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Keep your home scrupulously clean to reduce the stray food that attracts pests and close off places where they can breed or hide. Use plants like garlic and marigolds that repel insects, or make your simple oil insecticide by spraying it directly on the pest. Contact Pest Control Chesterfield MO now!
Pest problems can often be prevented with simple steps. Pests typically invade homes and businesses if easy entry points, food and water are available, or places to hide. The best preventive measures include: reducing food and water sources, cleaning up spills, closing off places where pests can enter and hide, and regularly cleaning areas to remove nests or fecal droppings. It is also important to eliminate any sources of moisture, such as leaky pipes or humid rooms.
Keeping storage areas clean and eliminating clutter is another important preventive measure. It is especially important to regularly inspect and clean around the outside of buildings to locate and close cracks or holes that pests may use to gain entrance. It is also important to trim bushes and trees that touch the building, as well as to keep trash cans in a secure location where pests cannot access them.
Insects and rodents are the most common pests in residential and commercial settings, but other pests such as spiders, ants, bees, fleas, termites, and other vertebrates can also cause damage and pose health concerns. In addition to physical damage, many pests carry diseases and can cause allergic reactions in people.
Prevention is an important part of integrated pest management (IPM), which emphasizes treating only those areas where pests are causing harm. This targeted approach reduces the overall amount of chemicals used, and it minimizes the disruption to the environment.
After a thorough inspection, the provider can develop a plan to prevent pest invasions, such as tips on sanitation products and practices, hot spots to watch for (such as under leaves or along foundations), and preventing entrance through cracks and crevices. The provider should then use a combination of physical, biological and chemical control methods to manage the pests in an effective and economical manner.
There are a number of different ways to control pests, and the best way to choose the method that is right for your property is to consult with an experienced, licensed professional who can advise you on the appropriate methods based on the type and severity of the infestation. The use of the wrong control method can increase the problem and even lead to a worse situation.
Suppression
When a pest population becomes too high and damages crops or the environment, suppression of the pest must be accomplished. Suppression can be achieved through integrated pest management strategies that include preventive measures, monitoring, and chemical control agents.
Preventive measures include sanitation practices, which help to reduce the number of pests by reducing their food, harborage, and other resources. This includes crop residue removal, improving storage and handling areas, changing irrigation methods, enhancing garbage collection frequency, and maintaining good sanitation practices in greenhouses and other enclosed structures. Sanitation also includes avoiding the use of infested seeds and transplants, and decontaminating equipment and tools between uses.
Another method of preventing pest problems is the use of natural enemies, which are organisms that naturally reduce or kill pest species. These organisms can be predators, parasitoids, or pathogens and may attack all stages of a pest, from eggs to adults. Examples of natural enemies include ladybugs that eat mites, nematodes that feed on and kill root-knot nematodes, and parasitic wasps such as Encarsia formosa that attacks greenhouse whitefly. In classical biological control, these organisms are selected based on their host ranges and other factors that limit the potential for them to attack non-target species. They are often released inundatively, which means that they are mass-reared and then released into the field at the time when a pest population needs to be suppressed.
Other preventive measures involve cultural, physical, genetic, and mechanical controls. Cultural controls reduce the occurrence of pest infestations by directly impacting population size or making the environment less suitable for them. These control methods can be used for urban, agricultural, and wildland or natural areas. They include altering environmental conditions such as weather or topography, or changing cultural practices such as irrigation, planting, or harvesting techniques.
Genetic and mechanical controls are direct or indirect methods of controlling pests by selecting desirable genotypes or removing undesirable ones. These methods can be applied to crops, ornamentals, turfgrass, or landscape plants. Genetic and mechanical methods are often used with a combination of other controls in order to ensure the safety and sustainability of plant production.
Eradication
If you want to eradicate a pest problem, you need to take action at the community, national, and global levels. Eradication efforts must be sustained and supported over a long period of time, and success depends on the ability to interrupt transmission before a new wave of susceptible persons emerges as a result of births, migration, or waning effectiveness of prophylactic measures.
An initial inspection of your home and property by a trained technician can help determine the extent of the infestation, entry points, and potential nesting sites. A customized treatment plan will then be developed to target the specific pests plaguing your home. This may include spraying, baiting, dusting, trapping, and other methods depending on the type of pest and the severity of the infestation.
Before using any pest control products in or around your home, make sure to read the product label thoroughly. These labels contain detailed instructions and safety warnings that you should follow to maximize the efficacy of the product and minimize any risks to humans, pets, and the environment. Most importantly, always keep chemical pesticides out of reach of children and pets. Lastly, never mix pesticides together. This can create toxic fumes that are dangerous to breathe.
The first step in eliminating pests is to identify and repair sources of food, water, and shelter. Seal cracks and crevices where pests enter the house, and fix leaky pipes. Keeping vegetation trimmed and away from the house can also help reduce pest attraction.
Biological Pest Control
When the pest population is high, natural enemies of the pest can be released to decrease its numbers. This method can sometimes eliminate a pest, but it is not considered eradication since there is often a lag between the increase in the number of enemies and the lowering of the pest population.
Chemical pesticides are used to destroy or poison the unwanted organism, and are generally more effective than biological pest control methods. These chemicals are typically more convenient and affordable than biological solutions, but can be harmful to human and animal life if inhaled or ingested. Before using any chemical pesticides, ask a professional for recommendations.
Monitoring
A good pest control program includes regular monitoring and inspections of crops, landscapes, buildings, and other structures. These inspections are vital to determining which pests are in an area and how many of them are there. This information can be used to develop a pest control strategy and determine whether or not a particular control measure is working.
The goal of pest monitoring is to detect pest populations before they reach damaging levels. A trained employee can then use the appropriate management techniques to keep them under control. This is one of the most important parts of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Without a system to monitor and inspect areas for pests, it is possible to make incorrect assumptions about a pest. This can result in wasted resources, unnecessary risks, and even environmental damage.
A pest control inspector can check for signs of a pest by looking at the surface of plants and structures, examining soil, and analyzing frass (excrement). Visual observation is very useful in detecting the presence of some pests such as aphids, spider mites, and certain psyllids. It is helpful for a person to follow the same procedure each time they do a visual inspection. A flashlight and a magnifying glass are also handy tools for finding pests that hide in dark, secluded places.
Other methods to monitor pests include insect light traps, pheromone traps, and sticky or glue boards. These can all be effective for detecting pests and their population sizes, but the type of method that is best depends on the potential pest complex and the specific site. In addition to trapping and scouting, many people also collect information about their pest populations using a phenology calendar. This method relates the timing of natural events, such as pest behavior and plant development, to seasonal climate changes.
It is essential to understand that thresholds, which are levels of a pest above which action must be taken to prevent unacceptable damage or injury, should be determined prior to any pest control strategy being developed. Threshold information will help to improve the accuracy of a pest monitoring system and ensure that control measures are initiated at just the right time.