Pests can cause property damage, disturb or disrupt natural habitats and introduce diseases. They can also threaten the health and safety of people, pets and livestock.
Preventing pests and their damaging effects is the goal of pest control. It’s possible to prevent pests by keeping your home clean, sealing cracks and crevices, trimming bushes and trees, and storing food in sealed containers. Contact Pest Control Carrollton TX now!
Pests cause expensive damage to buildings, crops, and property and can transmit disease. They also disrupt the natural environment and are a nuisance for homeowners and business owners. A few preventive steps can save both time and money.
Accurate pest identification is a key element of prevention. Properly identifying pests helps determine basic information about the species and its life cycle, and can help in developing effective strategies for control. Identifying the presence of pests helps in determining the best type and timing of control action.
Preventive measures can include monitoring, physical controls, and cultural practices. Monitoring is the ongoing observation of a pest population to determine whether it is growing to damaging levels. It can be done by observing the number of eggs laid, the number of adults emerging, and other criteria. This can be done either on a routine basis or as part of an inspection.
Physical controls are devices that physically interfere with pests or their environment. These can include traps, screens, fences, and nets. Some devices can alter the environment by reducing light, heat, and humidity, which can control some pests.
Some of the most important preventive actions are those that eliminate food, water and shelter sources. Food scraps should be stored in sealed containers, and garbage should be removed regularly. Clutter and weeds should be eliminated to reduce nesting sites. It is also helpful to maintain proper watering of plants, as this can discourage some pests.
It is possible to minimize the use of pesticides with preventive techniques. The use of pesticides should be limited to areas where the problem is most intense, and spraying should be done carefully to avoid off-target movement (drift) and environmental contamination.
In some instances, pests may not be controlled by preventive measures. This is especially true in situations where a pest’s presence threatens human health and safety, such as in operating rooms and other sterile areas of hospitals. In these cases, the threshold for the pest must be zero. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies incorporate monitoring and preventive measures to limit the use of harmful chemicals.
Suppression
The goal of suppression is to reduce pest populations to a level that prevents unacceptable injury or damage. This can be achieved by preventing a pest from getting close to an object or plant, using chemicals to kill it, or other methods, such as traps and pheromones.
Integrated pest management (IPM) is a system of controlling pests with minimal harm to other organisms and the environment. IPM includes monitoring pests, identifying the conditions that promote their development and spread, selecting resistant crops and planting them, practicing sanitation and other cultural control practices, and applying chemicals, including insecticides, when necessary.
In IPM, the most important step is accurate identification of the pest. This can be done by observing the pest or trapping and scouting for it. IPM programs also use pheromones to attract or confuse pests and help reduce their numbers. The pheromones may be manufactured and released in the traps or sprayed on plants.
IPM is most effective in landscapes with a large area of non-crop habitat and a diversity of natural enemy guilds. Landscapes with more crop areas and fewer habitat types tend to have lower natural enemy abundances and weaker pest control. The diversity of enemies can also be affected by landscape features that influence the ability of different enemies to interact effectively. This is especially true when enemies are interacting through intraguild predation, such as predators eating parasitized pests within their bodies or ground-dwelling predators eating the pupal stages of the pest.
Another way to improve natural pest control is to introduce new natural enemies into the ecosystem or modify the existing ones. New natural enemies are developed in APHIS PPQ laboratories or through cooperative agreements with universities, and then tested for their effectiveness against specific pests or weeds.
The introduction of new natural enemies can be difficult because the species must be adapted to the environment where it will be introduced and the host it targets. These traits can be determined by evaluating the genetic and environmental factors that affect a potential biological control agent. The final steps include testing the agent for its ability to control a specific pest or weed, establishing methods to release and disseminate it, and conducting post-release monitoring and evaluation.
Eradication
Eradication is reducing an insect population to the point that it no longer causes economic injury to agriculture, forestry or horticulture. This is accomplished through integrated pest management, a combination of prevention and control methods. There are four main eradication methods: chemical, biological, physical/mechanical and cultural.
Chemical control is the use of poisons to kill or repel pests. These can be organic or synthetic chemicals. They may be sprayed or placed in bait stations. A good practice is to always read and follow all label directions when using any chemicals for pest control. This includes wearing all protective equipment, including face masks and gloves. It is also a good idea to keep children and pets away from areas where chemicals have been used.
Biological control is the use of predators, parasites or disease organisms that naturally occur in an environment to reduce pest populations. This method is often combined with other controls, as it can be difficult to establish a population of natural enemies that can manage an entire pest population. Classical biological control involves importing these natural enemies from another location and releasing them into the environment, either in small batches repeatedly or in a single large-scale release. The beneficial nematode Steinernema carpocapsae, for example, is an effective predator to green June beetle grubs and other soil-feeding insects.
Pathogens are disease-causing organisms that kill or debilitate their hosts. Bacillus thuringiensis, for instance, is a bacterium that produces a toxin that destroys the midgut of caterpillars. This is used in a number of different formulations to manage more than 400 insect species without harming humans or other animals, and is an important tool in biological control.
Cultural control is a set of practices that reduce pest establishment, reproduction, or survival. A simple example is changing irrigation practices to reduce root diseases that affect plants.
Physical/mechanical control is the use of barriers, traps or other devices to prevent pest access or movement. It could include things like using mulches to block weeds or steam sterilizing the soil to eliminate pathogens. This is the least desirable form of pest control, as it requires a lot of manual effort and often isn’t very effective.
Treatment
Despite the best preventive efforts, pests can get into homes or businesses and require pest control treatment to be removed. Treatment options include traps, sprays, baits, fumigation and other methods depending on the type of infestation.
The most effective way to eliminate pests is to use non-chemical pest control methods, such as eliminating their food sources, removing shelter, closing access points and maintaining regular inspections. When this is not possible, pesticides can be used to kill existing pests or prevent them from re-infesting.
All pesticides are toxic to some extent but the risk varies with the product and how it is used. Choosing the right product for each situation is critical and requires knowledge of pest biology and behavior. Pesticides should be used only after all non-chemical methods have been explored.
During treatment, the most important consideration is safety for humans and pets. People and pets should be kept away from treated areas until the odors and fumes dissipate, usually within a few hours. Care should also be taken to protect plants and other sensitive organisms from pesticide drift.
Before a home or business is treated it should be cleared of clutter to allow for better access by the pest control technician and to reduce the chance that items will absorb or be damaged by the spraying chemicals. Clothing, toys and other personal belongings should be moved away from the treatment area or covered with plastic sheets. Items that cannot be moved should be wrapped in plastic or put inside cabinets. Trash should be securely stowed away from the building and covered with tightly closed lids.
If you have pets, they should be kept away from the treatment area and/or crated until odors and fumes dissipate. Pets may be more sensitive to chemical treatments than people and should not be allowed in areas where the pesticide is being applied. It is a good idea to have your pets stay at a friend’s or neighbor’s house during pest control treatment.
Many companies offer service contracts in which a structure is routinely treated for a specific pest. This is an excellent method of pest control if the problem is constant and other methods are ineffective.