Pests can cause structural damage to homes, buildings and trees. Unexplained damage is often the first sign that you might have a pest problem. Mice and rats gnaw on wires and chew packaging, causing damage and posing health risks such as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, leptospirosis and salmonella.
Pest Control Tarzana involves prevention, suppression and eradication. This article will discuss preventive methods and their options for controlling pests.
Pest control typically focuses on the treatment of an active infestation, but there’s another important aspect to consider: prevention. Preventive measures keep infestations from even forming, and they stop them from getting out of hand once they do take hold. By focusing on prevention, homeowners can save themselves time and money in the long run.
A major part of preventive measures is avoiding food sources that attract pests. For home pests, this means keeping counters clear of crumbs and other potential temptations, and regularly cleaning out trash cans. It’s also a good idea to regularly wipe down surfaces, mop floors and vacuum carpeting. A deep clean can banish lingering crumbs and help remove the odors that attract pests.
At a commercial level, this can involve keeping warehouses and other facilities free of clutter and closing off any pest-sized entry points. This might include closing dock doors as soon as possible, caulking cracks and crevices, and filling any gaps with steel wool or wire mesh. It’s a good idea to always inspect incoming merchandise for signs of pests, and have traps or bait stations available in case of any issues.
While these steps can be a good start, they’re often not enough to fully prevent an infestation. That’s why many people turn to preventive pest control services, which are designed to help keep pests away from homes and businesses before they get out of control. These are much less expensive than reactive treatments, and they can help prevent severe infestations from ever forming.
During preventative treatments, experienced professionals will apply barriers around areas where pests are likely to enter. This may include putting up traps or bait stations, or it may mean spraying a chemical barrier into places where pests tend to gather. These are effective methods for keeping pests out of a property, and they can be a great addition to any business’s food safety plan.
In addition to preventing pests, these services can also protect valuable art collections from damage. Because pests are attracted to high-resolution artwork, they’re a serious threat to delicate surfaces. If a pest infestation gets out of hand, it can lead to extensive and expensive damage. A preventive program can eliminate this risk by ensuring that pests are never allowed to enter in the first place.
Suppression Methods
Pest suppression methods reduce the population of an already present pest to below damaging or intolerable levels. This goal is often achieved through a combination of preventive and treatment methods. Suppression tactics must be chosen and applied wisely because reducing pest populations requires an understanding of their biology, tolerance for injury, economics, environmental impacts and limitations placed on the area in which the pest occurs.
Prevention tactics prevent pests from entering a site or inhibit their spread to new sites. Plowing, crop rotation, cleaning tillage equipment and greenhouses, managing irrigation schedules to limit long periods of high relative humidity and using barriers like netting or screening to exclude pests are some examples of prevention strategies.
Many pests originally lived in other places but were brought here on purpose or accidentally. They usually arrive without their natural enemies back home, so the predators, parasites and diseases that kept them in check there are absent here. When a pest species becomes well established here, it can become an “invasive” species, taking over habitats that were formerly occupied by native species. To help keep invasive species in check, teachers and students can work with local agencies to import and release natural enemies (see Activity on this page) to hunt down and bring home pest species to kill them here.
Biological Control
Biological methods use nature’s own organisms to manage pests. This can be as simple as releasing ladybugs to eat aphids in the garden or as complex as purchasing and releasing nematodes to attack harmful soil grubs in greenhouses. This method works best when the right enemy is selected for the pest, environmental conditions are favorable, food sources are available and the natural enemy has a good chance of survival and reproduction.
Fungi are the most important group of biological pest control agents because they can be used in natural settings (wetlands – purple loosestrife) and indoors (greenhouses – aphids). Like bacteria, they move around a plant seeking out wounds to eat. Once they find a pest, the fungi produce special structures that penetrate into the insect’s cuticle and kill it.
Prevention Methods
Pest infestations can do a lot of damage, but the best way to avoid them is with prevention methods. A pest control plan should include an inspection of the interior and exterior for potential entry points and conditions that promote pest activity, such as food, water, and shelter sources. Preventive measures can include sealing cracks and holes, removing attractants and eliminating host plants, keeping vegetation away from the building, and performing regular pest detection and monitoring.
Pests are largely attracted to buildings in search of food, water or shelter, so a preventive pest control program should focus on limiting these resources. Detecting and eliminating sources of attraction, such as faecal pellets, gnawed material or animal corpses, can reduce the number of rodents and other pests that are drawn to the museum.
Another way to prevent pests is through routine maintenance, such as the removal of weeds and debris around the building and the regularly cleaning of outdoor surfaces. This can be done by staff or by a professional.
Inside the museum, proper storage and sanitation practices can also prevent pests. The removal of crumbs and other residue from exhibit areas, proper trash disposal, and quarantine and inspection of new acquisitions and materials brought into the collection can prevent insect pests and fungal spores from infesting the building.
The geographic location of the facility can have an effect on the likelihood of pests, and a seasonal application of a treatment around the building can help keep them out in the fall when they are moving into their breeding phase. Educating staff about common pests and their habits, ideal habitats and preferred foods can be very helpful in preventing problems.
A good plan should also be flexible enough to take advantage of opportunities for prevention. For instance, the use of screens on windows can be a simple and effective preventive measure. An inspection of the exterior of the facility should be performed, and any gaps or holes should be sealed as soon as they are discovered. This will not only prevent the entrance of pests but also prevent them from getting worse over time.
Treatment Methods
Physical pest control involves the use of barriers, screens, fences and traps to keep unwanted insects and rodents away from buildings, gardens or crops. Often, simply blocking access to feeding and shelter sites can reduce the problem. Insect and rodent repellents are available in spray, powder or granule form to kill or deter pests. The active ingredients in these products disrupt the nervous system or metabolism of the target insect, causing death or deterrence. They are formulated to be specific to the type of pest treated and should be used as directed.
Chemical pest control uses pesticides to kill or deter unwanted insects and rodents, including herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. They are usually formulated to be specific to the type of problem and can be applied to surfaces or in areas where pests breed, feed, hide or nest. Insecticides, for example, are available in a variety of spray or granule forms and are designed to kill particular types of insects such as cockroaches or mosquitoes. The toxicity of these chemicals varies, and care must be taken to avoid exposure to non-target plants or animals.
There are also biological pest control methods which employ predators, parasites and pathogens to naturally manage the population of some pests. For instance, the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produces a toxin that destroys caterpillars. When mixed with a suitable carrier, it can be used to kill caterpillars and other Lepidopteran insects without harming people, pets or livestock.
Pests are generally divided into continuous, or endemic, species that occur throughout a region and require regular control measures, and sporadic or migratory species that only cause problems at certain times of the year. In addition, some pests may be able to adapt or develop resistance to control methods, and need new approaches.
Prevention is the key to effective pest control, and most infestations can be prevented by eliminating their food, shelter and breeding sites. The most common pests include ants, cockroaches, bedbugs and rodents. Keep premises clean, and seal any cracks or crevices where pests might enter. Remove piles of rubbish or stacks of wood where they can harbour and hide. Do not leave pet food or water out, and store these in containers that are tightly sealed.
