Pests can damage buildings, crops, food, and even people. They can also spread diseases like hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, leptospirosis, plague, and salmonella.

Preventive controls prevent pest growth by killing them or making their environment unsuitable for survival. Examples include traps, weed killers, and soil steam sterilization. Contact Rodent Retreat now!

Obviously, the best way to deal with pest problems is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. It’s far easier (and cheaper) to avoid a pest problem than to treat an infestation after it occurs.

Preventative measures can include the use of insect-resistant crops, sanitation practices and removal of food debris and garbage from indoors and outdoors. Sanitation practices can help to reduce urban and industrial pests by improving cleanliness, eliminating harborage sites and reducing the transfer of pests between locations. In agricultural settings, good manure management techniques can help to reduce carryover of pests from one crop to the next.

In addition, preventing pests from accessing buildings and their contents can be accomplished by blocking their entry points. This can be done with physical barriers, such as screens on doors and windows or door sweeps, as well as with chemical barriers such as traps and baits. Chemicals are generally used sparingly and in targeted areas, so as to minimize exposure and risk to people and pets.

Monitoring pest populations can help to identify when the pests have reached threshold levels, so that control measures can begin. This may involve regular scouting for insect, insect-like and mollusk pests, as well as for vertebrate and plant disease pests. Monitoring may also include checking for environmental conditions that favor pests, such as temperature and moisture levels.

Using proper sanitation and storage procedures in museums can further prevent or suppress the spread of pests. This includes cleaning artifacts, storing them in sealed containers, ensuring that air conditioning and venting systems are working properly and avoiding stacking of items. Depending on the situation, a combination of prevention and monitoring may be enough to keep pest numbers down to manageable levels without treatment.

Pests can damage homes, contaminate food, and make asthma and allergies worse. They can even cause fires by chewing through wiring. Preventing pests is everyone’s responsibility. Residents should take steps to keep living spaces clean and report maintenance issues to building owners, managers, supers and workers. Businesses should provide training and safety guidelines to their employees to ensure that building maintenance is up to standard and that pest-attracting materials are not brought into work areas.

Suppression

The goal of pest control is to reduce the number or severity of pests and do so in a way that minimizes damage to the environment. To accomplish this goal, prevention is the primary strategy. Preventive measures include planting species that are well adapted to the local conditions, frequently cleaning up areas where pests live and breed, and avoiding soil disturbances. In addition, cultural practices such as irrigation and fertilizer management are often used to prevent or reduce pest problems. If prevention fails, suppression methods reduce the number of pests or their damage by controlling pest activity and population growth. When a pest problem does occur, accurate identification and rapid response are critical to successful management.

Biological controls (predation, parasitism, and disease) are natural forces that limit the populations of some pests. Climate, topography, and other environmental factors also affect pest populations, as do the availability of food, water, shelter, and overwintering sites.

Many of these factors are beyond human control, but monitoring can help determine if a pest problem has reached threshold levels and is therefore worthy of control. Monitoring includes checking the presence and number of pests, their injury or damage, and other indicators such as weather conditions. Monitoring also involves checking the effectiveness of selected management strategies.

The first step in determining whether to use a control method is to consider the desired outcomes of the pest management program and the potential impacts of that control option on people, non-target organisms, and the environment. Once the appropriate desired outcome is established, and the appropriate control measures are selected, implementation of IPM begins.

This step is a continuous process that depends on the kind of management practice being used. IPM tactics include modifying cultural practices, using resistant varieties, physical barriers, biological controls, and the use of chemical products. The choice and timing of each control tactic is based on the pest biology and behavior, limitations placed on the area of pest infestation, tolerance for injury, economics, and impacts on the environment. The use of chemicals is a last resort and only when the pest populations exceed acceptable levels.

Eradication

Unlike prevention and suppression, eradication is usually the goal in outdoor pest situations. For example, eradication efforts are undertaken to eliminate diseases such as plague, cholera and hookworm; pests that damage crops and timber, like wood destroying insects; and exotic pests that have been introduced into new areas, like Mediterranean fruit fly and gypsy moth.

It is very difficult to achieve in indoor settings. Many enclosed environments (in homes, schools, and offices, as well as in food processing, health care, and storage facilities) have zero tolerance for certain pests. Attempts at pest eradication are typically supported by the government and carried out by highly trained professionals.

Pests often create problems because they are unpleasant to look at or touch, or because they contaminate or destroy food and other materials. They may also cause structural damage or create a safety hazard, as in the case of termites, cockroaches or mice. They might carry or spread disease, as in the case of flies, cluster flies and bed bugs; or they can trigger allergic reactions and other sensitivities, as in the case of spiders, silverfish, house centipedes and earwigs.

The most common methods for pest control include physical, mechanical and chemical means. Physical methods include traps, baits, and other devices that lure pests into containers where they can be killed or debilitated. Chemical methods use insecticides and other substances to kill pests or prevent their reproduction. These chemicals can be in the form of solids, liquids, or aerosols and are often used in conjunction with other pest control methods. They are usually available in the form of sprays that can be applied to surfaces where pests live or move, such as inside walls and around skirting boards. It is important to read and follow the labels of any pesticide that is used, as they contain detailed instructions on how to use them safely and effectively.

Another approach is biological pest control. Rather than using toxic chemicals, biological pest control uses pathogens or other organisms that kill or incapacitate their hosts. Examples of biological control agents include viruses, bacteria and fungi. Probably the most well-known is the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces toxins that target and kill caterpillars in their larval stage.

IPM

Integrated Pest Management is an approach that involves monitoring and using a combination of physical, cultural, biological and chemical controls to prevent or minimize damage from insects, weeds, viruses and diseases. It focuses on management, rather than eradication, of pests and includes steps like examining soil and weather conditions to determine whether or not pesticide action is required, setting threshold levels of economic or aesthetic injury and taking timely action when necessary.

IPM strategies use all methods of controlling pests, including natural enemies, plant hormones and genetically modified plants, as well as traditional fungicides. When choosing pesticides, be sure to select the type that is safe for your plants, children, pets and the environment. Also, be sure to read and follow all pesticide label instructions.

Physical IPM techniques include manually removing or destroying pests and their eggs and larvae, as well as cleaning up debris and weeds that can provide hiding places for pests. Trapping is a common mechanical IPM technique that uses sticky traps, glue boards, snap traps and other devices to capture pests for identification and control. Some types of mechanical IPM controls are designed to repel pests with sound, heat or electricity. Biological IPM controls include predators, parasitoids, and pathogens that are introduced to kill or debilitate targeted pests. For example, a bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is used to kill caterpillars and other Lepidopterans without harming people or domestic animals.

A solid IPM program wards off pests while allowing beneficial insects, birds and bees to thrive in the garden. It also helps the environment by reducing the need for chemical treatments, which are often harmful to the soil and water supply.

When pesticides are needed, they are used sparingly and only when all other measures fail. Overuse of pesticides can cause them to lose their effectiveness and may even lead to the development of resistant insects. Chemical pesticides are divided into herbicides, rodenticides, insecticides, nematodes, fungicides and vertebrate repellents. Herbicides are substances that kill or repel weeds, and fungicides are chemicals that protect crops from fungal disease. Vertebrate repellents are products that can be sprayed to keep birds away from fruit trees.