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Pests are organisms that damage or spoil property or plants. They may also spread disease or cause harm to humans. Regular pest control can prevent these problems and protect your home or business. Click the Pest Control Van Nuys to learn more
There are a variety of ways to control pests. Preventive methods include blocking entry to a site, eliminating the pest’s food supply or water source, and removing its shelter. Physical controls include traps and bait stations, screens, barriers and fences, and radiation and electricity. Chemicals can also be used to kill or repel pests, but they should always be applied with care in order to minimize toxicity to other plants and animals and to humans.
Biological control uses organisms that naturally attack or parasitize the pest species. These may be predators, herbivores, pathogens or fungi. Usually, there is a lag between when the pest population begins to increase and when the natural enemies begin to appear. When these natural enemies are released into a site, they quickly reduce the pest population. Augmentation is similar to biocontrol, except that the native enemy organism is conserved and deliberately boosted in numbers. For example, in Yellowstone National Park, the conservation of wolves (Canis lupus) has resulted in increased predation on deer and elk, bringing the ecosystem back into balance.
Chemical pest control includes the use of both non-chemical and chemical treatments to kill or repel insects, rodents or other pests. This can include spraying surfaces with an insecticide or placing traps and baits in areas where the pests are found. A licensed pest professional can help you select the right products and implement them correctly.
Threshold-based decision making focuses on the amount of harm that is being caused by a pest. For example, seeing a few wasps on the patio might not warrant any action, but noticing more and more each day might mean it is time to find and destroy their nest.
For the best results, preventive and control measures should work together. Clutter provides places for pests to breed and hide, so a clean home can help eliminate them. Caulking cracks and crevices, repairing screens, removing trash and cleaning up spillages can all help stop pests from invading your property. Keeping storage areas clean and storing items in containers can also keep pests out of your closets and cupboards where they might otherwise create their nests.
Pesticides
A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to prevent, destroy or control unwelcome organisms such as plant diseases, insects and rodents. It may also be used to treat or protect crops, livestock, buildings and other materials such as timber from damage by pests. Pesticides can be natural or synthetic, and they are produced either in the lab or from naturally occurring chemicals.
A good pesticide kills the target organism without harming humans, non-target plants or other living things. However, no pesticide is perfect at this and many have adverse effects on the environment or human health. These effects can be caused by the chemical itself, by its interaction with other materials or by its degradation. The degradation process, known as biodegradation, breaks the pesticide down into other chemicals called metabolites. Often these are more toxic than the parent material.
Depending on how it is applied, a pesticide can also have adverse environmental impacts. Pesticides may pollute water, air and soil, and can be absorbed through the skin. They can also be carried by wind and rain to other locations where they can affect people, animals and plants. They can even enter homes and offices through windows or ventilation systems.
Most pesticides are formulated from a combination of active and inert ingredients. The percentage of each is listed on the product label. Inert ingredients, which are combined with the pesticide to make it usable, can be composed of raw materials or other manufactured products. Inert ingredients can also be natural products such as copper sulfate, cobalt sulfate or zinc oxide.
There are many types of pesticides, including insecticides (kills insects), herbicides (kills weeds) and fungicides (kills fungal problems such as mildew or rust). Fungicides can also be used to control disease carriers like scabies and vermints. Other types of pesticides include ovicidides (kills eggs), fungus rot inhibitors, molluscicides, nematicides and wood preservatives.
The toxins in many pesticides are broken down by microbes or other living organisms and degraded into harmless substances. However, some are persistent in the soil or in food or feed for plants and animals and accumulate in fatty tissues. These are called organochlorine pesticides, which are being phased out and replaced with other chemicals. The other main groups of chemicals are the organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids. These are less persistent than the organochlorine group and are causing fewer problems with human and animal health.
Biological Control
Biological control uses natural enemies (predators, parasites, pathogens, or competitors) to suppress pest populations without the use of synthetic chemicals. It is an important part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs and can help reduce our reliance on chemical pesticides.
The goal of biological control is to create self-sustaining populations of natural enemies that can suppress the targeted pest species. This is done through several methods:
Conservation Biological Control – the deliberate stimulation of resident natural enemy populations to increase their ability to control pests, for example, digging channels in a salt marsh to connect pools of water where mosquito larvae develop; leaving patches of a certain weed untreated with herbicide where a naturally-occurring predatory wasp can attack grubs damaging sugarcane roots; or planting a mix of flowering crops that will attract natural enemies to an orchard where stink bugs are attacking lychee flowers and small fruit.
Classical Biological Control – the importation and release of a natural enemy species from its home country to control an exotic or invasive pest. Some examples include the decapitating flies used against red imported fire ants and the nematodes introduced to kill flea beetles in potatoes and alligator weed. Classical biocontrol is typically conducted by government agencies or universities under public funding.
Augmentative Biological Control – the importation and mass-release of biological control agents in areas where they are not currently present or where they are at too low a level to effectively suppress pests. This approach can be a cost-effective alternative to chemical treatments in crop production systems where the natural enemy population is not yet established.
Manipulative Biological Control – the manipulation of elements in the environment to enhance the number and/or actions of natural enemies. For example, a plot of untreated land around a sugarcane field is planted with a plant that provides nectar for a species of wasp that attacks white grubs damaging sugarcane roots; introducing the wasp into this habitat will help keep the grub population down.
Biological control programs must be well planned and executed to ensure the success of the program. Importing and releasing natural enemies from other countries can be risky and requires extensive testing, quarantine, and rearing. Some natural enemies may need to be re-released on multiple occasions before they become fully established. The timing of these releases is critical as they are most effective when the targeted pest population is at its highest. Using less persistent pesticides and limiting the area treated will minimize contact between the beneficial organism and the chemicals, but this is not always possible in practice.
Prevention
Although building owners and maintenance staff may take a lot of care to keep their facilities clean, pests can still infest. Infestation is defined as a number of pests present in the building at a level that could damage the structure or cause health problems for building occupants. Pests that infest buildings can cause food contamination due to rodent droppings and other debris, physical damage to equipment and the product itself, and contamination of air by microbial pathogens carried on the pests themselves.
The best way to stop pests is to prevent them from entering in the first place. This is called preventive or structural pest control. It focuses on making sure there are no entry points for pests by performing regular maintenance and specific enhancements to block them. This includes sealing cracks around doors and windows, keeping screens on all windows, resealing expansion joints in the building’s foundation, and regularly inspecting the roof and utility lines for holes. It also includes relocating dumpsters away from the facility and keeping them cleaned.
Effective structural prevention requires more time and resources to maintain than pesticide treatment, but it can lessen the amount of pesticides needed. Pest prevention also requires educating a building’s occupants. They should be encouraged to report problems such as leaky pipes, loose or damaged siding and faulty window screens to their maintenance supervisors.
Inside the facility, a cleaning schedule should be established to include frequent vacuuming, mopping and sanitizing of floors, counters, furniture, sinks and drains. Employees should be encouraged to clean their clothing, hair and work uniforms on a regular basis and to store them properly to prevent attracting pests from these items.
To be most effective, scouting and monitoring should be done on a regular basis, ranging from daily to weekly depending on the type of pest. This scouting should focus on looking “under, around and behind” to find places where pests hide. It can be helpful to create a map of the area to look at, and to establish a routine scouting route for each visit. For example, a pest manager can check for mosquito breeding sites by walking the yard and stopping to look under leaves, in crevices or at bait stations on a set routine.