Identifying pests is the first step to selecting appropriate control measures. For example, a few wasp sightings probably don’t warrant action, but many may signal a nearby nest needing removal.
Natural barriers like mountains and bodies of water restrict the spread of some pests. Other natural forces affect pest populations, such as climate, natural enemies, and availability of food and shelter. Contact Pest Control Vancouver BC now!
Pests are unwanted organisms that damage crops, animals, and property. They may be any living creature negatively affecting a desirable crop, including competing weeds and disease-causing bacteria. They may also include critters that cause physical harm to people or their personal belongings, such as rats and mice, fleas and cluster flies, ants, cockroaches and wasps and bees and hornets.
Preventive pest control is the best strategy for keeping pests out of an establishment. It involves assessing the environment for places pests can enter, then modifying that environment to prevent them from coming in. For example, removing clutter from areas where insects and rodents like to hide can help keep them out. Screening windows and doors, caulking cracks and sealing holes in walls and foundations are other preventive strategies to consider.
Proper sanitation practices can keep pests out of food, and regular cleaning can remove the conditions that invite them into buildings. This is especially important in restaurants and retail environments, where customers will not return if they see a pest in their establishment.
Prevention also focuses on knowing the pests in an area and what their habits are, so that pesticides can be used to minimize their impact and effectiveness. This includes understanding that pests are found in a variety of life stages, from eggs and nymphs to larvae, pupae, adults and more, so that pesticides can be applied at the right time, at the correct stage.
Pesticides are substances that kill or repel pests, and can be chemical, biological or mechanical. Only qualified pest control technicians should use pesticides, as they can be toxic to humans and pets if misused.
Many pests are prevented or controlled with non-chemical methods, including removing their food and water sources and shelter, making a structure less appealing to them, and encouraging natural predators and parasites to keep them in check. In farming, pests are also kept under control by properly spacing and pruning crops to promote light distribution and air flow and by removing sections of a plant that are affected by pests so that they do not spread to healthy parts of the field.
Suppression
Pest control practices are used to reduce the size of pest populations to prevent damage and minimize economic loss. These practices include physical, biological, chemical, and cultural controls. Physical controls involve modifying the growing environment to limit access by pests or alter their environment, such as adding barriers like netting over small fruits and screening in greenhouses to keep out insects that can cause crop loss; or using mulch to inhibit weed germination beneath desirable plants. Chemical controls include both natural and synthetic chemicals that disrupt pests’ life cycles or alter their environment. Other natural or synthetic substances, such as fungi and bacteria, can also disrupt pests’ ability to grow or reproduce, or have other harmful effects on them.
The first step in pest management is to determine and accurately identify the pest. This helps to select the most effective management techniques to achieve desired outcomes. Evaluate the situation and environmental conditions that led to the pest infestation and establish pest control goals.
Preventive measures are economical and environmentally responsible methods of controlling pests. Frequent cleaning of areas where pests live or harbor enables them to be detected early and controlled before they become damaging. Sanitation practices help prevent spread of pests, such as through the use of clean tools and equipment or by reducing food waste and removing attractants or other factors that draw pests to areas where they are not wanted.
Biological control involves conserving or releasing natural enemies of pests to injure them, consume them, or otherwise limit their population sizes. This includes predators, parasitoids and pathogens. Many of these are available commercially. Studies have shown that different natural enemy guilds interact in complex ways to regulate pests. For example, in an experiment on the field exclusion of the invasive pollen beetle, parasitoids and ground-dwelling predators both reduced beetle numbers, showing that their interactions can be additive, antagonistic or synergistic.
Other forms of biological control are being developed for aquatic weeds, such as the plant-parasitic nematodes and fungal pathogens that have long been used to manage cranberry weeds on land. These and other biocontrols are demonstrating promise in controlling water weeds in aquaculture facilities, such as fish hatcheries.
Eradication
Pest control is a process of eliminating or managing organisms that are considered to be harmful to people, their activities and the environment. Pests can include animals (such as rodents), plants or fungi that negatively impact human food supply and agriculture, health and safety, property or the natural ecosystems. Pest control can be accomplished through a variety of methods, from tolerance, deterrence and suppression to elimination or eradication.
Eradication is the most extreme method of pest extermination and is usually only used in cases where prevention has failed. It involves pumping an entire home or building with pesticide gas to kill all the pests inside. This is a very controversial form of pest control, and only a small number of pest removal companies offer it. It is also one of the most expensive forms of pest control.
There is no one set definition of eradication, but most definitions focus on the permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of infection caused by the pathogen in question as a result of deliberate efforts. This was the approach used to eradicate diseases such as smallpox and rinderpest. It is a difficult concept to achieve and remains a challenge in the field of infectious disease eradication.
One of the most effective means of eradicating pests is to introduce their natural predators into the environment. This is a relatively common and safe practice, and it can be effective against many different types of pests.
Another way to control pests is by introducing parasitoids into the environment. Parasitoids are insects that lay their eggs on or feed on other insect species. They can be very effective at controlling certain pests, including some weeds, flies and wasps.
Predation is an important part of pest control, and it can be achieved by putting traps or baits out to attract the pests and then killing them with chemicals or natural forces. This is a popular and cost-effective method, but it can be dangerous for the environment and should only be used in conjunction with other methods. A recent study found that the public generally favoured manual pest control methods such as trapping over chemical-based methods such as poisoning. The study also found that three characteristics were important in the public’s perception of pest control: specificity, uncertainty and humaneness.
Natural Forces
Biological control utilizes natural enemies-predators, parasites, pathogens, competitors and weeds-to reduce pest populations and damage. These natural organisms can occur naturally or be introduced by humans. The benefits of biological control are its lack of toxic side effects and the ability to be self-perpetuating. Because of these benefits, it is an important part of any pest management strategy.
Physical and mechanical controls are devices, machines, or manipulations that limit access to food or shelter by a pest or prevent its reproduction. These include nets, fences, traps and barriers. They can also include chemicals that alter the environment or kill or suppress a pest. Chemicals that rob the host of essential nutrients so that it can’t grow or reproduce can also be used to control pests. Changes in the amount of water or light, as well as temperature and humidity, can affect pest populations by changing growth patterns and reducing viability.
Sanitation practices, including the use of pest-free seeds or transplants and decontaminating equipment between fields or between types of crops, can help prevent and suppress some pests. Cultural controls such as soil disturbance to reduce germination, planting in unsuitable sites, mulching to suppress weeds and other vegetation, and using crop residues for animal feed can also reduce pest problems.
The classical approach to biological control involves searching for natural enemies in the pest’s home range, importing these natural enemies and rearing them in insectaries until they are large enough to be effective at controlling the pest, then releasing them into the area where the pest is present. This is typically done with exotic or invasive pests that are not native to the area.
Augmentative biological control uses the same basic principle of releasing large numbers of the natural enemy in an attempt to increase their population to a level that will be sufficient to suppress the pest population. This method is often used in greenhouses and some fruit, vegetable and nursery fields. It can also be applied in a fortuitous manner, where native natural enemies of the pest arrive in the new area and begin to control the pest population.