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.