Pest Control involves preventing or eliminating pests in and around our homes, gardens, and businesses. Physical or mechanical methods, such as sticky barriers and traps, are used to keep pests out.
Monitoring pests lets us know how many are present and what damage they are doing. This information helps us decide whether action is needed. Visit our Website to learn more.
Prevention of pest control problems is best achieved by anticipating or avoiding conditions that lead to their presence. Continuous monitoring of fields, landscapes, buildings, or forests identifies pest species, their abundance and damage. Correctly identifying a pest allows one to evaluate the need for control, and to select effective management strategies that minimize risks to beneficial organisms, non-target plants, humans, and pets.
For example, if a plant disease occurs only under certain environmental conditions, the problem may be prevented by selecting resistant varieties of the crop. Likewise, many insect problems can be reduced by keeping pests away from food or water. In addition, trash receptacles should be kept closed, and the surrounding landscape should be trimmed to eliminate hiding places for insects.
Food-related facilities should be familiar with the specific best practices that are appropriate to their industry. This includes a thorough cleaning schedule, maintaining a Master Sanitation Schedule, and reporting findings and corrections to the pest provider.
In some situations, pests can be controlled by utilizing natural predators or parasites. Many insect-eating birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals and other natural organisms eat pests or their eggs and larvae, or spread pathogens that suppress their numbers.
Other methods of preventing pest problems include physically blocking access to food, water, shelter and structure entry points. For instance, removing rotting produce from shelves and keeping garbage receptacles tightly closed is an effective way to deny pests easy access to food sources. Similarly, a barrier of gravel or other material placed at the edge of structures outside walls helps to prevent the growth of grass and weeds that might serve as bridges for pests to reach buildings.
Sometimes, even after all of the above steps have been taken, a pest infestation might still occur. If store-bought treatments or DIY projects don’t solve the issue, it might be time to call in a professional pest control service. Professionals can use targeted treatments to remove the pests and keep them away. They also take into account the environment and human safety when choosing and applying pesticides, ensuring they are used as safely as possible.
Suppression
Pests destroy our crops, food, gardens, lawns, homes and other buildings. They also displace native plants and disrupt terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. They may transmit diseases, such as cockroaches, termites, mosquitoes, aphids and beetles, or cause allergies in people and pets. They also detract from the beauty of landscapes and the quality of life, as in the case of arachnids, bed bugs, fleas and hornets.
There are many ways to control pests, and the objective is usually to reduce their numbers to a level acceptable to human beings. This goal may be achieved by prevention, suppression or eradication. The best way to achieve the objective depends on the pest, its habitat and the supporting factors.
Preventing pests from getting into a habitat is the most desirable method of controlling them. However, this is not always possible or feasible. In such cases, other controls must be used.
Control measures may be natural, biological, chemical, or mechanical/physical. Natural controls include environmental variables, such as weather or topography, that limit the number and distribution of pests. Biological controls use natural enemies to injure or consume target species to manage population sizes. Chemical controls involve the use of synthetic or natural substances to reduce the number and/or impact of pests. Mechanical and physical controls kill or block pests, such as trapping rodents, spraying weeds, using screens to keep out insects or birds, and other methods.
Often organisms rise to the level of pest status because they escape normal control by their natural enemies or because they are so abundant that they cause unacceptable harm, such as locust swarms stripping landscapes bare. They may have other characteristics that make them undesirable, such as aggressive behavior or a repulsive appearance, or they may carry diseases, like cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies, ticks and fleas, or sting or bite humans or their pets and livestock.
A pest problem is often difficult to evaluate because the organisms involved are invisible. Proper scouting helps in this evaluation by finding out the number of pests present and their damage. This information is important because it can help a person decide whether or not control is needed.
Eradication
When pests invade a business, they can interrupt operations and pose a health and safety risk. For instance, rats and cockroaches can spread diseases, and birds like pigeons and seagulls can cause damage. Pest control companies employ a wide range of techniques to rid businesses of pests. These include trapping, killing, and removing them. They can also put up physical barriers and “pest proof“ a building to prevent pests from entering in the first place.
Pest control methods that involve poisons or other chemicals can be harmful to humans and pets. In addition, they can be ineffective. For example, flea treatments that contain chemicals kill adult fleas but not eggs or larvae. And many common household pesticides have unpleasant odors and can be toxic to plants, animals, and people. Pest control specialists seek long-term solutions that reduce or eliminate the use of chemicals.
The terms exterminate, extirpate, and eradicate all mean the same thing: to drive something out or uproot it completely. Unlike culling, which is designed to remove only the most damaging members of a population, eradication aims to eliminate the entire species by killing every individual.
Some pests can be hard to eradicate because they have an independent reservoir that provides them with a source of new individuals. In this case, eradication may be impossible.
Other pests are easier to eliminate because they have a more restricted range and/or are more concentrated in their habitat. For example, a small number of mice in an attic can be more easily eliminated than a large population living in a city.
Other pests can be eradicated through a combination of sanitary measures and the use of biological agents. Biological agents are disease-causing organisms that can be used to control pest populations. These organisms, which are often viruses or bacteria, are often specific to a particular type of insect. For example, the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produces a toxin that destroys caterpillars. This organism is used to manage insect infestations in food crops such as corn and cotton. It is also used to control pests in operating rooms and other sterile areas in hospitals.
IPM
Integrated Pest Management is a holistic approach to pest control that relies on monitoring and identification before taking action. The goal is to minimize the risk of damaging insects to humans and the environment. IPM combines biological, organic, cultural, and mechanical controls in a step-by-step decision process. It has expanded beyond insect pests to include weeds, disease organisms and mammals. It has also expanded to include a variety of control methods such as planting disease-resistant varieties, using natural predators and parasites (e.g., lady beetles, lacewings, assassin bugs, and spiders), and the use of alternative materials such as Bt or nematodes to manage pest populations.
Initially, IPM strategies are used to prevent pests from ever becoming a problem by altering the crop, garden or landscape, so that it is not attractive or appealing to the pests in question. This may involve the use of row covers or tarps to protect crops from wind and rain, weeding out areas of the yard where pests are attracted, or limiting the availability of food or water for the pests.
Monitoring and scouting are key components of IPM, along with accurate identification of the pest species and population level. This information is then used to develop and implement an action plan, or thresholds, for the pest. When the thresholds are reached, a treatment is applied. This can be as simple as removing affected leaves or stems. Stretching netting over fruit or berry bushes can stop birds from helping themselves to your hard-earned harvest. Putting out traps for destructive rodents like pocket gophers stops them in their tracks and eliminates the need to use poisonous chemicals.
Only as a last resort does IPM employ the use of pesticides. And even when they are used, the utmost care is taken to select products that will not harm people or pets and will have minimal impact on the environment. IPM professionals are always looking for ways to reduce the need for pesticides and to ensure that the pesticides that are used will be effective. This is one of the reasons that many growers, homeowners, and businesses choose to work with a company that practices IPM.
