Many reputable pest control companies like Pest Control Lakeland will provide some guarantee for their services. The best will offer a warranty that covers more than just the initial treatment.
Identify and reduce the conditions that favor pests. This includes removing sources of food, water, and shelter.
Block pests with barriers like caulking and quality sealant. Locate and use traps that target pests on their usual routes.
Prevention
Prevention refers to steps taken to avoid infestation before pests become an issue. This includes preventing contamination from pests during transportation or storage, reducing food attracting conditions (e.g., crumbs), keeping trash cans closed and emptied regularly, and avoiding overcrowding of plants.
It also includes using clean seeds and transplants, scheduling irrigation to reduce disease risk, cleaning tillage and harvesting equipment between fields or operations, limiting crop movement, and maintaining field sanitation procedures. In addition, preventive methods can include avoiding use of pesticides where possible and employing biological controls.
The goal of preventive pest control is to provide an environment that is unwelcoming or unsuitable for the pests, so they will seek other areas for housing and feeding. Steps to achieve this goal may include eliminating contaminating materials from buildings, routinely vacuuming floors and cleaning counter tops and other surfaces, storing foods in sealed containers, and fixing leaky pipes or repairing cracks in walls. It is also important to keep up with regular yard maintenance, including mowing and trimming overgrown shrubs and trees.
A comprehensive preventive program also involves understanding the life cycle and behavior of a specific pest and addressing its needs, such as preventing access to water or food. For example, cockroaches are attracted to dark and moist places. School administrators can help reduce the cockroach population by providing a better garbage disposal, educating students about the proper way to store food in the classroom, and caulking cracks.
Identifying the presence of a pest can be difficult. Unexplained gnaw marks on packaging or furniture may indicate rodents, while a hollow sounding floor could indicate termites. Other signs of a pest problem include an unusual odor, droppings, and the presence of eggs or larvae.
When preventive techniques fail, suppression of the pest can be accomplished by removing food or water sources, destroying nests and adult forms, or applying chemicals. The choice of control method should be guided by the pest’s life cycle and behavior, its impact on human health and other organisms, and the relative hazards associated with various control substances. It is generally preferred to use non-chemical control techniques whenever possible, but the selection of a pesticide should be done carefully with the understanding that it may still be necessary.
Suppression
Pests are organisms that interfere with human activities by damaging or destroying crops, contaminating food, or invading homes and other buildings. Pest control is a complex set of activities that includes prevention, suppression, and eradication. The goals of pest control are to reduce the number and/or damage caused by pests, while causing as little harm to other organisms and the environment as possible. The strategies used to achieve these goals include natural, biological, chemical, cultural, physical, and regulatory controls.
Prevention is the best way to avoid pest infestations. Steps to prevent pests include keeping indoor and outdoor spaces clean, sealing cracks around doors and windows, and promptly disposing of trash. Regular inspections of buildings, especially in areas where food is prepared or stored, can help identify potential problem spots. In addition, removing food sources, such as standing water and compost piles, can deter pests.
Other methods to keep pests away from structures include screening, fencing, and netting. Traps and baits can also be used to capture or kill pests. Devices that alter the environment of pests, such as radiation and heat, can also be effective. Physical controls include screens, barriers, and walls that block pests from accessing sites.
The eradication of pests is a rare goal in outdoor situations, but it can be achieved with some insects. For example, a controlled release of predators or parasites can greatly reduce the population of an introduced pest, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly or the gypsy moth.
Eradication is much more common in enclosed environments, such as homes and commercial buildings. In these settings, regulations often dictate a zero tolerance for certain pests, such as rodents and flies in food facilities or anthrax spores in public health laboratories.
There are many steps that can be taken to control pests, including proper sanitation and the use of pest-resistant plants. In addition, the judicious application of pesticides can be an important part of a comprehensive pest control program. Before using any pesticide, it is important to read and follow the label. This will provide detailed instructions on how to apply the product safely and effectively.
Eradication
Chemical pest control involves the use of chemicals that kill or prevent infestations. These chemicals may be in liquid, aerosol, powder, or granular form. They are generally classified as herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, or larvicides. These chemicals are a vital part of the modern agricultural system and are widely used to protect crops, gardens, and homes from pests. However, it’s important to remember that chemical pesticides can have negative effects on the environment and human health if misused or overused. Therefore, it is essential to only use chemicals approved for your area and to follow the instructions carefully when applying them.
Prevention is an essential component of any pest control program. By taking steps to stop infestations before they start, you can save yourself time and money. Some simple preventive measures include sealing entry points, properly storing and disposing of food, keeping garbage cans tightly closed, maintaining landscape maintenance, and regularly inspecting your property for pest activity.
In many cases, the most effective way to manage pests is to target them directly. The use of baits and traps can be an effective way to lure pests into a trap where they can be killed or otherwise eliminated. These methods can be especially helpful for managing pests that are attracted to specific food sources or other environmental factors.
Pests often invade buildings and other structures because of access to water, food, shelter, or climate. By addressing the underlying causes of an infestation, you can dramatically reduce your need for aggressive treatments and intervention.
Some people choose to use natural methods of pest control, which involve using plants, herbs, minerals, or other organic materials to deter pests or destroy them. This is generally a safer option for the environment and human health than using chemicals, although it can take longer to be effective.
Another type of biological pest control is augmentative biological control, which involves introducing predatory insects or other natural enemies into an environment to suppress the population of targeted pests. This is sometimes used in greenhouses and in some fruit and vegetable fields. However, a well-documented example of disease eradication is smallpox, which was eradicated by the early 1900s.
Monitoring
After prevention and suppression actions have been taken, a key part of an integrated pest management (IPM) program is monitoring. Often called inspection, scouting, or sampling, it is the process of periodically observing and recording the presence and/or activity of pests in a space. Using this information, decisions can be made about whether or when to initiate control tactics.
In food processing environments, monitoring helps prevent a variety of issues including biological and physical contamination of foodstuffs from rodent droppings or insect parts, pathogens carried in the guts or on the external surfaces of pests and damage to products and their packaging. It also includes detecting changes in the presence or intensity of pest populations which can indicate that control tactics are needed.
Monitoring is most commonly performed by visual inspections, but can include a range of trapping devices as well. These may be passive traps that rely on the natural attraction of a bait or attractant, or specialized trapping devices such as “pantry” pest pheromone- or insect-specific traps which exploit behavioral patterns. These traps and their inspections can be used to identify pests as well as to gather data about their population levels, habitat, feeding habits and damage severity.
While a number of different devices can be employed in monitoring, it is important to remember that a sampling system should be site-, crop- and pest-specific. This is because the dynamics of a pest population can vary from one field to another and from one facility or building to the next.
Depending on the pest being monitored, it is also important to know what is normal for a given environment. This can help with regards to establishing thresholds for the presence of the pest, such as those which are often set for operating rooms and other sterile areas in health care facilities.
A basic tool to have in your monitoring kit is a flashlight. This will allow you to better see into hard-to-see places where pests are hiding or seeking shelter, such as behind and beneath equipment and furniture. It is also a good idea to carry a magnifier so that you can clearly read any pest identification marks or frass (excrement) left by the pest.