Some pests can damage property. Others may carry disease.
Prevention is the most effective way to control pests. Check your house for openings where they can enter, such as in the foundation, around windows and doors, and in crawl spaces. Contact Pest Control Abbotsford BC now!
Keep trash containers closed and clean; stacks of paper or cardboard invite pests.
Prevention
Pests can be a major nuisance and cause serious health and property damage. Preventative pest control strategies are the best way to deal with them before they become problematic. Some preventative measures include:
Keep Food in Sealed Containers: Pests love invading homes, offices, and stores with easy access to food. Store all food in sealed containers like Tupperware and jars with tight lids to avoid this. Also, put a tight lid on the trash can and move it to an outside dumpster as soon as possible.
Clean the Inside: Regular cleaning will help reduce the dust, dirt, and debris that attracts pests to your home or business. A good idea is to vacuum and mop the floors, wipe down countertops, and sanitize drawers. Also, remove any clutter or items that can be stored away.
Block Points of Entry – Identify and block any cracks or holes in the walls, foundation, vents, and windows around your home or office. Sealing these points will help prevent termites, ants, and other pests from entering your home or office.
Eliminate Moisture: Pests need water to regulate their bodies. Eliminating sources of moisture can help prevent pest infestations, such as fungus gnats, thrips, and cluster flies. Regularly mop up any spills or puddles of water and use dehumidifiers to eliminate excess humidity.
Avoid Using Pesticides
Try to use physical or biological pest controls rather than chemical pesticides whenever possible. Chemical pesticides can be dangerous to your family, pets and the environment. Always read and follow a pesticide label.
Scouting and monitoring – Scout your property regularly, from daily to weekly depending on the pest and its habits. This helps you determine if the problem is getting out of hand before it becomes an infestation. For example, if you notice a few wasps flying near your home every day, it’s time to start taking action.
Use baits and traps to catch pests instead of spraying them with pesticides. This will prevent them from fleeing, returning to their nest, or spreading to other areas.
Suppression
Pest control methods that prevent or reduce the occurrence of unwanted organisms. These may include physical, biological, or chemical means. Using these methods at the right time and in the correct manner, preventive measures can minimize damage to crops, property, or the environment. In addition, preventive actions can reduce the need for more intensive and expensive control measures in the future.
Identifying the pest, its life stages, and environmental conditions that promoted infestation helps you select and implement effective controls. Keeping records and inspecting cropped areas regularly help you evaluate the situation and determine when to take action. Threshold levels should be established to guide decision-making regarding when and how to suppress pests.
Insects, mites, nematodes, fungi, weeds, viruses, and diseases are considered pests when they damage or devalue crops, food stores, lawns, gardens, or human structures. They can also pose a health risk to people and animals or cause other adverse ecological impacts.
Preventive measures are economical and environmentally responsible, and they usually involve frequent cleaning of areas where pests live or breed. They can include things like screening windows and doors, regularly clearing brush around the house, and keeping wood piles and compost bins away from the house. It is also important to maintain good sanitation in the home to limit the places where pests can hide. Regularly inspecting and patching cracks in the foundation, siding, roof, and utility lines can stop pests from making their way inside the home.
When pests do invade, suppression techniques restrict pest activity and population growth. They typically involve some type of physical or biological intervention, such as crop rotations, tillage, soil testing and management, and clean greenhouse and tillage equipment. Other cultural practices that can be used to deprive pests of a favorable habitat include mulches, steam sterilization of soil, and managing irrigation schedules so that long periods of high relative humidity do not occur.
Chemical pesticides, including aerosol sprays, dusts, baits, and gels are a common way to kill or deter pests. They are regulated by the EPA and can be effective against many different types of pests. However, they can also harm beneficial insects and contaminate water runoff or other parts of the environment. The proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential, as well as reading product labels and understanding how pesticides work before applying them.
Identification
Pests damage property, contaminate food, and pose health risks for humans. The best way to avoid or limit these threats is to detect and respond to infestations as soon as they appear. Identifying the type of pest is important because different pests leave distinct marks that are specific to them. For example, cockroaches produce an allergen that can trigger asthma attacks in people who are allergic to them. Rodents chew through electrical wiring and carry disease-causing bacteria. Discerning the presence of pests early can help reduce their damaging effects and save homeowners and business owners time and money.
The most obvious and alarming sign of a pest problem is the sighting of the pests themselves. A single sighting may not indicate a large infestation, but regular or increased sightings, particularly during daylight hours, can be an indication of a hidden population. Droppings, feces, saliva, or urine are other indicators of pests in an area. Footprints in dusty or muddy areas can also be a sign of pest presence, especially rodent tracks that are often broader and less defined than human footprints.
Detecting signs of pest activity is essential to the success of any pest control program. Physical damage caused by pests can include gnawing of wood or structural elements and holes drilled through walls or the foundation. This damage can result in expensive repair bills and compromise the safety, security, and integrity of a home or building.
Other evidence of pest activity includes traces of dirt and mud that are left behind by fleas, ticks, or mites. These traces can be found on pets, clothing, shoes, or even on human skin. Pests can also create nests in void spaces, wall cavities, crawl spaces, attics, or the tiny gaps under appliances and sinks. Nests can be difficult to find and may be obscured by insulation or other debris.
Pests have seasonal activity patterns influenced by temperature, moisture levels, and the availability of food sources. Monitoring for these pests can be done by scouting, trapping, or visual inspection. For instance, ant and termite colonies are usually active during the spring, and mosquitoes, stink bugs, flies, hornets, and wasps are most active in the summer.
Monitoring
Pests can cause significant damage to products, equipment and even the building itself. Prevention, suppression and monitoring of a pest problem can help control the situation before it gets out of hand.
Regular scouting (inspecting) a facility for signs of pest activity is important. It lets a facility manager know the level of pest infestation and enables them to make informed decisions about when and how to start control actions.
In enclosed areas such as homes, schools and offices; health care, food processing and preparation facilities; and retail environments, preventing pests is more often the goal than eliminating them. Pests are also part of the ecosystem they inhabit and, in many cases, cannot be eliminated completely without causing unacceptable damage or loss. This is why pest control programs must take into account the roles of natural forces on organisms and consider their impact when determining eradication or suppression methods.
Monitoring is an integral part of most IPM pest management strategies. Small monitors are placed throughout a facility, and by inspecting them regularly, the facility manager can learn about new pests, changes in insect populations, and where they’re active. This information informs the rest of the pest management plan.
Many different types of traps can be used for monitoring, and the best tool to use depends on the type of pest that is being monitored. For example, pheromone traps are commonly used to monitor stored product pests such as Indian meal moth and flour beetles in warehouses. These traps have special attractants that exploit the behavior of specific pests, and they are available in a wide variety of physical shapes.
Some facilities choose to monitor pest populations with an insect light traps (ILTs), which are designed to detect a specific flying insects by emitting a light that the insects are attracted to. ILTs are usually inspected on a weekly basis during warmer months when insect activity is highest, and their inspection schedule can be reduced to monthly during the colder season.
A good monitoring program will also include a logbook for tracking pest control efforts. This can include general information such as pest company details and technician qualifications; materials and resources applied; and inspection reports, monitoring results and recommendations. It can also track pest-related documentation such as insect parts, frass and other evidence of pest activity, a record of pesticide usage and results of preventive actions.