Pests are organisms that damage or spoil crops, plants, or structures and may cause diseases in humans or animals. Pest control is achieved through prevention, suppression, and sometimes eradication.
The best way to control pests is to prevent them from entering or exiting an area. This is done by monitoring and scouting (see Monitoring). Some methods also include barriers, exclusion, and the use of natural enemies such as predators, parasitoids, and pathogens. Contact Coquitlam Pest Control now!
Chemical pest control uses many chemicals to kill or repel a specific pest. These can be in the form of sprays, powders, gels, and baits. These chemicals can have various effects on pests, depending on the type and composition of the chemical. Insecticides can disrupt the nervous system of a pest, damage their exoskeletons, or dehydrate them. They can be effective against a variety of pests, including cockroaches, termites, bed bugs, box elder beetles, stink bugs, millipedes and silverfish. They can also be toxic to people and pets.
Pesticides are available in a wide variety of formulations, and their toxicity levels are often rated using the LD50 test, which measures how much of the chemical it takes to kill 50% of lab animals. Low-toxic pesticides generally have lower LD50 ratings, but they can be still be harmful to humans and pets at certain exposure levels.
When applying a chemical pesticide, it is important to follow label instructions precisely. Some products may require multiple applications, and others might need to be reapplied after a period of time. When choosing a pesticide, make sure it is specifically formulated for your pest, and be aware that some chemicals can have detrimental effects on native wildlife or ecosystems, so you might need to take extra precautions.
Fortunately, some of the most common and reliable general-use insecticides are being phased out due to their toxicity to humans and other organisms. This includes the organophosphates, which were widely used to kill or repel insects in agriculture and around homes, but are now being replaced by safer alternatives, such as pyrethroids.
Another common general-use insecticide is boric acid, which can be found in a number of different forms, including powders and pellets. It is relatively non-toxic to humans and their pets, but can be deadly to cockroaches, termites, ants and other pests.
Setting Baits & Traps
A common trapping method is to bait pests with food, fungi or other things they want and then trap them. Traps can also be used to monitor populations and determine patterns of their occurrence. Many different traps exist, using a wide range of materials and techniques including visual lures, chemical attractants, and pheromones. Traps can be used indoors or outdoors and are effective at capturing a wide variety of insects, rodents and other arthropods.
Physical/mechanical traps include glue boards, snap traps and repeating catch-all devices that capture mice and rats and are often placed in non-visible areas where rodents live and feed such as in storage closets, laundry rooms, garages and under sinks. These traps should be regularly checked for evidence of rodent activity and cleaned to prevent the spread of disease.
Putting out sweet, rotting baits is one of the easiest ways to collect certain species of nitidulid beetles such as sap beetles (including rhytidium and picea beetles), ant larvae, flies and flower feeding scarab beetles. The mix is usually a 2:1 mixture of water, brown sugar and yeast or other carbohydrate which is put out in buckets, mason jars, tin cans and other containers or hung from the tree limbs. A more specialized bait is a mixture of a 1:1 ratio of cantaloupe and other melon rinds with other types of rotting fruit to trap nitidulid moths during the night.
Cockroaches are another insect targeted by a variety of traps, which use a variety of methods to lure and ensnare the pests. Store-bought cockroach traps, for instance, employ strong chemicals to kill the pests when they consume the baited substance. Some traps, however, rely on phytochemical attractants to draw in the roaches, using botanical compounds that mimic the scents of a cockroach-preferred food and thus enticing them to eat. Other traps rely on synthetic pheromones to attract the insects, which are then ensnared by the trap’s sticky material.
Other traps target specific insects by exploiting their tendencies to seek shelter in crevices or other sheltered places. Grasshoppers, for example, are attracted to lights and are captured in light traps that reflect light off their wings. Shelter traps, called “Roach Motels,” are a type of trap with a base that allows them to be slid into cracks and other tight spaces. Finally, parasitic nematodes are microscopic worms that can be sprayed to help suppress the populations of a variety of insects by killing them from the inside out.
Exclusion
Whether your pest problem involves rodents, birds, insects or other nuisance wildlife, exclusion techniques can keep them out. Also known as “rodent proofing” and “bird proofing,” this preventative method is used to identify and block entry points into buildings and structures, thereby eliminating the need for routine chemical treatments.
The first step in pest exclusion involves identifying and mapping out the many ways that pests gain access to buildings. This requires a thorough, both indoor and outdoor inspection and includes inspecting all vents, downspouts, fireplace flues, utility lines and any other areas where pests might enter. Once these areas are identified, they are then sealed with caulking and weatherstripping to block pests’ access. Similarly, window and door sweeps are often installed to block gaps and cracks, and mesh screens are used over all vents.
To be effective, pest exclusion work must be completed in a timely manner before seasonal pests arrive. This means that it is best performed as part of a preventive maintenance program in the fall, winter and spring.
A number of other techniques can be used in conjunction with pest exclusion to offer a more comprehensive pest control strategy. For example, insect-specific traps can be placed around the exterior of a building to quickly capture and monitor pest activity. These can then be followed up by a quick inspection and sealing of any open entry points found.
In addition to these physical barriers, pest exclusion methods emphasize environmental modifications to make a property less attractive to pests, including proper waste management, reduction of moisture levels and stringent landscaping practices. These measures help prevent problems with overwintering pests like cluster flies and ladybugs, termites, cockroaches, ants and bed bugs by minimizing the number of harborage sites in and around a structure.
Finally, regular and thorough inspections are the foundation of pest exclusion, as they allow professionals to monitor for new entry points and to take immediate action if pests are detected. Likewise, the use of traps can help determine whether or not pest exclusion is working, as a significant amount of activity in these areas is usually a sure sign that pests are finding their way inside a structure.
Biological Control
Biological controls use living organisms to manage pest populations. These can be predators, parasitoids, disease pathogens or weeds. They are generally less invasive than synthetic chemicals and can be used in conjunction with other management practices. In some cases, biological control can even replace chemical pesticides. This is especially important when chemical resistance is developed to conventional insecticides.
A growing number of gardeners and growers are embracing the principles of biological control to reduce their dependency on pesticides. Biological control is usually cost-effective and less disruptive to the environment than synthetic chemical pesticides, as long as growers correctly identify the pest species to be controlled (to the species level) and select and release the appropriate natural enemy.
The most common type of biological control is classical biological control, which is practiced primarily against introduced vegetable pests that have become established in new geographic areas. Classical biological control involves collecting, ‘inoculating’ and releasing natural enemies that have been collected from the country or region of origin of both the pest and the natural enemy. The natural enemy is then released in sufficient numbers to suppress the pest population and maintain this suppression over a long period of time.
More recently, biological control has been successfully employed against perennial crops such as orchards and forests. Here, the pest and its natural enemy are more sedentary and interact in a year-round ecosystem with favorable habitat for both the predator and the prey. The first successful classical biological control programs against citrus and forest thug insects date back to the late 1800s. In these cases, the predatory ladybug Rodolia cardinalis and the parasitoid Aphelinus mali were successfully imported and released to control the introduced tree-crop pests Icerya purchasi and Lophiola iridescens, respectively.
Another example of a successful biological control program was the introduction of the predatory beetle Eupatorus lagopus and parasitoid fly E. lopezi against the destructive alfalfa weevil in the United States. Within a few years, this pair of predators had reduced damage to alfalfa by 75 percent.
While the costs of importing and introducing natural enemies for classical biological control can be high, they are still considerably lower than those of developing, testing, and marketing a chemical pesticide. In addition, the development of a successful biological control agent takes much less time than the synthesis and approval of a new chemical pesticide.