Pest Control Chesterfield, MO, is important to maintaining your property and keeping family and pets safe. When used correctly, pest control helps avoid the need for sprays or other chemicals.
Start by eliminating their food, water, and shelter sources. Keep wood piles away from the house; don’t let bushes or shrubs touch the foundation.
Pests are organisms that interfere with humans or their property by eating, damaging, or spreading disease. While any organism may become a pest, certain organisms are more likely to cause problems due to their feeding, breeding, or survival abilities. Pests may also pose health risks to human beings, particularly those with compromised immune systems or allergic reactions.
A variety of methods are used to prevent pest infestations. These include natural, biological, mechanical, and chemical controls. Natural control methods involve modifying environmental factors that favor desirable plants and animals over pests. Biological controls use natural enemies to kill or injure target species and limit population sizes. Mechanical and physical controls are tools that directly impact or limit pest populations, but they often require a substantial investment of time and money. Chemical controls are synthetic agents that can be used to manage pests.
Prevention of pests is most effective when it is carried out on a regular basis, and before an infestation becomes severe. Routine property inspections should focus on areas where pests are known to hide or breed, such as attics and basements. Look for signs of infestation such as droppings, gnaw marks, and nests. Listen for scurrying or scratching sounds at night, which indicate that pests are active in the area.
Eliminating attractants, such as food, water, and shelter, is another important aspect of pest prevention. This includes regularly cleaning and vacuuming to remove food particles, storing food in airtight containers, and reducing indoor and outdoor clutter where pests might hide. It is also helpful to fix leaking pipes and ensure that gutters are working properly to eliminate standing water, which can lure pests like mosquitoes and termites.
It is also useful to keep in mind that many pests have seasonal patterns of activity. Rodents might be more likely to enter homes during the winter, for instance, and bloodsucking insects like flies and mosquitoes are most active in summer. Recognizing these cycles and taking action before a pest problem develops can help reduce the amount of intervention required to control it.
In general, sprays should be avoided in areas that are frequently used by family members, especially children and pets. When sprays must be used, they should always be applied to targeted areas and thoroughly rinsed or wiped down after application.
Suppression
Pest control is an essential part of protecting public health by controlling the spread of disease carried by pests, safeguarding agriculture and food supplies, preserving property from damage, and maintaining ecological balance by preventing invasive pest species from disrupting ecosystems. Pests include insects (e.g., ants, cockroaches, termites, and rodents), birds, weeds, and other unwanted organisms.
Prevention is the most efficient method of pest control, because it eliminates the need for more intensive measures once an infestation occurs. A few simple steps can greatly reduce the risk of a pest invasion, including cleaning frequently soiled areas to remove food sources and shelter for pests, caulking cracks and crevices, removing weeds from garden beds, and sealing openings in walls and around pipes.
When prevention is not possible, pests must be controlled using one of the more active methods. These may involve trapping, poisoning, or spraying. Traps are used to capture or kill individual pests, and are often more effective than poisons at controlling small numbers of pests. Insecticides and other poisons are used to kill or control large numbers of pests, and are a common component of commercial and residential pest control programs.
Monitoring is a key aspect of any pest control program. Monitoring the number of insect, insect-like, mollusk, vertebrate, or weed pests allows decision makers to take action when population levels reach unacceptable thresholds. Threshold levels are generally based on esthetic or health concerns, and they may also be dictated by environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity.
Natural enemies, such as parasites and predators, often suppress pest populations. Occasionally, these can be augmented by other biological controls such as the release of sterile males or the use of pheromones and juvenile hormones.
Physical or mechanical pest control uses barriers or traps to prevent pests from entering buildings or yards. Barriers may be constructed of wood, metal, wire mesh, or other materials. Screens, doors, windows, and other devices can also be installed to keep pests out or to capture them once they are inside. Pheromones, such as those emitted by female insects to attract males for mating, can be used to confuse males and prevent them from reproducing, again reducing pest populations.
Biological Control
Biological control uses predators, parasitoids, pathogens and competitors to reduce pest populations. It can also be used to manage pests that have developed resistance to chemical sprays. Biological controls do not have the same negative impact on ecosystems that chemicals do, making them a more environmentally sustainable and effective long-term control strategy. Biological controls can be applied as part of integrated pest management (IPM), and are often more cost-effective than the use of chemical sprays.
The PPQ’s Biological Control Program is responsible for the importation, release and establishment of co-evolved natural enemies to minimize the economic and environmental impacts of invasive weeds and exotic insect pests in agriculture, forestry and greenhouse horticulture. The Program carries out extensive research on the biology, ecology and behavior of pests and their natural enemies before conducting the necessary field trials, rearing and testing of potential biological control agents, and implementing them in agricultural, natural and urban environments.
Classical biological control involves introducing non-native natural enemies, such as predators and parasitoids, into an environment where the pest species has become established. Natural enemies are collected from the pest’s country or region of origin, and then introduced in small numbers into the new environment to establish self-sustaining populations that can keep pest populations at low levels. This method is most commonly used for invasive pest species such as cottony cushion scale on orange trees and sugar cane leafhopper in Hawaii.
While it is sometimes claimed that biological control is unreliable and that pesticides are a more reliable alternative, this claim is generally based on equivocal evidence. For example, many invasive pests have been controlled by the introduction of natural enemies, and some of these controls have been sustained for over 50-100 years. In addition, it should be noted that even when biological controls fail to eliminate a pest population completely, the failure is often the result of a combination of factors, including natural fluctuations in ecosystems and the development of resistance by the pest to the introduced biological control agent.
In the case of biological control, it is essential to carefully identify the pest species and its natural enemy complex, and then select natural enemies with specific traits such as searching ability, fecundity, and predation capacity. Despite these constraints, there is no reason to believe that biological control will not continue to be an important tool in managing a wide range of plant pests in agro-ecosystems.
Chemical Control
Some pests are too persistent to be controlled by prevention or suppression methods and need to be removed with chemical means. These are often the most destructive pests and can destroy crops, damaging reputations and resulting in financial loss for growers and other stakeholders.
Chemical pest control includes a wide range of compounds, each designed to target specific types of pests. Some, like fungicides, kill only fungi or plant pathogens, while others target only insects, weeds or their development. In the US, chemicals used in pest control are classified as ‘plant protection products’ and must meet stringent requirements, so they can be sold legally.
Most chemical controls work by poisoning, repelling or otherwise interfering with the pests’ normal life processes. Some interfere with weed photosynthesis or insect molting, for example. Others are a lot more general, killing everything they come into contact with, including non-target organisms. Insecticides, for instance, have to be used very sparingly and should only be used when the alternative is not viable.
There are a number of other ways to use chemicals to control pests, including spraying and baiting. Poison baits, for example, are usually made from a substance that is toxic to the target pest but not to other species. These can be granules, sprays or gels and must be handled carefully to avoid accidental poisoning of unwitting animals.
Biological controls can also be used in conjunction with chemical pesticides. These are often called natural enemies and include predators, parasites, nematodes, viruses and competition. Some crops, trees and plants are naturally resistant to certain pests, too, so using them can help keep populations low.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an ecosystem-based approach that combines preventative tactics, such as changing cultivation practices or habitat manipulation, with targeted interventions when needed. This minimizes disruption to living and nonliving surroundings at the treatment site and helps reduce pesticide use. It is a good idea for all growers to develop IPM plans and to use them alongside biological and other forms of pest control where possible. The COSHH regulations dictate that any pest control activities must be undertaken by people who are suitably trained and have a valid Pest Control Licence.