Table of Contents
The short answer
A pest treatment can be planned around a baby, a cat, a parrot or a fish tank, and it should be planned, not improvised on the day. Four things do most of the work: telling the company exactly who and what lives in the home before the visit, preparing the rooms so that nothing a child or an animal uses is left out, keeping everyone away for the full time the technician gives, and airing and wiping the home before they come back.
How long to stay out has no general answer, and you should distrust any figure offered by someone who does not know the product. The time depends on what is applied, in what form, how much and where. The technician who applies it gives the time for your home, and that instruction is the rule. If you are given different times for adults, children, cats, birds or a fish tank, keep to each one.
No treatment should be described as safe for every child and every animal. What can honestly be said is that the risk is kept low by choosing the method for the household, placing it where small hands and paws do not reach, and following the product label. We use products approved for residential use, and our technician gives specific guidance on when to return to treated areas and what to do about pets. What a visit covers is on the pest control service page.
If anyone in the home, person or animal, is unwell after a treatment, move them into fresh air and call a doctor or a vet straight away. Do not wait to see whether it passes.
Why children and pets need more care than adults
An adult walks through a room in shoes, touches surfaces at waist height and washes hands before eating. Almost none of that is true of a crawling baby or a cat. The same treatment, applied in the same way, reaches them differently.
| Who | Why extra care is needed | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Babies and toddlers | Live at floor level; hands and toys go in the mouth | Floors, low cupboards and toys are planned first |
| Pregnancy | A reason for caution with any chemical | Tell the company; be out for the visit |
| Asthma or allergy | Sprays and odours can irritate the airways | Tell the company; air the home for longer |
| Cats | Lick paws and fur clean; sensitive to some insecticides | Say it is a cat; out until the technician says |
| Dogs | Lick floors, chew, eat what they find | Bait and traps out of reach; dead pests collected |
| Birds | Very sensitive to anything in the air | Out of the home, or in a closed untreated room |
| Fish and aquatic pets | Harmed by tiny amounts of many insecticides | Tank protected, or the room not sprayed |
| Rabbits, hamsters, reptiles | Small bodies, open cages at floor level | Moved out with bedding and food |
Children: the floor is their room
A baby who crawls spends the day on the surface where treatments are most often placed: the floor, and above all its edges. Hands go from the floor to the mouth all day. Toys are dropped, picked up and chewed. A small body also means that the same small amount matters more than it would for an adult. None of this means a home with a baby cannot be treated. It means the technician has to know there is a baby before choosing how and where to treat, and that the family's return is timed by the technician's instruction and not by when the room looks dry.
Older children add a different risk, which is curiosity. A bait station behind the fridge or a dot of gel in a hinge is interesting. Tell children plainly what has been put down and that it is not to be touched, and ask for placements they cannot reach.
Cats and dogs are not the same case
A cat walks across a surface and later licks its paws and coat clean, so whatever was on the floor ends up swallowed. Cats are also known to be more sensitive than dogs to some groups of insecticide, including widely used ones. That is why 'we have a pet' is not enough information: say that it is a cat. Dogs meet the risk differently. They lick floors, chew what they find and will eat a dead cockroach, a bait block or a poisoned mouse without hesitating.
Birds, fish and small caged animals
Birds breathe far more efficiently than mammals do, which is why a bird can be harmed by fumes and sprays that a person in the same room barely notices. Covering the cage is not protection against something in the air, which is why a bird is moved out and not just covered.
Fish, shrimps, snails and amphibians are at risk from very small amounts of many insecticides, and an aquarium's air pump draws room air and pushes it through the water. A tank usually cannot be moved, so it has to be part of the plan before the day.
Rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, tortoises and reptiles are small, are often housed at floor level in open or mesh cages, and sit on bedding that absorbs whatever settles on it. They are moved out with their food, water bottles and bedding.
What to tell the company when you book
A technician can only plan for what they have been told. When you book with us we ask which pest you have seen, where and how often, so that the right treatment can be prepared before the visit. Add the household to that description without waiting to be asked. It can change the method as well as the timing: for example, more reliance on bait placed inside cracks and hinges and less on anything applied in the open. That choice is the technician's, made at the inspection.
- The ages of the children, and whether any of them crawls or still puts things in the mouth.
- Pregnancy, and anyone who is breastfeeding.
- Asthma, allergies or any breathing condition in the household, and anyone who is ill, elderly or at home all day.
- Every pet, by species and number: cat, dog, bird, fish, rabbit, hamster, tortoise, reptile. Say whether the cat or dog goes outdoors.
- Aquariums and ponds: where they are, roughly how large, and whether they can be moved.
- Where the baby sleeps and plays, and where the pets eat, sleep and use a litter tray.
- Whether you put food out for birds or stray cats on a balcony or terrace.
- Whether the family can leave the home for the visit, and for how long.
- Anything you have already used: sprays, powders, plug-in repellents, rodent bait.
Questions to ask before you confirm
These are fair questions, and a good technician answers them without being pressed. If the answers are vague, ask again before the day, not at the door.
- What kind of treatment is planned for each room: bait, a surface treatment, traps, something else?
- Is the product approved for use inside homes, and can I have its name in writing?
- Where will it be placed, and can it be kept out of the nursery, the playroom or the room with the tank?
- How long must adults, children and each kind of pet stay out, and from what moment is that counted?
- How should the home be aired afterwards?
- What should be wiped or washed before the children and pets come back, and what must be left alone?
- Will bait stations or traps be left behind, and are they lockable and out of reach?
- Which signs in a child or an animal should make me call a doctor or a vet?
Choosing the day, and where everyone goes
Book the visit for a time when being out is easy. A weekday morning while the children are at school or nursery leaves the afternoon for airing before anyone sleeps in the home. Avoid a slot that ends at bedtime, or one that falls across a baby's nap in the room being treated.
The treatment itself is usually short: a standard apartment typically takes 30 to 60 minutes, and a villa or a widespread problem longer. The stay-out time comes on top of that and is the part to plan for. Ask for it when the visit is confirmed, so that you know whether you are arranging an outing or a night away.
Decide in advance where the animals go. A friend's home, a boarding service, or a floor of the villa that is not being treated are all workable. A parked car is not, and in an Abu Dhabi summer neither is a balcony: both become dangerously hot very quickly. A cat that hides when strangers arrive should be in its carrier before the doorbell rings, not found under a bed halfway through the visit.
Ventilation needs a plan as well. Homes here run sealed, with the AC on, for most of the year, so airing is a deliberate act: windows and balcony doors open for the time advised, extractor fans on. Ask the technician whether the AC should be switched off during the treatment and when it can go back on, because a running system moves air from room to room.
Preparing the rooms
Preparation has one aim: when the technician arrives, nothing that a child or an animal eats from, sleeps on, chews or plays with is in a room that will be treated. Do it the evening before. The standard preparation still applies: clear access under sinks, behind furniture and along the skirting, and put food away in sealed containers or closed cupboards.
Children's things
Start with whatever goes in a mouth, then whatever lies on the floor.
- Bottles, teats, dummies, teethers, sterilisers, breast-pump parts, cups and cutlery: shut in a cupboard away from the treated area, or taken with you.
- Formula, baby food and snacks: sealed and off the worktop.
- Toys: off the floor and into lidded boxes, bags or a wardrobe that stays shut. Soft toys and bath toys included.
- Play mats, baby gyms, bouncers and walkers: rolled up or moved out of the rooms being treated.
- Cot and bed linen: stripped and put away if the bedroom is being treated. Ask whether the cot mattress should be covered or moved.
- The high chair, booster seat and changing mat: moved out, or covered and washed afterwards.
- Toothbrushes, bath sponges and potties: out of a bathroom that is being treated.
Cats and dogs
Take the animal out first, then its belongings. Food and water bowls, drinking fountains, beds, blankets, scratching posts, toys, chews and the litter tray all leave the rooms being treated. Wash the bowls before they are used again and put down fresh water. Bags of dry food and treats go into a closed cupboard or a lidded bin.
Technicians commonly tie a pet's return to two conditions: the stay-out time has passed and the treated surfaces are completely dry. Both the time and the conditions are theirs to give. When the cat or dog does come back, block the gaps it likes to squeeze into where treatment or traps were placed, such as the space behind the fridge or the washing machine.
If the garden, terrace or outside walls of a villa are treated, the same applies outdoors. Pick up bowls, toys and paddling pools, cover a sandpit, and keep children and animals off treated ground until you are told they can use it. Stop putting food out for stray cats or birds near the treated area for the same period.
Aquariums and ponds
Tell the technician about the tank before the visit, and ask first whether that room needs anything sprayed at all. Often the simplest protection is to treat the room in a way that puts nothing into the air, or to leave it out.
Where the room does have to be treated, the usual precautions in the trade are to cover the top of the tank closely so that nothing can settle on the water, and to switch off the air pump while the treatment is applied so that room air is not pumped through it. How long a pump can stay off without harming the fish depends on the tank, how heavily it is stocked and the temperature. Agree the timing with the technician, and if the tank matters to you, ask your aquarium supplier or a vet beforehand. Move fish food, nets and water-change buckets out of the room. Uncover the tank and restart the pump only when you are told to, after the room has been aired.
An outdoor pond needs the same conversation. Anything applied near it, or carried to it by irrigation water, can reach the fish.
Birds and small caged animals
Move the cage out before the technician starts, with its food, water, grit, cuttlebone and toys. Out of the home is the first choice. A closed room that is not being treated, with a towel along the bottom of the door, is the fallback. Wash and refill the feeders and drinkers before the bird goes back, and bring it back last, after the airing time and after everyone else has been home without noticing any smell or irritation.
Hamsters, rabbits, guinea pigs, tortoises and reptiles leave with their cage or tank. If a vivarium cannot be moved, treat it as you would an aquarium and settle the plan with the technician first. Live insects kept as reptile food should leave too, since a treatment aimed at insects will not spare them.
During the treatment, and coming back
An adult usually stays for the start, to show the technician where the problem is, and is there at the end to hear the instructions. You are not normally asked to leave the whole property, but you may be asked to keep out of particular rooms during the treatment and for a time afterwards. With a baby or animals in the household, being out of the home altogether is the easiest way to keep that instruction without having to guard a doorway.
Before the technician leaves, get the times in writing, or type them into your phone as they are said: when adults can go back, when children can, when each pet can, how long to air, and what to wipe. Our technician explains what was applied, where, and how long to stay out of each room. Treat the time you are given as a minimum. Nothing is gained by returning at the first permitted minute with a toddler, and extra airing costs nothing.
- One adult goes in first, without the children or the animals, and opens the windows and balcony doors for the airing time advised.
- Check that the treated surfaces are dry and that there is no strong smell. If there is, keep airing and keep everyone else out.
- Wash the food surfaces: worktops, the dining table, the high-chair tray, and anything left out that touches food or a child's mouth.
- Collect any dead insects from the floor before a child or a pet finds them.
- Clean the open floor where a baby will crawl in the way the technician described, and leave the treated edges alone. If you were not told how, ask before the baby goes down on it.
- Bring back the toys, mats and bedding. Wash and refill the pet bowls.
- Bring the children in, then the cats and dogs. Uncover the aquarium and restart its pump when you have been told you can. Birds return last.
Why this guide gives no number of hours
Because any single figure would be wrong for some product. A dot of gel bait inside a hinge, a surface treatment along the skirting and an airborne treatment for flying insects behave differently, dry differently and carry different label instructions, and a small room with no window clears more slowly than a living room with balcony doors. The product label and the technician who applied it are the two sources that know. A website that names a figure does not know what was used in your home.
The same goes for cleaning. Which surfaces to wipe before the family returns, and which treated edges to leave unwashed so that the treatment keeps working, is covered in the guide to cleaning after pest control. In a home with a crawling baby, raise the floor specifically. The technician can tell you how to make the open floor fit for crawling without washing away the treated strip along the wall, or may keep the treatment off the open floor for that reason.
What is left behind: bait, stations and traps
Some treatments leave something in place to keep working. Know where every item is before the technician goes, and ask for whatever is no longer needed to be collected at the follow-up visit.
Gel bait is placed as small dots inside cracks, hinges and corners, which keeps it away from fingers and paws most of the time. Low cupboards are the exception in a home with a toddler. Tell the technician which doors the child can open, fit child locks on baited cupboards, and ask for the bait to go high and deep. How bait is used against cockroaches is explained in the guide to cockroaches in Abu Dhabi kitchens.
Rodent bait belongs in tamper-resistant stations that lock, fixed where a child or a dog cannot get at them. Loose bait, open trays and glue boards on the floor have no place in a home with children or pets, so ask what will be used before it is used. A pet that eats a poisoned rodent can itself be poisoned: tell your vet at once if your cat or dog catches or eats a mouse or rat while bait is down. The method is covered in rats and mice: signs and what rodent control involves.
Snap traps and sticky monitors can hurt a paw or a finger without any chemical at all. They go inside boxes, behind fixed panels or in rooms the children and animals do not use.
If a child or a pet is unwell afterwards
Act at once if someone is not right after a treatment, and do not try to work out at home whether the treatment is the cause.
In people, the signs to take seriously after any exposure to a pesticide include headache, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, coughing, wheezing or a tight chest, and stinging eyes or skin. In cats and dogs: drooling, vomiting, trembling or twitching, unsteadiness, unusual sleepiness or agitation, and laboured breathing. A bird that sits fluffed up, breathes with its beak open or falls from its perch, and fish that gasp at the surface or lose their balance, need help immediately.
- Move the person or animal out of the treated area and into fresh air.
- If product has got onto skin or fur, wash it off with plenty of water and mild soap. Rinse eyes with clean water. Stop a cat or dog from licking itself until it has been washed.
- Call a doctor for a person and a vet for an animal. For trouble breathing, a seizure, collapse, or a child who has swallowed something, call an ambulance or go to the nearest emergency department.
- Have the product name ready. Ask the technician for it on the day and keep it. If you do not have it, call the company and ask.
- Do not make anyone vomit, and do not give home remedies, unless a medical professional tells you to.
- Tell the company what happened, so that the record for your home is right before any follow-up visit.
Shop sprays, natural remedies and fleas on the pet itself
Products bought and used at home deserve the same caution as a professional treatment, and often get none: a spray emptied into a closed room, loose rodent bait behind a sofa, a garden product used in the kitchen, an unlabelled powder or tablet bought at the door. The rules in our guide to household pests in Abu Dhabi apply with more force in a home with a baby or an animal: follow the label, never mix products, and never use anything unlabelled.
Natural does not mean harmless. Plant oils and strongly scented repellents can irritate a child's airways, and some essential oils are harmful to cats and birds in particular. Mothballs, coils and plug-in vaporisers put something into the air of a sealed, air-conditioned room for hours on end. If you would not use it next to the cot or the cage, do not use it in the same closed flat.
Fleas and ticks are a separate case, because the pest lives on the animal as well as in the home. The animal is treated by a vet, with a product chosen for that species and weight, and the home is dealt with at the same time, otherwise each re-infests the other. Never use a flea or tick product made for dogs on a cat: some of them are dangerous to cats. Fleas and ticks are not on the list of pests we publish for our service, so describe the problem when you book and we will confirm whether it is a job our team takes on before anything is arranged.
Bed bugs raise the most questions from parents, because the treatment is in the bedrooms and the bites are on the children. The preparation is specific, from bagging the bedding to what happens to soft toys and cots, and a second visit is often needed. It is set out in the guide to bed bugs in Abu Dhabi. Do not spray a child's mattress or bedding yourself in the meantime. The reasons are in whether shop-bought bed bug sprays work.
Common questions
Is pest control safe for cats?
It depends on what is used, where it is put, and whether the cat is kept away until the treated surfaces are dry and the home is aired, so no blanket yes is honest. Tell the company you have a cat before the visit, keep it out of the home or in a closed untreated room, remove its bowls, bed and litter tray, and bring it back only when the technician says so. If it drools, vomits, trembles or walks unsteadily afterwards, call a vet at once.
Can a newborn or a pregnant woman stay at home during the treatment?
Plan for them to be out. Say so when you book, so that the method and the timing allow for it, and follow the stay-out time given for the household. If you are pregnant, or the baby is very young or was born early, and you want advice about your own case, ask your doctor before the visit; the company can give you the product name to pass on. A treatment that is not urgent can also be booked for a week when being away for the day is easy.
My dog ate a dead cockroach or licked the floor. What should I do?
Call your vet, say what was applied and when, and follow the advice you are given. A single dead insect is a small exposure, but the vet is the one to judge that, and the product name lets them do it quickly. Bait eaten directly, or a rodent that had taken bait, is more serious: call straight away and do not wait for signs. Then collect dead insects daily and check that every bait point and station is out of reach.
Do I need to wash every toy and all the bedding afterwards?
Not if they were put away properly. Things that were shut in boxes, bags or closed wardrobes during the treatment can come straight back. Wash anything that was left out in a treated room and goes in a mouth or against a child's face. After a bed bug treatment the laundering instructions are part of the treatment and cover all bedding and soft toys near the bed, so follow those in full.
Can the problem be dealt with without spraying?
Sometimes, and it is reasonable to ask. Cockroaches and ants are often treated mainly with bait placed in cracks. Rodents are dealt with by traps, locked stations and closing the entry points. Flies and mosquitoes are mostly a matter of removing where they breed. Cleaning, a dry sink at night, sealed food and sealed gaps reduce how much treatment any home needs. What suits yours is decided at the inspection, and a technician who knows there is a baby, a cat or an aquarium in the home has a reason to choose the least intrusive method that will work.
A nanny or helper looks after the children. What does she need to know?
Everything you were told. Write the instructions down in a language she reads: which rooms are closed and until when, what must not be mopped or wiped, where the bait and stations are, and who to call. The person who was not there when the instructions were given is the one most likely to break them without knowing.
How to book a treatment for a family home
Book on the website or in the IHR Dream app, choose pest control and the size of your home, and describe the problem and the household together: the pest, the rooms, the ages of the children, and every pet by species. The starting price is AED 149 for a studio, AED 199 for a two-bedroom home and AED 229 for three bedrooms, with villas from AED 299. The price is confirmed before the visit with VAT included, and where the home has to be seen first, the inspection is free. What changes the figure is explained in the guide to pest control prices in Abu Dhabi.
Payment is online by card, from My bookings on this website once the price is confirmed. If a child falls ill or the plan for the pets falls through, you can move the visit free of charge up to 6 hours before the start time. We are open every day, 8 AM – 8 PM, so a school-day morning and a weekend slot are both possible.
The pest control service page lists what the visit includes and the standard preparation. When you have a date that suits the household, book the visit, and keep the technician's instructions for your home above anything general you have read, this guide included.
