Many pests carry disease-causing pathogens and irritant allergens that can pose health risks. Routine pest control helps preserve the value of your property and protects family safety.
Physical pest control uses traps, screens, and barriers to keep out unwanted organisms. Devices and environmental alteration can also help control some pests. Contact Pezz Pest Control now!
Pests can spread harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other pathogens that cause disease in humans and damage plants. Their presence can also contaminate foodstuffs and packaging, cause physical damage to buildings, equipment, and merchandise, or contribute to the deterioration of woodwork and fabrics. Preventing pests using best practices and keeping facilities clean can significantly reduce the need for more invasive control methods.
The most effective way to minimize pests is to prevent them from entering the facility in the first place. This is achieved through a combination of steps including eliminating attractants, sealing entry points and monitoring pests.
Rodents and insects are typically attracted to food processing environments for water, food and shelter. They can contaminate products with food residues, spread diseases through rodent droppings, and carry other pathogens on their bodies. Other pests can also be a significant hazard to personnel who work in these settings by spreading dangerous diseases like fleas and mosquito bites.
In addition to removing food and other attractants, it is important to keep the facility clean and properly maintained. This includes keeping garbage cans tightly closed, storing supplies in containers with tight lids, and cleaning surfaces frequently. Leaky pipes and clogged gutters can provide entry points for pests, so it is important to regularly check and repair them. Overgrown bushes and trees can also allow pests to gain access to the building, so it is helpful to trim them and maintain landscaping in a manner that prevents contact with the structure.
Monitoring pests is also essential for reducing the need for control measures. Regular scouting and inspection of the facility can help to identify areas where pests are causing damage or are present in large numbers. Threshold-based decision making focuses on determining what level of pest activity warrants intervention. For example, seeing a few wasps or bees flying around doesn’t necessarily require immediate action, but the sight of a nest in a tree or swarms of fruit flies should prompt a response.
Lastly, the use of insecticides and other chemicals should be reserved for situations where pest populations are out of control or when there are serious health and property concerns. Consult with a professional pest control service to learn more about preventative measures and other techniques for minimizing the occurrence of problematic pests.
Suppression
Pests enter homes and other buildings for food, shelter and water. Some, like rodents and cockroaches, nest in wood piles or compost bins near buildings before finding their way inside. Others seek refuge from cold winter temperatures in crawl spaces under or behind walls. Water leaks and standing water provide food and can attract pests as well.
Physical and mechanical controls are devices, traps, screens, barriers and fences that physically prevent pests from accessing or spreading into a place. They also include modifying an environment to make it less attractive to pests, such as through altering the amount of moisture or the level of light.
Chemical controls involve applying pesticides to kill or repel pests. These may include sprays, powders, or baits. When used properly, pesticides can be effective tools in controlling pests. They are usually formulated to be as safe as possible for the environment and human beings, and they should cause little or no harm to non-target plants and animals.
When preventive measures fail to control a pest problem, the goal becomes suppression. This involves reducing the number or severity of pests to an acceptable level. It can be a difficult task, and some pests, such as weeds, may never be completely controlled.
The simplest approach to suppressing pests is to remove their food and water sources. Store food in sealed containers, use garbage disposal regularly and keep garbage cans tightly closed. Inspect items brought into your home for pests, and keep your doors and windows closed as much as possible.
Other factors, such as weather conditions and the growth rate of pest hosts, can influence pest populations. For example, unusually warm or cool weather can reduce the population of a plant-eating pest by affecting its host’s growth and development.
Natural enemies, such as predators, parasites and pathogens, can help to control pests by feeding on them or attacking them directly. Some of these enemies are effective against many different types of pests, while others target only a few species. Biological control may be supplemented by the release of more enemies or other biologically modified organisms.
Eradication
Eradication is a very difficult goal in outdoor pest situations, especially when the pests are widespread and well established. However, it is sometimes possible to eliminate the presence of specific pests in indoor environments. Examples include eradicating Mediterranean fruit flies, gypsy moths, and fire ants from the interior of structures.
In these cases, it is often necessary to change both the environment and the behavior of the pests in order to eradicate them. This may involve altering the food source or disrupting their life cycle to prevent them from reproducing. It is also important to keep the number of predators and parasites in balance with the pest population.
Many pests are resistant to pesticides, which can lead to a loss of control. When this happens, it is important to review the pesticide application and to try to identify and correct the factors that led to the resistance. For example, the pests may have been in a different life stage or location than when the insecticide was applied, or they might have developed a tolerance to the chemical.
Other pests are not resistant to any kind of control measure. These include organisms such as fungi, bacteria and viruses, which can spread to surfaces and food in the home, causing disease. These can be dealt with using a variety of techniques including sweeping, vacuuming, dusting and pheromone traps.
Biological pest control involves enhancing the population of a pest’s natural enemies in the landscape by supplementing them with additional enemy populations, or by directly releasing enemies into an area to manage a problem. This method can be very effective, but it is not usually referred to as “eradication.” There is always a time lag between the increase in enemy populations and the decrease in pest numbers.
When working with pests that pose a threat to human health, it is essential to use the most conservative approach possible. This is especially true when dealing with strong chemicals and poisons. If you are working with pest control companies, ask to see their documentation and EPA registration number before they apply any chemicals. Be sure to follow their advice on how to dispose of the materials they used, and never leave any baits or traps where children or pets can access them.
Monitoring
Monitoring is a vital component of an integrated pest management (IPM) program. It allows a pest control professional to assess the effectiveness of control tactics and develop site history information that can be used to anticipate future problems. Monitoring also helps to determine whether or not a pest has reached damaging levels and, in the event that they have, to evaluate the success of treatment programs.
Pests are attracted to food processing environments primarily for water, food and shelter. Their presence can result in physical contamination of foodstuffs with rodent droppings, insect parts or other foreign materials, contamination with disease-causing microorganisms that are carried on the exterior surfaces of pests and/or their excreta or direct damage to facilities and equipment.
While some food manufacturers have in-house pest control teams, most contract these services. Services may include routine inspections by a pest control technician, trapping for insects, mollusks and vertebrates, weeding and fumigation of structures for wood destroying insects and other organisms, and general facility cleaning and disinfection.
A pest log should be kept at each facility to document and track the activity of pests entering the premises. This will help to identify the points of entry, maintenance needs and sanitation deficiencies. A telescoping mirror and flashlight allow for easy inspection behind and underneath equipment and in tight spaces. A magnifying glass is useful to aid in the identification of insects, pheromone attractants and other evidence of pests.
Traps may be passive, such as sticky traps, or baited with a chemical attractant such as an insect-specific pheromone. Species-specific pheromone traps are especially effective for monitoring stored product pests such as flies and ants. These traps usually incorporate a plastic or cardboard base covered with a highly sticky glue-like material that is irresistible to the pests.
The most important tool in a food manufacturer’s arsenal for pest control is the eyes of their employees. Regularly trained staff should be able to quickly spot signs of pests and report them to the pest control company. They can also be a valuable source of pest sightings, which should be recorded in a pest sightings register.