Treasure Valley Pest Control involves managing the presence of pests to reduce harm to the environment and human health. This can be achieved through prevention, suppression, and eradication.
To deter rodents and other pests, keep garbage bins and compost piles away from the house. Also, clean out closets and other storage areas frequently.
A pest infestation can cause health problems and property damage. In addition to being unsightly, rats can gnaw on electrical wires, mice can chew through drywall and wood, and spiders, scorpions, and bees can carry diseases such as hantavirus, leptospirosis, and Salmonella. Preventing pest infestations is easier than you might think. Various things can be done to keep pests away from your home or business, including proper sanitation and targeted treatment methods such as gel baits and insecticides.
The first step is preventing pests from accessing food, water, and shelter. This can be achieved by storing food in sealed containers, disposing of garbage frequently, and sealing trash bins. Also, regularly check your home for cracks and openings that can serve as entry points for pests and repair them immediately.
Another way to prevent pests is to look for leaking pipes—this can be particularly important in areas where food is stored. If you notice a leak, it’s essential to fix it right away, as it could lead to spoiled goods, structural damage, and health risks.
Finally, the use of pest predators, parasites and pathogens can be a great way to control pest populations. These organisms can help reduce pest numbers by feeding on them or causing disease, and many of these are found in nature and can be harnessed to provide natural pest control.
The most effective way to manage pests is by using an integrated pest management (IPM) approach that includes prevention, suppression and eradication techniques. This is an environmentally friendly method of managing pests and emphasizes treating only those areas where pests are found, rather than blanket spraying areas. It also relies on a partnership between the pest control operator and the customer, with both parties working together to identify the problem and address it. During routine IPM inspections, it’s important to report any pest sightings and indicators so that the PCO can treat them effectively. This will allow for more precise treatments and limit the amount of products required. It will also minimize the potential risk to employees, customers, and visitors and maintain a safe environment.
Suppression
Pests are organisms that invade and damage crops, ornamental plants, turfgrass and home landscapes. Several techniques are available to control or eliminate these pests, including preventive, suppression and eradication methods. Preventive techniques deprive pests of comfortable habitats and prevent them from spreading while suppression reduces the population of current infestations and eradication eradicates them entirely.
Natural, biological, cultural, mechanical, and chemical controls are used to limit pests in their environment. Natural controls such as weather and topography act to limit the number of pests while cultural practices such as plowing, crop rotation, frequent cleaning of greenhouse and tillage equipment, composting and mulching alter the environment to make it unsuitable for pests. Chemicals such as herbicides and insecticides may be used to kill or deter pests, but are most often applied to stop them from damaging crops.
Many pests are parasites or predators that attack their host or other pests. Conserving and releasing these organisms to maintain or boost populations helps control pests. Examples of biological control include beneficial mites that kill harmful mites in orchards, nematodes that kill soil grubs and wasps that parasitize greenhouse whitefly.
The resistance of plants, trees and buildings to insects and other pests also can help control or eliminate them. Using resistant varieties of plants, wood and structures can deprive the pests of their desirable environments and prevent them from invading.
Suppression techniques include monitoring pests to determine the economic injury level or threshold at which damage or losses begin to occur. Threshold-based decision-making allows growers to use control measures only when necessary, reducing the amount of pesticides used.
Observation and inspection are essential to prevent, identify, and monitor pests. This information enables the implementation of pest management techniques that are most appropriate for the situation and minimize risks to human health, the environment and beneficial organisms. It is important to follow product labels and wear basic personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling pest control materials to avoid exposure and injury. These basic precautions should include long-sleeved shirts, pants, closed toe shoes and gloves, face and eye protection, and a full facial shield or mask to reduce the risk of inhalation.
Eradication
Unlike prevention and suppression, eradication is the ultimate goal in some pest situations. Eradication techniques attempt to wipe out an entire population of a particular pest, usually in a large geographic area. This approach is most often used when a new disease or insect threatens human health and well-being. Examples include the Mediterranean fruit fly, gypsy moth and fire ants. In some cases, eradication is also attempted in indoor environments where zero tolerance is required, such as operating rooms and other sterile areas of medical facilities.
When a pesticide is used over a wide geographical area, it may be possible that a portion of the pest population will develop resistance to the chemical. In addition, if the pesticide is used over an extended period of time, the target pests may be in a different life cycle stage or location when exposed to the chemical. To reduce the chances of pesticide resistance, it is important to rotate pest control chemicals when using them and to always follow label instructions.
Some people avoid using pesticides because of their potential toxicity and other adverse effects. Others use home remedies to prevent pests, such as placing twigs in birdbaths to deter mosquitoes or filling them with water to discourage fleas and ticks. If you must use a pesticide, only a qualified pest control technician should apply it. When choosing a pesticide, look for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered formula that targets the specific pest you wish to control. Also consider the type of application: liquids, powders or sprays and whether it will come into direct contact with your skin.
Before applying a pesticide, it is essential to wear the proper safety equipment. Gloves protect hands from contact with pesticides and can prevent bites or stings. A respirator filters out particles from chemicals and helps prevent respiratory problems. Safety boots protect against spills and other accidents. A helmet prevents head injuries due to falling objects and offers protection from flying chemicals or pest waste. Goggles shield your eyes from splashes and foreign substances.
Eradication is a difficult and expensive goal for most pests, but it can be accomplished when it is the only reasonable option to protect public health or improve quality of life. The costs of eradication must be weighed against the benefits of avoided infection, vaccination and other economic losses.
Biological Control
Biological control uses natural enemies—predators, parasitoids, pathogens, or competitors—to reduce pest populations. These organisms can be found in the environment or are produced by research programs at APHIS Plant Protection Science and Technology Centers, universities, or other institutions. Biological control is an important part of IPM because it reduces the need for chemical pesticides.
Many insect natural enemies are bacteria, fungi, viruses, or nematodes that infect and kill their host species. Some of these microorganisms are commercially available as “biological” or “microbial” pesticides, such as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), entomopathogenic nematodes, and granulosis viruses. Some are also used as contact or systemic pesticides, such as spinosad, which is a fermentation product of a naturally occurring bacterium.
A common biological control strategy is classical biological control or inoculative biology, which involves the importation from the pest’s native habitat of natural enemies that have been studied for their ability to suppress it. This approach is often successful against exotic, or invasive, pests that have become established in new areas. For example, the introduction of predatory ladybugs Rodolia cardinalis in Europe helped control the invasive apple maggot Icerya purchasi in the 1920s. This method has been most effective in long-term perennial crops, where natural enemy populations can build up to suppress the pests over time.
Another form of biological control is augmentation, which involves periodically introducing more natural enemies to an area. This approach is most useful for crops that have critical periods in their development, such as bud burst and flowering. This type of biological control is typically applied only after careful scouting and sampling to determine the current population of the target pest and its interaction with natural enemies.
Augmentation is the most common technique for implementing biocontrol in IPM, but there are other ways to use it as well. For example, an APHIS PPQ-funded biological control program is developing agents to suppress the potato tuber moth (Tuta absoluta). The agent works by inhibiting the moth’s growth hormones. It is being tested against other species of the genus as well as in field tests to see how well it performs.