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Pests include organisms that damage, spoil, or deface property, plants, and structures, contaminate food (e.g., rats, cockroaches, and flies), or pose health risks to humans or pets, like hornets and bees. They may also be a nuisance, like cluster flies or house centipedes. Click the Springfield MO Pest Control to learn more.
Pests can do more than annoy us. They can cause structural damage, stain fabrics, and create health problems. They can spread diseases such as hantavirus, leptospirosis and salmonella. They can also trigger allergic reactions or asthma. They can bite or sting, like spiders, mites, wasps and hornets. They can contaminate food, such as rats and mice. They can damage crops, such as aphids and nematodes. They can even ruin a museum or archive, as in the case of black mold and rat droppings.
The best way to prevent pests is to remove their food, water and shelter sources. Store foods in plastic or glass containers with tight lids, move garbage out of the house regularly and make sure to seal trash bags tightly. Clean up spills and crumbs, and keep counters and floors sanitized. Fix leaky pipes and don’t allow water to collect around the home, either in pantries or basements. Humidity attracts pests, so run air conditioning when necessary and use dehumidifiers when possible.
Some pests are attracted to the scent of a building, especially if it has recently been occupied, so consider installing odor-neutralizing systems in restaurants and hospitality facilities. Screens should be used on windows that are frequently left open, and holes in walls and foundation should be repaired as soon as they are found.
If a pest infestation is spotted, it is important to take action quickly. Threshold-based decision-making is a useful approach when it comes to controlling pests: Noticing a few insects every now and then probably doesn’t justify treatment, but seeing them more often or in increasing numbers should.
It is also important to emphasize that sprays and chemical products should be used sparingly, if at all, and only as a last resort when other control methods have failed. It is much more cost-effective to prevent a pest problem in the first place than to treat it after it has become established. Identify the pest and learn as much as you can about its biology and environment before applying any control method. This will reduce the risk of off-target contamination and lessen the likelihood that a pest will recur.
Suppression
Preventive control tactics keep pests from causing damage or moving into areas where they don’t belong. Examples include removing waste material that attracts mice, putting up physical barriers such as netting or screens to prevent insects and vertebrates from getting into buildings or crops, using mulch to suppress weed growth and repel pests, and using natural enemies such as birds, reptiles, or pathogens to feed on or kill pests.
These methods change the environment so that pests can’t thrive. Examples include using weather or topography to limit pests’ movement, adding cover to deter or deter pests, and altering the availability of a key resource, such as water or food. For example, the availability of roosting or feeding sites may limit a bird population that damages a fruit crop; the amount of available water can influence the population of insect-eating fish that might infest greenhouses.
Biological controls involve conserving and releasing natural enemies of the pest, such as mites that kill the harmful greenhouse whitefly or nematodes that kill soil grubs. Other biological controls include sterile males or pheromones that disrupt the mating behavior of unwanted pests.
Chemical pest controls include sprays, powders, or granules that kill or repel insects or other organisms. The chemicals can be organic or synthetic, and they might be used in combination. The timing of pesticide application can also be important, as a short delay between application and when the target organisms are most active can greatly reduce the effectiveness of some chemical pest control products.
In general, pests require control only when their numbers or damage reach a threshold that exceeds what can be tolerated. Threshold-based decision-making relates to scouting and monitoring: A few wasps visiting a flower bed may not warrant action; on the other hand, a colony of bees descending on an apple orchard could require immediate attention.
Once a suppression tactic has been applied, monitoring again is required to see whether the desired result was achieved. Monitoring also determines whether additional or different suppression tactics are needed. For example, if pests continue to move into an area, the use of more direct physical or mechanical control tactics is probably necessary, such as adjusting or extending netting or screens.
Eradication
Pest control involves using a variety of methods to keep pests away from buildings, crops and gardens. These methods can include physical traps, netting, decoys and screens to prevent pests from entering an area. They also include the use of chemicals to kill or repel pests. Chemicals used in pest control include insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. These chemicals disrupt the nervous systems, metabolism or reproduction of a pest, killing them or repelling them. Some of these chemicals are also harmful to humans if they come into contact with them. Those who are in the business of pest control must be licensed and use chemical pesticides with caution.
Physical traps, netting and decoys are effective for controlling most pests but may require constant monitoring and can be time consuming to set. They can also be expensive. Chemical pesticides are usually cheaper but must be carefully applied by a professional as they can be hazardous to human health and the environment. They are often paired with other pest control methods for maximum effectiveness.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a holistic approach to pest control that uses prevention, suppression and eradication in concert with cultural practices, structural modifications and environmental controls. IPM recognizes that pests are an important part of the natural world and that complete freedom from them is seldom possible or desirable. It encourages the development of crop tolerance to pest damage and focuses on early detection and intervention.
Preventive maintenance in food production facilities includes identifying routes of entry for pests, installing sweeps and astragals to fill holes under and between doors, ensuring windows close tightly, sealing wall penetrations and storing food in rodent-proof containers. It also includes regularly inspecting food shipments and maintaining temperatures, humidity, lighting and ventilation within storage areas to discourage pest infestations.
Biological pest control introduces natural predators and parasites into an area to eat or feed on pests, reducing their numbers without harming other organisms. Examples of this method are releasing ladybugs into a garden to eat aphids or introducing wasps to sting caterpillars to control them. Biological pest control is considered one of the most environmentally friendly and least toxic methods of pest control.
Treatment
Pests don’t just spoil the look and feel of a property; they can be very dangerous to human health, causing diseases like hantavirus, leptospirosis and Salmonella. They can also cause damage to buildings, wiring and insulation. In addition, they can carry and spread a wide range of microbes that affect air quality, contribute to asthma and allergies and increase the risk of bacterial infections.
The first step in assessing a pest problem is to thoroughly inspect the premises and identify the type of infestation and its severity. A trained technician will search for clear signs of pests, their droppings or nests and the areas where they’re most active. They’ll also look for potential entry points and highlight damp spots that may attract them.
There are a number of different treatment options that can be applied to deal with pest infestations. These include baits, gels and residual sprays. All of these treatments are designed to kill or repel the target pests and should be safely used according to the product label instructions. It is important to choose a professional Pest Control service, as over-the-counter pesticides can lead to pest resistance, harm humans and pets (especially children and older adults) or be toxic to plants.
Once the appropriate treatment has been applied, it is a good idea to mop floors to ensure a clean surface that the treatment can bind to. We recommend avoiding hard scrubbing or mopping the area around skirting boards and kickboards at the wall edge, where residual sprays are often applied, as this will interfere with their effectiveness.
Remember that when applying any type of pest control, it is usually a process that takes time to work. While your visible pest numbers will decrease quickly, it can take a month or more for the residual products to wipe out all of the hidden populations, especially in nests and crevices. For this reason, it is best to have All Things Pest Control re-treat your property within your free service period to ensure complete eradication of the pests. During this visit, we will also treat any outside areas where pests have been found and offer advice to prevent future infestations.
