Generally speaking, the best approach to pest control is prevention. That means reducing attractions that lure pests by keeping food and trash in sealed containers, repairing leaky pipes and decluttering exterior and interior areas.
Natural forces influencing pest populations also must be taken into account. Climate, weather, natural enemies and availability of shelter and food all affect pest control. Contact Apex Pest Solutions now!
Pests cause damage, spoil food and threaten the safety of people, pets, livestock and wildlife. Uncontrolled infestations can also reduce property value and make homes or business sites unsuitable for sale or rental. Pest problems can also pose health risks, with some such as rodents and cockroaches carrying diseases and causing allergies. Developing and implementing a preventative plan for your property can reduce the need for pesticides, while protecting the health of occupants.
Prevention begins at home, with keeping the environment as unattractive to pests as possible. Store food in sealed containers and remove garbage regularly. Seal cracks and crevices, and fix leaky plumbing. Keep the attic and basement free of clutter to reduce hiding spots for pests, especially rodents. Keep yards and gardens trimmed, with regular lawn and garden maintenance such as soil aeration, mulching, and overseeding. This helps reduce the amount of moisture in soil and the number of weeds, which pests can use for shelter.
Using natural enemies of pests, such as predators, parasites, and pathogens is called biological control. This can be done with plants, such as nematodes and fungi, or with insects, such as birds, bats, owls, or bees. Other control methods can be physical or mechanical, using traps, screens, fences, nets, radiation, or changes to the environment, including light, heat, or cold, to alter pests’ behavior or environment.
Some natural forces affect all organisms, and pest populations rise and fall irrespective of human actions. These include weather, natural enemies, natural barriers, the availability of food and water, and the presence or absence of shelter.
Educating yourself about the life cycle of a specific pest and its preferred habitat can help you understand the best way to control it. It’s also important to determine what level of pest activity is acceptable, as it may be difficult to eradicate pests completely from your yard or garden.
Suppression
Once a pest population has reached or is likely to reach unacceptable damage levels, suppression tactics may be used. Threshold-based decision-making focuses on scouting and monitoring, identifying the point at which damage occurs and taking action. For example, a few wasps flying around the garden don’t require intervention, but a large population invading the vegetable patch is cause for concern. Control options include physical and biological techniques to deprive pests of food, shelter or water. Cultural practices such as adjusting irrigation schedules to avoid long periods of high relative humidity, practicing clean cultivation and reducing food waste are also important.
Physical pest control uses barriers to deny pests access to food or shelter. Some examples of this strategy are fences, tarps and netting to keep pests off crops or other structures. It’s important to understand the pests you’re trying to manage before implementing this strategy. For instance, tarps and nets can exclude pollinators, so you’ll need to provide alternative sources of nectar.
Biological pest control leverages natural predators and parasites to prevent pest populations from rising to damaging levels. It can be as simple as releasing ladybugs to eat aphids, or as sophisticated as adding microbe-based solutions (like Bacillus thuringiensis) to the soil to target certain pests. These products are more environmentally friendly than most chemical pesticides, but they can have their own challenges. For instance, microbial pesticides aren’t shelf-stable, and their narrow host range can lead to resistance.
Sanitation strategies reduce access and shelter for pests by cleaning equipment, removing debris, improving garbage removal and managing manure management. These approaches can reduce the carryover of pests from one field to another, as well as prevent contamination of food in stores and restaurants.
Resistant varieties of plants, animals and materials can help keep pests below harmful levels by making them less attractive to or able to attack. When available, planting or using resistant species is a great way to reduce the need for any pesticides. For example, nematodes and bacteria have been engineered to kill specific pests. This approach is less invasive than conventional pesticides, but it requires some planning. For instance, if you plan to use microbial pesticides, make sure the type of nematode you choose is effective against the pest you’re targeting and that it’s legal where you live.
Detection
The first step in pest management is monitoring to identify and learn about the presence or damage of pests. Proper identification enables the development of management strategies that limit or reduce damage to people, property and natural resources.
Monitoring takes a variety of forms. A homeowner might check gardens, lawns, trees, shrubs and other landscaped areas to watch for signs of pest activity. This might include observing the location of feeding, nesting or burrowing sites; watching for signs that pests are around such as droppings, lines, cracks and crevices; seeing the number of plants damaged, and looking at soil and plant tissue. In many cases, a professional trained to recognize pests and their signs can help.
A professional might use visual inspection, hand-held and airborne sensors and thermal imaging devices to track the presence of pests. Those using thermal cameras might be able to detect a wasp’s nest, a hive or a rodents’ hole or tunnel under the ground, for example. Rodents and other animals also leave behind other telltale signs such as gnawing or chewing on wood, insulation and electrical wires.
In agriculture, a company called Kishan Know has developed an automated system that uses low-power image sensors to monitor fields and capture images of the contents of traps. These images are transmitted remotely to a control station and processed to identify the presence of crop-damaging insects.
This allows farmers to determine how much damage they can tolerate and then to select the most effective biological, cultural or physical/mechanical methods for managing pests. The ability to accurately identify pests in the field may also minimize the need for chemical controls.
When pesticides are needed, it is important to use them correctly. When pesticide applications fail, it is often because the pests were not identified correctly or because they were in a life cycle stage or location where they were resistant to the pesticide. In addition, a pesticide application might be over-applied or it might not be applied at the right time of day to maximize its effectiveness. The goal of pesticide applications is always to limit the amount of chemicals needed and to apply them at the right time of year to prevent damage from the target species and other organisms in the environment.
Eradication
The goal of eradication is to eliminate pests and their eggs or larvae from your property completely. This may require several treatments and the use of different techniques. This can be difficult, especially with pests that reproduce rapidly or have adapted to chemical controls. The best way to eradicate these pests is to prevent them from entering your home in the first place by keeping food and water away, sealing cracks and crevices, storing garbage properly and removing other attractants.
A homeowner can often do a lot to help solve their own pest problem, but there comes a point where the issue becomes too large to handle alone. A rat nest in the attic, for example, can be impossible to get rid of with sprays and at-home remedies alone. This is where it is a good idea to call in the pros.
When hiring a pest control company, be sure to ask what they offer as a service guarantee and what steps they will take to re-treat your home if their initial treatment fails. It is also a good idea to inquire as to what their treatment philosophy is and how they classify each pest.