Pests are rodents, birds, and insects that disturb humans’ normal lifestyles or spoil their possessions. They also spread diseases such as rabies, hantavirus, and salmonella.
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There are ways to prevent pest problems from occurring. Pest prevention is an important part of pest control, and it involves actions that can be taken both at home and in business environments to avoid attracting and allowing the presence of unwanted organisms.
The most basic preventive measures include keeping areas clean and sealing entry points. Food should be stored in sealed containers and disposed of regularly to reduce the buildup of crumbs and other attractants. Gaps and cracks around windows and doors should be repaired to eliminate possible pest entry points. Regular cleaning of counters, tables, and floors can also minimize pest infestations.
Another aspect of preventive pest control is using plants and animals that prey on or parasitize the pests. This includes bird, reptile, and mammal species that feed on insect pests. These natural predators and parasites can significantly suppress the populations of unwanted insects.
In some situations, eradication is the goal of pest control, particularly in enclosed areas. This may be in response to a particular nuisance such as rodents or fungi. It may also be a necessary step in a program of pest control to protect valuable artifacts from damage or loss during normal building activities. Eradication is typically less of a focus for outdoor pest situations where good site sanitation and other preventive strategies can greatly reduce the number of pests present.
Other pest control methods are used to detect and intercept pests at the point of entry into a building. This can include the use of bait traps or other trapping devices, and can also include the installation of protective barriers such as metal screens to keep insects away from windows and doors. This method can be very effective for detecting and preventing pest infestations in high traffic areas such as hospitals, restaurants, hotels, and office buildings.
The last type of pest control focuses on monitoring and spotting pests early to limit the amount of damage they cause. This is accomplished by the regular inspection of areas by trained professionals to detect and identify any pest activity. This can be especially important for identifying the presence of plant disease organisms that may damage or kill desirable plants.
Suppression
Once pests have been detected, the goal is to reduce their numbers and damage to an acceptable level. This is often achieved by using preventive measures that will limit their impact, rather than trying to eliminate them completely. Depending on the situation, control techniques may be physical or chemical.
Changing the environment can suppress some pests, for example by altering the amount of water available. Other natural controls include birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles that feed on or parasitize pests. Predators and pathogens, such as fungi and bacteria, can also help control pest populations.
Physical methods such as traps, fences, nets, barriers and walls can all be used to control pests by interfering with their movement or blocking their access to food or shelter. Many of these are effective, easy to use and pose minimal risk to people, pets or beneficial organisms.
Some pests are dependent on certain environmental factors, for example a population of weed-eating beetles can only thrive in areas where there are suitable host plants to eat. So, controlling these factors can limit beetle numbers.
In the home, modifying the environment can help control pests such as rodents and ants. Vacuuming and wiping down surfaces, storing foods in sealed containers and fixing leaks can all make it harder for pests to live in your house. Sealing cracks and crevices can stop pests from getting inside, as can putting screens on windows and making sure the doors close securely. Keeping garbage in closed, rodent-proof containers can also make your neighborhood less attractive to rats, mice and other pests.
The same applies to the garden. Choosing the right crops and planting them correctly can minimize the need for pesticides. For example, growing zinnias can attract Japanese beetles into the area where they can be controlled with baits and traps instead of spraying them with insecticides.
Biological pest control relies on the action of natural enemies, such as parasites, predators, herbivores and pathogens, to control unwanted species. This can be enhanced by releasing more of the natural enemy in the field, for example sterile males or pheromones.
Eradication
The goal of eradication is to remove an entire pest population from an area. This typically requires repeated treatments of a variety of forms. This includes spraying, baiting, dusting, and trapping. It also involves controlling other factors that influence the microbe’s presence, such as intermediate hosts and habitat. Eradication may occur on a local, regional or global scale.
This is a complex task because the effects of control efforts on both the target organism and its environmental reservoirs are highly variable. Optimization of eradication efforts demands a thorough understanding of the dynamic interplay between the targets, their parasites, and other environmental conditions that regulate the transmission risk.
Pests can cause serious health and property damage to your home, so you need a pest management company that knows the best way to get rid of them. IPM professionals use an initial inspection to determine the extent of your pest problem, and then customize a treatment plan that will remove them for good. They can apply targeted treatments inside and outside your home, including sealants around the perimeter, and indoor treatments like spraying, baiting and vacuuming.
In addition, they will offer advice on how to prevent pests from returning and help you keep them away for good. For example, IPM advises homeowners to be vigilant about cleaning up scraps of food from the kitchen, as these can attract pests. Also, regularly vacuum and sanitize mattresses, rugs and upholstery to eliminate pest hiding places.
Chemical
Pesticides are a common way to control pests, but they can have unintended consequences. For one thing, they can disrupt ecosystems by lowering the number of predators and prey species in an area. They can also lead to the extinction of rare invertebrates when combined with other stressors, such as habitat loss or fragmentation.
Another downside of many pesticides is that they don’t always kill pests at every stage of their life cycle. For example, fleas need to hatch from eggs, grow into larvae and pupae before becoming adults. And human exposure to some of these chemicals can trigger dizziness, vomiting and convulsions, as well as have long-term effects on learning and behavior.
Biological Control
In biological control, natural enemies (predators, parasitoids and pathogens) suppress pest densities to less damaging levels. This makes it possible to reduce or eliminate the need for chemical control. In nature, natural enemy populations are controlled by competition, coevolution and symbiotic relationships.
In the green industry, biological control can be used to manage weeds, insects, mites and diseases that damage ornamental plants, turfgrasses, fruits, vegetables, nuts and crops. It is also useful in managing pests that have developed resistance to chemicals. The primary advantage of biological control is that it does not generate pesticide resistance, is safer for workers and consumers, is more sustainable and environmentally friendly than chemical controls.
Biological control is accomplished by either conservation or augmentation of existing natural enemies in the field or in greenhouses. This can be done by collecting and releasing natural enemies from the wild, or by rearing them in the lab and then mass-releasing them in the field on a regular schedule (seasonal or inundative) to disrupt the pest population growth. The most commonly augmented species of natural enemy is the minute endoparasitic wasp Trichogramma, which has been mass-reared and field released for over 70 years to effectively suppress many different insect pests in a variety of crops and forests around the world.
The success of a biological control program is dependent on the timing of releases, which requires knowledge of the life cycle and behavior of the pest. It is also important that the natural enemy have a high reproductive rate and search for and attack only its intended host species. Biological control programs are undergoing continual revision, as improved rearing and release techniques and new ecological theory provide opportunities to optimize the performance of these beneficial organisms.
Importation, conservation and augmentation are the three basic approaches to biological control. In order to import a natural enemy, its country of origin must be identified so that it can be searched for in the wild. Then, the natural enemy must go through a quarantine process to ensure that no undesirable organisms are accidentally imported along with it (diseases, hyperparasitoids etc.). Finally, it must be reared and released into the field under appropriate permits.