Pest control is the process of reducing a pest population to an acceptable level using methods that cause minimal harm. Pests include rodents, birds, insects, and other organisms that damage or spoil crops and property or transmit disease to humans.
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In many situations, prevention is the best pest control strategy. This is especially true for outdoor areas where pests may cause damage and health problems. For example, rodents can chew wires, causing electrical failure and fires. They can also spread diseases such as Salmonellosis. Insects can contaminate food or cause allergic reactions.
Prevention involves identifying and correcting conditions that favor pest infestations. Some conditions are obvious and easy to change, such as using screens on windows and keeping doors shut. It is important to regularly inspect the interior and exterior of a building, paying close attention to cracks and holes in walls and floors. When these are found, they should be promptly sealed.
Other conditions that can be controlled are weather, moisture, and temperature. All of these factors affect the growth rate of plant-eating pests and the behavior and survival of their offspring. Weather conditions such as rain, freezing temperatures, and drought can kill or suppress pest populations. Moisture and humidity affect the ability of some pests to develop and reproduce.
The use of natural predators, parasites and pathogens to control pests is often the most effective approach to pest control. These organisms can be introduced to a pest population in a form that will not harm people or pets. They can be used in combination with other control methods or on their own.
Chemical controls can be effective in some situations, but they should be used with caution. Always follow the pesticide label’s instructions and safety warnings. Never spray directly onto furniture or in places where people eat, sleep or play. Use traps or baits instead of surface sprays whenever possible. Always apply baits or traps out of reach of children and pets, and do not place them in places where they can easily be tampered with.
In addition, keep food and utensils away from surfaces where pests might hide, such as under sinks and in cupboards. Clean up spills and crumbs as soon as they happen, and avoid leaving out garbage in bags or containers that might attract pests. Finally, remove overgrown landscaping that might give pests an easier way indoors.
Suppression
If pest populations have already reached damaging levels, suppression tactics are used to reduce them quickly. This is often done through chemical, biological or cultural control methods. Chemical controls can provide a rapid knock-down effect, while biological and cultural practices usually make the environment less favorable for pests or interfere with their ability to reproduce.
Some natural enemies can attack and kill pests directly through predation, parasitism, herbivory or pathogens. These are called biological control agents, and their use in an integrated pest management program depends on accurate identification of the pest to be controlled (to the species level). Some organisms, such as nematodes, can be effective against several different pests but must be specifically chosen to target the pests that occur in a particular area.
Many gardeners are seeking alternatives to pesticides because of the negative health effects and ecological concerns that surround their use. For example, some fungi can be engineered to form a biological insecticide that’s applied to the soil. When insects come into contact with the fungus, they ingest it and die.
Cultural controls interfere with pest reproduction by removing the habitat or food sources they need to survive and thrive. Plowing, crop rotation, removing old plant material and cleaning greenhouse and tillage equipment can all deprive pests of their environment or inhibit their movement between areas. Altering irrigation schedules can also help prevent wet, highly humid conditions that encourage disease pathogens to develop.
Mechanical and physical control methods involve devices or tools that physically remove or disrupt a pest population or its eggs, larvae, adult or other life stages. Traps, screens, barriers, fences, radiation and even electricity can be used to prevent or limit the movement of pests into an area or to interrupt their breeding.
Agricultural and organic growers are turning to biological pest control to reduce or eliminate the use of synthetic and systemic chemical pesticides. Beneficial nematodes, for instance, are a good tool to reduce thrips and whiteflies in vegetables and cutworms in turfgrass. However, these living organisms must be carefully chosen to target specific pests and to have sufficient numbers to rapidly suppress pest populations.
Eradication
When the goal is to eradicate pests, the approach must be aimed at removing the root cause of the problem. For example, killing all the ants in your house does no good if the ant hill where they came from is still nearby. In a similar manner, eliminating a plague of fleas may require fixing leaking pipes in the house or resolving other issues that make the area attractive to them.
The best way to do this is through “threshold-based decision making,” which is a form of scouting and monitoring. Noticing a few wasps flying around doesn’t merit taking action, but if you start seeing them in significant numbers every day, it might be time to investigate and find their nest.
Physical, biological, and chemical methods can be used to control pests. These include things like trap crops (such as zinnia for Japanese beetles) and altering irrigation practices to reduce the number of insects attracted to certain plants. In the case of chemicals, there are sprays that can be applied to kill and repel pests as well as baits and crack-and-crevice treatments. These are generally used only in extreme situations or when a particular pest can’t be controlled through other means.
It’s important to note that pesticides should only be used by qualified pest control professionals. They must have a license to apply them and be aware of the risks involved. Additionally, they must be able to provide a material safety data sheet for each chemical that they use.
If you have a pest problem, it’s tempting to reach for the weed killer or insecticide to get rid of them immediately. However, if you take a step back and try to figure out why they are there in the first place, you might be able to avoid using any chemicals at all.
For instance, if you have a lot of pests in your yard, it might be because of a lack of food, water and shelter for them. Make sure to remove these elements from the area as much as possible by fixing leaking pipes, trimming overgrown bushes and brush and sealing trash cans.
Monitoring
Pest control is the continuous effort to remove or prevent pests from impacting human health and safety, property, crops and production, the environment, or business operations. It includes a variety of strategies, including preventive tactics such as sanitation, training, and inspections; correcting conditions that make an area attractive or conducive to pests; exclusion methods such as screens, barriers, and traps; and chemical controls including insecticides, rodent baits, fungicides, and biological agents.
Monitoring is the key to a successful pest management program. It involves checking or scouting for pests to identify what kinds of pests are present, how many there are, and what damage they are doing. It also includes tracking environmental factors that influence pests such as weather and food or harborage availability. Monitoring can also help determine whether a pest infestation is at or near threshold levels and aid in selecting the proper control tactic.
Thresholds are the levels at which pest populations or conditions indicate that control is needed to prevent unacceptable injury or damage. Using monitoring information, thresholds help guide the choice and timing of control actions. Monitoring is also used to verify that the level of pests has decreased after treatment and to evaluate the effectiveness of control tactics.
In agriculture, monitoring usually is done by experienced crop scouts who walk through fields to look for pest activity and to evaluate the severity of any disease or weed outbreaks. This activity is important because it helps producers decide if and when to apply preventive or suppressive pest control measures and to ensure that the proper application rate of chemicals is achieved.
Monitoring in enclosed environments, such as in food processing and storage facilities, schools, offices, and health care facilities, often combines visual inspection with trapping and communication with staff that use the space. Some traps are “passive,” relying on the presence of pests to trigger them, while others have attractants such as baits or pheromones that exploit specific species behavior.
Other types of mechanical or physical controls kill or block pests or alter their environment, such as traps and barriers for rodents and weeds; steam sterilization of soil for diseases; or refrigeration or radiation for pathogens. Computer models sometimes can be useful in forecasting when pests are most likely to occur or reach critical numbers and guiding choices for monitoring, suppression, and control strategies.