Pest Control Garland TX, is the process of protecting plants, animals, and people from unwanted organisms. In homes and urban environments, these include rodents that chew furniture and walls, cockroaches that contaminate food and trigger allergies and asthma attacks, and termites that can destroy buildings and cause skin problems.
Prevention is the most common goal, but eradication can be pursued in outdoor pest situations. Natural features often restrict the spread of some pests, and limiting food, shelter, overwintering sites, and roosting sites can also reduce them.
Pests are a problem in various settings, including homes and retail or food preparation environments. Their presence can contaminate the environment, destroy products and their packaging, or introduce disease-causing organisms into foodstuffs and other materials that may pose a health risk to humans. Prevention is generally considered a more effective approach to pest control than suppression and eradication, although a combination of methods may be needed to manage specific pests.
The first step in prevention is to identify the pest and the conditions that support its presence. Continuous pests are those that occur regularly and need regular control; sporadic or potential pests are those that only require control under particular environmental circumstances. Often, such factors as soil conditions or moisture can be identified and corrected to eliminate the pest population.
It is important to keep the area around your home free from clutter, which provides places for pests to hide and breed. Ensure that wood piles are kept away from the house and that shrubs, plants and trees are properly trimmed. This will prevent rodents and other pests from gaining easy access to your home.
Make sure all food is stored in sealed containers, especially fruit and vegetables, and that garbage cans are tightly closed and removed on a regular basis. Avoid letting water collect in the home, such as in trays under house plants or on the refrigerator shelf.
If you must use pesticides, make sure you only use them when necessary and never spray in the open air. Also, always read the label and follow directions exactly. Avoid over-applying, as this can lead to contamination of the surrounding environment. Never use illegal or unregistered pesticides, as these are dangerous and can be harmful to people and animals.
It is also a good idea to plant a wide range of flowers and vegetables that provide natural sources of nutrition for beneficial insects. This will help to balance the ecosystem and reduce reliance on chemical insecticides. This is called Integrated Pest Management and is a good alternative to the more traditional methods of pest control.
Suppression
Suppression methods limit pest activity and prevent or slow the growth of existing infestations. They are most effective when applied quickly when conditions are right for the pest, such as in the early stages of an outbreak. These strategies include physical or mechanical control, chemical controls and biological control.
Physical controls include adjusting site conditions to make them less suitable for the pest and destroying or deterring the pests themselves. Cultural practices such as plowing, crop rotation, thinning, pruning, and cleaning greenhouses and tillage equipment help to deprive pests of a comfortable habitat or restrict their movement. Irrigation schedules that provide water only when needed and in small amounts can also be helpful in suppressing pest problems.
Biological pest control uses natural enemies to reduce the size of targeted pest populations. This can be done by introducing predators, parasitoids, or pathogens that injure or kill the pests. In some cases, the organisms are bred in the laboratory and then released into the environment in small, repeated batches or in a large single release. Bacillus thuringiensis, for example, is an effective biological pesticide that destroys caterpillars and other Lepidopteran insects without harming people or plants.
Chemical controls are a necessary part of pest management. They may be used alone or in combination with other methods and include synthetic or organic chemicals. The most common chemical treatments are fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides. Fungicides and herbicides directly kill or control the targeted pest, while insecticides interfere with the development of the insects’ nervous systems, causing paralysis and death.
When populations of a pest reach economic or aesthetic thresholds, or when the effectiveness of biological control agents is compromised by environmental factors such as climate or topography, eradication methods are required. Eradication typically requires a combination of regulatory control methods, such as quarantine and eradication programs, in which humans work cooperatively with state and federal agencies to improve plant and food production practices to eliminate pests.
Proper personal safety is critical when implementing any pest management strategy. Ensure that you are familiar with the application and use of any product or procedure you apply, and always follow product label instructions for personal protective equipment (PPE). Basic PPE includes long-sleeved shirts, pants, closed-toe footwear, gloves, face and eye protection.
Eradication
In pest control, the term eradication refers to the complete destruction of an unwanted organism. This is a very difficult goal to achieve and is usually only attempted in very severe cases where a pest has escaped control efforts or when it has invaded an area for which eradication would enhance social welfare. Eradication programs are typically large and expensive, and their success depends on the adequacy of financial resources at local, national, and international levels.
A number of physical, biological, and chemical methods can be used to eliminate pests. In general, a combination of techniques is necessary to most effectively manage pests while minimizing adverse effects on the environment and humans. In addition, the choice of pesticides should always be made with safety and environmental concerns in mind. For example, using trap crops such as zinnia to attract and kill Japanese beetles is a good way to reduce the population of this pest without harming beneficial insects in the garden. Chemical sprays should be restricted to areas where they are needed and should be used only when other methods have failed. When used correctly, most pesticides can be a safe and effective tool in the hands of a knowledgeable user.
Biological pest control uses living organisms such as bacteria and viruses to help manage pest populations. Insects and plants can be inoculated with these organisms, which kill or disrupt the pests’ nervous systems, metabolisms, or reproductive systems. Bacillus thuringiensis, for example, is used to control caterpillars and other insect pests in vegetable gardens. This method is less invasive than chemical pesticides, but may take some time to work.
Physical pest control involves putting up barriers that prevent pests from accessing buildings or cropland. Screening windows and doors, sealing cracks, and repairing crevices can all make it more difficult for pests to gain entry into homes and gardens. Other physical methods include trimming bushes, keeping trash cans sealed, and regularly cleaning up piles of leaves or other debris.
Many pests can be managed by removing their food, water, or shelter. Eliminating these factors can be particularly helpful in preventing a recurrence of an infestation. Clutter, for example, provides hiding places and breeding grounds for ants. Keep clutter to a minimum in your home, and store garbage and compost in tightly closed containers.
Monitoring
Identifying and evaluating the number of pests is an important part of many pest control programs. This is often referred to as monitoring and scouting and is done to help determine the threshold at which pest control action must be taken to prevent unacceptable damage or injury. Typically, this involves checking or scouting for pests on a regular basis and recording the results of this activity, such as the number caught on traps, pheromone lures, or insect light traps.
When pests invade our homes, businesses and agricultural areas they can cause serious problems such as disease, contamination of food products, destruction of plants or property, and discomfort or distress to animals. Pests can be bacteria, fungus, birds, insects or rodents. They may be weeds, viruses, mites, ticks or nematodes that can transmit diseases to humans and animals. Pests can also harm the environment, contaminate water supplies, and ruin our food crops.
In outdoor pest situations, eradication is rarely accomplished, except for newly introduced or foreign pests that need to be controlled in order to avoid economic losses. Eradication is a more common goal in enclosed environments such as buildings, schools and health care facilities.
Suppression is a common goal in most pest situations. In food processing and storage, the goals are to reduce pest numbers to a level at which they can be tolerated without damaging the facility or its services. This may require a combination of control tactics including exclusion, repellents, pheromone traps and/or chemical controls.
In museum environments, monitoring is used to record the number of pests captured on sticky boards or pheromone traps. This information can be trended over time to determine if the problem is getting better or worse. It can also be used to assess the effectiveness of a treatment plan, such as changing a bait or adjusting pheromone lures.
Pests can be difficult to manage, but with a combination of prevention and suppression strategies, they are usually not a major problem. It is a good idea to use more than one method of pest control, as they are often resistant to specific methods of attack.