Pests are organisms that damage or spoil crops, plants, or livestock or that threaten human health. Pest control strategies include prevention, suppression, and eradication.
Preventing pests often involves removing their food and shelter. For example, rodents are a problem in homes because they chew electrical wires and spread diseases such as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, leptospirosis, and plague. Contact Springfield MO Pest Control now!
Preventing pest infestations is an important part of pest control. This can be done by using physical and biological methods. Physical control methods include traps, screens, barriers, and fences that prevent pest entry into an area. Biological control provides for the use of predators and parasites to reduce pest populations. Chemical controls include using pesticides to kill pests or alter their environment. Choosing plants, animals, and structures that are resistant to specific pests can also help prevent problems.
In food processing, prevention is especially important. Pests can cause contamination of products, damage equipment and buildings, and disrupt natural processes. In addition, some pests can carry diseases that pose a health risk to people and other animals.
Some pests are difficult to predict, but others can be detected by monitoring occurrences and numbers of organisms. Monitoring may involve scouting or observing damage, counting organisms, or taking samples and analyzing them for evidence of pest activity. When a pest population reaches a threshold level that threatens production, food safety, or human health, control measures must be taken.
Threshold levels can be determined by a variety of factors, including temperature and moisture levels. Monitoring may also include examining the environment for signs of pests, such as tracking and scouting insects, mollusks, vertebrates (e.g., rats and mice), birds, or weeds.
When pests are found, they need to be controlled quickly. Suppression is the aim of most pest control efforts, and the intent is to reduce the number of pests to a level that is acceptable for production or other activities. The goal is often to achieve a balance between pest suppression and other management objectives such as environmental sustainability, economics, and food safety.
Suppression usually involves a combination of techniques, including pesticides, physical control measures, and other tools such as traps, baits, and barriers. Some of these controls can be effective if they are designed with food safety in mind, and many require careful maintenance. A pest sighting register should be maintained to record and report pest observations by company staff and pest control technicians.
Suppression
Pest control involves the use of techniques to reduce the number of unwanted organisms to a level that is acceptable without damaging the environment. It includes prevention, scouting and monitoring, suppression, and eradication. In many situations, preventing pests from becoming a problem is the best option. If this is not possible, the next step is to use a control method that will reduce their numbers to an acceptable level. The goal of suppression is to cause as little harm as possible to everything except the targeted organism.
Most pests require water, food, and shelter for survival. They can be controlled by removing or blocking their food source or destroying their shelter. The availability of natural barriers such as mountains and bodies of water can restrict the spread of some pests. Natural enemies – parasites, predators, and pathogens – can also suppress pest populations. Chemicals can be used to augment the effect of natural controls. These include sterile insect releases, pheromones and juvenile hormones.
Physical control can be achieved through traps, screens, and fences that prevent pests from entering an area. Some chemicals, such as pyrethrins and azadirachtin, can act as repellents against certain pests. Other chemicals can kill targeted insects. For example, nematodes are microscopic worms that can be sprayed into soil to destroy caterpillars and cutworms.
Biological controls use living organisms such as bacteria and viruses to kill or inhibit pests. For example, nematodes that kill grubs and other plant-eating worms are being developed as a more environmentally friendly alternative to toxic chemicals.
The effectiveness of pest control methods depends on accurate identification. For example, swatting a few flies may not be enough to warrant pest control measures, but noticing a large increase in the number of flies in a home is a good indicator that action is needed.
Pests can carry diseases and damage crops, buildings and property. They can also be a health hazard to humans, pets and livestock. Some diseases, such as Lyme disease and rabies, are transmitted by vector (disease-carrying) species including mosquitoes, ticks and rodents. The EPA regulates several products, such as repellents, to help people protect themselves from these disease-causing agents.
Eradication
The goal of pest control is to eliminate or prevent the spread of organisms that damage plants, crops and animals. This can be done using a variety of methods, including physical and chemical approaches. The use of pesticides to kill or repel pests is a common part of commercial and residential pest control. Chemicals such as herbicides and insecticides are used to destroy unwanted plants, fungi and insects in agriculture, and they are widely used in homes to kill cockroaches, termites and other pests.
Eradication is a rare goal in outdoor pest situations, where it is often easier to focus on prevention and suppression. However, eradication is an important part of pest management in enclosed areas such as hospitals, schools and office buildings, where certain pests simply will not be tolerated.
When developing a pest management strategy, it is important to consider thresholds. These are a kind of damage tolerance that sets the level at which pest control is considered necessary. Thresholds vary depending on the species and environment in question, but they are a useful tool for determining when pest control is required.
Accurate identification is the first step in any successful pest control program. Knowing the basic characteristics of a pest can make it much easier to manage its population, and determining its life cycle can help determine when treatment is most effective. When pests are not correctly identified, they may be more resistant to pesticides, making eradication more difficult.
Pesticides are powerful chemicals that can have adverse environmental impacts when not used responsibly. Pesticides can be very effective against pests, but they should always be used as a part of an integrated pest management plan. Before using a pesticide, it is essential to read the label closely. This will provide detailed instructions for safe handling and application, as well as information about the pesticide’s potential hazards.
Whenever possible, reducing the need for pesticides is the best approach to pest control. This can be accomplished by combining pesticides with other control techniques, such as trapping and barriers. In addition, rotating pesticides can reduce the development of resistance.
Biological Control
The goal of biological control is to use organisms that occur naturally in the environment to suppress pests. This includes parasites (living on or in a host organism), predators, pathogens (causing disease in a target organism) and nematodes (small, worm-like worms that kill from the inside). Biological control is usually considered safer than chemical pesticides and can play a crucial role in integrated pest management programs. It also tends to be more economical and environmentally sustainable than traditional chemicals.
Biological controls are most effective when they prevent the onset of an infestation or limit pest numbers to below damaging or intolerable levels. The most successful biocontrol strategies include the following steps:
Accurate identification of a pest species is critical. Surveys for co-evolved natural enemies must be conducted in the region of origin, and any potential control organisms must be tested for their ability to parasitize or prey on a target pest, their capacity to survive in the new environment, and their safety to humans and other livestock. Once potential control agents have been determined and successfully tested, they must be incorporated into a pest control program.
Once biological control is in place, it must be regularly monitored to ensure that it is working as intended. In some cases, biocontrol organisms need to be reintroduced or replenished. The success of a biological control program can be improved by providing the organisms with the habitat they need to thrive, such as roosting sites, food and shelter.
Eradication is seldom a goal of outdoor pest control programs, as populations of many species of plants and animals depend on the presence of native natural enemies for survival in their natural environment. However, eradication can be a viable option in indoor environments where natural enemies have not been introduced or are insufficient to control pests. There are four major ways people use biocontrol in their gardens, greenhouses and fields to help reduce pest populations: importing, augmenting or conserving existing resident natural enemies; mass production and periodic release of new natural enemies; and seasonal inoculative biological control. All of these methods have their benefits and drawbacks and should be considered carefully when choosing a control strategy.