Pest Control companies offer professional expertise, and their methods are often more effective than DIY. They can identify what kind of pests are causing problems and tailor the treatment.

Natural forces, such as climate, predatory species, parasitic species, and pathogens, influence pest populations. Also, natural barriers, available shelter, food, water, and overwintering sites can control some pests. Click Here to learn more.

Pests can harm crops, food, and property, spreading disease and parasites. Routine inspections and treatment of pests protect homes and businesses, preserving the value of the property. In addition, pest control protects the health and safety of occupants by eliminating pathogens, allergens, and other contaminants.

Prevention and control methods focus on changing environmental conditions that encourage pests, such as reducing available food, water, or shelter or making it more difficult to find or reach those resources. Examples of preventive controls include:

• Removing or modifying sources of attraction, such as woodpiles or piles of debris.
• Keep garbage cans closed and move them frequently.
• Maintaining good housekeeping.

Some pests can be prevented by learning about them and their needs. Knowledge about a pest’s life cycle and development, biology, and ecology can help determine whether the pest can be tolerated or controlled through habitat modification, biological control, cultural control, or mechanical (physical) control.

Preventive measures can be effective for continuous or sporadic pests. Continuous pests are nearly always present and require regular management. Sporadic or potential pests are less predictable, but they can be controlled before they become a problem if their abundance or activity can be predicted. This is often possible with weather patterns, prevailing wind, and other natural forces that influence pest populations.

Integrated pest management, or IPM, is a systematic approach to managing pests that uses prevention, suppression and eradication tactics in a way that reduces risks to people and the environment. IPM is an essential part of sustainable agriculture and forestry, and is also important in urban areas, and in commercial, institutional and public buildings such as schools, hospitals and food processing plants.

Prevention of pests in residential and commercial buildings requires routine scouting and monitoring, usually on a daily or weekly basis, to identify pests and assess their damage. The scouting and monitoring should be followed by an analysis of the data, which will help in determining the best management strategy, including when to use pesticides. In general, the use of pesticides should be minimized. Chemicals should be used only when the benefits outweigh the risks. Pesticides should be applied to specific targets, such as individual trees or structures, rather than over large areas.

Suppression

Pest control involves reducing a pest population to a level below that which causes unacceptable harm. This often requires both prevention and control. The best approach to this is Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This is an ecosystem-based strategy that combines preventive methods, monitoring and management of the pests themselves. In addition, it uses nontoxic or naturally occurring materials that minimize the use of chemicals. Nevertheless, chemicals are sometimes necessary, especially for the control of severe infestations. In these situations, it is important to balance the benefits of control with the risks of off-target damage.

Preventing pest infestations is the most effective method of pest control. This can be done by taking steps to eliminate access to food, water and shelter, by removing the pests’ host plants or by making the environment inhospitable, such as by sealing cracks. Prevention also includes keeping foods and utensils clean, using screens on windows and doors and disposing of garbage regularly and in a sealed container. It is important to understand pests’ lifestyles and ideal habitats so that you can avoid giving them any reason to visit your home or business.

Pests are damaging to humans as well as their natural environment. They can cause illness through consumption of their droppings or by contaminating products with disease-causing microorganisms. They can also destroy or spoil buildings or other structures.

The most common pests include rodents, cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes. In addition to causing physical harm, they can carry diseases such as salmonellosis and encephalitis. In addition, their saliva can trigger allergic reactions in some people.

To help you prevent infestations, we conduct a thorough initial inspection of your property. Our trained technicians will examine your interior and exterior for entry points, nesting areas and signs of pest activity. Based on this inspection, a customized treatment plan is created. This may include baiting, trapping or spraying.

Biological controls are organisms that reduce pest populations by attacking them directly or competing with them for resources. Insects, nematodes and other organisms can be used to disrupt the life cycle of pests or to compete with them for nutrients in the soil. For example, nematodes such as the roach-eating Steinernema carpocapsae can kill cockroaches and other nuisance pests by injecting them with bacteria that make them sick and then consume them from the inside out.

Eradication

When pests invade, they are usually seeking food, water, shelter or other conditions conducive to growth or reproduction. In some cases, the pests may also be causing damage or creating conditions that are unpleasant for people, animals and plants. A pest control program should include methods that are designed to reduce and eliminate the population of pests as well as prevent them from re-establishing themselves.

Often, the best method of pest prevention is to ensure that all possible conditions that provide food, water or other resources are removed from the area that will be subjected to pest control operations. This method is called preventive pest control. This type of pest management is not reliant on reactive methods, such as trapping and baiting, but relies on the principles of ecology to keep a pest population in check without destroying the natural balance of an environment.

Some pests are particularly grotesque, like silverfish and earwigs, or bite and sting (either in real life or perception) – bed bugs, mud dauber wasps and yellow-jackets. Some spread diseases, such as mice, rats and cockroaches. Others deteriorate or discolour objects, like ants and wood-boring beetles. Some cause annoyance, such as flies and swarms of cicadas.

Physical control methods, such as removing or blocking nests, sealing holes, windows and doors, and temperature controls to kill pests, are common in indoor situations. In agriculture, chemical methods such as herbicides, insecticides and fungicides are used to protect crops from insects, diseases, and weeds.

Eradication is rarely the goal in outdoor pest situations, and it is usually a last resort. It can be achieved, however, when an exotic pest is first introduced to an area, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly or gypsy moth.

The word eradicate originates from the Latin verb eradicare, which means “to pull up by the roots.” The term still has that literal sense today, as it implies a permanent removal of something that has established itself. It is similar to extirpate, though that word carries more of an idea of the complete annihilation or destruction of a group of people or an entire species.

Natural Forces

Natural forces are environmental and cultural controls that limit pest populations. They include climate, topography and natural barriers that limit pests, as well as limiting access to soil and water that limits their growth. Cultural practices also control the availability of nutrients to pests. They are often used in conjunction with biological and chemical controls to improve the effectiveness of these approaches.

The use of plant, animal, and fungus species that naturally injure, parasitize, or consume pests as part of their natural life cycle is known as classical biological control. This approach is less invasive than chemical pesticides and relies on the ability of natural enemies to disperse within a field, finding and attacking the target pests and managing their populations without the direct intervention of humans.

Modern classical biological control programs require extensive testing to ensure that the natural enemy species selected will attack only the intended pest and will not harm non-target organisms. These tests are known as host range studies. Depending on the pest and the biocontrol agent species, different biopesticides are available for use. The most commonly used biopesticides are predatory mites, thrips predators, and certain bacteria such as Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki and bacillus thuringiensis subsp. galleriae.

In outdoor situations, eradication is rare; instead the goal of pest control is prevention and suppression. However, in many indoor environments — dwellings; schools, offices and commercial buildings; and health care, food production and storage facilities – eradication of specific pests is often required.

The over-reliance on chemicals for pest control results in toxic residues, resistance, environmental contamination and a lack of ecological stability. This can be illustrated by comparing the “upside-down pyramid” to the upright pyramid shown below:

Growers and green industry professionals are looking for ways to reduce pesticide use in ornamental plants and turfgrass, fruits, vegetables and flowers. This is largely due to consumer concerns about the negative health and environmental risks of synthetic pesticides, as well as the fact that pesticide use disrupts the natural ecosystem. To address this, some are using an integrated pest management approach that shifts to a greater use of inherent strengths based on good knowledge of interactions between the ecosystem and judicious use of pesticides as backup.