Pests are organisms that cause damage to people, property, or the environment. They include insects, rodents, and birds.
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Prevention is the best and cheapest method of pest control. It is possible to keep pests at bay by regularly cleaning food processing environments and removing sources of food, water and shelter. This may include storing foods in sealed containers, removing garbage regularly from the premises, fixing leaky plumbing and removing vines and climbing plants that have grown on or around buildings. It is also a good idea to remove any weeds growing in and around food processing areas, as these can serve as an ideal habitat for pests.
Some pests can cause illness in humans, such as ants that transfer bacteria (like Salmonella and Streptococcus) to open wounds and food. They can also contaminate surfaces and destroy crops. Others cause or trigger allergies, such as cockroaches, fleas, earwigs and silverfish. Some annoy or damage personal belongings, such as clothes moths and pine seed bugs. Others can also carry or spread disease-causing microorganisms, like fungi, bacteria and viruses.
Natural forces, including climate, can directly affect pest populations. Pests can increase or decrease in numbers depending on weather conditions, such as drought, freezing temperatures and rainfall.
Other natural forces that influence pests include predators and pathogens. Birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians prey on some pest species, and parasitic insects, pathogens and other organisms often suppress pest populations. These are known as “natural enemies.” Some species can be introduced into an area to supplement existing natural controls of pests. This is known as biological control.
Chemicals and insecticides can be used for pest control, but should only be used when other methods are not feasible or practical. The use of chemicals must be carefully monitored and controlled, particularly in food processing plants, to avoid contamination. This includes proper storage and disposal of materials, and using baits and traps whenever possible. Chemicals should never be sprayed on products that are destined for human consumption or in places where children and pets are present.
Other chemical pest control methods include ultra-low volume fogging, a process that saturates the air with a small amount of pesticide, and fumigation, which seals a building and fills it with poisonous gas to kill all living things inside. These methods should only be used when other options are not feasible or when they can be adapted to reduce risk of exposure to humans and other animals.
Suppression
When pest populations reach unacceptable levels, control measures must be taken. Pests may be controlled by preventive methods (frequently cleaning areas where pests tend to live and preventing conditions that promote their development), suppression, or eradication.
Preventive methods include cleaning, habitat modification, and monitoring pests to determine their numbers. Monitoring focuses on the presence or absence of pests and is usually done by trapping, scouting, or visual inspection. Monitoring may also include checking weather conditions, especially temperature and moisture levels as these influence pests directly by affecting their growth or indirectly by altering the condition of their host plants.
Suppression involves controlling the amount of pests by restricting their movement and feeding or limiting the food they can obtain. Methods such as physical barriers, netting, and eradication devices are used. These are usually applied at the site of pest infestations, but may be used on an entire field if necessary to achieve control. Chemicals are also used to suppress pests, but must be carefully chosen and used to minimize their impact on non-target organisms, e.g., nematodes, beneficial insects, birds, or mammals. They can be used in combination with biological controls or as stand-alone treatments.
The goal of eradication is to completely remove a pest species from a particular area. This is a very difficult goal in outdoor situations, where pests can move quickly from one area to another, and is usually only attempted when it is determined that the pest has invaded an area where its presence is undesirable, e.g., operating rooms and other sterile areas in health care facilities.
Biological control involves the use of natural enemies to reduce pest densities and make them less damaging. These natural enemies include parasitoids, predators, and pathogens that can affect a pest’s population in different ways. Biological control is often part of an integrated pest management program, where the use of other pest control methods is minimized.
Other cultural techniques for reducing pests in agricultural settings include soil preparation; choosing crops that are well adapted to the site and that require less water, are tolerant of pest damage, or require little fertilizer; interplanting; utilizing crop rotation; timing planting dates; managing weeds; and using pheromones and juvenile hormones.
Eradication
A pesticide is an effective means of killing a particular species. However, the pesticide must be administered in just the right way and at just the right time. It is also important that the chemicals be kept out of pristine areas where they could cause unnecessary harm to nature.
Eradication is the ultimate goal of pest control, but it may not be practical. It is difficult to predict when a pest will reach economic significance, so eradication must take place in concert with an early warning system. This might involve computer programs that track weather data around the clock for large regions and send messages when conditions are favorable for pest invasions. It could also involve scouts who monitor fields for signs of pest activity, such as insect traps that signal impending infestations.
Integrated pest management, which is often an integral part of a broader agricultural management plan, is one method for reducing the amount of chemical pesticides used. This system is designed to keep pest populations below an economically damaging level through a series of cost-effective methods that wherever possible use natural controls on the pests rather than chemical sprays.
Denying the pests food, water and shelter can also help reduce their population. For example, mulching weeds deprives them of the light they need for germination. Providing adequate shade to sun-loving plants prevents fungal diseases from spreading. Rotating pesticides can also help reduce the development of resistance to specific chemicals.
Classical biological control relies on predation, parasitism and herbivory to eliminate pests, but usually involves a substantial human management role. The predators and other organisms that perform these functions are either collected from the wild or bred in the laboratory and then released into the field, where they will breed, survive and provide long-term control of the targeted pests. In some cases, the natural enemies are introduced in small batches over a period of years to achieve more gradual results than might be accomplished by releasing just a single, large batch. In other instances, the natural enemy is supplied in a ready-to-use form, such as a fungus or disease that has been injected into a plant to kill the pests.
Natural Forces
A pest control program can take advantage of natural forces in addition to chemical interventions. Various organisms, such as predators, parasites, nematodes, pathogens and weeds, naturally control or suppress pest populations. The supplemental application of these organisms can reduce or even eliminate the need for chemical pesticides.
Many pests thrive only as long as their food and water sources are available. Other environmental factors can also affect the size of a pest population, such as weather conditions, day length and temperature. The use of physical controls to keep pest numbers low, such as removing breeding grounds and sealing cracks and crevices where pests may hide, can be very effective.
Physical pest control techniques include trapping, pheromone-based baits, field burning and introducing active biological control agents such as predators or parasitoids. For example, lady beetles that are sold for biological management of aphids can be very effective when placed in the right environment. But, because the relationships between the organisms and the pests are very specific, accurate identification of the pest species is necessary before the correct natural enemy can be purchased for release.
Natural enemies are not a substitute for pesticides. They must be released in adequate numbers and their actions must be consistent with the objectives of the pest control program. They cannot be used as a substitute for good soil health and proper plant selection.
Some organisms that are considered to be natural predators of certain pests, such as birds, reptiles and amphibians, are often excluded from agricultural areas because they have been altered by human activities. Other natural predators, such as nematodes and fungi, have been removed from the environment due to their inability to compete with higher-order organisms for a limited resource. Changing environmental factors, such as soil health and availability of nutrients, can also change the natural balance of predators and prey, leading to an imbalance that is sometimes referred to as “pest influx”. This situation can be controlled by applying proper management practices. If the problem persists, a combination of preventative, suppression and eradication approaches should be utilized.
