Scouting and monitoring allow you to identify pests, their damage, and their locations. This information helps you make threshold-based decisions about when to use control methods.
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Many pest control professionals agree that proper identification is the first step to effectively controlling any pest problem. Identification focuses on the basic characteristics of the pest and is essential for developing effective prevention and control strategies. Accurate pest identification helps ensure that management tactics are targeted to the pest and minimize any impact on beneficial organisms or non-target plants.
Identifying the pest also allows the PMP to choose an appropriate treatment. For example, suppose an insect is identified as a Coleoptera leafminer. In that case, an approved foliar insecticide can be used to manage the problem without disrupting bees or other important pollinators in the ecosystem. Identification also facilitates the use of biological controls, which must be applied at the correct stage in the pest’s life cycle to be effective.
Mistakes in pest identification can result in unnecessary treatments, costly callbacks, and possible homeowner action if the pest is a health or safety risk. Considering that many pesticides used in pest control contain chemicals that can be harmful to humans and pets, identifying the pest correctly is critical for the safety of everyone involved.
A pest’s physical appearance can change dramatically as it passes through different stages of its life cycle. For example, a weed seedling looks very different from a mature weed. Similarly, an egg, larva, pupa or adult insect will have very distinct physical characteristics that can be used to identify the pest. This information is important because control methods are most effective when targeted to the most susceptible stage of a pest’s life cycle.
It is also helpful to know whether a pest is continuous, sporadic or a potential problem. This helps to prioritize control efforts and prevent over-treatment. It is also helpful to know which diseases or aphids a particular pest may carry and whether it can cause allergic reactions in people or animals.
The final point is to remember that a pest infestation is a complicated issue, and while it is tempting to treat the problem immediately, PMPs must carefully consider all factors before treating a customer’s property. As a result, scouting and monitoring the environment for pests should occur on a routine basis (everywhere from daily to weekly depending on the type of pest) so that treatment options can be chosen and applied in a safe and effective manner.
Prevention
Pests aren’t just annoying, they can pose a serious threat to human health. They spread disease by carrying germs and bacteria on their bodies or in their saliva. Fleas can carry tapeworms, and ticks can spread Lyme disease. Proper pest prevention strategies can help keep these critters away from your establishment.
The key to preventive pest control is to shut down entry points and harborage areas by eliminating conditions that attract them. To do so, sanitation and maintenance practices, building and facility design, landscaping and other environmental factors must be examined and adjusted where necessary. Preventive approaches to pest management include trend analysis, risk assessment, inspection and monitoring, exclusion, sanitation and cleaning, plant protection and cultural practices.
Effectively implementing preventive pest control requires collaboration between the client and the pest management professional. Establishing what each is responsible for helps ensure that both parties are meeting their obligations and avoiding pest problems altogether. For example, defining which members of staff are on the hook for inspecting incoming shipments to ensure they don’t contain pests and setting up uniform cleaning protocols that can be applied consistently across facilities to reduce moisture attracting flies and roaches.
Threshold levels have been established for many pest species that trigger action. These thresholds can be based on esthetic or health concerns. For instance, a tolerance level for rodents in food processing facilities may be zero, and any sightings of pests will prompt action. In other situations, such as in operating rooms and other sterile environments in hospitals, action must be taken when pests are present regardless of whether there are any sightings.
Establishing a pest prevention program is essential for any commercial property. It can protect a business’s reputation by keeping pests out, reducing the need for treatment. It can also save money by preventing the need for expensive corrective measures like fumigation and eradication. A good pest prevention plan should include a playbook that lists techniques to prevent pest intrusion and should be tailored to each facility, building type and industry. This includes tips on sanitation products and practices, hot spots to watch, food storage best practices, building and facility maintenance steps to shut down pest entry points and the use of repellants.
Control
Pests are more than just a nuisance; they can be damaging to food production, retail, and other commercial environments. They can also be a health risk, spreading diseases like rat-borne hantavirus and leptospirosis. In addition, they can cause physical damage to buildings and equipment.
Many different methods exist for controlling pests, from physically removing them to using chemicals. However, control methods should be chosen carefully to minimize the risks they pose to people and the environment. Integrated pest management (IPM) is a process that integrates all of these methods into a comprehensive strategy. It involves regular monitoring and inspection, identification of pests and their life cycles, setting action thresholds, preventing pest infestations, and instituting biological, physical, and chemical controls.
IPM is a more sustainable approach to pest control than simply eliminating them with poisons. This is because eradication is often impossible in outdoor situations, and because even “natural” pest control agents, such as predators or parasites, can be disrupted by changes to their host plants or environments. It’s also more environmentally friendly to use preventative measures such as sealing cracks and caulking windows than it is to spray harmful pesticides.
Physical controls involve blocking a pest’s access to water or food, or making the environment unsuitable for them to survive in. This can include things like putting up traps or bait stations for rodents or cleaning out bird feeders to stop cockroaches from getting inside. It can also be as simple as reducing clutter or closing up holes that pests might crawl through.
Chemical control is the most common method of pest control, and it’s usually applied through the use of a spray or other liquid. However, it’s important to use only the amount required, as over-applying pesticides can be as harmful as failing to apply enough. It’s also important to follow the label’s instructions and warnings.
Biological control is the most natural form of pest control, and it involves introducing a pest’s enemies into an environment to keep its population low. This can be as simple as planting a crop such as zinnias to attract Japanese beetles, or it can be more sophisticated, such as creating and releasing large numbers of sterile male beetles to replace the wild ones that would otherwise interfere with the harvest.
Eradication
The terms exterminate, extirpate, eradicate, and uproot all mean to effect the destruction or abolition of something. Exterminate, of course, refers to the utter destruction of a pest population while extirpate implies extinction of a race, family, or species; eradicate and uproot suggest that the unwanted organism is removed by forcible means like yanking it out of the ground, a practice that can also be done metaphorically as in “pulling a weed by its roots.” These verbs all stem from the Latin radicare (“to root,” implying an act similar to pulling up a plant by the roots).
Although eradication is a common goal in some situations (for example when a foreign plant threatens agricultural production and is supported by the government), it is rarely achieved in outdoor pest situations because prevention and suppression are usually more effective. In enclosed environments, however, eradication is often feasible. For instance, offices, food service and hospitality buildings, healthcare, and retail locations are designed for humans and often contain a host of pests that have no natural enemies.
Eradication is most likely to succeed if a control method is highly effective and applied as soon as the pest is detected. Using genetic methods to examine individuals remaining following eradication can help identify whether they are true eradication survivors or re-invaders, indicating either a failure of the protocol or a dispersal route that was not anticipated. This information can then be used to improve a future attempt.