Rodents (rodents like mice and rats) destroy crops, food, and stored products, chew electric wires, which can cause fires, and spread diseases such as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, plague, leptospirosis, and salmonella.
Pest control involves prevention, suppression, and eradication. Preventing pests is easier than controlling them once they are established. Contact PermaKill Exterminating now!
Pest identification is the first step in an integrated pest management program. This process is also vital for determining the most effective control tactics. Appropriate treatment methods vary greatly based on the type of weed, insect, or vertebrate animal causing damage to your crop. Incorrectly identifying pests can lead to unnecessary chemical applications that are both ineffective and harmful to the environment.
While it may seem obvious that proper pest identification is necessary, this is often overlooked. The goal is to identify pests down to the species level. This provides important information about their life cycles, feeding habits, and other biological clues. It also allows for better monitoring and more accurate identification of future pest problems.
Many pests will leave specific damage patterns behind that can help you pinpoint what kind of pest is eating your crops. For example, weevils leave distinctive chew marks in leaves, while caterpillars will leave holes and ragged edges. Also, some pests tend to eat specific types of plants or certain stages of plant development. By examining the kind of crops being affected, it can be determined if you are dealing with an insect pest such as cabbage worms or a disease-causing pathogen like bacteria or viruses.
Once the pest is identified, it can be checked against published guides to determine the best method for controlling it. There are many guides available, including printed and online versions. These guides provide information about the pest, its preferred food sources and environmental conditions and harborage sites. It can then be determined if the pest is a continuous threat to your crops or just an occasional problem.
Identifying the pests down to the species level is very important for any pest control program. It helps ensure that you are using the correct control tactic, as many pests have different behavior and damage profiles when compared to others in their family or even genera. Also, it is important to know whether a pest will respond to a particular control product or not. This can be especially true for insect pests, as they can sometimes develop resistance to common chemicals over time.
Prevention
A preventive pest management approach is the best way to deal with a problem before it grows into a full infestation. This involves identifying and eliminating entry points and removing conditions that encourage pest activity such as food, water and shelter. Some of the most effective preventive techniques include regular inspections, sealing cracks and gaps that allow pests to enter buildings, proper waste disposal to eliminate potential food sources for pests, weeding and trimming bushes and trees to remove hiding places, and using physical barriers such as traps, screens and barriers to block pests from accessing homes and businesses.
Many pests carry germs that can cause diseases in humans and pets. For example, cockroaches spread harmful bacteria and viruses including salmonella, E.coli and hepatitis. Fleas and ticks can transmit tapeworms and Lyme disease. In addition, rodent droppings can spread diseases such as salmonellosis. Pests also can contaminate food, damage property and disrupt the environment.
Prevention is a crucial part of any successful food or beverage plant’s safety program to protect against adulteration from pest-borne contaminants. In the long run, it’s far more cost-effective and environmentally responsible to invest in a pest prevention program rather than a reactive control program.
Preventive pest management is a holistic process that requires a balance of cultural, mechanical and biological controls along with the appropriate use of chemical treatments as needed. A pest management professional should have the experience and expertise to understand how each method works in combination with others to manage pest populations safely and effectively.
Preventive steps include wiping, mopping and vacuuming floors, walls and ceilings to eliminate the crumbs, dust and debris that can attract pests. A deep clean is especially important in restaurants where employees can carry pests in on their clothing and belongings. In addition, keeping drains clear of clogs and debris is important to eliminate breeding grounds for some pests. Lastly, storing garbage tightly in covered containers and reducing clutter will help prevent pests from finding shelter in unused areas of the establishment.
Treatments
Treatments are a quick solution to pest infestation, often providing the instant results consumers want. A technician will create a tailor-made plan to treat the specific pest and affected areas, using both non-chemical and chemical methods depending on the situation. In most cases, a combination of both is necessary to eliminate the pests and prevent them from coming back.
Non-chemical control methods include removing food, water and shelter sources; sealing cracks and crevices; repairing and restoring damaged areas to prevent pests from entering; and regularly cleaning and mowing lawns and irrigating gardens to remove hiding places for pests. These steps, if implemented consistently and correctly, will stop pests from developing and reduce the need for expensive treatments.
Chemical control uses insecticides and other toxic substances to kill or disable a pest population. It is very important for pest control technicians to know exactly what they are treating and to study the environment carefully to limit off-target effects such as killing wildlife or irritating the skin of sensitive people. In general, the less a pesticide is used, the better, as more chemicals generally mean more side effects.
Physical and mechanical controls are devices or other methods that kill a pest directly or make the environment unsuitable for it. Traps, barriers, nets, fencing, and steam sterilization of soil are examples. Other ways to alter the environment are pheromones (manufactured copies of female insects’ mating calls) and juvenile hormones, which can lower pest numbers by keeping some immature forms from maturing into normal adult forms.
All Things Pest Control will dust weep holes, roof voids and all cracks and crevices for pests such as cockroaches, ants and spiders in applicable structures. A perimeter spray around skirting and kick boards is also included in this service. It is important to not mop the treated areas for several weeks as this allows the chemical to bind to surfaces and kill the pests. It is also essential to not tamper with traps or bait stations as this may cause them to be ineffective. Regular monitoring is required to check for any lingering pest activity and report sightings.
Monitoring
Monitoring is a key component of any pest control program. It involves regular inspections to detect pest numbers and to evaluate how well controls are working. Pest managers use monitoring data to determine whether or not a treatment is needed and to predict when a pest population will reach damaging levels.
Monitoring can include visual inspection, trapping and scouting. Visual inspection involves looking for signs of a pest, such as insect parts or frass (excrement) on leaves or fruit. It can also include checking the condition of the plant, as this can indicate when it is in need of a control treatment.
Trapping can include pheromone and species-specific lures or “passive” traps that exploit the behavior of certain groups, such as stored product pests. Many of these devices are available commercially, but they can be easily constructed from common materials. For example, a simple “sticky trap” contains a plastic or cardboard base covered in a glue-like substance that pests are attracted to and can’t escape from. They work 24/7 and are a good choice for structural pest monitoring in food service establishments.
Another type of trap is the “multiple catch” trap, which includes multiple feeding stations that offer several different types of bait or food. These are great for monitoring a wide range of pests and for tracking their spread, especially in large areas such as groves or crop fields. These traps are very effective and can be relatively inexpensive to maintain.
It is important to monitor a site regularly, but it is even more important to do so with the right tools. A flashlight is a must, as pests hide or seek shelter in dark, secluded areas. An extendable mirror can help inspectors check hard-to-reach spaces, such as under equipment or in storage containers. And a magnifying glass can be very helpful when trying to identify a pest or confirm the presence of pest parts or frass.
It is also vital to know the biology of the pest you are monitoring. This will allow you to exploit their habits for increased capture rates and more accurate monitoring. Knowing the life cycle of a particular pest can also help you identify the best time to set traps and baits for them. For instance, if you are monitoring flies and you find an increase in first-instars, this indicates that the fly population is reaching a threshold level that requires action.