Self-reported prevalence of pests in Dutch households and the use of the health belief model to explore householders' intentions to engage in pest control.

Stefan A Lipman,Sara A Burt

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0190399

Abstract

Pests in the home are a health risk because they can be vectors for infectious disease, contribute to allergies and cause damage to buildings. The aims of this study were to record which categories of pests were reported in homes and to use a social cognition model, the health belief model, to investigate which psychological factors influence householders’ intentions to control pests. An online questionnaire was completed by 413 respondents between 11 September and 31 November 2015. A large majority of respondents reported pests in or around their home within the previous year. The prevalences were: flying insects 98%, crawling insects 85%, rodents 62%, birds 58%, and moles 20%. Regression analysis for the health belief model revealed that perceiving greater benefits and fewer barriers to pest control and expecting severe consequences of zoonotic infections predicted higher intention to control pests. Intentions towards pest control were not influenced by perceiving oneself as susceptible to catching a disease from pests or health motivation (striving towards a healthy lifestyle). Intentions to engage in pest control were lower for households reporting bird prevalence. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving the effectiveness of domestic pest control should focus on increasing the benefits that individuals associate with effective pest control, lowering barriers, and on underlining the severity of the diseases that pests may carry.

Highlights

Rodents, birds and insects can be reservoirs or mechanical vectors for bacterial, parasitic and viral agents, such as Leptospira spp., Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Clostridium difficile, Chlamydia psittaci, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, hantavirus and for antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
Pests in households and the use of the health belief model to explore intentions to engage in pest control antibiotic resistant strains such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and extendedspectrum beta lactamase-producing bacteria, it is not yet clear whether the pests picked up the resistant bacteria from the farm animals or vice versa [12,13,14,15]
When comparing intentions to engage in pest control for pest-type dummies, we find no differences for all pest types, with the exception of birds (t (400) = 2.22, p = .03), where participants reporting birds have lower intentions to engage in pest control (M = 3.92, standard deviations (SD) = .86) than those who did not encounter birds (M = 4.10, SD = .76)

Summary

Introduction

Birds and insects can be reservoirs or mechanical vectors for bacterial, parasitic and viral agents, such as Leptospira spp., Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Clostridium difficile, Chlamydia psittaci, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, hantavirus and for antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. On farms the presence of pests has been associated with. In view of the health risks associated with the presence of pests in the home it is desirable to encourage active pest prevention and pest control by householders and, to this end, most health authorities and local councils provide information and advice to the public. Several studies have investigated insects and small mammals as pests on farms [12,15,21,22,23], published reports on the prevalence of pests in domestic homes in the Netherlands are scarce. Studies from other countries report 2–13% prevalence in domestic homes for rodents, 9–100% for flies, 12–47% for fleas, and 2–6% for cockroaches [26,27,28,29,30]. A number of factors influences the prevalence of pests in housing. Climate change and associated migration contribute to the spread of pest species and the diseases they carry [34]

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Conclusion