Exterminators have seen it all. Every pest control technician has a horror story or two of the very worst pest infestations ever. So, in honor of National Pest Management Month (April), we present these spine-tingling, real life tales of pests gone wild, from Realtor.com:

The Case of the Black Kitchen Floor

John Kane, a technical services manager for a Philadelphia pest control company went to a house in the suburbs to get rid of a reported mouse problem. It turned out to be a very big problem. “There were frayed wires hanging from the ceiling and holes in the walls,” Kane recalls of the two-bedroom home occupied by an older couple. “The kitchen floor was black – only it wasn’t. We scraped…and it was white – but covered in pressed mouse droppings.” 

In total, Kane and his crew caught more than 3,000 mice. And yes, this kind of extreme rodent invasion happens more often than you might think. According to Kane’s calculations, one pregnant mouse can lead to 28,000 mice over the course of 5 to 6 generations. Luckily, their population is usually kept in check by predators, or exterminators. “The lady of the house thanked us and said, ‘Last night was the first night we didn’t have a mouse in bed with us,’” Kane said.

A Moveable Feast

Jorge Sandoval, a manager with a pest control company in California said his biggest bug nightmare involved bed bugs at a senior living community in San Diego. Starting from the front door, he spotted blood spots – the modus operandi of bed bugs – spattered on the wall and near a bed. But it wasn’t just bed bugs. He also spotted some German cockroaches, and the two insect populations were not living in harmony. 

“The cockroaches were actually feeding on the bed bugs.” Sandoval recalls. It took Sandoval and his crew two weeks to stop this creepy cycle of seniors feeding bed bugs and bed bugs feeding cockroaches. It may be repellent but entomologists point out the positives of using cockroaches as a natural and effective form of pest control. Bed bugs are the cockroach’s midnight snack, and cockroaches will kill a bed bug infestation. But then you’re left with cockroaches!

The above ugly scenarios would have ended very differently if not for the intervention of pest management professionals. Let’s hear it for National Pest Management Month! Who ya gonna call?

Photo Credit : louento.pix | CC BY ND 2.0