Pest Control O’fallon MO aims to prevent or reduce the number of insect, insect-like, and mollusk pests that damage crops, ornamental plants, or structures. Monitoring for such pests can include scouting, trapping, and collecting data on injury or spoilage.
Environmental factors such as water availability, food supply, and shelter often influence pest populations. Weather conditions can also indirectly affect pests by affecting the growth of their hosts.
Pest infestations are not only a nuisance, they can damage property and threaten the health and safety of people and pets. Some pests, like cockroaches and rats, carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans. Others, like wasps and bees, can sting, causing painful injuries and allergic reactions. The best way to prevent pests from entering buildings is to identify and eliminate entry points and attractants. These include removing food sources, sealing cracks and gaps around doors and windows, and keeping garbage bins tightly closed.
Preventive measures are particularly important in enclosed environments, such as residences; schools and hospitals; and food processing, preparation and storage facilities. In these situations, eradication is less likely to be achieved than in outdoor settings.
Many pests enter structures looking for food, water or shelter. Therefore, a preventive program should include an inspection of the interior and exterior to identify potential entries and attractants. Regular sweeping, vacuuming and wiping down surfaces can lift food particles and crumbs that can attract pests. Properly storing food in sealed containers can also deter pests. In addition, repairing leaky pipes and maintaining good drainage are crucial to reducing moist conditions that can encourage some pests, such as mosquitoes and termites.
Sealing gaps and cracks in the exterior of the building can help to keep out pests, such as ants and roaches. Caulking and using weather stripping are common methods for addressing this problem. Installing screens on windows and doors can also be an effective preventive measure, especially for flying pests. Regularly checking and replacing screens can ensure that they remain effective.
Pesticides are often used in conjunction with traps and baits to achieve optimal results. When selecting a pesticide, the benefits and risks should be carefully weighed. It is essential that the correct type and dose of pesticide is used, and that local, State and Federal regulations are observed. It is recommended that all household pesticides should be schedule 7 or lower, and only those with a low risk of exposure to children and pets be used in the home.
In addition, it is important that the occupants of the home understand how to reduce their exposure when others use pesticides. This includes knowing how to remove food from kitchen benches before spraying, and being aware of the symptoms of an allergic reaction to a sprayed substance.
Suppression
Hopefully your preventive measures will keep pests from ever becoming a problem for you, but if an infestation does occur, there are a number of ways to handle the issue. The first step is to contact your local exterminating company to address the infestation. They will recommend the best course of action to take.
The goal of control is to quickly reduce the pest population to non-damaging levels. This is usually accomplished by a combination of physical and chemical means. Physical methods include the use of barriers to pest entry, such as caulking cracks and crevices or installing a door sweep. Chemical barriers can be in the form of a spray or baits. Pesticides are often used to provide a remedial, knock-down effect in situations where the insect or rodent population has already risen to damaging levels.
Cultural controls are a common method of controlling pests in agricultural settings. These include plowing, crop rotation, removal of infected plant material, cleaning of greenhouse and tillage equipment and good manure management. Biological controls can also be used to suppress pests. This involves introducing parasites, predators or pathogens that will feed on or attack the pest. Biological controls are not a replacement for chemical pesticides but are an important component of integrated pest management (IPM) plans.
Sanitation practices can also be helpful in controlling pests. They involve removing food, water and shelter for the pests by increasing the frequency of garbage pickup, reducing clutter and repairing leaks or standing water in the yard. Good sanitation can help to reduce odors that attract pests, and can also decrease carryover of pests from one area or crop to another.
Some pests, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly and gypsy moth, can be eradicated with the help of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Eradication is more difficult in outdoor settings where natural forces influence pest populations and where preventive controls may be less effective. However, in closed environments, such as health care, office buildings and food processing and preparation areas, eradication of some pests is an essential part of the control program.
Eradication
Pest control is important because pests can spread diseases, contaminate food and damage property. Pests can also create a nuisance and impact our quality of life, whether by their appearance (like roaches or spiders) or their behavior (like chewing or biting). There are many different methods for controlling pests, from physical barriers to chemical sprays. Some are more effective for certain types of pests, and different companies may specialize in particular techniques.
Often, the best way to deal with pests is to prevent them from coming into your home in the first place. Pests often look for food, water and shelter to thrive, so removing these resources from the environment can significantly reduce their numbers. Clean up garbage regularly, seal cracks and crevices in your home, and remove cluttered areas to make it harder for pests to find hiding places. Leaking pipes are especially attractive to pests, so it’s also a good idea to repair them as soon as possible.
Physical pest control involves putting up physical barriers to keep pests out of buildings or crops, such as screens, netting and traps. It’s also one of the most environmentally friendly methods, because it avoids using chemicals that can harm the environment and human health.
Chemical pest control is generally reserved for severe insect infestations or large populations of insects that haven’t responded to other treatments. Pesticides can be liquid, solid or aerosol and work by killing or repelling pests by attacking their nervous systems, metabolic processes or reproductive organs. They can also disrupt the environment by affecting the chemistry of the soil or water.
The word “eradicate” comes from the Latin verb eradicare, meaning to pull up by the roots. That’s exactly what happens when you use this method of pest control, which is typically used only in the most extreme situations.
In eradication, you’re trying to get rid of the entire population of a pest, which is much more difficult than suppression or prevention. It’s rare to see this as a goal for outdoor pest situations, although it is occasionally attempted with foreign fruit fly and gypsy moth control programs, for example. In indoor settings, however, eradication is a common goal.
Monitoring
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) involves monitoring the numbers of pests and the damage they cause. This helps determine when the pest population has reached a level that warrants action. It also helps to track the effectiveness of pest control measures. Monitoring can be done by trapping, scouting, examining damage, checking environmental factors and/or recording observations. It is important that the information collected is recorded and associated with location and other relevant factors. Spreadsheets are a useful tool to use for recording observations.
Pests can be destructive or nuisance, like silverfish and earwigs; they can carry disease, such as rodents and cockroaches; they contaminate food, such as mice and rats; or they are a threat to health, as in the case of bacteria in operating rooms and other sterile areas of hospitals. They may have a foul smell, such as that of skunks or pine seed bugs; or they can bite, sting, or cause other irritation, as in the case of mud dauber wasps and yellowjackets. Pests can also stain or discolor objects, such as clothes moths and carpet beetles.
There are a number of ways to monitor pest populations, from simple traps to sophisticated devices that work 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Some traps are designed to capture specific insects through the use of pheromone attractants while others catch and kill pests through physical means. For example, a common trap is a plastic or cardboard base covered with a sticky glue-like substance that pests walk or fly into and cannot escape from.
Monitoring is critical to IPM because it helps prevent misinformed decisions that could have unintended consequences, such as applying pesticides when there is no need to do so. Without a system of monitoring, a vegetable grower might assume that pests are present and apply a treatment just to be safe, wasting time, money and resources.
Monitoring also helps IPM practitioners move away from using chemicals to eliminate pests and toward searching for long-term solutions, such as physical management and exclusion. Physical management includes removing food, water and shelter sources from pests and preventing them from entering facilities by repairing screens, doors, windows and other entrance points. Exclusion includes screening, caulking and plastering to keep pests out, as well as routine maintenance on the exterior of facilities to make them less attractive to pests.
