Has your fly swatter been working overtime? It's the time of year when ants invade your kitchen, and mosquitoes make you feel like a main course. But treating your home for these pesky critters can be tricky.

Rule No. 1 is to make sure you are treating your home for the right pest, according to Tim Davis, a Clemson Extension agent in Richland County, S.C. Eliminating the problem should be easy after that, he said.

"You can save yourself a lot of time, a lot of money ... by getting something properly identified from the very start," Davis said.

He said when a homeowner comes to him saying they have tried everything and the pest is still there, nine times out of 10 they are treating their house for the wrong insect.

Davis does not recommend "picture-booking," identifying the insect yourself. Instead, use a trained expert from a pest control company or a local extension office.

"You can find pictures of a lot of things, but you don't always know what you're looking at," he said.

Someone who has been trained to identify bugs can give an accurate assessment and then make recommendations on how to treat the infestation. He said he looks at identifiers such as hair and number and position of teeth to make sure his assessment is correct. "It's very complex."

But once you have the right pest, you can treat it by putting the proper insecticide in the right places.

If you choose to treat the problem yourself, the most important step is to read the label on the insecticide and follow it to the letter, Davis said.

"If they are used according to the label directions, they are safe to use," he said.

But hiring a pest control company might be the best option.

"You're paying for what they know," he said.

A one-time treatment to get rid of an infestation is going to cost around $100, said Glenn Matthews, manager of Modern Exterminating of Columbia, S.C. If you have your home sprayed quarterly, the fee is $75 per treatment, he said.

If you have a problem with flies or mosquitoes, often you can eliminate them at the source, Davis said. Flies often show up when you have a piece of rotten food in your kitchen or trash can. And mosquitoes are attracted to stagnant water.

Keeping bugs out of your house isn't easy because they don't need much room to crawl in, but you can take steps to limit their access, Matthews said.

"You've got to make sure your house is sealed; that's what a lot of people don't do," he said.

Check door sweeps, caulk windows and seal cracks in the foundation, for example.

"That's half the battle right there," he said.

If you're worried about chemicals in a home with children or pets, Matthews said most pest control companies have "green" options, which are better for people and the Earth but are just as effective as traditional methods.

"All these chemical companies are in a race to put out their green products," he said.