bugs.
Yellowjackets, paper wasps, hornets, carpenter bees, and defensive honey bee issues.
House flies, fruit flies, drain flies, cluster flies, fungus gnats, and dump-associated flies.
Indian meal moths, weevils, beetles, clothes moths, and carpet beetles.
Silverfish, crickets, earwigs, millipedes, stink bugs, and other indoor wanderers.
Widows, recluses, house spiders, bark scorpions, dust mites, and chiggers.
Raccoons, bats, skunks, opossums, moles, pigeons, and other vertebrate pests.
Grubs, chinch bugs, Japanese beetles, aphids, slugs, and wood-boring landscape insects.
Most failures come from skipping inspection and exclusion. Chemicals are a tool, not a personality. Start with integrated pest management.
Integrated pest management is not a brand. It is the order of operations used by extension entomologists…
Exclusion is the control method that still works after you leave town. Rodents enter through gaps larger than 6 mm…
Pests eat what you leave and live in what you pile. German cockroaches map a kitchen by grease and crumbs behind a…
Snap traps, when placed on runways and used in sufficient number, remain the most direct indoor rodent control that…
Rodenticides can reduce outdoor rat pressure around commercial sites when used in tamper-resistant stations, on…
Modern German cockroach control is gel bait in cracks, an insect growth regulator where labeled, sanitation, and…
You cannot spray your way out of a subterranean termite colony from a retail aisle. Prevention is moisture control…
Bed bugs die when their bodies and harborages reach lethal temperatures for long enough. Whole-room heat is a…
Climate, housing stock, and pesticide law change the playbook. See regional notes for the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, the EU, Australia, Japan, and other Tier 1 markets. Wildlife rules are local — never relocate a rabies-vector species without checking the law.
Entries are original field-guide articles, reviewed against public guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and university extension entomology programs. We do not copy other websites. We do not publish homemade poison recipes, banned chemicals, or content that treats animal suffering as entertainment. See the editorial policy and sources.