Pest Control is any method used to prevent unwanted animals, plants, or microbes from damaging an environment. Methods include prevention, suppression, and eradication.
Threshold levels indicate a damage level unacceptable to humans or owners and are often used to determine when pest control action is needed. Prevention is the best way to control pests and involves avoiding attracting them, such as keeping food in sealed containers and regularly removing garbage. Click Here to learn more.
A prevention-based approach to pest control is the best means of protecting a facility and its products. This method involves identifying and eliminating conditions that invite pests to residence and preventing them from entering the building. This includes maintaining sanitation practices, sealing cracks and crevices and using wire mesh or steel wool to cover holes, limiting garbage receptacles to those that are tightly covered, reducing clutter around the outside of buildings and keeping woodpiles away from foundation walls.
Regular inspections should be conducted to monitor pest activity. Threshold levels can be set, based on health or aesthetic considerations, above which an action needs to be taken. This threshold-based decision-making makes it easier to justify a treatment for pests.
In addition to regular scouting and monitoring, a prevention-based program should include removing food, water and shelter from the area where pests are present, as well as preventing them from gaining entry into the facility. For example, rodents are a major problem for facilities, and their droppings can pose health problems with Salmonellosis and other diseases. Keeping garbage receptacles tightly closed and cleaned regularly, reducing trash piles, and removing other sources of rodent attraction can significantly reduce the problem.
Another important preventive measure is to spray the perimeter of the facility with pest repellant. This can be a great tool to keep pests from entering an establishment, and many of these products are non-toxic. However, they should be sprayed with care, and on a schedule that makes sense for the climate where it is being used. Some pests are able to adapt quickly to new chemicals, so a pest repellant should be replaced with something else after the first few applications. Another alternative is to use parasitic nematodes, such as the cockroach-eating nematode Steinernema carpocapsae. These are microscopic worms that can be sprayed on the soil to kill pests without harming plants or animals.
Suppression
The goal of suppression is to reduce the pest population to a level acceptable to humans. This may be achieved through traps and baits, insecticides or other chemicals, or by exclusion, which includes sealing cracks and gaps. Physical removal of pests, such as by hand-picking or using vacuum cleaners, is also a control method.
Pests are organisms that negatively affect the wholesomeness or value of food, water, and other materials. They can cause contamination by spreading disease-causing bacteria (e.g. rodent droppings), damage foods, fabrics, and surfaces by chewing or scratching, or deteriorate plants by breaking down cell walls or removing roots. Other pests, such as nematodes and mycoplasmas, are microscopic organisms that live in or on other living things for the purpose of obtaining food.
The first step in controlling any pest is to identify the type and extent of the infestation. This will help to determine the best method of control. For example, if the problem is limited to a small area, a bait or trap might work; if there is an extensive infestation, a spray might be needed.
Chemical pesticides can be very effective, but it is important to read and follow the label’s instructions to minimize exposure and avoid overuse or misuse. Often, pesticides fail to be effective because they are not used correctly or because the pest is resistant to the product.
Biological controls, such as the introduction of natural predators or the use of pheromones to lure or confuse pests, can be useful in reducing the need for chemicals. Trapping, exclusion and physical removal are also safe options when the conditions for success are right. However, prevention is key; if the situation is not corrected before a pest becomes an infestation, it can be extremely difficult to get rid of once it has taken hold.
Eradication
In pest control, eradication means getting rid of a particular pest. It is a difficult goal to achieve in outdoor pest situations, where prevention and suppression are usually the goals. However, it is sometimes a desired outcome of the control of some indoor pests, such as Mediterranean fruit fly and gypsy moth. Eradication is also the goal of some vaccine-based diseases, such as smallpox and poliomyelitis.
Eradication is most often achieved by using biological controls, which involve natural predators and parasitoids. In some cases, these organisms can be introduced to the environment and used to reduce pest populations on their own. This is the case with nematodes, mites, and some birds that control garden insects.
Chemicals may also be used to kill pests, or they can repel them or regulate their behavior. When modern pesticides were first developed, they were used extensively and quickly eliminated many species of pest. This rapid elimination led to the development of resistant pests, however, and it became clear that other approaches needed to be considered.
Some pests are constantly present and require regular control; others are sporadic and only occasionally affect people or property. A third type, potential pests, are organisms that are not pests under normal conditions but may become one in certain circumstances. Eradication programs may be complicated by resistance to the pesticides being used (as with yellow fever) or political problems and civil strife that prevent eradication in critical areas where the disease is making its final stand (as with guinea worm and polio).
The best way to avoid the need for pesticides is to keep pest numbers low, through prevention, suppression, and other management techniques. To do this, accurate identification of the pest is critical. This will help to determine the best methods of control.
Mechanical or Physical Controls
Using tools to disrupt pest habitats, reduce their food supplies or limit their ability to reproduce are some examples of mechanical and physical controls. These methods usually involve direct contact with or exposure to the pests and often require repeated applications. They may also be expensive and time-consuming to implement, but they can be a key component of integrated pest management.
For example, a barrier of finely ground skeletons of fossil diatoms, called diatomaceous earth, is used to prevent insects and other soft-bodied organisms from crawling or feeding on plant foliage. This material, which is not a pesticide, has sharp edges that scratch the insect’s outer body covering, causing it to dehydrate and die.
Traps of different types, including sticky traps and pheromone traps, are also useful for reducing the number of pests that need to be controlled. A good trap design is based on knowledge of the biology and behavior of the target pest, such as mating habits and location of breeding sites. Stretching netting over berry bushes, for example, helps control marauding birds. Similarly, setting easily-to-use rodent traps can keep pocket gopher populations low.
The natural enemies of pests—predators, parasites and pathogens—usually reduce the densities of pests and limit their damage. Natural enemies are found everywhere in nature and should be conserved whenever possible. However, they are not always sufficient to control a large pest population and may need to be supplemented with other methods.
Natural Forces
Natural forces that act independently of humans can help or hinder pest control. They include climate, natural enemies, food supplies, habitats, barriers, and available water. They may also involve pheromones and other chemicals that influence an organism’s behavior.
In nature, organism populations are regularly attacked and killed by predators, parasitoids, pathogens, and competitors. These are referred to collectively as natural enemies and can be used to suppress pest population and damage without the use of chemical pesticides.
Modern classical biological control programs require extensive testing to ensure that natural enemy species are specific to the intended target pest and will not cause harm to non-target organisms or the environment. These natural enemies are then introduced into the field and released in a controlled manner to establish a viable population. They are monitored on a regular basis to determine the success of their efforts.
For example, the caterpillar-killing bacteria Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) has been used successfully for decades in managing over 400 different insect pests without killing or damaging people, plants, pets, or livestock. The bacterium releases a toxin that destroys the midgut of the pest, leaving it with insufficient energy and nutrients to continue eating, leading to starvation.
Other natural controls include reducing the number of pests through cultural methods that reduce their establishment, reproduction, dispersal, and survival such as weed control, proper soil fertility, and modifying irrigation practices. Frightening techniques, such as lights, noise, human or predator effigies, and guard animals are also used to deter pests. The effectiveness of these control methods can vary, and their usage requires frequent attention to avoid desensitization of the pest to the technique. They must be supplemented by other control measures.