The Basics of Pest Control

by Posted in Pest Control Tagged , , , , ,

Pest Control Malibu involves monitoring, assessing pest numbers or damage, and taking necessary action. This may include prevention, suppression, or eradication.

Keep wood piles away from the home, and seal outdoor garbage bins to prevent pests from accessing them. Clutter and other debris should be cleaned regularly.

Often, pest problems are obvious—you might see mice scurrying across your kitchen floor or find cockroaches in the bathroom. In other cases, however, pest infestations are more difficult to spot. You might hear unexplained noises in the middle of the night or find unexplained damage to your baseboards. If you suspect that you have a pest problem, it is important to identify the pest correctly in order to plan effective control measures.

Insects and arachnids come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. To help you distinguish between different pests, look at their antennae and body segments. Insects have six legs while arachnids have eight or more legs. In addition, some insects have special features that help to distinguish them from other pests. For example, caterpillars are identified by their spiracles (little suckers) on the underside of their bodies. Similarly, bees are identifiable by the holes they bore into wood to make their nests.

Many pests also give off detectable odors. Rats leave behind a strong, musty smell and cockroaches give off an oily scent. Other clues to a pest infestation are droppings, which are typically small and dark. Tracking marks from pests can also be a good indication of a pest problem, especially in the case of rats and mice. These marks can be left in a dusty area or more likely in areas that are disturbed frequently, such as kitchens and bathrooms.

Some pests, such as flies and mosquitoes, can transmit disease to humans or animals. These pests are usually controlled by insecticides or other chemicals. Generally, these pesticides are intended to kill only the target species; they will not harm non-target plants or animals. However, it is important to know which pesticides are safe for use in your environment and that they are used properly.

Many natural forces can influence pest populations, making them rise and fall. These factors can sometimes be used to your advantage in pest control by limiting their food supply or destroying their shelter. Other natural forces include climate, the presence of predators or parasites, and the availability of water and food.

Prevention

Many pest problems can be prevented using non-chemical methods. The actions of every organism or component sharing a treatment site — whether it’s outdoors or inside a building — affect the activities and well-being of other organisms, including pests.

Preventing pests requires correctly identifying them and determining the damage they cause. It also means understanding what conditions are needed for them to grow to unacceptable levels and estimating whether that will happen soon. This step involves monitoring, scouting and other research to gather this information. Monitoring includes regular checks of the field, landscape, garden, forest or structure to identify pests, determine their numbers and assess damage. In addition, this step often involves checking environmental conditions such as temperature and moisture levels to predict when pest populations will build up to damaging numbers.

Prevention of insect, mite and rodent pests often includes good sanitation practices such as cleaning equipment and removing waste materials. Sanitation also reduces pest populations by limiting their food supply, water source or shelter. It can include using clean seeds or transplants in agriculture, storing and disposing of garbage regularly, keeping feed rooms, barns and kennels clean and reducing clutter, ensuring adequate ventilation, and planting competitive plants to deter pests.

Some varieties of crops, trees, ornamentals and weeds are naturally resistant to certain pests. When available, these “resistant” species can help keep pests at manageable levels without the use of chemical controls.

When pest populations are high enough to require control, the aim is to treat only those areas or specimens that are affected. Suppression and preventive control are the main goals of integrated pest management (IPM). Pesticides are used only after monitoring indicates they are needed, according to established guidelines. Treatments are made to remove only the target organisms and are applied using techniques that minimize risks to people, pets, beneficial insects and the environment. In some situations, the use of multiple pesticides is necessary to ensure that all pests are controlled. This helps avoid the selection of resistance to one pesticide. Whenever possible, the use of less toxic, more environmentally friendly pesticides is preferred.

Suppression

Pests must be controlled when they build up to levels that cause unacceptable damage or threaten human health and safety. In many outdoor situations, prevention is the primary goal with suppression used when necessary. In indoor environments, such as food establishments, housing complexes and operating rooms in health care facilities, eradication may be the primary goal due to the severe economic, environmental and human health damage caused by certain pests.

Suppression tactics are used to reduce the number of pests below acceptable levels, or to stop them from entering a new area. The selection and timing of control methods are based on the pest biology, limits set for injury, tolerances, economics and impact on non-target organisms (see Monitoring and Assessment on the IPM Tactics page).

The goal is to reduce pest numbers to the point where they cause acceptable damage or no harm at all. This often requires a combination of prevention, scouting and suppression strategies.

Monitoring of insect, insect-like, vertebrate and mollusk pests typically involves trapping or scouting programs. Monitoring of weed and disease pests often involves visual inspection, checking for symptoms and damage. Weather monitoring (temperature and moisture, especially) also is important for predicting when pest populations will reach threshold levels.

Biological control is one way to suppress pests by increasing the abundance of natural enemies, such as parasitoids and predators, that naturally occur in the environment. This usually requires extensive research into the biology of the pest and its potential natural enemies, as well as a detailed knowledge of how to locate and collect suitable natural enemies, bring them back to the treatment site in a condition where they can be introduced and released with minimal disturbance to their life cycles.

Cultural controls are another means of controlling pests. These include plowing, crop rotation, removal of infested plant material, cleaning greenhouse and tillage equipment and management of irrigation schedules to avoid long periods of high relative humidity, which encourage disease pests. In addition, physical barriers can be built to prevent pests from entering a facility, and pesticides can be used when needed to stop an infestation in progress.

Eradication

As the name suggests, eradication is the complete removal of a pest. This is most often achieved through chemical means, but may also be accomplished through cultural or physical methods. Eradication should be used as a last resort and only after other management options have been attempted. Chemical control is a dangerous and costly method that can have negative impacts on human health as well as environmental quality. Eradication should only be done if other methods are ineffective or not feasible.

Using natural controls is the preferred option for pest control, but when chemicals are needed, they should be applied in a safe and responsible manner. This is especially important in the case of insecticides, which can be toxic to humans and other organisms. Always read and follow all pesticide labels carefully. In addition, take steps to reduce the chance of pesticide residues from entering the food chain or water supply. For example, regularly drain puddles or other bodies of water where mosquitoes breed. Replace the water in birdbaths at least once a week, and run the filters of ornamental ponds to remove mosquito larvae.

Some plants and some pests have no natural predators or parasitoids to keep them in check, such as introduced species such as Japanese beetles and gypsy moths. In these cases, pesticides may be necessary to protect the crop from damage and control outbreaks. However, when possible, enlisting the help of these beneficial insects can be an effective way to reduce the need for chemicals.

Parasites are organisms that live on or in another living thing, called a host, for at least part of their life cycle and obtain nutrition from the host. Pathogens are disease-causing bacteria, viruses or fungi that kill or debilitate their hosts. Biological pest control uses parasites and pathogens to manage pest populations without harming people or other animals. A good example of this is the use of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to kill caterpillars.

The goal of eradicating an infectious disease is the permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of the disease due to deliberate efforts. So far, the only diseases to have been eradicated are smallpox and rinderpest. But the hope for completely wiping out other diseases, such as polio and Guinea worm, still captivates many in global health.

Best Pest Control Practices

by Posted in Pest Control Tagged , , , ,

When pests start to cause unacceptable harm, it may be necessary to control them. This includes taking steps to prevent their entry and stopping their damage once it has already occurred.

Physical methods include traps and bait stations. Biological control employs natural enemies such as parasites, predators and pathogens to reduce pest populations without harming other organisms. Contact Kansas City Pest Control now!

The best pest control practices focus on preventing pest infestations or reducing their damage before they occur. These prevention methods include pest proofing your home or business, removing their food sources and eliminating their breeding grounds. They may also include scouting and monitoring pests to see if their numbers are increasing or decreasing, so that you can act quickly.

Prevention methods are important because they usually involve less harm to human beings and the environment than do suppression or eradication. These preventive measures can also be less costly than controlling a large infestation of pests.

Integrated pest management (IPM) is an approach to pest control that relies on long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques, including biological control, habitat manipulation, change in cultural practices and use of resistant plant varieties. This method reduces the need for pesticides, which are only used when monitoring indicates that they are needed according to established guidelines, and are applied with the goal of minimizing risks to human health, beneficial organisms and the environment.

IPM encourages the use of natural enemies to control pest populations, and provides guidance for selecting and using them effectively. Many of these natural enemies are insects, but some are fish, birds, reptiles or mammals that feed on the pest or parasite. In addition, some fungi and bacteria naturally suppress pest populations.

Weather conditions, such as temperature and day length, can affect pest activity directly, especially the growth rate of their host plants. Indirectly, weather can influence pest populations by influencing their predators and pathogens.

The threshold-based decision-making process that IPM involves scouting and monitoring pests to determine whether their presence or damage warrants control. Thresholds are defined for each pest: A few wasps swarming around a house are unlikely to warrant action, but an influx of Japanese beetles requires an immediate response.

Preventive steps for at-home pest control include keeping doors and windows closed, cleaning food storage areas frequently, storing dry foods in sealed containers and disposing of garbage promptly. These precautions will help keep pests away from your home or business, and they will also protect against the spread of disease by limiting the entry of germs.

Suppression

Pests cause a lot of trouble. They contaminate food and can carry diseases, such as hantavirus, leptospirosis or Salmonella. They also damage property and can trigger allergic reactions or sensitivities. They can be repulsive, like earwigs or silverfish, or they can sting or bite, such as ants, cluster flies and house centipedes. Some have a bad odor, like skunk spray or urine, or they stain, such as pine seed bugs or boxelder bugs.

Sometimes a little prevention goes a long way in controlling pests. The first step is to remove food sources and water, including removing trash regularly, storing food in sealed containers or using a garbage disposal unit, and fixing leaky plumbing and cracks that pests could use for entry. Keeping pet food in sealed bins and removing poop regularly also help prevent rodent and insect infestations.

If preventative methods fail, then a number of control practices are available. Some are physical and others are biological, chemical or cultural. Physical control techniques include trapping, removing or killing the pests with traps, poisoned baits, field burning, or trap cropping. Biological controls involve the introduction of organisms that naturally destroy or suppress pests without harmful chemicals. This might be as simple as releasing beneficial ladybugs to eliminate aphids or as complex as introducing nematodes, microscopic worms that live in the soil and attack the roots of weeds, fleas and other insects.

Chemical controls include applying pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. Professionals carefully select the right products to prevent injury to the environment and to humans, and apply them only as needed, at the proper time. They take into account the weather and other factors that might influence how effective or dangerous a pesticide will be.

Cultural pest control involves making the environment uninhabitable or unattractive to the pests. This might involve obstructive landscaping, planting crops that are detested by the pests or diversionary elements, such as building large scrap wood piles around fields to draw pests away from crops. This type of control is most useful for sporadic or migratory pests. It can be expensive and often requires extensive follow-up to ensure the pests do not return once the plants have recovered.

Eradication

Pest control practices often aim for prevention and suppression, but eradication is also possible in some situations. For example, a disease-carrying insect like the Mediterranean fruit fly or gypsy moth can be brought under control by targeting the specific species. This can be accomplished in enclosed environments where the target population can be kept to a minimum with reduced intervention, such as through breeding suppression strategies or by using biological controls.

Pesticides are among the most widely used types of pest control substances. These can be aerosol sprays, dusts, granules, gels, or liquids applied to areas where pests spend time. They can work by poisoning or disrupting a pest’s nervous system, killing it or preventing reproduction. Most pesticides are regulated and should only be used by trained pest control technicians.

Some examples of physical pest control include the use of screens and caulking to keep out unwanted insects, the removal of weeds or debris that may serve as nesting places for pests, and sanitizing surfaces where food is prepared. The use of good sanitation practices is also very important, such as regularly washing dishes and clothes, sanitizing counters and floors, and vacuuming carpeting and mattresses.

Rodents are a common pest that needs controlling in some homes and businesses, particularly those involved with food preparation or retail. Traps, both rodenticide and non-toxic alternatives such as sticky traps, are the most commonly used pest control methods for mice and rats.

Chemicals can also be used to destroy a pest infestation, but this is more of a last resort in the case of an indoor problem. Often, a more sustainable and environmentally friendly option would be to treat the area with a residual pesticide. This can be done with sprays or granules, and it is usually more effective than the single application of a stronger pesticide such as fumigation.

Eradication is a goal that is rarely pursued in outdoor pest situations, as it is typically easier and more cost-effective to prevent the problem from occurring in the first place. However, if a certain pest is causing significant damage to plants or buildings, it may be necessary to consider eradication as a solution.

Monitoring

Pest monitoring is a vital part of any IPM program. Scouting or monitoring helps managers determine whether pest populations have exceeded a predetermined threshold that indicates control is necessary. Thresholds are based on environmental conditions and the pest species in question. Identifying pests to Order (or family) helps a manager select an appropriate, approved insecticide when control is required. It is especially important to use an insecticide with specific activity against the target pest.

In cultural heritage settings, scouting and monitoring help to evaluate collection vulnerability to pest damage. Historically, heritage custodians used toxic chemicals to eliminate pests, but this approach is often ineffective and dangerously contaminates collections. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices promote prevention, using practices like good housekeeping, exclusion, and regular monitoring instead of chemical pesticides.

Establishing a pest inspection schedule is critical for effective IPM, and each museum should identify the specific internal and external areas that require ongoing inspections. It is also helpful to divide a facility into different inspection zones, with each zone having unique vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.

Develop a pest inspection checklist for each of the zones, and have a dedicated staff member in charge of each zone. Each inspector should complete a field data sheet that records sample numbers of key pests and beneficial insects (by life stage) at each location in the sampling area. Data sheets can be organized in a matrix format, with sample number along one axis and the numbers of each pest and beneficial (by life stage) across the entire area on the other axes.

Keeping the exterior landscape well maintained can prevent pests from migrating to the facility by eliminating shelter and nesting sites. Trash, overgrown brush and stacks of wood should be removed, and equipment stored on pallets or slip-sheets away from the building walls. Maintaining 0.5-m unobstructed open floor space around items and minimizing the presence of simple shelters such as drain covers and vent screens can also reduce pest harborage.

Ensure that personnel can clearly recognize the difference between pests and beneficial organisms to avoid harming these organisms when collecting samples. In addition, personnel should be trained to collect and submit accurate pest counts. This can be accomplished by training in a pest identification course or through a cooperative extension program, or by utilizing a commercially available insect identification kit.