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Steps in Pest Control
Pests do more than just irritate homeowners. They can also spread dangerous germs and cause structural damage. Contact Bakersfield Pest Control now!
Prevention is the best way to deal with pests, and starts at home. Add screens to your windows and doors, and seal cracks and holes.
Some natural features limit pest populations, like mountains or water. Altering the environment can also control some pests, such as releasing sterile insects or using pheromones.
Prevention
Prevention is the first step in pest control, and involves taking steps to prevent pests from finding food or shelter. This is done by removing sources of food and water, as well as by blocking access points where pests may enter the property. It also includes keeping the area around buildings clean, storing food in sealed containers (including pet foods), and repairing leaks.
Prevention can be achieved through a combination of tactics, including monitoring and inspecting the property on a regular basis to identify problems. It is important to report any sightings or indications of pests to a Pest Control Operator. This will help ensure that the problem is addressed as quickly as possible, and that it is properly diagnosed.
Monitoring can include examining the site on a daily or weekly basis, looking for signs of infestation such as droppings and webs. It can also include assessing the environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, sun exposure, and shade, which can influence the growth and/or activity of many different organisms, including insects and vertebrates. Monitoring may also include identifying natural enemies of the pests, and supplementing those enemies by releasing more into the environment (for example, parasites or predators).
Preventive treatments can include physical, mechanical, or biological methods. Physical methods such as rodent trapping and netting, or the use of pheromones, can be effective for some pests. Biological controls involve the introduction of natural enemies of the pest, and can be a very effective form of control.
Often, pests are a result of an imbalance between the predators and prey in an ecosystem. This can be caused by a lack of competition for resources or by overpopulation of one species at the expense of another. Prevention of pests should be focused on balancing the ecosystem, which can often be accomplished through the practice of integrated pest management.
Educating people about pests, their habits and ideal habitats can empower them to take proactive measures to keep them at bay. For instance, most pests enter homes because of food, so getting rid of scraps and storing food in sealed containers will deprive them of their main source of sustenance. It is also essential to seal cracks and holes that pests might use as entryways, using caulking or other materials. Finally, it is important to properly store and dispose of garbage, and to keep grass, bushes, and other vegetation neatly trimmed so that they don’t provide hiding places for pests.
Suppression
Pests are unwanted organisms that harm human food and material goods, degrade landscapes and ecosystems, and damage structures and property. Insects, weeds, viruses, bacteria, nematodes and vertebrates are considered pests (EPA, 2014). Pest infestations can be continuous, requiring regular control; sporadic, requiring only occasional controls; or potential, threatening to become a problem under certain conditions.
Prevention and suppression methods reduce the number of pests or prevent them from causing damage, while eradication methods destroy existing populations. Eradication is often not feasible on a large scale and may only be practical in very confined environments, such as buildings or home landscapes.
Preventive measures are economical and environmentally responsible, reducing or eliminating the conditions that lead to pest infestations. Frequent cleaning of areas where pests tend to live, such as food stores and homes, can reduce or eliminate their threat. Physical controls such as traps, screens, fences, netting and barriers kill or keep pests out or make the environment unsuitable for them. Controls that alter the environment, such as adjusting temperature, moisture and day length, can also suppress some pests.
Plants, wood and structures that are resistant to specific pests help keep pest populations below harmful levels. If these resistant species are not available, other characteristics of the host can be used to manage pests. Examples of this include a more vigorous or tolerant variety, natural resistance to specific predators and parasites, and physical attributes that make the host more difficult to attack.
Biological or “classical” biological control involves the introduction of natural enemies to suppress insect pests. These organisms might be predators, parasites or competitors that occur naturally in the area to be managed, or they might be specially bred and introduced from elsewhere.
Some pests have a zero threshold and cannot be present in some environments due to health, safety or environmental concerns. In these situations, eradication techniques are employed to remove the pests from the area and prevent their return. Preventive and suppression methods are essential, but to achieve successful eradication, accurate identification of the pest is key. This helps managers select the best treatment method and evaluate its effectiveness.
Eradication
Eradication is a step in pest control that is used to eliminate existing infestations. It typically involves a more intense approach that may include chemicals, baits and traps. It is generally necessary when preventive measures have not been successful.
Some pests are a nuisance because they damage property or are unsightly, like woodpeckers, ants, cockroaches and spiders. Others are a health concern because they carry and spread bacteria, such as rodents, fleas, cluster flies and earwigs. Still others degrade and discolor plants, like nematodes and aphids. Other pests are dangerous because they sting or bite, such as spiders, silverfish, hornets, bees and yellow-jackets. Many of these also trigger allergic reactions and sensitivities, such as hives and headaches.
Preventive steps that can help to avoid pest problems include regularly removing garbage from the house and keeping it securely stored in trash cans that are tightly closed. It is also helpful to clean up leaves, brush and woodpiles that can serve as hiding places for pests. Regular trimming of bushes and shrubs can also help to keep pests away from your home.
Other preventive measures that can be employed are caulking cracks and crevices, filling holes with steel wool, and sealing vents and other openings. Another important step is to maintain a sanitary environment by storing food in sealed containers, properly cleaning counters and floors, and making sure garbage cans are tightly closed.
Chemical solutions that are used to get rid of pests include repellents, which can be sprayed or wiped on surfaces, and insecticides, which are used to kill insects and other pests. There are a wide variety of products on the market, including organic insecticides.
There are also biological controls, which use natural enemies of pests such as parasites, predators and pathogens to reduce or even eradicate pest populations. These methods are often not as effective as the chemical controls, and there is a time lag between the increased numbers of natural enemies and the reduction in pest population levels. They can, however, provide a good alternative to pesticides when they are applied appropriately and in the right situations.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
When pest populations get out of control, IPM strategies use a combination of biological, cultural, physical and chemical tools to control them. The goal is to bring all areas back to a monitored and managed state, with pesticides used only when necessary to protect valuable plants or people.
Before any control methods are used, a thorough inspection is done to determine the extent of the pest problem. This is critical, as not all insects, weeds and diseases are considered pests and may not require control at all. In fact, many organisms that are considered nuisance pests in one environment may be important in another.
After an initial inspection, pests are monitored regularly. When pest numbers reach a level that indicates action is needed, an action threshold is established. This threshold takes into account the economic damage, life cycle, environmental requirements and habitat of each species of pest. It also considers the population at which a particular pest will cause significant injury or damage, so that pest control is undertaken before it becomes a serious problem.
Once the action threshold is reached, less risky pest control methods are evaluated, such as using pheromones to disrupt mating or physical controls such as trapping or weeding. These are preferred to more toxic chemicals, as they present fewer risks to human health and the environment. If these are not effective, more toxic chemical solutions may be needed. Broadcast spraying of non-specific pesticides is a last resort.
In addition, IPM programs often incorporate the use of beneficial insects (predators and parasitoids) to reduce pests. In natural areas, the greatest factor that keeps plant-feeding insect populations in check is their abundance of predators and parasitoids. To increase the number of predators and parasitoids, they can be released deliberately or natural ones can be attracted to the area by planting the right kinds of flowers or introducing the proper soil bacteria.
Integrated pest management is an excellent choice for all environments, whether they are gardens, farm fields, wildlands or other types of landscapes. IPM can help to reduce the evolution of resistance to pesticides, as well as reduce the toxicity of the chemicals that are required.
Pest Management
The goal of pest management is to keep damaging organisms below levels that homeowners find unacceptable. To achieve this, deny them the food, shelter and moisture they need to survive.
Long-term prevention relies on biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices and the use of resistant plant varieties. Chemical controls are used only after monitoring indicates they are needed and with an eye toward minimizing risks to people, beneficial insects and the environment. Click Here to know more.
Integrated pest management, or IPM, involves a wide variety of methods to keep pests at bay without the use of harmful chemicals. The goal is to prevent pests from damaging property or causing health hazards. It starts with understanding a pest’s life cycle, which includes egg, nymph, pupal and adult stages. This knowledge helps you recognize a pest infestation before it causes significant damage and determine which control measures to use.
Preventing pests is possible by making it difficult for them to find food, water or shelter. This is done by good sanitation, removing debris and infested plant material, keeping food in tightly sealed containers, placing trash cans far away from entrances, sealing gaps and cracks with caulking or steel wool, and planting competitive plants that repel pests. Other preventive measures include the use of sticky traps to catch rodents, removing bird feeders and installing door sweeps or insect screens to keep out birds and insects. Planting in-field insectary plantings, also known as conservation biological control (CBC), helps to keep crop pest populations at acceptable levels by enhancing the populations of natural enemies that naturally keep pest numbers in check.
Rodents and insects can cause serious problems for a facility, site or farm by chewing through wood to build nests, spreading diseases by their droppings and introducing allergens in the form of fecal matter, cast skins or spider webs. They can leave behind a foul odor, chewed-through electrical wires and structural damage and may carry bacteria such as salmonella, which can be a severe health threat for patients in hospitals or workers at other facilities.
A hospital, for example, cannot afford to have pests such as rodents or cockroaches intruding. They present a real disease risk for patients and staff, can affect the reputation of a facility and are an obstacle to meeting accreditation or licensing standards. Environmental services (EVS) managers must implement an IPM program that incorporates prevention, monitoring and if necessary, corrective actions such as pesticides. Educating employees on the importance of their roles in the program and how they influence its performance will help secure buy-in and ensure success.
Suppression
A pest is any organism that negatively impacts agricultural crops, such as rodents or weeds. A variety of tactics can be used to prevent or suppress pests, including identifying and eliminating sources of food for them, removing their breeding grounds, or altering their environment in ways that make it difficult for them to survive (see Prevention).
Many pests are suppressed naturally by the actions of natural enemies, which can include preying on or parasitizing them. For example, predators may reduce the number or feeding activities of herbivores, relieving pressure on crop plants; or, parasitoids in a trophic cascade can disrupt an entire food chain by killing higher-level grazers. Natural enemy presence and effectiveness in reducing pest damage are important components of integrated pest management strategies (IPM), which aim to restrict levels of crop damage below an economic threshold without the use of chemical controls.
Some pests are able to avoid the effects of their natural enemies, however, and must be controlled directly with chemicals. In order to prevent these chemicals from becoming overused, IPM focuses on assessing pest populations and developing action thresholds, the level at which control measures should be taken (see Thresholds). A key factor in setting thresholds is determining what kind of environmental conditions support or inhibit the activity of a particular pest population, i.e. what factors influence whether a pest population can cause unacceptable injury to a given system or crop.
For example, the effectiveness of some natural enemies declines as a result of distance from seminatural habitat. Consequently, some researchers have explored how landscape configuration can affect the ability of natural enemies to suppress crop pests. In one study, ant grazers in sun-grown Brazilian coffee fields increased with the proximity of adjacent forests, and parasitoids in irrigated rice agroecosystems increased with the physical connectivity of hedgerows and other seminatural habitats.
Viewing pest suppression through a multitrophic lens, however, may reveal causal pathways not accounted for by most research and could change the conclusions about how landscape composition affects pest suppression. In particular, the strength of intraguild predation, in which higher-level grazers feed on each other, can vary with landscape composition and configuration (see arrows a and b in Figure 2 below). This can dampen or otherwise complicate the effects of trophic cascades on herbivores and, hence, on pest suppression.
Eradication
Eradication refers to the permanent removal of a pest from an area to the extent that it is unlikely to recolonize. Eradication programs must be designed carefully to minimize the risk of disease and disruption of natural ecosystems. The term eradication is derived from the Latin verb eradicare, meaning “to pull up by the roots.” In linguistics, eradicate has a long history of use, and it has come to mean something like “pull out” or even “kill.”
NMSU Pest Management professionals utilize a wide range of preventive, suppression, and eradication control methods. Preventive controls, such as removing or altering habitat, limit pests by restricting their access to the food, water, and shelter they need. Suppression methods, such as removing or applying chemicals to the plant at a time when it is least vulnerable, reduce pest population growth by restricting their ability to reproduce. Eradication strategies, such as the destruction or burial of a pest species, remove entire populations of the organism to the point that it can no longer sustain itself.
All pest control strategies impact other organisms in some way, and most treatment sites are disturbed to some degree. It is important to understand how this impacts the actions and well-being of other organisms at a treatment site and the overall ecosystem. In particular, when a pesticide is used, it may negatively affect the behavior or health of its natural enemies or other beneficial insects or animals living in or around the treatment site. This can be minimized by using less persistent pesticides, properly timing chemical applications to avoid exposure at susceptible life stages of the target pest, and avoiding contact between beneficial organisms and pesticide residues.
In addition, biological controls, such as the conservation and mass rearing of natural enemies, can help to reduce pest densities. The key is to select and release natural enemies with good traits, such as high reproductive potential and a preference for the target pest over other hosts, or pathogens that injure or kill them.
The word pest, or invasive organism, refers to any undesirable living thing that invades and displaces native plants or disrupts terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems. These organisms can be invertebrates (insects, nematodes, fungi, etc.) or vertebrates (fish, birds, mammals, and amphibians). Invasive plants can also have a negative effect on human crops, forests, and landscapes.
Monitoring
Monitoring is a key component of Integrated Pest Management, a multi-prong approach to safeguarding collections while minimizing the use of toxic chemical pesticides. Historically, heritage custodians used all sorts of chemicals to prevent collection pests from damaging their buildings and exhibits, but these methods have serious negative impacts on the environment and human health. Instead, heritage custodians should implement a prevention-oriented approach that includes good housekeeping practices, excluding pests from the building, monitoring and treatment as needed.
Monitoring helps us understand what the problem is, how bad it is, and where it’s located. Monitoring is done with traps and other devices that collect data on pest populations (such as number of flies caught in sticky spheres or the presence of fungus-eating plaster beetles) and habitat. This information is useful in determining the level of threat that a pest poses, whether or not it requires control and the best timing of intervention.
Observing changes in pest populations over time allows us to identify patterns. This can help us understand what is driving the population changes, such as a change in host or environmental conditions. Monitoring can also be helpful in identifying a new pest species or even the discovery of a disease vector.
Monitoring can be used to establish an action threshold (the point above which damage is unacceptable). A variety of models exist that can help you determine an EIL or economic injury level for various pests and crop types, taking into account factors like market value, management costs and environmental conditions.
Another function of monitoring is to allow us to monitor for resistance in the landscape and across the region. This information can be used to develop resistant cultivars and help reduce the need for chemical controls in the future.
Monitoring is not only useful for protecting collections, but can also be an important tool for other landowners in the community. Sharing positive results in newsletters and public meetings can help boost support for a program, and keep participants motivated to continue their efforts. Monitoring can also help us communicate the benefits of a project to potential donors, helping to justify further funding for a project.