Pest Control is the practice of eliminating or managing unwanted creatures like cockroaches, rats, fleas, flies, ticks etc. Pests cause damage to crops, plants and structures. They also spread diseases like hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, leptospirosis and salmonella. Contact Pest Control Masters for professional help.

Natural, biological, cultural, mechanical and chemical controls are used for pest management. Natural factors limit population sizes of some pests, while others are more sensitive to weather conditions and other environmental influences.

The goal of prevention is to keep pest populations below damaging thresholds. Preventive strategies include identifying and eliminating entry points to a property, removing conditions that attract or encourage pest activity and preventing pest reproduction. Preventive strategies are less costly than control methods applied after an infestation occurs.

In a business or home, preventive pest management starts with routine inspections to identify potential problems and address them before they become widespread. Cleaning and sanitation practices are critical to eliminate food, water and shelter sources that attract pests. Sealing cracks and gaps in walls and foundations, fixing leaky plumbing and storing garbage tightly in sealed containers can deter many types of pests. Regular sweeping and vacuuming can remove soil residues that may attract pests. Keeping garbage cans and trash bins closed, removing them regularly and securing dumpsters will also reduce pest activity. Keeping indoor areas free of clutter will discourage pests from hiding or nesting. Adding weather stripping to doors and windows can help prevent pests from entering a home or business. Using dehumidifiers in damp areas will decrease the moisture that some pests, such as termites and ants, thrive in.

Pests are not necessarily bad. They often play an important role in nature, maintaining food chains and habitats or regulating populations of other organisms. Some pests are even vital to the growth of some crops and plants. Eradication of pests is rarely the goal in outdoor pest situations, but eradication is possible in enclosed areas such as dwellings, schools and office buildings; hospitals and other health care facilities; or retail and food preparation environments.

Some pests are very difficult to eradicate once they have entered a building or other structure. This is especially true of invasive species, such as weeds or diseases that attack and destroy crops or natural resources. Monitoring and detection are the most important elements of any pest control program, followed by a treatment plan to minimize the population. The plan may involve increased sanitation, quarantine of affected areas, pesticide application and other techniques that will eliminate the unwanted organism without destroying the environment it inhabits.

Suppression

Some natural forces, like climate, can help or hinder pest control. Weather conditions can affect the growth rate of a pest’s host plants or even kill them, as in the case of sudden frost or drought. The presence of predators and parasitic species can suppress pest populations, as in the case of birds, reptiles, amphibians, or fish. In addition, the availability of food and water may influence pest numbers.

Preventive measures restrict pest activity and inhibit population growth by removing conditions that promote infestation. These tactics include storing seeds and transplants in sealed containers, removing garbage regularly from the property, cleaning tillage and harvesting equipment between fields or operations, field sanitation procedures, and eliminating alternate hosts and hiding sites for insect pests. Accurate pest identification is a critical first step for effective preventive methods.

Insect pathogens (viruses, fungi, etc) can also be used as biological controls to reduce pest population growth and damage. They usually have short life cycles and require a specific host for survival.

Biological control is an alternative to chemical pesticides. It involves releasing natural enemies of the target pest, such as predators, parasitoids, or disease organisms, to reduce the size of the targeted pest population. These agents may be found in the pest’s home range, or they can be introduced from other areas.

Biological control is often less expensive than chemical controls and can provide long-term management of the targeted pests. A key to success is the careful study and selection of potential natural enemies, ensuring that they will be compatible with their new environment, have the proper biology for controlling the pest, and are capable of being raised and released in large quantities on a timely basis. The PPQ program supports these activities by funding research and development of natural enemy species against plant pests or noxious weeds, testing and rearing them, and releasing them in controlled settings. This is a complex and costly process that takes many people working together. The results do not always achieve desired control levels, because there is a lag between when the natural enemy is released and when it begins to have an impact on the pest population.

Eradication

For some people, the very word “pest” evokes images of horror. It is easy to see why, when pests like rodents, cockroaches, termites and bed bugs invade homes or commercial buildings, they cause health problems for people and damage property. Many pests also transmit diseases and are carriers of pathogens. For these reasons, the prevention, suppression and eradication of pests are important public health goals.

In outdoor pest situations, eradication is rare as the focus is usually on prevention and suppression. However, when a foreign species is accidentally introduced to an area and becomes established, eradication strategies may be initiated. These are often government-supported initiatives, such as the eradication efforts of the Mediterranean fruit fly and gypsy moth.

Eradication involves eliminating the entire population of a pest. It requires an enormous investment in time and resources. Efforts are often made at local, community, national, and international levels. Eradication benefits are calculated in terms of future savings from avoided infection and vaccination costs-a “dividend”-that must be weighed against the cost of eradicating the pest.

Frequently cleaning and disinfecting areas where food is prepared, stored or served can prevent the accumulation of debris that can lead to the harborage of pests. It is also helpful to rotate cropping and to plow under or rototill the soil in order to reduce pest infestations.

When a pest problem persists, a wide range of chemical control options are available. These include herbicides to kill weeds, insecticides to kill insects and fungicides to kill fungal diseases. Most chemical controls require the proper application to be effective, including good sanitation and scouting to ensure that the correct spray is applied at the right time and in the right amount.

The most economical and environmentally responsible method of controlling pests is to prevent them from entering the environment in the first place. Preventive measures include adjusting the conditions that favor pest infestations and using cultural, biological or mechanical techniques to eliminate them as soon as they appear. These measures can be simple, such as removing debris from fields to discourage rodents, or they can involve sophisticated technology, such as ultra-low volume (ULV) fogging that uses small amounts of chemicals to destroy insect infestations.

Management

In the case of pests that can’t be eliminated, management strategies aim to reduce their numbers to acceptable levels. These tactics are usually more flexible and less destructive than eradication techniques. For example, a property owner may choose to spray a small area of a building with a highly targeted insecticide in order to control an infestation that is affecting production in a specific part of the facility.

Before any treatment begins, the pest problem must be surveyed and carefully assessed. This process includes evaluating the environmental conditions that led to the infestation, including food sources, water sources, shelter, and overwintering sites for the pests. It also involves determining the pest population levels, or “thresholds,” at which action needs to be taken. Threshold levels are often based on esthetic, health, or economic considerations.

Integrated pest management (IPM) strategies use a combination of control tactics to reduce pest populations to an acceptable level, without undue harm to people, plants, or animals. These control tactics can include biological, cultural, mechanical, sanitation, and chemical, or pesticide, controls.

For example, a property owner can prevent insect pests by removing the food and water sources they need to survive. This may include caulking or sealing cracks around the home, storing food in tightly closed containers, and regularly taking out the garbage. Creating an environment that is not conducive to pests can also help, for instance, by fixing leaky plumbing and keeping humidity levels low in areas where insects and vertebrates tend to thrive.

When pesticides are used, it is important to follow the product labels and all applicable safety warnings. It is also recommended that a person using pesticides wear basic personal protective equipment, such as long-sleeved shirts, pants, close-toed shoes, face and eye protection, and gloves.

Other forms of pest control involve encouraging natural predators and parasites that will kill or debilitate the unwanted organisms. Examples of biological controls include planting nectar-producing flowers, such as asters (Aster spp.), which attract insect predators, or fruiting shrubs such as serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis) that attract birds, to discourage pests; and introducing pathogens that will attack or destroy the target pest, such as the bacteria Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) to control caterpillars.