There are a myriad of pests that can cause problems at your establishment. Those problems can range in severity, but at worst they may include the destruction of food stores, food inspector violations, the spread of bacteria and disease, or the sullying of your reputation. Some pests are more common than others. These include cockroaches, flies, mice, mosquitoes, and rats.
Cockroaches are unhygienic scavengers that may carry certain bacteria that can cause illnesses if left on food. Additionally, they serve as an allergen source and an asthma trigger. Cockroaches are typically found in dark, moist places, such as behind refrigerators, sinks, and stoves, or under floor drains and inside of motors and major appliances. They can enter through small holes and cracks in the building, or they can come in on bags or other containers.
Flies are known for spreading at least 200 known pathogens and parasites to humans. They rarely bite or sting humans but because they often land on dead animals, rotten food, manure, and trash, they pick up and spread diseases that are harmful to humans.
Mice and rats are dangerous and destructive pests. They carry and transmit viruses, bacteria, and other diseases. Additionally, they can be responsible for causing damage to your property, chewing through walls and wiring, and getting into food.
Mosquitoes bite humans to consume blood. While doing so, they can also transmit harmful, and sometimes fatal, diseases, including Zika virus, yellow fever, dengue, and malaria.
You and your maintenance crew have likely taken great care to keep your properties sanitary and tidy. However even after careful maintenance, buildings can still fall victim to a pest infestation. An infestation describes the presence of any species in numbers that can cause property damage, have health implications for building occupants or present a distracting nuisance. Unfortunately, once pests are noticeable, it often indicates a larger problem, and may even indicate an infestation.
Animals and insects become pests when they take up residence where they don't belong. These varied and determined creatures can adapt to just about any habitat provided they have food, water and shelter for them to thrive and reproduce. Most pests fall into one of three categories:
Birds that are known nuisances include pigeons, geese, house sparrows, gulls and starlings. In numbers, birds can cause significant damage from droppings and nesting. Bird droppings are highly acidic and can eat through many building materials.
Rodents can cause a lot of damage by chewing away at material to build nests. Rodent droppings can spread diseases such as salmonellosis. Dry rodent fecal matter can be a hazard if inhaled, causing allergic reactions.
The damage and health problems caused by insects are well known, with fleas and mosquito bites among the more common. Mosquitoes can be especially troublesome to groundskeeping crews or contractors on construction sites. For permanent outdoor spaces, particularly in hospitality settings, electronic bug killers can help. Cockroaches are known to carry a variety of infectious diseases and can cause serious illness.
Ideally, you'll stop an infestation before it starts. The Environmental Protection Agency lists some basic prevention methods, including:
But if you've tried to head off the problem and haven't had success, it’s time to take action. There are several categories of pest control methods, however most of fall into one of three categories:
This is the use of living organisms to help eliminate the infestation. This can be anything from predators to parasites to pathogens. One of the biggest advantages of natural methods is that they don’t involve the use of chemicals, reducing potential harm to humans or the environment. Most biological methods, however, are only feasible for small pest invasions like insects or plants, and they typically take some time to work.
Chemical pest control is the use of pesticides to eliminate pests. These solutions are typically easier to find and use than biological methods. Chemical controls often work faster, sometimes delivering instant results once applied. Examples include repellents, which are solutions that deter pests that crawl or fly within your perimeter or insecticides, designed to kill insects. Despite their many advantages, these toxins can pose health and environmental threats upon exposure, but most modern chemical effects are only temporary.
Traps, netting and decoys are examples of physical pest control methods. Some are designed to keep you from dealing with the pests at all, while others may require you to handle a trap and dispose of a pest.
The charts below describe some of the more common problems building and site managers face due to pest infestation and some common methods for eradicating these pests from your property and grounds.
As mentioned above, there are many pest control methods available to choose from, but they can be loosely grouped into six categories: Hygienic, Biological, Chemical, Physical, Fumigation, Fogging and Heat treatment. Each method can resolve pest infestations to varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the scale of the infestation, as well as on the type of pest.
Maintaining a clean home is of utmost importance for reducing the chances of an infestation. Pests seek out places with an abundant food source, as well as a safe environment in which they can breed. Check the tips below to ensure that your home is inhospitable for creepy crawlies and rodents.
Put all food scraps, crumbs, peels, etc. in the bin, preferably sealed in a sandwich bag or paper.
Termite Control For BuildingCreate and stick to a regular cleaning schedule. Don’t forget to include hard-to-reach areas, such as behind large kitchen appliances.
If basic home hygiene is ignored, the effects of other types of pest control will be incredibly short-lived as the pests will soon be back, and in greater numbers. Check out our article “How to make a cleaning schedule and stick to it” for more advice on how to create a regular cleaning routine.
Although keeping your home clean will deter many would-be pests, there are some that are more stubborn and will laugh in the face of your cleanliness. This is where the might of the other pest control methods comes into play.
Biological control methods can also be seen as natural solutions as they do not rely on the use of pesticides or other chemicals. Biological pest control measures take advantage of the hierarchy within nature. This can be as simple as introducing the natural predator of a particular type of pest into your environment.
This method of pest control is by no means modern. People have been using natural predators to control pest populations since the fourth century B.C. The fact that it is still in use shows how effective this method can be.
This tactic is most commonly used by gardeners seeking to control a pest population without the use of chemicals. One of the most popular applications of this method is the use of ladybugs to control, or remove, aphid infestations. However, introducing large numbers of a foreign species to an area can have the opposite effect as well.
The best example of this is the giant cane toad in Australia. This species of toad was introduced to the country in order to reduce the population of cane beetles which were destroying crops. The toads did not reduce the beetle population as expected. Instead, they bred uncontrollably and have become a major ecological issue in their own right.
The best example of this is the giant cane toad in Australia. This species of toad was introduced to the country in order to reduce the population of cane beetles which were destroying crops. The toads did not reduce the beetle population as expected. Instead, they bred uncontrollably and have become a major ecological issue in their own right.
Another popular natural pest control method used by gardeners is the use of beneficial microorganisms on plants. Unlike the use of natural predators, using microorganisms to control pests is a preemptive method. When a helpful microorganism is in a symbiotic relationship with a plant, it will actively protect the plant by deterring pests and destroying harmful bacteria and fungi.
Physical pest control methods rely on the trapping, killing, and removal of both insect and rodent pests. Most of the methods listed below will work in your home and garden, but they are more suited to homesteads and small farms.
When looking for a place to infest, pests prefer to hide in a place that provides food and a safe breeding ground. Eliminating one, or both, of these factors will greatly increase your chances of removing pests. The best way of getting rid of breeding grounds in your home is to keep your home clean, dry, and warm. Maintaining a hygienic home and regularly cleaning dark, damp areas will severely limit the housing options for pests in your home.
Using poison bait is a popular and highly effective method of pest control and there are many pest-specific poisons to choose from. Pest control poison normally comes in one of two states. The first is in the form of granules and the second is a gel or jelly. Regardless of the type, poisoned bait is placed in areas that show signs of pest activity and will either be eaten directly or carried back to the nest.
If you have young children or pets, make sure that they cannot access any area where the poison is in use. Some commercial poisons can lead to serious health issues if ingested.
Field burning is a traditional pest control measure used by farmers internationally. Fire is used to burn away debris, as well as the top layer of soil with the aim of destroying pest populations. This method of pest control has fallen out of favour in recent decades since fire kills beneficial insects along with the pests and can have a negative impact on the soil. Another reason is that the effectiveness of modern pesticides is now significantly better.
Trap cropping is a method of pest control which involves the planting of a decoy crop to which the pests are more attracted to. The main goal of this method is to trap pests in the decoy field in order to make extermination easier. However, large-scale farmers have found this method to be inefficient as the pests tend to make their way back to the main crop. As such, trap cropping may be more efficient if used in small homesteads or as a means to keep pests away from a personal vegetable garden. Here are some example plants that work best to attract different pests:
Using physical traps to control pests is possibly the most recognisable pest control measures. Traps range in complexity (from simple fly paper to more complex baited traps) and they are mostly used to deal with rodents, birds, other small animals, and insects. As with the previously mentioned methods, trap placement should be focused in areas that show signs of pest activity. One major downside to using traps is that you have to check them regularly in order to remove any creature that has been caught, as well as to replace or reset the used traps.
The use of natural predators and microorganisms is a reactive rather than a preventive measure, so there is more time for the infestation to grow.
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