If you are hearing strange sounds in your house, such as soft tapping, it could be a sign of pest infestation. Call a pest control company right away. Contact Pest Control Sparta NJ now!
Natural forces, such as weather and food availability, influence pest populations. Control methods aim to reduce the number of pests to a level where they no longer cause unacceptable harm.
Pest identification is the first step in a pest control program. Whether the pest is an insect, weed, plant disease, vertebrate animal, or microorganism, accurate identification is necessary to determine effective and safe management techniques. Proper pest identification also helps to avoid unnecessary pesticide applications that add to the overall load of chemicals in our environment.
Observe the pest and note its characteristics such as shape, size, color, number of legs or wings, etc. Take note of the areas of your property where pests are causing damage or a nuisance, such as food sources, breeding or nesting sites, and migratory habits. Compare your findings to the images in the pest guides. Once you have located the category that best matches your pest, click on its name to learn more about that species and how to manage it.
Use the pest guide as a reference, and when in doubt, consult additional resources. Depending on your location and the specific pest, identification may be difficult or impossible. If you are unable to identify the pest, contact your local Cooperative Extension agent or a professional pest management specialist.
Trained technicians will conduct a thorough inspection of your property. They will identify the pests, their entry points, harborage areas, and other relevant information that will help them develop an effective treatment plan.
Depending on the severity of your pest infestation, your technician will recommend a variety of management strategies. These might include sanitation, sealing entry points, vacuuming, proper firewood storage, using a dehumidifier or other preventative measures. In some cases, it might be necessary to apply interior and exterior treatments such as spraying, baiting or dusting. These are designed to kill existing pests and deter future populations. If you decide to apply pesticides, always read and follow the label instructions. These will give you detailed directions on how to safely and effectively apply the product. Also, make sure to take advantage of any educational opportunities offered by your pest control company. These often provide hands-on training and other learning tools that can help you to maintain an effective pest control program.
Prevention
Pests carry germs that can make people sick, damage property and deteriorate plants. While treating a pest infestation is important, it is even better to prevent a problem from happening in the first place. Preventive pest control involves making the environment less hospitable to pests by eliminating conditions that attract them. These measures include: eliminating potential entryways, removing food, water and shelter, practicing good sanitation, and using reduced-risk treatment methods. These prevention methods are often combined in a plan known as Integrated Pest Management.
Pest infestations only occur when pests can get inside a house or business. Eliminating these entryways is the first step in pest prevention. This can include screens on windows, keeping doors shut and patching holes in walls or foundations. It also includes regular interior and exterior inspections of a building to find and repair these openings. This can include inspecting the roof and utility lines as well as looking for cracks under foundations, in eaves or around the edges of a structure.
Getting rid of food, water and shelter sources can also stop or at least slow down a pest population. This can include storing food in sealed plastic or glass containers, keeping garbage receptacles tightly covered and removing trash regularly, not leaving pet food or water out overnight and fixing leaky plumbing. Other preventive steps include avoiding plant and animal matter that is decaying or has been contaminated by disease, not piling leaves or debris near a building and not letting water collect in trays under houseplants or the refrigerator.
Good sanitation practices can help keep pests at bay. These measures include sanitizing drains, wiping down surfaces and vacuuming carpets and furniture on a regular basis. It also includes storing food in the refrigerator or in sealed plastic or glass containers, not allowing garbage to build up and disposing of it promptly, and not leaving out open trays of vegetables or fruit.
Many pest repellants are available that can be sprayed on the outside of a building and in cracks or crevices to keep away unwanted invaders. These repellants can be natural or chemical, and some even work by mimicking the scent of spices or predators that would normally scare off a pest. However, some pests may require more powerful, targeted treatments.
Suppression
Suppression is the use of controls to reduce pest populations below damaging levels. This is a necessary step in controlling pests when prevention fails or when the damage caused by the pest is not economically acceptable. Controls can be used in a number of ways including cultural practices, physical barriers, biological controls and pesticides. Each of these strategies has advantages and disadvantages that must be weighed when choosing the correct strategy to control the pest.
Biological Controls involve the conservation or release of natural enemies (predators, parasitoids and pathogens) to limit the rise of pest insects. This can be accomplished by: 1) conserving existing natural enemies, 2) introducing new natural enemies and establishing a permanent population, or 3) mass rearing and periodic releases of natural enemies. Examples include the nematodes that kill harmful soil grubs, and parasitoids that control greenhouse whitefly. Biological control agents are generally safe for people and the environment, and are an important component of integrated pest management.
In addition to the role of predators and parasitoids, host plants play an important role in limiting pest densities as well. Plants with greater vigor or tolerance of attack are less likely to be seriously damaged by pests. Some plant varieties are resistant to the actions of certain pests and can be planted to reduce the need for insecticides.
The occurrence of seminatural habitat adjacent to crop fields may influence the success of biological controls as well. Studies show that the presence of natural enemies increases with the proximity of the crop field to forest habitat. For example, the number of ant species in sun-grown Brazilian coffee increased with the distance from forest. Similarly, the abundance of syrphid flies in oilseed rape fields increased with the distance to forest fragments.
The development and release of natural enemies is a long process that requires research to find suitable organisms, testing for the impact on native non-pest species or other natural enemies, and quarantine procedures to ensure that no disease or pathogen can be introduced. In addition, the timing of the introduction of new natural enemies needs to be carefully considered, with consideration given to both enemy and pest life cycles.
Eradication
Pests such as rats, roaches, bees, and ants can spread diseases to people and animals. They can also contaminate food or surfaces, and erode plants. Pest control specialists work to eliminate these organisms and prevent them from returning. Pest extermination services may include a thorough initial inspection, targeted treatments inside and outside of the property, trapping, baiting, steam sterilization, or fumigation.
A more sustainable approach to pest control is prevention. This involves modifying cultivation practices to discourage pest infestation and reproduction, using crop varieties that resist insect damage or have natural defenses, and introducing biological controls such as parasites or predators. These can be simple tactics, such as encouraging predatory birds to flock to a field or planting crops that attract natural enemies of a pest, or they can be part of a larger integrated pest management program, such as the cultivation of genetically modified plants with Bt genes to produce toxins effective against certain insects.
The word eradication can be confusing. It is often used interchangeably with exterminate and extirpate, all of which imply complete and immediate extinction. However, eradication can also mean driving something out by a process of displacement or removal, as in uprooting an undesirable plant. The word originated as the root of the Latin verb eradicare, which means “pull up by the roots.”
Eradication is also a term for the extermination of disease microbes. For this to happen, a well-defined set of criteria must be met. These might include a requirement that independent, respected parties certify that an invasive species or pathogen no longer exists in the wild or is not being spread to humans in a non-natural environment such as in a laboratory.
A similar set of criteria is needed for the eradication of weeds, which can overrun crops and native habitats, requiring the use of large amounts of fertilizer and tainting food sources. In some cases, a specific weed might be singled out as being so detrimental that its existence should be eradicated on a national or even global scale, with the help of government agencies and agricultural departments.