Pests are organisms that damage or spoil crops, livestock, and dwellings. They can also cause diseases in people and pets.
Natural enemies and other organisms suppress pest populations through predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other mechanisms. Classical biological control involves breeding and releasing natural enemies into an area. Other control methods include physical traps and exclusion. Contact Pest Control Simi Valley CA now!
Prevention is the first step in pest control and involves taking steps to stop or reduce the occurrence of infestations. These include sealing cracks in buildings and planting pest-resistant crops. It also includes maintaining good housekeeping and sanitation to eliminate attractants. Preventive measures also involve identifying food and water sources for pests in the surrounding environment and reducing their accessibility to those resources.
Pests are primarily attracted to food processing environments for food, water, and shelter. They can contaminate food products with disease-causing organisms (e.g., microbial pathogens and intestinal parasites) and cause physical damage to equipment and facilities.
Keep garbage in tightly closed containers to prevent infestations, maintain cleanliness and sanitation, store firewood away from the building, and trim bushes and shrubbery to remove hiding places. The use of screens and barriers to restrict pest access can also be helpful. Devices that alter the environment, such as traps, nets, radiation and electricity, can be used to control pest populations as well.
In addition to preventive measures, many pest problems can be controlled by adjusting weather conditions and by limiting their food supply. Changes in temperature, day length and humidity can affect pest activity. Rain, freezing temperatures and drought can kill or suppress pests, and a lack of food causes some insects to slow their reproduction.
Other natural methods can help control pests as well. Many birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish prey on some pest species, while predatory and parasitic insects can also control their numbers. Certain plants and fungi also act as natural pesticides, killing or controlling them without the need for chemicals.
Chemical pesticides are also used to control some pests, but these can be dangerous and must be handled and stored properly. In addition, indiscriminate use of pesticides can lead to resistance, and long-term exposure to pesticides has been linked to cancer and other health problems.
Other types of pest control, such as trapping, exclusion and physically removing pests, are considered environmentally safe, since they do not use any chemicals. However, these methods are labor intensive and are often not as effective as other forms of pest control.
Suppression
Pests are unwanted organisms such as insects, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, weeds, viruses and vertebrate animals that damage or devalue crops, ornamental plants, lawns, and other property. They also negatively impact terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In addition, pests pose health and safety hazards for humans and animals that share the same environment as the target crop or landscape.
Unlike chemical pesticides, which are often used to provide a remedial “knock-down” effect on pest populations that have already reached damaging levels, biological control uses a proactive approach. In this method, naturally occurring predators and parasitoids are introduced to the crop or soil to suppress or eliminate the target pests. Examples of biological control agents include predatory mites (e.g. Amblysieus swirskii) that feed on mite pests in orchards and the parasitoid Encarsia formosa, which targets greenhouse whitefly. Other effective natural enemies include nematodes (e.g., entomopathogenic) that kill insects by injecting them with a microbe they carry inside them.
While some natural enemy species are effective against a wide variety of pest species, others are highly specific in their host range. For example, nematodes can be purchased and released to control many soil grub pests, but the type of nematode (e.g. genus) needed for the particular grub is dependent on its morphology and the conditions under which it will be released.
Another form of biological control involves introducing beneficial nematodes, which are multicellular roundworms that serve as successful biological controls for various insect pests. These nematodes, which are considered nontoxic to plants and mammals, have bacteria attached that kill the pests from the inside out. Using this technique requires careful attention to ensure that the correct nematode species is selected for the target pest, the proper environmental conditions are observed during application, and that the nematodes are released into the right habitat.
When pests are present in unacceptable numbers, they may be controlled by applying cultural, physical, and chemical techniques described on the IPM tactics page. Threshold-based decision-making will help growers decide when to use suppression methods to reduce pest counts and prevent damaging effects. Monitoring will also allow for the correct timing of suppression tactics and for evaluation of the effectiveness of those measures.
Eradication
Pests like cockroaches, rodents and flies pose threats to human health and property. They can carry diseases and ruin crops and food supplies. They also cause discomfort, stress and annoyance. In some cases, they can even threaten life itself. For these reasons, it is necessary to control their numbers as much as possible. In a domestic context, this is typically part of maintaining a clean and healthy living environment.
In this sense, “control” means to limit or eliminate an infestation by all available means. It can be achieved through a variety of techniques, depending on the nature of the pest in question. The methods used may include physical traps, netting and decoys, or chemical solutions such as repellents and insecticides. Chemicals are more readily available than biological options, and can provide results quickly, although they may have an impact on the environment or people’s health when improperly handled or disposed of.
Eradication is a more difficult goal than suppression or elimination. It requires certifying that a specific microbe is not present in an area, based on the results of a series of tests. These must be done on a global scale, making it extremely difficult to verify negative results within an acceptable time frame. Even when successful, eradication can have significant social and economic costs, due to avoided future infections and vaccinations.
The long-term benefits must be weighed against these costs, to decide whether eradication is a desirable goal. However, there is a strong argument to be made that eradication can enhance society in many ways, including providing a more productive economy and improving quality of life.
Homeowners can make a difference by taking simple steps to reduce pest infestations. For instance, keep garbage cans closed and sealed when not in use. Trimming bushes and keeping them away from the house can also help, as can regularly cleaning patios and balconies to remove any rotting vegetables or fruit that could attract pests. Using screens on windows and doors can help prevent some pests, while running a dehumidifier can be effective in damp areas.
Monitoring
Monitoring is a key activity in integrated pest management. It involves checking traps, glue boards and other monitoring devices to determine the presence of pests and their numbers. The aim is to assess infestation levels so that control tactics can be applied at the appropriate time – preventing further buildup, reducing environmental impact and minimising costs. Monitoring may be carried out by staff in food factories or by pest control technicians. Ideally, pest sightings should be recorded in a pest logbook which also provides the basis for reporting, advice and corrective actions.
For example, in museum collections, keeping a log of the numbers of collection pests (such as psocids and fungus-eating plaster beetles) is an important part of monitoring. It enables staff to monitor the environmental conditions of the building and take action if these start to deteriorate, for instance by sealing cracks or increasing ventilation. It also helps them to understand if the infestation is due to external factors such as weather or changes in external environment.
Many pests can be controlled using non-toxic methods. However, they are not always possible to eliminate completely from a site or environment, and eradication may not be desirable for some sites or situations. In outdoor environments, the goal of control is generally prevention and suppression, although eradication can be attempted for some pests such as gypsy moth or Mediterranean fruit fly.
In the food industry, monitoring includes identifying and tracking pests which enter or are associated with the factory, or with raw materials (known as stored product pests). This information can be gathered by inspections and observations made by staff, sightings of pests by pest control technicians and by keeping a pest logbook in which dates, pests and locations of infestations are recorded.
It is crucial to establish an action threshold, a level below which pests should not be allowed to accumulate and for which control measures should be implemented. The threshold should be based on a number of factors including the risk to health or the damage caused by the pests and the options for controlling them. This can be achieved by reducing the pest pressure outside the facility, preventing access inside and eliminating conducive interior conditions.