Pest Control Burnaby BC aims to reduce pests’ impact on desirable plants or animals. This includes preventing pests from entering, controlling them once they are inside, and destroying them completely.
Physical methods include barriers, traps, and bait stations. Biological controls such as beneficial insects, predators, nematodes, and pathogens can also be used.
Pest identification is the first step in determining the need for pest control and its methods. Correct identification will help you choose and use management tactics that are less hazardous to people, property, or the environment, whether the pest is a weed, insect, animal, or microbe.
Many pests look very different as they move through their life cycles. For example, a seedling of a troublesome weed will look very different than the mature weed growing in your yard. Immature beetles and larvae of wood-boring insects may also look very different from adults of the same species. To determine the correct pest to be controlled, you must know its basic biology—where it goes during the day and the season, what it eats, how it reproduces, and when it is most vulnerable to management actions.
Incorrect pest identification can result in the failure of a pesticide application. Often the problem is because the wrong pesticide was applied or because the pest was at a stage in its cycle or location that was resistant to the chemical.
If you are not sure of the pest that is causing damage, contact your local County Extension Service or a professional pest control expert for assistance. Many of these services are free but there may be a fee for some pest identification.
When selecting a pest control company, be wary of any that offer “sales quotes” or recommendations without an inspection of your home and property. During the inspection, ask the company representative to show you their state pesticide operator’s license. Insist that they present it to you so that you can see it and ensure that they are fully licensed and insured.
Look for a clean, organized work area. Make sure that equipment is properly stored and that pesticides are clearly labeled and secured. Insist that the person who will perform the pest control work inspects and checks under, around and on top of areas where pests hide. This is how you can be confident that the company is sending a qualified professional to your home.
Prevention
Prevention is the first line of defense against pests. It includes eliminating food, water and shelter sources; removing or sealing entrance points (doors, windows, cracks); and keeping garbage and compost containers closed. It also means regularly checking for signs of pests, such as observing the underside of leaves or along foundations, and treating these areas with physical or biological controls when necessary.
Many pest control methods do not require the use of chemicals, and using them only when necessary ensures that pesticides are used responsibly, with minimal risk to human health and beneficial organisms. These methods are called integrated pest management (IPM).
IPM strategies include scouting and monitoring, habitat manipulation, use of resistant varieties, and a variety of cultural and biological controls. When chemical control is needed, the least harmful products are selected and applied according to established guidelines. This minimizes risks to people, property, beneficial organisms, and the environment.
In the field, IPM methods involve preparing the soil; planting crops that are adapted to site conditions and not easily attracted to pests; interplanting; crop rotation; and managing weeds. In commercial and residential settings, IPM strategies include:
Biological control is the use of natural enemies—predators, parasites, or disease pathogens—to manage pest populations. This is the most environmentally friendly and least invasive approach to pest control. To be effective, biological control agents must be collected and studied to determine their effect on the target pest, their biology, and any possible negative impact on native species that are not pests or their natural enemies. They must then be released at the proper time during the enemy and pest life cycles to achieve maximum impact.
Mechanical and physical controls are devices, machines, and other tools that alter the environment to reduce pest abundance or prevent their movement. They include traps, screens, barriers, fences, radiation, and other techniques.
In food processing environments, pests cause problems primarily by spoiling the product or damaging equipment. They also may introduce disease causing agents through droppings, skin contact, or intestinal worms. These threats are minimized with careful inspection and cleaning of equipment, avoiding contaminated foodstuffs, and applying pest control treatments only when necessary.
Suppression
The goal of pest control is to reduce the number of a pest species to an acceptable level. This is generally done using a combination of methods that cause less harm to everything except the pest.
Prevention is often combined with suppression to reduce the need for pesticides. A pesticide is a synthetic chemical that kills or suppresses an organism or group of organisms. There are a wide variety of pesticides, each with advantages and disadvantages. The proper choice of a pesticide depends on the kind of pest, the environment, and its life cycle. A pesticide may have a toxic effect on its target, or it may affect other organisms as well — affecting people and pets who touch or eat the targeted food, beneficial insects, groundwater or surface water quality, other plants, or even bacteria that are natural enemies of the pest.
Some pests have natural enemies that help control their populations, including predatory or parasitic organisms and pathogens. Changing the environment to increase the number of these natural enemies can improve pest control. For example, the presence of mountains or large bodies of water limits the spread of many plant-feeding insects.
Other factors that can influence a pest’s numbers include the climate, availability of food and shelter, and natural barriers. A pest population will usually grow as long as the food supply lasts and is not depleted by natural enemies.
In addition, the climate can directly affect pests by influencing growth rates of their host plants. Unusually hot or cold weather can change the normal pattern of pest growth and damage, causing populations to rise or fall rapidly.
Clutter provides places for pests to breed and hide, so eliminating clutter can aid in pest prevention. Caulking cracks and crevices can also help prevent pest entry into buildings. Regular, systematic inspections of homes and business should be made to identify signs of a pest problem and to take preventive steps before the pest becomes a serious nuisance.
Pests often cause more harm than they are worth. Therefore, it is important to weigh the costs and benefits of pest control and to use only the amount of treatment required to achieve an acceptable outcome. This can be referred to as the economic threshold and is often determined by local, State, or Federal regulations.
Eradication
Eradication is the permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of a specific infectious agent as a result of deliberate intervention efforts. Eradication differs from control and elimination in that eradication implies total elimination of the disease rather than just reduced prevalence. Eradication efforts are usually initiated at the community, regional, national, or international level. The success of eradication programs depends on having the right diagnostic tools to identify infected persons and on being able to strengthen control efforts at a local level. Eradication also depends on the ability to eradicate all nonhuman hosts and prevent reintroduction from unforeseen human reservoirs or vaccine strain reversion.
To eliminate pests, mechanical and physical controls may be used to kill them directly or make the environment unsuitable for them. These include traps for rodents, steam sterilization of soil, and barriers such as screens to keep birds or insects out. Biological control uses organisms that are natural enemies of the pest, such as parasites, predators, pathogens, or insect growth regulators. Typically, the organisms are released into the field or placed near the pest to attack it. Chemical agents may be added to increase the effectiveness of biological control. These include chemicals that are toxic to the pest or its eggs, such as synthetic pyrethroids and Bacillus thuringiensis, or plant hormones that affect the insect’s development. In some cases, fungi that are harmful to the pest, such as nematodes and rotifera, are also used.
When choosing a pesticide, it is important to consider its impact on people and pets. Choose the least toxic option and read labels carefully to ensure that the pesticide is safe for the intended use. It is important to apply only the amount recommended by the manufacturer and to follow all safety precautions. When using a pesticide, avoid exposing your family to it for long periods of time and avoid contact with the residue that builds up on surfaces.
Whenever possible, it is preferable to use prevention and suppression methods to control pests. When pesticides are necessary, only trained and qualified specialists should handle or apply them. Landlords and property managers should note that under New York State Environmental Conservation Law, they are only allowed to apply pesticides to living areas in the rental units they own or manage.