Facility Pest Control involves preventing or eliminating the presence of undesirable organisms. Its objectives are to ensure food safety by preventing contamination from organisms like rodent droppings, insect parts and external parasites, as well as avoiding damage to products, structures and the environment.
Accurate identification of the pest is the first step in developing a successful pest management program. This will help determine whether it is a continuous pest, sporadic or a potential pest.
When pests have already arrived and a decision to control them has been made, the goal of suppression is to reduce their numbers to an acceptable level. This may be accomplished by limiting their resources, such as food, water and shelter. It may also be accomplished by making their environment unfavorable. This can be done by destroying the pests’ habitat, which might be done through chemical and physical means. For example, crop fields can be kept clean of weeds through cultivation and weed removal tactics. Water can be restricted to a pest’s breeding and feeding areas through damming, irrigation and other means. Weather can be made inhospitable to pests by cold temperatures, rainfall and wind. These and other conditions can limit pest populations or make them more damaging.
Natural enemies, such as predatory animals and parasitic insects, often suppress pests. They do this through a variety of processes, including antibiosis, competition, predation and microbial grazing. The effectiveness of natural enemies depends on the diversity of their communities and their interactions with both each other and the plant pathogens/pests.
The need to use pesticides can be reduced through the use of resistant varieties, cultural methods that reduce pest abundance and damage, and other means that interfere with pest mating and host-finding behavior. In addition, using pesticides with great care to not disrupt the communities of natural enemies can help avoid the development of resistance.
Monitoring pests for their appearance and the recurrence of their damage is an essential part of any pest management program. This can be done through regular inspections, surveys and other types of scouting. It can also be accomplished by monitoring for the presence of pheromones, which are released by the body of a female insect to attract males. These can then be used to identify the pest population.
Eradication is a rare goal in outdoor pest situations, but it may be attempted when a particular pest is considered to be an unacceptable nuisance or threat. This may be the case for mosquitoes, gypsy moths or fire ants in residential and commercial areas. In enclosed environments, however, eradication is a common goal, such as in operating rooms and other sterile areas in health care facilities.
Eradication
As the name suggests, eradication is the complete destruction of a pest population. This usually requires a large number of people working together to identify the pest, determine how many are present and then destroy them. Eradication is the last step in pest control and is only possible when all other methods have failed.
Biological controls, which use predators, parasitoids and disease organisms that ordinarily occur in nature to suppress or eliminate pest populations, are generally the best tools for eradicating pests. However, the success of these methods depends on the abundance and distribution of the natural enemies, which may not always be available. For example, some plant-feeding insects are favored by natural predators in only a small part of the world, making them more abundant in that area than in other areas. Also, some pests can reproduce faster than natural predators can replenish their numbers. These factors make it difficult to establish effective predator and parasitoid populations in an area where a particular pest is a problem.
The first step in the process of controlling a pest with a biological agent is to accurately identify it. This can be done through monitoring and scouting. It is important to be able to distinguish the pest from similar organisms. A good identification also helps you know how severe the damage is and whether it is a continuous problem or just sporadic. Once you have determined the extent of the pest problem, you can decide how much damage is acceptable and implement a treatment strategy.
Pesticides are the most common chemical agents used in pest control. They can be very effective, but they are also dangerous and must be used correctly. Overuse of pesticides can lead to the development of resistant pests. To avoid this, pesticides should be applied only when needed and in the smallest quantity possible. Rotating the type of pesticide can also help reduce the chance of developing resistance.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an approach to pest control that takes into account all of the available control options, including mechanical, cultural, biological and chemical strategies. It is based on the principle that a healthy ecosystem contains a wide variety of organisms and that these organisms interact in complex ways. This allows the ecosystem to stabilize at a level that is desirable and less likely to suffer major pest outbreaks.
Treatment
Pest control uses preventative methods to keep pests out of your home or business, along with treatments to eliminate existing infestations. Preventative measures include removing food and water sources that attract pests, fixing leaky pipes, storing food in sealed containers and repairing screens and windows. Regular inspections of your property by a pest control professional can help detect and intercept problems before they become an infestation.
Pests are influenced by weather conditions, including temperature and day length. Climate affects the growth and development of plant-eating pests, as well as how quickly they reproduce. A sudden change in normal weather patterns can alter pest populations, resulting in increased or decreased damage.
Physical controls use traps, screens, barriers, fences, chemicals, radiation and other means to physically restrict or alter the environment in which pests live. These methods may also kill or suppress parasitic organisms that feed on pests, fungi, nematodes and pathogens.
Chemical pesticides are used to kill or control a specific species of pest. They are designed to target the pest they are intended for, while causing as little harm to other organisms as possible. However, they do sometimes harm non-target organisms, such as birds or insects that eat the pests killed by insecticide. This is why it is important to select and use pesticides only as directed by their labels.
The duration of treatment depends on the type of pest and the method of control used. Some sprays dry quickly, but others linger in the environment for days or even weeks. For instance, if you are using baits to control rodents, it will take the rodents time to carry the poison back to their nests and die, and thus it can take a while for total eradication.
Keeping pests away from your home or business helps preserve its value and protects the health and safety of its residents. In addition, regular pest control reduces the exposure to harmful allergens and pathogens that can make people sick. It can also save money by preventing costly repairs and replacements. In addition, a routine pest control program can give you peace of mind knowing that professionals are regularly checking your property for potential problems.
Marion Donovan