As warmer weather approaches, ants, rodents, and other pests become more active. Find a company that offers effective, environmentally safe pest control services. Ask friends and neighbors for recommendations and read online reviews. Contact Coquitlam Pest Control now!
Natural pest control methods are usually less costly than chemical sprays. They also don’t damage surrounding plants, soil, and water.
Ideally, pest control involves no chemical application. Preventive methods include inspection, modification of the environment, and cultural techniques that make it difficult or impossible for a pest to thrive in an area. For example, a homeowner may remove a bird feeder or move it away from the house to stop attracting mice and other rodents that can then chew wires and spread diseases such as hantavirus, leptospirosis, and Salmonella.
Physical preventive measures such as traps and baits that eliminate pests can also be used. Sealing cracks and crevices in walls, caulking, and replacing damaged window and door screens can also help prevent pests from entering a home. Keeping trash in containers with lids and washing food jugs before throwing them away can also reduce pest populations.
Threshold-based decision-making, which is part of scouting and monitoring, helps homeowners and professionals decide when to use control methods. For example, seeing a few wasps flying around doesn’t usually warrant spraying, but an entire nest is an indication that it’s time to take action.
If the pest problem is not addressed immediately, it can lead to full-blown infestations. Infestations may become so bad that it’s challenging or impossible to treat them with DIY products like household sprays and insecticides. For example, rats can gnaw through electrical wires in homes and cause fires or spread diseases such as hantavirus, typhus and Salmonella.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a strategy to minimize the need for pesticides by applying prevention, suppression and eradication techniques in a balanced manner. This means that chemicals are used only when necessary and always in the lowest amount possible, with consideration for environmental impact. It also includes scouting and monitoring so that a pest can be controlled before it reaches an unacceptable level of impact. This may involve identifying the factors that are encouraging an infestation, such as soil conditions or a lack of cover for an organism to hide. It may also involve using non-chemical tactics, such as planting specific crops that are detested by pests or creating diversionary elements such as a scrap wood pile to lure pests away from cropland.
Suppression
When pest populations are too high for acceptable economic returns, growers use suppression techniques to reduce them. These methods are often used in combination with prevention techniques and include cultural practices and the use of resistant varieties. Chemicals are used sparingly and only when monitoring indicates they are needed. When they are used, they are applied according to strict guidelines to minimize risks to human health and beneficial and nontarget organisms.
Suppression is a key component of integrated pest management (IPM). The goals of IPM are to prevent pests and their damage by using as many nonchemical tactics as possible, including habitat manipulation, crop diversity, biological control, modification of cultural practices, and the use of resistant varieties. Pesticides are used only after monitoring demonstrates they are needed, and they are applied using the least amount necessary to achieve the desired result.
Biological controls are natural enemies, such as parasites, predators, and pathogens, that limit pest populations by attacking them directly or injuring them. These agents are often host-specific, so growers must identify the pest species accurately to purchase and release the correct enemies. They may be mass-reared at insectaries or obtained from other sources. Once released, these natural enemies typically establish a permanent population and provide long-term control of the pests they target.
Other natural forces can also suppress pests, such as weather conditions and topography. These factors limit the movement of pests, reduce their food supply, and limit the availability of shelter or overwintering sites. They can also change the conditions that favor pest growth, such as temperature, day length, and humidity.
The use of pheromones and juvenile hormones can be helpful in reducing pest numbers as well. These substances are emitted by the pests, or by other organisms that interact with them, and alter the behavior of those organisms, making them less desirable for reproduction or predation.
When the actions of all organisms sharing a site are considered, it becomes easier to determine when pest control is required and how much harm is acceptable to cause. The goal is to reduce pest numbers or damage to an acceptable level, with as little harm as possible to all organisms in and around the treatment area.
Eradication
As the name implies, eradication is the ultimate goal of pest control. To eradicate a pest means to make it impossible for it to live, breed, or survive in a specific area. This goal requires extremely large-scale effort at the community, national, and international levels. It also relies on a wide range of logistical factors. Eradication techniques may involve removing the microbe’s food source, changing the environment to make it unsuitable for its growth, or killing the pest itself.
When modern pesticides were developed, they offered the promise of eradicating many pests with a single application. However, overuse of these chemicals led to the development of resistant pests. As a result, scientists started developing other methods of pest control. These were described as integrated pest management (IPM) plans. IPM plans use a combination of mechanical, cultural and biological control methods to reduce the need for chemical controls. These include selecting varieties of crops that are less likely to be damaged by the pest, altering planting or harvesting times, reducing the amount of fertilizer and water used in a crop, and using natural enemies or habitat manipulation to suppress pest populations.
Another method of pest control is to encourage the growth of predators that will kill the unwanted species. This is called biological pest control and it can be an effective way to manage some pests, especially weeds. One example of this is the ladybug, which feeds on aphids and other insects that damage crops. Ladybugs can be introduced to a field to keep the aphid population under control.
Other examples of biocontrol include introducing beneficial insects, such as lacewings and beetles, to a field to kill unwanted pests. Alternatively, the pest’s own natural enemies can be used to kill it, such as birds, beetles, and ants that prey on cockroaches. The use of biological control methods is less controversial than the use of chemicals because it does not harm the environment.
When a pest is eradicated, it should be certified as such by an independent, respected body. Such certification is critical because a disease can only be eradicated if the transmission of its microbe is stopped worldwide. For this reason, the eradication of a disease is considered a global public good.
Controlling Pests
Even with good housekeeping and maintenance, pests can infest buildings, disrupt business, hurt property and cause health problems for building occupants. Pest control is the use of methods to remove unwanted species in numbers that are acceptable to those using a space. Control strategies are grouped into three broad categories: prevention, suppression and eradication.
Preventing pests includes taking steps to keep them away, such as reducing food, water and shelter sources. It also includes keeping spaces clean and removing debris where pests might hide. Some pests are continuous, such as pigeons and sparrows, and require constant removal from building rooftops; others are sporadic and only need to be controlled in certain circumstances.
The weather can have a big impact on pest populations. Rain, freezing temperatures and humidity affect pests directly by killing or suppressing them; and indirectly by affecting their host plants’ growth and development. In addition, weeds and plant disease organisms often thrive in moist soil conditions that encourage their growth and reproduction.
Biological controls include predators, parasites and pathogens that attack, kill or reduce pest populations. These organisms may be natural or introduced, such as birds, reptiles, fish and mammals that feed on or parasite pests. They can also be microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungus that can be engineered into products, or nematodes (microscopic eel-like worms) that live in the root zone of plants to eat pests or their eggs.
Chemical control involves the use of pesticides, which poison and kill targeted pests. This is usually a last resort when other preventive and suppression methods aren’t effective. Chemicals must be applied correctly to be effective, which requires training and experience. It also requires a high level of personal protective equipment, such as gloves to protect against chemical exposure, respirators to filter out harmful fumes and goggles to shield eyes from spray or splash.
Integrated pest management, or IPM, is the process of combining physical, biological and chemical control techniques to manage pests effectively in urban, agricultural and wildland and natural areas. It requires communication between the property owner, pest control company, and technician to understand and manage all factors that influence a pest’s presence and damage.
