Pests like ants, mice and roaches can cause serious health problems. They carry bacteria and diseases that are dangerous for humans.
Physical or mechanical controls include traps, barriers and nets. Heat, radiation and changing the amount of water can help control some pests. Contact Pest Control O’Fallon MO now!
Natural predators and parasites, such as nematodes (microscopic worms) can suppress pest populations. Nematodes, for instance, are especially effective on grubs and fleas.
Prevention
Pests are more than a nuisance, they can cause serious damage that puts your home and family in danger. The best way to protect yourself and your loved ones from disease-carrying pests is with preventive pest control.
Preventive pest control is the process of regularly inspecting your property to identify potential problems before they become a full-blown infestation. Prevention is more cost effective than one-off treatments, so it saves homeowners money in the long run.
In general, there are a number of factors that influence when it is necessary to take action against an unwanted pest population. Known as “action threshold levels,” they may be based on esthetic or health considerations, the presence of other pests or damage to crops. Once a threshold level is reached, the optimum course of action can be determined.
Clutter provides places for pests to breed and hide, as well as a buffet of food sources. Eliminating clutter and securing your trash cans will help keep pests at bay. And don’t forget to properly wash and store all foods, especially any that you have stored outside of your refrigerator.
Pests are attracted to dirty environments and can contaminate our food supply. A good cleaning routine, such as thoroughly washing and sanitizing all surfaces and floors on a regular basis will also keep pests at bay.
The weather, including temperature, daylight length and humidity, affects pest behavior and activity. For example, if temperatures drop, a pest’s rate of reproduction will slow, and if it is an herbivore, its feeding will stop altogether. The climate can also affect plant-eating pests by altering the growth of their host plants, making them more or less susceptible to damage.
The use of natural resources to suppress pest populations, rather than chemical treatment methods, is another form of preventive pest control. These include predatory or parasitic insects and insect-like organisms, birds, mammals, reptiles and fish that feed on pests or their eggs, as well as pathogens that naturally reduce pest populations. These methods typically do not require the use of chemicals, so they are less harmful to humans and the environment.
Inspection
Pest infestations can be costly, especially if left unchecked. Aside from requiring expensive eradication and repair, some pests can carry harmful diseases, making them a threat to human health. A regular pest inspection can help prevent such an occurrence and keep your facility free of these potentially dangerous organisms.
A professional pest control inspector will conduct a thorough check of the interior and exterior of your property or building. They will look for signs of pest activity, possible entry points and any areas that can serve as breeding grounds. They will also examine the condition of your facility and identify any areas that need urgent repairs.
The initial inspection will usually take one to two hours, depending on the size and complexity of your home. Once the inspector has assessed the property, they will then create a report and recommend any treatment options. In many cases, the costs of a pest inspection can be offset by the seller or buyer, depending on the terms of the sale and local real estate customs.
In addition to identifying potential entry points and breeding areas, pest control inspections can also help identify other conditions that could make your facilities more susceptible to pest infestations. For example, moisture issues like leaky roofs or basements, standing water around gutters, unsealed cracks or gaps and improperly stored food can attract pests and provide ideal conditions for their proliferation.
Another common problem found in many commercial buildings is overgrown landscaping or outdoor structures that serve as hiding places for pests, such as rodents and cockroaches. Regular pest inspections can help you identify these problems before they become major issues that can affect your business operations and lead to a loss of revenue.
Routine pest control inspections can also help you maintain a safe environment for your employees and patients. Certain pests, such as rodents and birds, may be carriers of pathogens and allergens that can pose a risk to human health. By catching these threats in their early stages, you can protect your employees and patients and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
Control
There are a number of ways to control pests and ensure that they do not cause damage to food and buildings. These include traps, baits and chemical treatments. The choice of control methods will depend on the type and severity of the infestation, as well as local and state laws.
Monitoring is a key aspect of pest control. This involves regularly checking a field, landscape, building, or forest to determine the presence of pests and how much damage they have caused. It also helps in determining whether the situation demands action or not. This information, combined with a variety of factors such as the biology and ecology of the pest, can help in selecting the most effective management strategy.
The most common signs of pests are droppings, seeing them in the kitchen or living areas, or finding damaged furniture or items. These should be addressed immediately as they can pose serious health and safety risks. For example, rats can gnaw through wires, and carry diseases such as hantavirus, leptospirosis, salmonella, and more.
Pest control services work to provide a safe and hygienic environment in homes and businesses, and can help with prevention of infestations through good hygiene practices and sealing up cracks and crevices. They also advise on storing foods properly, and how to dispose of garbage correctly.
Chemical controls can be used to kill or deter pests, and they are often a last resort when other measures have been exhausted. However, when these are used, care must be taken to prevent cross-contamination of foods and materials with any chemicals. For instance, approved bait boxes should be sited so as not to interfere with production and processing activities, electrical insect control devices should be located away from production areas, and only pyrethrins and other low-toxicity compounds should be used in catering or food preparation areas.
Biological controls, such as the introduction of the pest’s natural enemies or pathogens to control it, are sometimes used in conjunction with chemical control. This can help to achieve more sustainable results, and can even be more effective than conventional methods.
Treatment
A pest infestation can be a nuisance and a health risk, especially if disease-carrying organisms like cockroaches or rodents are involved. These insects can also cause damage to property, food and personal possessions. The best approach to pest control is prevention, which includes identifying entry points and possible nesting sites, sanitation protocols and regular maintenance. But some infestations will still require treatment to ensure that they are eliminated from a building or site.
Physical pest control techniques use traps, barriers or excluders to capture or deter pests. They are often effective for small-scale problems and can be non-toxic. They can be used as part of an integrated pest management (IPM) approach, where other methods like exclusion and sanitation are used before resorting to chemicals.
Other types of pest control involve the use of biological controls – introducing organisms that naturally compete with or prey on pests. These organisms may be bred in laboratories or obtained from the environment and then released in small numbers or on a large scale to manage pest populations. These organisms can be derived from plants or animals that the pests naturally feed on, such as snails and earthworms, or they can be “non-host” species that are inadvertently introduced to an area and then exploited by the pests.
Some biocontrol agents are bacteriophages, which kill parasitic insects by injecting them with viral particles that destroy the pests’ enzymes. Others, such as the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), produce a protein that is toxic to certain pest insects but not harmful to people or pets. Biological control methods are often less-toxic than synthetic chemical pesticides and can be more environmentally friendly.
Pesticides are a last resort, usually involving liquid or aerosol sprays. When using pesticides, it is important to follow the instructions and safety warnings on the label to prevent exposure risks to children and pets. Always apply pesticides to targeted areas and never spray whole rooms or surfaces. It is also important to keep clutter to a minimum as this provides pests with places to hide and breed.
It is common to see an increase in pest activity shortly after a residual treatment, particularly for ants and cockroaches. This is due to the many pests that have been flushed from their hiding spots and into contact with the residual treatment.