Common Garden Pests and How to Keep Them at Bay

Pests are organisms that spoil crops, damage property, or cause disease in humans and animals. Natural features, such as mountains and bodies of water, restrict the spread of many pests.

Prevention is the first step in pest control. Encourage customers to remove food, water, shelter sources, and caulk cracks. Click the Pest Control Vancouver to learn more.

Identifying the pest is a crucial first step in any pest management plan. This helps to ensure that a control method will be effective and will not harm other organisms or the environment. It also enables the use of preventive methods such as sanitation, physical controls, or cultural practices, or the use of more targeted pesticides.

Pest identification begins by noticing the presence of a pest, and then determining its characteristics, habitat requirements, and time and location of occurrence. These data are used to identify the pest, and also to learn about its life cycle and biology.

This information can then be used to determine if there are any prevention or control measures available for the pest. If prevention isn’t possible, then the next step is to decide on a pesticide or pesticide combination to use to kill the pest. It is important to always read labels carefully to make sure that the product you are using is specific to the pest, and that it will be effective.

In addition, identifying the pest to Order is a key step in IPM because this allows the use of less toxic biological insecticides such as Bacillus thuringiensis. This is because these products have specific activity against certain insect orders, and are not effective against other insect orders.

Preventive measures include good sanitation, cleaning and sanitizing in areas where pests are a problem, and keeping food and water out of reach of pests. This includes storing food in sealed containers, and preventing access to food sources like bird feeders. Physical controls include knocking sapsuckers off of plants with water or oil spray, removing infested plant material, and blocking entry into buildings or structures. Cultural practices can also be used to suppress pests, such as by growing competitive plants or applying barriers or traps.

Scouting and monitoring are also critical parts of IPM. By going out on a regular basis, checking and observing pests in the environment, pest control professionals can be proactive and stop problems before they become large infestations. It is a good idea to create a routine, such as every day or weekly, and set up traps or bait stations in the locations where the pests are most active.

Suppression

Pests interfere in places where people live, work and play. They harm crops and natural habitats, irritate or destroy buildings and equipment, and transmit diseases to humans and animals. Pests can be bacteria, fungus, birds, weeds, rodents, invertebrates like mites and ticks or insects such as ants, flies and wasps, or even plant-parasitic nematodes. Suppression of pests involves controlling their populations below a level where they cause unacceptable damage. Whether pests are present at a low or high level, suppression should be an integral part of any integrated pest management (IPM) program.

Suppression can be achieved through a combination of physical, biological and chemical techniques. The methods used should be tailored to the specific pest being controlled. It’s also important to use the least toxic methods possible and to observe State and Federal pesticide regulations.

Biological control includes organisms that are naturally enemies of the pest and can reduce their population levels. Some examples of biological controls are the use of predators, parasitoids and pathogens. Predators kill the pests directly, while parasitoids and pathogens destroy the pest’s internal organs or afflict other parts of the body. Increasing the density of natural enemies can also help suppress insect pests. This can be accomplished by conservation of existing natural enemies, mass rearing and periodic release of new organisms, or by using natural enemies that are adapted to local conditions.

Physical pest control techniques involve barriers and traps that prevent pests from entering or exiting a site. Traps are most common and include bait stations that attract pests with a food source, or simple traps that are placed where the pest is causing damage. Physical control also includes soil and water management practices, which can reduce the number of pests by changing their environment or the conditions that favor them.

Prevention is a key component of pest control, and should always be the first line of defense. Prevention tactics include using pest-free seeds and transplants, crop rotation, field sanitation procedures, cleaning tillage equipment between fields or operations, and managing irrigation schedules to avoid prolonged periods of high relative humidity, which promote disease in many pests.

Prevention

Even though strict hygiene guidelines and food safety laws mean that pests like pigeons, mice, rats, insects, fleas and bees are not very common problems in commercial premises, they can still pose a serious risk to health and wellbeing. The same is true of pests that infest homes. It is important that any pest control methods are not invasive or damaging, and they also must not be in conflict with the environment.

Prevention can involve putting up physical barriers and ‘pest proofing’ the premises to stop pests from entering in the first place. This involves’sealing up’ any entry points that pests could use, such as cracks and crevices. It may also involve removing a pest’s food sources or their nests. Alternatively, traps and bait stations can be used to catch pests when they are most likely to enter the premises, such as when they are attracted by food or water sources. This works best when it is possible to predict a pest’s movement patterns.

Chemicals, known as pesticides, can be used to kill pests such as ants and cockroaches. They can be sprayed on crops to protect them from insects and fungi, or they can be used in the home to kill household pests such as ants and cockroaches. Pesticides can be found in the form of sprays and granules, but must always be used as per label instructions and in accordance with appropriate safety protocols.

Biological pest control uses natural mechanisms such as predation, parasitism and herbivory to reduce or remove a specific species of pest. It is often one of the most ecologically sensitive methods. Classical biological control involves introducing ‘natural enemies’ of the pest, which are often bred in the laboratory and then released into an area in small, repeated batches or in one large release. This method of pest control can be very effective, especially when combined with other preventative methods.

The most effective way of controlling pests is to prevent them from accessing food, water and shelter in the first place. This is why it is essential to maintain clean environments, seal any cracks and make sure that all waste products are properly disposed of.

Eradication

The ultimate goal of pest control is eradication, the permanent reduction to zero worldwide incidences of infection caused by a particular infectious agent as a result of deliberate efforts. Only 2 diseases have been declared eradicated – smallpox (Variola virus, VARV) and rinderpest (RPV), both of which were historically devastating to livestock herds – until dedicated global campaigns led to their elimination. Eradication requires a multifaceted approach with activities conducted at local, community, national, regional and global levels. The underlying principles of eradication include the control of vectors, intermediary hosts and human populations and a rigorous program of vaccination coupled with environmental controls and certification.

The word “eradicate” is derived from the Latin verb extirpate, meaning literally to uproot or pull out by the roots. This explains the ambiguity of the term, as other derivatives such as exterminate and uproot also mean to destroy or eliminate. The ambiguity also invites misunderstandings, particularly when used by people who are not familiar with the specific context in which the term is being used.

Infectious disease anthropologists have attempted to provide precise definitions of control, eradication and extinction in terms of the biological systems that govern the ecology of microbes, their vectors and intermediary host species. The difficulty is that the natural reproductive rate, R, for a given pathogen depends on an array of environmental conditions that are highly variable throughout the world. Thus, the optimal level of intervention required to suppress disease transmission varies in different parts of the world.

An eradication program can be costly, requiring substantial financial and personnel resources. The net benefit of eradication must be weighed against the costs in order to determine whether eradication is appropriate. Long-term benefits consist of avoided future infections and vaccine costs, which are valued and discounted; if this benefit is greater than the cost of eradication, then eradication is justified.

The success of an eradication effort depends on the capacity of nations to implement and execute the necessary interventions at the appropriate scale. The capacity of a nation to do so depends on a variety of factors including the availability of skilled personnel, the availability and cost of technology and diagnostic tools, the strength of local public health programs and a range of political and economic factors.