Tag: pest control

Pest control companies have specialized training to understand the types of bugs that are native to your area. They also have access to chemicals and pesticides that are more effective than store-bought products. Contact Killian Pest Control now!

Control methods include:

• Prevention.
• Suppression (reducing pest numbers to an acceptable level).
• Eradication (destroying the pest population).

Look for a company that belongs to professional associations.

Insects are the most numerous and diverse organisms on the planet, representing the biological foundation of terrestrial ecosystems. They decompose and recycle nutrients, disperse seeds, maintain soil structure and fertility, control populations of other species by predatory or parasitic activity, and act as a major food source for vertebrates, including birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and mammals. In addition, insects play a vital role as pollinators.

In the garden, many common insects such as slugs and snails, caterpillars, beetles, flies, fruit flies and mosquitoes can cause damage by feeding on live plants or by laying eggs that will result in diseased growth or offspring. They can also damage plants by leaving ragged holes in the leaves and stems, or by stealing water and nutrients from the plant. They are best controlled by using a combination of cultural, mechanical and chemical methods, with an emphasis on reducing insecticide use.

The natural enemies of pests, including predators, parasitoids and pathogens, help limit their densities, making them less damaging than they would be without these important natural controls. Biological control involves finding and testing suitable natural enemies of the targeted pest, then collecting, rearing and inundatively releasing them to establish a population that will be long-term effective in controlling the pest. This process requires thorough research into the biology of the target pest, potential natural enemy species and their life cycles, as well as the impact of any unintended consequences.

Careful use of pesticides can also reduce their impact on natural enemies by minimizing contact between them and the chemicals. In particular, spot applications and the use of less persistent pesticides can minimize contact with natural enemies, especially when they are in vulnerable life stages such as larvae and pupae.

Rodents

Rodents (order Rodentia) are a worldwide problem because of their widespread food and water consumption and their role in spreading disease. They contribute to global malnutrition and poverty by eating crops, destroying grain stores, and spreading zoonotic diseases that affect humans and livestock. The most common pests are rats and mice.

Rodents are natural intruders that invade buildings seeking food, shelter, and water. Signs of a rodent problem include rodent droppings, gnaw marks, chewed insulation, tin foil, and holes in walls, cabinets, or the floor. Rodents are also notorious for chewing through electrical wiring, which can result in exposed wires and leaking pipes that create fire hazards.

A combination of prevention and control methods is often required to solve a rodent infestation. Proper sanitation and cleaning can help reduce the rodent population and prevent it from growing out of control. Regularly removing trash from the building, cleaning up spilled food, and securing garbage cans will reduce the number of rodents that seek out an easy meal in your facility.

Providing clean food and water sources will also reduce the number of rodents in your facility. Keeping the area around your facility clear of debris, tall grass, overgrown vegetation, and other places that provide cover and protection will eliminate a rodent’s ability to hide while hunting for food and water.

Physical/mechanical control is important because rodents have the ability to chew their way through almost anything in order to gnaw and nest. Installing door sweeps, eliminating gaps around utility lines, and sealing cracks will make it more difficult for rodents to get into your facility. It is also a good idea to regularly place nontoxic monitoring bait blocks in tamper-resistant stations in areas where rodents are likely to feed.

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are a growing problem in homes, apartments and hotels. This is because of their tendency to travel from one room to another in search of a new host. In addition, many people may unknowingly bring them home in clothing, backpacks, luggage and personal belongings from laundromats or other public places. Additionally, neighbors can have bed bug infestations that spread to your home through shared wall voids or plumbing or electrical conduits.

The first step in controlling bed bugs is thorough inspection and assessment by a pest control professional. This enables the pest control technician to locate hiding spots, determine the extent of the bed bug problem, and decide on an appropriate treatment strategy.

Before any treatment, the affected area must be prepared. This usually involves decluttering, washing or heat-treating infested clothing and linens and vacuuming floors and surfaces. A good quality vacuum cleaner can be helpful, although it is important to remember that even a deep vacuum cannot remove all bed bugs and their eggs from the crevices and depressions where they hide during the day.

Adult females lay three to five adhesive eggs daily, with each egg resembling a tiny dust speck. The eggs hatch within a week at room temperature to produce juveniles (nymphs) that are straw-colored and no bigger than a pinhead. Nymphs feed on blood and must molt five times before becoming adults.

While training housekeeping staff to watch for signs of a bed bug infestation is important, the best way to prevent and/or control bed bugs is regular, professional pest control services. Infestations that are small and localized are much easier to treat than those that have become established and widespread.

Wasps

Although they can be a nuisance, wasps are important for pest control. Solitary wasps, like hornets and yellow jackets, feed on pest insects that damage plants. While they have a bad reputation for attacking humans, most wasps are solitary and pose little threat to people other than their painful stings. They are also significant pollinators.

In the garden, wasps hunt in crevices and undersides of leaves where pests hide. They are especially effective at eradicating caterpillars and aphids, which conventional chemical sprays have difficulty reaching.

Wasps are also good for scouting out pests in trees, shrubs, and flowers before they become too large to be effectively managed by birds and other natural predators. This allows horticulturists to use less harmful insecticides.

However, it is important to recognize the difference between solitary wasps and social wasps (also known as vespids). Social wasps build nests in trees and overhangs, rather than in foundations or on the ground, and are often more aggressive than solitary wasps. A professional can help you limit the number of wasps around your home by removing favored nesting locations and keeping food and water sources away from the house.

If you encounter a nest, avoid approaching it or shaking the tree where it is located. This can provoke a dangerous reaction. If you are concerned about being stung, wear a mask and do not attempt to remove the nest yourself. Instead, call a pest control professional to use a dust or powder insecticide formulated for wasps and hornets. Hardware and garden stores carry products such as Permex Insect Dust and Rentokil Wasp Killer, which contain the active ingredient permethrin. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s safety instructions when using any pesticide.

Ants

Ants are familiar pests that affect homes and gardens. They are found in both urban and rural areas and can be an annoying nuisance for some people. However, they have a significant ecological value. Some even serve as bioindicators of soil quality and pest presence in a field.

While ants may be annoying for homeowners, they are important predators that keep pest populations in check and improve crop yields. According to a recent study, ants significantly decrease the abundance of pest species that damage fruit, seeds and leaves. This is mainly because ants hunt and eat them, and they also assist herding pests to fresher regions in the field.

There are thousands of different ant species, and they often look similar to termites, making it difficult to tell them apart. However, ants have a pinched section between their abdomen and thorax, while termites have straight antennae. In addition, ants have six legs, while termites have two. Ants have one set of jaws that are used to eat, the other for defense. They communicate with each other by sending out pheromones and rubbing their antennae against their bodies to make sound signals.

If ants invade a house, the most common treatment is a spraying around windows and doors using a general insecticide that kills them on contact. However, a preventative strategy will help reduce the risk of an ant infestation in the first place. Clearing clutter, wiping down counters and sweeping floors will eliminate food and water sources that attract them. Also, fixing leaky faucets and securing the outside of the home will limit their access to indoors. Trimming branches and shrubs that touch the house will also minimize entry points.

Pests are rodents, birds, and insects that spoil or destroy property. They usually also introduce microorganisms that cause disease in humans and animals.

Properly store food, garbage, and waste to prevent pest infestation. Also, regularly clean up trash and dispose of it properly. Contact Pest Control Meridian now!

Clutter and debris provide places for pests to hide and breed. Keep wood piles well away from the house.

Pest Identification

As with any management plan, pest control strategies are most effective when they are developed with a clear understanding of the pest being managed. Pest identification is the first step in developing such a strategy, and it offers important information about that pest, including how the pest invades, its life cycle, what environmental and harborage conditions it prefers, and so on.

For example, the ability of some pests to reproduce rapidly makes them difficult to eradicate; their quick breeding cycle keeps the population rising despite any control measures taken. Also, some pests can be especially challenging to eliminate because of their tendency to hide. Rodents and insects can take refuge in hard-to-reach spaces such as floorboards and walls, requiring a careful inspection to locate and remove them. Similarly, the ability of some beetles to fly, and their preference for living in decaying organic matter of plant or animal origin, can make them difficult to eliminate.

While a variety of insect control methods are available, the best approach is prevention. Proper sanitation, the storage of firewood away from buildings, and vacuuming can often reduce or eliminate an infestation before it gets out of hand. In addition, proper use of pesticides can be an important part of a preventive pest control program.

A pest control specialist has the knowledge, experience and tools to identify hiding spots, treat difficult-to-reach areas, and implement preventive measures that will result in the eradication of a problem and help prevent future infestations. Identifying pests and implementing preventive controls can help you avoid costly pest damage to your facility and collections.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the process of using all available management options to control pests in a sustainable manner. It includes preventive tactics (including monitoring, trapping and baiting), cultural and biological control techniques, and chemical control tactics, such as spraying, dusting, drenching and fumigation.

While many institutions have their own staff for pest control, others contract with a commercial pest control service. The services provided by these companies vary, but may include pest identification and monitoring; regular rat inspections of warehouses and other facilities, especially those with large storerooms; the use of raccoon and squirrel traps and live trapping for rodents; and the application of baits, granules and other chemicals for insect control.

Prevention

Prevention is a proactive approach to pest control that includes preventative maintenance and treatments that keep pests away from the property when they are not needed. It is an essential part of the overall pest management process. It is a more long-term and cost-effective strategy than treatment alone.

Preventative pest controls are non-toxic to humans and usually use food additives that deter or interfere with the ability of pests to carry and transmit disease. It may also include the use of pheromones, which affects the mating behavior of the pest, or predators and parasites that kill or reduce the population of the target pest. It is important that preventive measures be applied consistently, as pests are able to adapt and find ways around the prevention methods.

The primary components of a prevention program are sanitation and physical barriers. The former involves strict cleaning practices and disposal of garbage, food waste and discarded materials. The latter includes placing garbage receptacles away from buildings, sealing the building with appropriate material to discourage rodents and birds, and maintaining the landscaping so it does not provide shelter for pests.

Clutter provides pests with hiding places and breeding grounds. It is a good idea to regularly get rid of trash, clutter and stacks of newspapers or magazines. This can also be helpful in preventing the buildup of heat and moisture in the home or business, which is another factor that attracts pests.

Sealing cracks and crevices, and blocking openings around pipes, vents, electrical boxes and utility lines can stop pests from entering the structure. Keeping doors and windows shut, and using door sweeps and weather stripping where necessary can also help. In addition, regular exterior inspections should be conducted to check for holes in the foundation and walls, siding, roof and utility lines that can let pests enter and cause damage.

It is also important to keep in mind that pests are primarily attracted to food processing environments for the water, food and shelter that it supplies. The presence of pests can lead to contamination of foodstuffs with microbial pathogens and insect parts that are carried on the body of the pest, physical contamination of foodstuffs by pest droppings and nesting materials and direct damage to food and equipment.

Suppression

Pests can cause damage to property, contaminate food, pose health risks and threaten human safety. A routine pest control program is a valuable tool for eliminating pests and keeping them from returning. Pest control services can help protect the value of a home by keeping pests away from expensive home fixtures and furnishings. They also provide peace of mind for homeowners, knowing that their homes are protected. Pest control is an important service for businesses, as well. Many pests carry disease-causing pathogens and allergens that can be harmful to people, especially if they are exposed for extended periods of time. Routine pest control can reduce the risk of these exposures and allow business operations to continue uninterrupted.

Suppression is the common goal in most pest situations, where the aim is to bring the population of a pest down to an acceptable level. This may be as low as the number at which the pests are causing unacceptable harm, or it could be a threshold level below which a population can not be allowed to grow. The choice of strategy depends on the pest, its habitat and the kind and amount of harm it causes.

There are a wide variety of tactics for suppressing pests, from physical barriers such as trapping and bait stations to chemical controls such as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. There are also biological methods, such as introducing natural enemies to a pest population.

Biological controls are one of the few pest control tactics that do not involve human intervention. However, these tactics are often not available on a large scale or for very serious pests.

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning have a strong effect on the ability to control pests. There are different levels at which biodiversity impacts on pest control: genetic diversity within a species, species richness at the habitat level, and the interaction between predators and prey at the trophic level.

Monitoring pest populations to determine the best course of action is a key part of any suppression strategy. This can be done through scouting, surveys or trapping. Monitoring can also include weather and soil conditions, as these can influence pest occurrence and activity.

Biological Control

Biological control is the use of living organisms to reduce pest populations below damaging or intolerable levels. This includes both native natural enemies of insects and pathogens that cause diseases of plants. Biological control is most often used against non-native insect pests, called invasive species. These are typically able to establish rapidly in their new environment without the predators and other natural controls that normally suppress them in their homeland. Biological control programs involve extensive scientific research to identify potential natural enemy species and ensure that they do not harm native species. Once governments approve the biocontrol agent, it can be imported for release into the environment. The biocontrol agent may be released in one ‘big wave,’ called inundative release or, less frequently, in a series of smaller releases, called inoculative release.

Unlike conventional chemical pesticides, which kill or injure all target organisms, biological controls are generally species-specific and have a low impact on beneficial organisms and the environment. Because of this, a biological control program can take time to achieve its desired results. It is therefore often included as part of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy, combining it with other methods of pest control such as cultural, mechanical and chemical.

While some biological control agents are effective against a number of pest species, others can only target a specific type of pest, such as the caterpillar-eating flies or the nematode that kills grubs. Consequently, the choice of which biological control agent to introduce and how they are introduced can have significant impacts on their success and effectiveness.

The three major ways people use biocontrol are through conservation, augmentation and classical or importation. Two of these, conservation and augmentation, are practices available to homeowners to help control the pest problems they have in their landscapes. The third, classical or importation, is restricted to scientific practitioners. PPQ is committed to the safe and responsible use of biological control as part of an overall integrated pest management strategy. This includes incorporating monitoring and evaluation as integral parts of all implementation projects. This commitment is consistent with PPQ’s mission of safeguarding America’s agricultural production and natural areas from damaging pests.