Vacuuming helps keep carpeted areas and upholstery clean and free of eggs and larvae. Window screens should be checked regularly for holes or tears. Contact Bakersfield Pest Control now!
Clutter gives pests places to hide and breed. Trash should be removed regularly, and trash cans should have tight-fitting lids. Sealing cracks, crevices, windows, doors, and foundations is a good preventive measure.
Pest identification is the first step in any pest management program. Correctly identifying pests provides important information about their biology, food preferences, environment, harborage, habits, threats, and other factors that influence their behavior. Proper pest identification also enables you to develop preventive and control strategies to minimize damage or reduce their numbers.
A pest is any organism that damages plants, animals or structures, spoils foods or destroys property. Some of these pests are weeds that compete with crops for resources, rodents that gnaw and scatter seeds or chew through wires and pipes, insects that damage fruits and vegetables, or plants, and microorganisms such as bacteria or nematodes that infect plants and other organisms.
Proper pest identification enables you to determine if an infestation is a serious problem. Infestations of some pests can be brought under control without the need for professional pesticide treatment. Sanitation, storing firewood properly, sealing entry points, vacuuming, dehumidification and other prevention strategies are often enough to control most pest problems.
Incorrect pest identification can lead to unnecessary costs, ineffective pesticide application and risks to people and the environment. Sometimes a pesticide application fails because the wrong insect species or life cycle stage is targeted or because the chemical was not used in the proper way.
Some pests change their physical forms at different stages of the life cycle or when they migrate. For example, a weed seedling looks different from the mature plant, and some insects shed their outer skins.
If you cannot identify a pest, contact your local county extension service or a pest management professional for help. There may be a charge for this service, but the correct identification of pests will save you time, money and risk. An expert can provide information about the pest’s ecology, morphology, life history and management requirements. In addition, an expert can recommend cultural practices and specific tools or pesticides to control the pest.
Prevention
Prevention is a broad strategy to reduce the occurrence of pests and their damage. It encompasses actions such as monitoring, preventing, and controlling the use of pesticides. It includes using physical, biological, and cultural controls to manage pests. Control methods may include plant varieties that are more resistant to pests, cultural practices such as soil disturbance and crop rotation, and trap crops such as zinnia for Japanese beetles. Chemicals, including insecticides and fungicides, are used only when monitoring indicates their need according to established guidelines. They are applied as sparingly as possible with the aim of reducing risks to people, beneficial insects and organisms, other plants, and the environment.
Preventing pests is the best way to reduce or eliminate pest problems. Some of the most important preventive measures involve removing food, water, and shelter from pests. Store food in sealed containers and remove garbage regularly. Remove debris that pests can hide under or behind and make sure building foundations and ledges are free of cracks and crevices. Seal any openings that pests can enter, such as cracks around windows and doors, and caulk gaps. Keeping the establishment clean can also help to keep pests away; get rid of stacks of newspapers and cardboard that can provide hiding places for pests, and eliminate clutter that can serve as pathways to or from food processing areas.
Threshold-based decision-making relates to determining how often a pest should be seen before it requires action. For example, a few wasps flying around the home a few times a week does not warrant control, but a swarm of wasps gathering in an open area daily might. Similarly, a few mice crawling in a box of cereal does not necessitate eradication, but an invasion that is affecting food production and storage would require immediate attention.
Integrated pest management (IPM) is an ecosystem-based strategy for long-term prevention of pests and their damage through monitoring, modification of environmental factors, and the use of natural enemies, physical controls, and controlled releases of pathogens or predators. This approach is less hazardous to people and the environment than conventional pesticides. It is recommended that only trained and qualified specialists handle or apply pesticides. When pesticides are used, they should always be labeled for specific uses and properly disposed of when no longer needed.
Suppression
Pest control is used to reduce the numbers of pests below harmful threshold levels. This is done by combining physical, biological, and chemical techniques to most effectively manage pests while causing the least disturbance to people and the environment.
Thresholds are set by observing the presence of a pest and how frequently it occurs. For example, seeing a single wasp’s nest once every few weeks may not warrant treatment; however, if you see them on a daily basis in your yard, it’s time to remove the nest. Continuous pests like cockroaches and mice are a common problem in many homes, and their droppings affect indoor air quality and can trigger asthma attacks. Monitoring for these and other pests can include examining traps, scouting, and counting. Observing environmental conditions, such as temperature and moisture, can also help determine when pest populations are reaching hazardous threshold levels.
Preventive techniques include eliminating food, water and shelter sources. This includes storing foods in sealed containers and removing garbage regularly. Fixing leaky pipes and caulking cracks can eliminate access to water for pests. Planting weeds with beneficial insects can help keep populations of damaging pests at low levels. In the garden, weeds such as Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota) and London rocket (Sisymbrium irifolium) harbor ladybugs and lacewing larvae, which feed on aphids and other insect pests.
Biological pest control uses predators, parasites and disease organisms to reduce the numbers of pests. Insects, mites and nematodes that ordinarily prey on pests can be released in the garden to quickly reduce their numbers. Some fungi, such as verticillium wilt and sudden oak death, can also be helpful in controlling some pests.
Chemical pest control involves applying products to kill or repel pests. The type of product used depends on the pest and its impact on your plants, property and health. Always use chemicals recommended for the specific pest and follow the label directions to prevent harm. When hiring a pest control company, ask them to provide information about the chemicals they will use. Write down the name and EPA registration number of each chemical, and dispose of the containers properly.
Eradication
In some cases, pests pose such serious health and safety threats that they require eradication. For example, roaches can carry Salmonella and other bacteria that cause food poisoning, while rodents can spread diseases such as hantavirus and salmonella leptospirosis. Eradication is defined as “the permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of infection by a specific pathogen through deliberate efforts.” This definition also includes the destruction of existing disease samples, which can be tricky given that the viruses behind diseases such as smallpox and rinderpest still exist in laboratories.
The word eradicate comes from the Latin verb eradicare, meaning to uproot or remove completely. The root of the word is also related to the English words radical and radish, which may explain why it was used to describe pulling out unwanted plants. However, eradication can be achieved with less violent methods than the literal uprooting of weeds. For example, nematodes, microscopic roundworms that can be found in soil, are a natural way to eliminate pests such as fleas, grubs, and cockroaches by attacking them directly.
Another natural control is the introduction of predators and parasitoids to help keep pest populations under control. This method works best when environmental conditions are favorable for the predator or parasite, and there is often a time lag between a pest population increase and the appearance of natural enemies. This is why it is important to monitor pest numbers to determine if their presence in the landscape has reached unacceptable levels, and then implement management measures accordingly.
Chemical pest controls, such as repellents and insecticides, are quicker to work than other forms of pest control, and can sometimes provide immediate results. However, these solutions can introduce direct hazards to people and their pets when used incorrectly, and they typically leave a residue that can cause secondary contamination.
Some chemical solutions can also contribute to the evolution of resistant pests. When a single type of pesticide is used over a large geographic area, the surviving pest population may develop resistance to that particular pesticide. Rotating pesticides helps reduce the development of resistance and maintain a pesticide’s effectiveness against pests.