Pests can spread diseases and damage crops, property, and homes. Prevention is a critical part of any pest control program.
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Before pest infestations can be controlled, they must first be detected. Common signs include seeing rodents scurry across floors, cockroaches scurrying into crevices, or gnawed food packaging. Other indicators of pest presence can consist of unusual sounds, odors, or damage to materials like paper, wood, and metal. Regular property inspections allow pests to be spotted before they become an overwhelming nuisance, which will enable technicians to take preventive measures.
Preventing pest infestations requires reducing food, water, and shelter availability for pests. This is often accomplished by cleaning up crumbs, spills, and discarded items that can attract pests, storing foods in airtight containers, and regularly disposing of garbage in sealed bins. It is also important to keep trees, shrubs, and grass trimmed away from the structure to eliminate pathways for pests that enter through eaves or crawl spaces.
The use of natural enemies is an excellent way to suppress a pest population by releasing large numbers of sterile or predatory organisms that will attack, kill, or parasitize the unwanted pests. However, there is a time lag between pest populations increasing and the corresponding increase in the number of natural enemies that can attack them. This is why prevention is an essential part of any pest control program.
It is also a good idea to minimize the use of sprays and chemical products whenever possible, as they can have adverse effects on humans and pets. This is especially true with children and pets, who tend to be more sensitive to toxic chemicals than adults.
Certain factors may make it difficult to fully implement prevention, such as seasonal variations in pests that require more or less control depending on weather conditions. For example, cockroaches may build more colonies during the summer when the weather is warm and moist. This can be mitigated by using dehumidifiers to reduce indoor moisture levels. The best method of pest control, however, is to prevent them from entering the premises altogether. In this way, pest control is more efficient and safer for everyone involved. Preventive techniques include the use of caulking to seal gaps, repairing cracks in walls and foundations, and installing weather stripping.
Suppression
Pest populations often reach dangerous levels that cause economic or aesthetic damage, and when they do, suppression measures are needed. These include using physical barriers (netting over small fruit, screens in greenhouses) and chemical controls. Some crops and structures have special characteristics that make them hard for pests to attack. Some fungicides, bacterium and parasites kill or discourage specific pest species, while others repel them. Pheromones can also be used to confuse male insects, preventing them from mating and reducing pest numbers.
Biological Control is the conservation or release of natural enemies, which are predators, parasites, pathogens and competitors that reduce pests and their damage. These organisms are found in nature or are mass-produced in insectaries and are usually host-specific, meaning they target only one or two pest species. They are sometimes known as “biological control agents.”
The simplest biological control strategy is to conserve natural enemies in the environment and allow them to naturally suppress pests, without the need for pesticide. This is called augmentative biological control. In other situations, a natural enemy is introduced to disrupt the pest population. Depending on the pest and the natural enemy, this can be done through inoculative releases or inundative releases. Inundative releases are typically made to quickly overwhelm a pest population, such as releasing the nematode Phytophthora nigricans to rapidly suppress alfalfa weevils.
In both of these strategies, traps and other monitoring tools are used to measure the effectiveness of the natural enemies. This information is used to determine whether additional steps are needed to maintain the population of the biological control agent or to replace it with another agent.
Cultural controls reduce pest establishment, reproduction, and survival by changing the environment in which they live. These practices can include plowing, crop rotation, the removal of weeds, cleaning greenhouse and tillage equipment and changing irrigation schedules to avoid long periods of high relative humidity that encourage disease pest development. Other cultural controls involve planting resistant varieties of crops, avoiding excessive nitrogen fertilization, and adding mulch to inhibit weed and rodent germination. Lastly, physical barriers, such as netting or grid wires, can prevent pest entry into an area.
Eradication
The goal of eradication is to reduce the incidence of a particular pest to zero. This can only be achieved if all sources of infection are eradicated in an area.
Threshold-based decision-making is a key aspect of this approach. For example, a few wasps in the garden don’t warrant action, but an infestation does. In this case, a combination of physical and chemical control techniques is required.
It’s important to be accurate in the identification of pests because this helps determine the best controls and timing. Accurate pest identification also ensures that all possible methods of controlling a pest are being used. This is particularly important with respect to the use of insecticides, which are often based on toxic chemicals and should only be used when other methods are not feasible or have been unsuccessful.
Eradication is a difficult goal for any pest control program to achieve. Several factors make success highly unlikely, including the fact that some microbes exist in nature and the laboratory, and that human and animal populations can pick up and carry them from one region to another. Eradication programs require dedicated resources and thorough monitoring and evaluation to be successful.
Generally, the most effective way to control pests is to remove their food, water and shelter. This can be done by keeping the home clean, storing food in sealed containers and removing garbage regularly. It’s also important to fix leaky pipes and close off places where pests may hide, such as cracks in walls and under sinks.
Many pests spread bacteria that cause disease in humans, animals and plants. Some of these bacteria are fungi, and others are viruses. Pests like rats and cockroaches can spread these pathogens to surfaces in the home, contaminating them and putting people at risk of illness.
Biological control is one of the oldest forms of pest management and involves using natural predators to reduce or eliminate pest species. Some of these natural predators are birds, fish and earthworms. Others include nematodes, which are tiny worm-like organisms that can kill or damage plant roots, and pheromones, which are odorous chemicals produced by some insects to attract or deter other insects.
Monitoring
As a part of an integrated pest management (IPM) program, monitoring allows you to track pest activity in your food business. This enables you to identify pests and their numbers, determine whether or not they pose an economic threat, and then select the appropriate control methods.
To monitor, a professional should use a flashlight to inspect dark harborage areas where pests like to live or hide, such as corners and crevices. An extendable mirror is also a great tool for enabling a technician to inspect behind or beneath equipment and furniture. Additionally, a magnifier is useful for identifying insect parts or frass (excrement) that are indicators of pest presence.
Monitoring can be done by observing the number of pests in a field, landscape, or forest; by tracking the damage they cause; or by reviewing food processing and storage facilities to see what kind of damage is being caused. In most outdoor settings, eradication is rarely a goal, and prevention and suppression are the main objectives. However, in enclosed environments like health care, school, office buildings, and food processing and storage facilities, eradication is a more realistic goal.
Pest identification is the key to understanding how many of them are present, what their biology is, and what environmental factors influence them. Once a pest has been correctly identified, the IPM professional can decide whether the problem is likely to grow and require control or can be tolerated.
Once a pest is found, a pest log should be created and maintained to record the frequency and location of the inspection. This information will enable the IPM professional to pinpoint hotspots of pest activity and improve the placement of traps or bait stations.
A well-established IPM program will use both preventive and responsive measures to keep pests away from your facility and the food products you produce. A proactive approach to pest management will reduce food production downtime and ensure your brand’s reputation isn’t compromised by a revolving door of insects. If you’re ready to take a proactive approach to your pest management, we invite you to learn more about Standard’s Audit Ready program.
