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Physical methods involve removing food, water, and shelter to limit pest populations. These include destroying nests, fixing leaks, and reducing clutter in which pests can hide. Click Pest Control Malibu to learn more.
Biological control involves using natural enemies of pests to reduce their numbers below damaging levels. This may be achieved by introducing new enemies or increasing existing populations.
The first step in pest control is identifying the insect, weed, or other organism causing damage. This can be done by looking at the pest, taking a picture of it, or consulting with an expert. Your local county extension office or a pest management professional may be able to help.
Correct identification is important because different species have different life cycles, behavior, and habitats. Identifying a pest allows the pest management specialist to discover weaknesses that can be exploited.
It also helps the pest management specialist to develop a treatment that is specific to the pest, rather than one that targets the symptoms of the pest (such as leaf damage or plant deformities). This more targeted approach keeps the use of chemicals to a minimum, while still providing a high level of pest control.
If the monitoring, identification, and action thresholds indicate that pest control is required, IPM programs evaluate the proper control method both for effectiveness and risk. Effective, less risky pest controls are chosen first, such as the use of pheromones to disrupt pest mating or trapping and weeding for weeds. If these methods are ineffective, then more extensive pest control methods may be employed, including the use of targeted spraying of pesticides.
Pests can include insects (such as cockroaches, ants, and termites), rodents, weeds, plant diseases, nematodes, or even viruses. They can be a nuisance or a health hazard to humans and animals. Some pests are parasitic, feeding on or infecting other organisms for their own survival. Others are predators, killing or removing unwanted organisms from their environment.
Identifying a pest can be done through careful observation, checking the pest’s life cycle and behavior, or using more advanced techniques such as molecular identification of intercepted organisms. Molecular methods are more accurate than morphological examination of physical specimens and can be used to rapidly and inexpensively compare samples from across the country or the world. These new identification tools are being promoted by APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine’s National Identification Services, which oversees morphological and molecular identifications in support of the agency’s quarantine and inspection programs. NIS includes nationally based, multidisciplinary teams of experts in botany, entomology, malacology, and mycology who serve as the final taxonomic authorities for PPQ’s identification programs. NIS also collaborates extensively with non PPQ scientists stationed at Federal research laboratories, State departments of agriculture, land grant universities, and natural history museums.
Pest Prevention
Pest control is the practice of managing different types of pests so that their presence is minimised without harming people or other creatures, plants and animals that share our environment. This is done through a series of methods that include inspection, monitoring, baiting and insecticides, and is most effective when used in conjunction with pest prevention techniques such as cleaning practices, sealing entry points, removing food sources and proper waste management.
Pests are defined as any animal that may reasonably cause biological or physical contamination of foods, spoilage of food, or other damage to property; this includes rodents (such as mice and rats), crawling insects (such as cockroaches and ants) and flying insects (such as houseflies, blowflies, fermentation flies, moths and bees). In enclosed spaces such as homes, restaurants, retail and food preparation environments, pests must not be tolerated as they can spread disease, reduce product quality and safety and adversely affect customer perceptions.
In order to manage pests, we must understand their life cycles and behaviour. For example, understanding how long a pest lives, where it breeds and its preferred feeding times will allow us to remove conditions that attract it. Similarly, knowing how often a pest lays eggs and the time it takes for them to mature will help us plan our interventions. In addition, it is helpful to know what the pests eat, where they like to live, and how they move around our buildings.
Taking preventive measures to protect a business from pests is the best way to save money and hassle in the future. These include keeping the workplace as clean and tidy as possible, storing food in tightly-closed containers, removing garbage regularly, fixing leaky plumbing and caulking cracks. Regular pest inspections and maintenance will also keep the number of pests under control, saving on both the costs of treatment and the disruption to a business.
Plant and QA managers will be pleased to know that a proactive approach to pest control can also help minimise product recalls or having orders rejected by customers due to pest-related issues, which is both costly to the bottom line and damaging to brand reputation. Moreover, it helps to comply with legislation such as the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Pest Control Methods
Pest control is the process of managing organisms that damage or spoil crops, livestock, homes and other structures, or that pose a health risk to humans. The aim is to reduce the population of pests without causing harm to the ecosystem they are part of. This is often referred to as ‘Integrated Pest Management’ or IPM.
A key step in IPM is monitoring the field, garden, building or other site to identify pests and their numbers. This information allows decisions to be made about whether or not control is necessary and what methods should be used. Correct identification of a pest is also important, as different species have differing needs and tolerances.
Preventive nonchemical pest control methods include sanitation, removing debris and infested plant material, crop rotation, proper watering and fertilization, cultural practices such as mulching, steam sterilization of soil, and growing competitive plants. Physical or mechanical methods include traps, barriers, and pest exclusion. Biological pest controls use natural enemies of the pest to manage its population. This can be as simple as releasing predators and parasites or as complex as using pheromones or juvenile hormones.
Threshold-based decision making is also an important aspect of IPM, as scouting and monitoring can help determine when action is needed. For example, noticing a few wasps flying around doesn’t warrant spraying them with insecticide, but seeing them regularly and in greater numbers indicates it is time to find and remove their nest.
Chemical pest control methods poison or kill the pest they are applied to, and can be sprayed, injected, or trapped. They can be a form of passive control (pesticides in the soil), active control (pesticides on plants or in air) or systemic control (pesticides ingested by the pest).
Some chemical control techniques are highly specialized and only available to licensed pest controllers. These can be very toxic and may require special equipment, such as a fogging machine for spraying indoor environments with ultra-low volume chemicals. Pesticides should only be used as a last resort when preventive or nonchemical treatments are ineffective. When a pesticide is used, it should be carefully applied to minimize human and animal exposure.
Pesticides
When pesticides are used, they should be applied to plants in a manner that minimizes their toxicity to wildlife and other organisms. The most important step in pesticide application is reading and following the label directions. It is also a good idea to wear the protective clothing suggested in the label, including rubber gloves and long sleeves. Make sure children, pets and others not involved in the application are away from the area where the pesticide is applied. It is especially important to keep water sources, such as lakes, rivers, streams and reservoirs, away from spray applications, because they are small captive sinks for chemical residue.
When a pesticide is used, it leaves chemical residues on the plant surface and in the soil. These chemical residues can move away from the treated plant in several ways, and ultimately affect humans, animals, other plants and even the surrounding environment. Chemical residues can also degrade into metabolites that are more toxic than the parent substance. The amount of chemical residue left by a pesticide is a direct result of the rate and volume at which it is applied, and can be influenced by the soil, climate and hydrology where it is used.
Pesticides are designed to kill unwanted species of plants or animals, either directly or by disrupting their growth or development processes. Indirectly, pesticides can negatively influence ecosystems by reducing biodiversity, decreasing pollinator populations and killing natural enemies of insects and other organisms [206].
The effectiveness of pesticides is dependent on the ability to accurately predict pest population levels in a given area at a particular time. This is because pesticides must be applied at precisely the point when the pests are most susceptible to the chemicals, and this requires a significant amount of planning.
A large number of pesticides are available for home and garden use. Using less toxic methods of pest control is usually more effective, and can be as simple as eliminating clutter that provides hiding places for insects and rodents. Getting information on least-toxic methods of pest control from University publications such as UC Pest Notes, local UC Cooperative Extension offices or other knowledgeable experts is a wise strategy. In addition, before purchasing or applying a pesticide, read the label carefully to ensure that it is listed as an effective and safe product for the specific pest and site being treated.