Pests can cause damage to our gardens, crops, livestock, property, and homes. They can also contaminate food and water and make people sick. Controlling pests is important for our health and economic well-being. There are several ways to control pests: Prevention – keeping pest numbers low enough to prevent them from causing unacceptable harm. Suppression – reducing pest populations to an acceptable level with the use of control methods. Eradication – completely destroying an entire pest population. Control measures include natural enemies, physical barriers, and biologically altered organisms (sterile insects, pheromones, juvenile hormones).
Pesticides are substances that kill or repel pests. They can be organic or synthetic. The most effective pesticides are targeted to specific types of pests and work in a specific way to disrupt the life cycle of the pest.
Insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides are common examples of chemical pesticides. They are usually sprayed on or brushed against the surface of plants, animals, soil, or structures. Some pesticides may be toxic to humans or pets. Other pesticides are poisonous to only the pests they target. Still others are not harmful to other plants or animals. Pesticides are often mixed with other substances to improve their effectiveness or to reduce the chance of toxicity.
Many pests are able to thrive only as long as they have access to food, water, and shelter. Climate, weather conditions, natural enemies, and other factors affect pest populations. Natural barriers such as mountains and bodies of water limit the spread of some pests. Providing habitats that are unsuitable for pests, such as dense vegetation or natural barriers, can help deter them.
Pests often find their way into homes and other buildings, where they can contaminate food and daily-use items, cause illness, and aggravate medical conditions like asthma. Pests can also cause structural damage and fire hazards. There are many ways to prevent pests from entering buildings, including keeping food in tightly-sealed containers and removing trash on a regular basis.
Some pests are more difficult to control than others. For example, cockroaches can breed rapidly in a home and are very difficult to eliminate without extermination. For this reason, it is important to take a holistic approach to pest management, using a combination of methods like habitat manipulation, cultural practices, resistant varieties, and pesticides when necessary. This is called Integrated Pest Management or IPM. IPM considers the whole ecosystem of a site when managing pests, with the overall goal being to minimize the use of pesticides and their impacts on human health, beneficial organisms, and the environment. Whenever possible, pests should be controlled using nonchemical methods. If pesticides are used, they should be applied only after monitoring indicates that they are needed and with the goal of removing only the target organism. The least hazardous methods of controlling pests are those that do not require the application of chemicals, such as physical barriers, traps, and habitat modification. Pests can be a serious problem in both urban and rural areas, causing damage to crops, property, and human health. Pesticides are often the most effective means of achieving Pest Control Centralia IL, but they can be harmful to the environment and human beings.