Pests have to get inside your house somehow, and they usually slip through cracks or holes that are too small for you to notice. Check the foundation and around windows and doors to find and seal any entry points.

Clutter provides places for pests to hide, so keep your home as clean as possible. Vacuum often, and sweep or wipe surfaces regularly. Contact North Vancouver Pest Control now!

Prevention is a key component of pest control. It involves keeping pests out or away by making sure that they have an insufficient food, water, or shelter supply. It can also include “pest proofing” – sealing entry points to the building or garden. Prevention can be achieved through physical, chemical, or biological methods.

Physical controls include traps, screens, and barriers. These can be either physical (such as caulking cracks or blocking holes) or chemical (such as insecticides). Chemical and physical controls have different risks and benefits, so both may be used in combination.

Chemicals are typically more effective than physical barriers against some pests. However, they can also pose risks to people and the environment if they are used improperly. For this reason, it is important to know the pests you are trying to manage and to choose a strategy that will minimize risk of human exposure to pesticides.

Observation and monitoring are keys to preventing pest outbreaks and to deciding when to begin control efforts. Scouting and monitoring can help to identify pests, determine their numbers, and evaluate the damage they are causing. For example, observing that a number of Japanese beetles is present in the yard can tell you that it is time to look for and destroy their nest.

The environment also influences pest populations through climate, natural enemies, and natural barriers. Natural enemies are birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and mammals that feed on some pests or parasitize them. The presence of natural barriers, such as trees or tall grasses, can limit pest access to food, water, and shelter.

Regularly cleaning up discarded items in yards and gardens can reduce the food and water available to pests, as can regularly removing trash from garbage cans and compost bins. Clutter provides hiding places for pests and can make it harder to spot them, so reducing clutter is a great preventive measure. Similarly, keep garbage receptacles closed and covered, and clean up pet food, bird feeders, and rodent droppings.

Suppression

Preventing pests from becoming a problem is an important goal of any pest management program. It may involve physical modifications to the growing environment such as lining containers with plastic, altering irrigation scheduling to avoid conditions favorable to disease development, washing tillage and harvesting equipment between fields or operations, sanitizing tools and storage areas, and planting pest-resistant varieties. Prevention strategies also include cultural controls, such as avoiding watering near roots and trunks of trees, keeping plant debris clear of the field, and picking fruit before it becomes infested.

Often, a pest will reach a level of damage that is economically or environmentally unacceptable and a suppression action must be taken. This is where the economic threshold level, or ETL, comes into play. This is a point at which the cost of control equals or exceeds the value of the damage expected. The ETL is usually determined by the producer or grower and can be adjusted based on factors such as crop prices and costs of control.

Suppression tactics are used to reduce the pest population below the ETL. These methods are usually less expensive than preventative strategies. They include all the usual chemicals, but also mechanical, cultural and biological controls. It is important when selecting a suppression strategy to consider the effect the tactic will have on non-target organisms, including beneficial insects and earthworms.

Many growers and green industry professionals are searching for alternatives to chemical pesticides in their quest for sustainability, operational flexibility and environmental safety. Consumer demand is a major driver in this search, which has been fueled by public concern over the negative health and environmental impacts of neonicotinoids.

Biological control relies on natural enemies (parasites, predators, herbivores, pathogens) to keep pest populations below damaging levels. This method may be supplemented by artificial means, such as the release of large numbers of an enemy that has been laboratory bred. This approach is sometimes referred to as classic biological control. The use of biological control requires patience, as there is generally a lag between the onset of the enemy and the desired reduction in the pest population.

Eradication

A pest infestation can be difficult to eradicate once it has taken hold. However, with the help of specialized techniques and equipment, pest control companies are able to eliminate most unwanted species from homes and businesses. These companies have the know-how to use specific methods for different types of pests, such as trapping for rodents and baiting for cockroaches. In addition, they have access to a wide range of commercially available chemicals, and will use the most effective ones for the job.

Eradication is the most difficult form of pest control to achieve. Infectious disease anthropologist Thomas Aiden Cockburn defines eradication as the “termination of the virus or pathogen at the source, which must involve the elimination of all independent reservoirs.” However, because humans are an essential part of the life-cycle of many pests, eradicating them is challenging.

The most common form of eradication is through chemical means. This includes herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and other synthetic chemical agents that are designed to kill or control pests. These are typically used on crops to protect them from insects and weeds, and in the home to control such pests as ants and roaches.

It is important to note that, when using any type of pesticide, it is necessary to follow safety procedures and the proper disposal instructions. This is especially true when dealing with insecticides, which can be very toxic to people and pets. In fact, it is a good idea to ask the pest control company for information about the chemical that they are using, including the name and EPA registration number. It is also wise to keep in mind that the pesticide may leave a residue, which can affect indoor air quality.

Another method of eradication is through biological control, which utilizes the pest’s natural enemies to reduce its population. This can include predators, parasites and other organisms that naturally reduce pest numbers. It can also include techniques such as the introduction of sterile males or the use of juvenile hormones to reduce reproductive capacity.

In order to control pests, it is important to understand their life cycle and the environment in which they live. Pests can spread diseases, contaminate food and damage property. They are also a nuisance and can cause damage to natural ecosystems.

Biological Control

Biological control is the intentional use of living beneficial organisms (predators, parasitic insects, nematodes, and microorganisms) to disrupt pest populations and reduce their damaging impacts. Unlike chemical pesticides, biological controls are non-toxic and environmentally safe. Moreover, they are energy self-sufficient and can easily be integrated into a multifaceted Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program.

Unlike chemical pesticides, which may be used to provide quick knock-down effects, biological controls can offer a long-term solution by suppressing pest population levels and maintaining low levels of damage. Biological control can also be integrated with preventive tactics to reduce the overall need for pesticides.

The Biological Control Program is the division within APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine responsible for the development of biological control agents to protect America’s agricultural crops, natural areas, and ecosystems. The Program’s facility is located in northern California, near Sacramento, the state capital. The Program currently has several on-going projects targeting insect pests, weeds and plant diseases in cooperation with local, county, and state departments of agriculture, tribes, universities, and other organizations.

A key goal of the Program is to develop and maintain a portfolio of diverse, effective, and sustainable biological control agents for a wide range of agricultural pests that are important to both U.S. producers and consumers. Biological control is an essential component of IPM, an environmentally sound and economical approach to pest management that seeks to minimize the use of hazardous chemicals.

Many of our worst crop pests are exotic species that have been introduced from other countries without their natural enemies, resulting in their rapid spread and damaging impact. The goal of classical biological control is to re-establish predator-prey relationships by importing natural enemies from the pest’s country of origin for release in the new region. This is called importation biological control or classical biocontrol. New classical biocontrol agents are subjected to rigorous, long-term, in-quarantine evaluations to ensure that they do not have adverse non-target effects and will successfully control the desired pest.

Another type of biocontrol is augmentative, or supplemental, in which naturally occurring native or climate-adapted natural enemies are mass-produced and periodically released to improve their population sizes, rate of colonization and effectiveness. This is often done to target slow-moving pests in organic agriculture and enclosed spaces where few disruptive chemical treatments are applied. Augmentative releases can be inundative or inoculative, depending on the pest and the desired effect.