Pests are organisms that damage, spoil, or cause disease in crops, food, animals, and homes.
Prevention includes steps like removing sources of food, water, or shelter; cleaning up weeds and brush; fixing leaky pipes; and using traps and baits. Contact Pest Control Thousand Oaks now!
Sometimes, pesticides must be used to reduce the pest population to an acceptable level. The right chemical, applied correctly, can be effective.
Prevention
Prevention is the most important step in pest control and involves foreseeing and mitigating conditions that make a property attractive to pests. It is often possible to stop a pest infestation before it starts with regular inspections, sealing entry points and movement routes, and maintaining cleanliness to remove food residue and places where pests can breed and hide. Regular cleaning and prompt garbage disposal, caulking cracks and crevices, and smart landscaping can all make a building or yard less inviting to pests.
For commercial properties, this may include regularly checking trash bins and dumpsters for pests and keeping them closed when not in use; storing food and compost indoors and out, to keep it away from pests; keeping kitchens clean and free of debris and crumbs; and making sure all windows and doors are properly shut. It is also critical to keep landscaped areas free of weeds, trees, and brush that can provide cover or hide pests, as well as to maintain proper drainage to avoid standing water.
Regular monitoring can be done with sticky traps, baits, or pheromones to see what pests are present and where they are coming from. Correct identification is key, since different species have different habits and life cycles, and some require more attention to prevent infestations than others. For example, rust-colored droppings in corners may indicate rodent activity, while papery wasp nests near entrances can signal a wasp problem.
The monitoring process helps determine if the presence of a pest is damaging the facility and requires control. It is then a matter of applying pest control techniques to reduce the population and cause as little harm as possible.
Pests typically invade buildings in search of food, water, and/or shelter. To help prevent pest problems, facilities managers should regularly inspect both interior and exterior spaces to identify conducive conditions. For instance, roaches enter homes and businesses in search of food; mice and rats invade buildings in search of warm shelter. Identifying and correcting these conditions will help prevent pests from invading the space. Pesticides are a common way to control pests. However, these chemicals can be harmful if used improperly.
Suppression
Whenever pests are found, preventive and suppression methods must be employed. These measures reduce or eliminate the conditions that promote pests, restrict their activity and suppress their population growth. The objective of these controls is to limit the impact of pests on crops, property, and human health and safety.
Many pests can be controlled by preventing the development of their host plants, using barriers to keep them away from sensitive areas, and removing the food source that attracts them. These are known as cultural controls. Examples include soil health management for crop production, weed control with mechanical or biological means, changing planting dates or spacing to minimize weed competition, and improving irrigation or nutrient systems to promote plant health.
Preventive methods are economically and environmentally responsible and are generally safe for people, pets, birds, livestock and the environment. Frequently emptying garbage cans inside and out, keeping them closed, and regularly cleaning areas where food is stored will discourage rodents and other pests. Similarly, cleaning compost bins and sifting out spoiled produce regularly will also prevent pest problems.
Some pest populations naturally rise and fall without the influence of humans. These natural forces include climate, the availability of predators or parasites, other species competing with them for food and shelter and environmental factors such as water, nutrient and light availability. Some pests can be controlled by conserving and releasing natural enemies (such as the mites that control mite pests in orchards or the wasp parasitoid Encarsia formosa that suppresses greenhouse whitefly).
Other pests may need to be controlled with more aggressive measures. These can include the application of insect pathogens such as bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) that kill caterpillars, flies and mosquitoes or the fungus Streptomyces coeruleus that attacks nematodes and root-knot worms. These organisms are safer than most chemical pesticides and can be used in residential landscapes.
Using chemical pesticides must be done with care and must be restricted to where the problem is located. This includes reading and following product labels, observing proper PPE (personal protective equipment) requirements and continuously updating knowledge to improve your application of pest control techniques.
Eradication
Pest control is the process of removing unwanted organisms. It can be done manually or chemically. Many pest control companies are highly trained to remove specific organisms and to use fewer chemicals. Chemical control is the most common way to get rid of pests. It involves spraying your house or business with a pesticide that kills or repels the pests. It is the most effective way to eliminate a pest problem, but it can be dangerous for your health and may damage your plants. It is important to follow all safety instructions when using pesticides.
Preventive measures prevent pest infestations from developing. These include frequent cleaning to make the environment unsuitable for pests, and blocking access to water, food, shelter, or nesting areas. Preventive controls are the least invasive and most environmentally responsible methods of pest management.
Suppression methods limit the growth of existing pest populations. These include frequently cleaning areas where the pests live, steam sterilization of soil, and a variety of physical barriers. Suppression methods are more expensive than prevention, but they can be very effective at eliminating pests.
Eradication is very difficult to achieve in outdoor situations, where the pests often move freely. It is more common in indoor environments, such as restaurants and health care facilities, where the goal is to eliminate the pests before they can cause serious problems. Examples of successful eradication programs include the efforts to interrupt hookworm transmission in humans and the attempt to eradicate gypsy moths from North America.
Biological pest control relies on natural enemies to reduce a pest population, such as parasites, predators, and disease organisms. This can be as simple as releasing ladybugs to eat aphids or as complex as spraying the garden with microscopic nematodes, such as the bacterium Steinernema carpocapsae, that eat fleas, grubs, and worms.
In general, these methods work best in conjunction with other pest control strategies. Once a threshold level of pest damage is reached, the best approach is to select a combination of suppression and eradication techniques that will keep the pest population below the damaging levels.
IPM
IPM (Integrated Pest Management) is a long-term approach to pest control that is based on monitoring and creating unfavorable environments for pests to live in. Preventive steps include reducing sources of food, water and shelter; keeping plants healthy to resist pests and diseases; and sealing cracks in buildings to prevent insect or rodent entry. If pests do occur, they are controlled using the least toxic means available. Chemicals are only applied after monitoring indicates they are needed and when the benefits of treatment outweigh the risks to people, pets and the environment.
An important principle of IPM is to first identify the pest species and determine if there are nonchemical methods to reduce their numbers. This includes scouting and inspecting the plants or other sites in question to accurately determine the extent of the problem and its cause. Examples of monitoring tools include inspection checklists, sticky traps, and pest sighting logs. It also involves identifying the life cycle and biology of the pest and determining what environmental conditions are required for its growth.
Once the identification and monitoring is complete, an action threshold is set – a point at which pest populations or conditions indicate that pest control measures are needed. This is often the point at which a pest becomes a health hazard or causes significant economic damage. For example, rats and mice may become a hazard to humans when they reach population levels that trigger asthma, or carpenter ants or termites might cause structural damage to homes.
The action threshold will determine the size and scope of an IPM program. If the pest population has risen above the action threshold, a treatment strategy is implemented using physical, biological or chemical controls.
Physical controls are the most effective and often the least expensive. These can include cultural practices, such as crop rotation and selecting disease-resistant varieties; weeding and aerating soils; and keeping gardens and lawns well-watered and fertilized. Biological controls are a common part of an IPM program, and involve introducing natural predators and parasites into the landscape to eat pests or kill them off.