Coquitlam Pest Control is the process of keeping pests from damaging plants, animals and structures. It involves prevention, suppression and, in some cases, eradication.

In the home, preventive measures include storing food in sealed containers and sweeping or vacuuming the floors regularly to remove crumbs. Also, be sure to install screens on windows and doors and keep them repaired.

Pests damage plants, food, and property and spread diseases. Preventing their spread requires removal or control of the pests themselves, destroying their breeding ground and making it difficult for them to survive. Prevention techniques can include baits, traps, or removing their nests. In addition, physical controls such as rodent exclusion and sealing entry points can be effective in preventing pests from entering buildings.

Prevention is usually the first step in a pest control program, with emphasis on eliminating sources of food and water. Eliminating these sources will force the pests to seek shelter and food elsewhere, and if they cannot find it they will move on. Different types of pests require different methods of prevention. For example, a rat problem can be controlled with a bait and trap program, but a carpenter ant infestation is best handled by pest proofing the house.

Proper sanitation is also important. Keeping counter tops and floors clean, storing foods in sealed containers, and disposing of trash frequently can help prevent pests from finding food or shelter in your home. It is also necessary to keep bushes and lawns away from buildings, as pests may use them for shelter or a path to the inside of your home.

Regular inspections are necessary to identify problems before they become serious. For example, a few wasps visiting a flower garden do not warrant action, but a large number of them congregating in the same place may indicate that they have built their nest there. Early detection of problems, such as wood rot or termites, can prevent costly damage to buildings.

Eradication is rarely attempted in outdoor pest situations, but can be a successful strategy in some enclosed environments. Insecticides can be used to eliminate indoor infestations, and should be applied according to label instructions, with a minimum of risk to humans and other animals.

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a combination of physical, biological, and chemical strategies for managing pests in plant crops. The goals of IPM are to protect the environment, people, and the economic value of the crop, while minimizing costs. For IPM to work, everyone involved in the production chain must participate. This includes farmers, processors, and distributors; processors of animal products; and consumers.

Suppression

When prevention and avoidance tactics fail to keep pest numbers low enough, control measures are needed. The goal is to reduce pest damage to an acceptable level with as little harm to other organisms as possible. Suppression techniques may include physical removal, exclusion or repulsion, quarantine or chemical methods.

Many kinds of organisms are considered pests in human environments and can cause a wide range of problems including injury to plants, crops or structures, destruction of property, nuisance behavior, or disease for people or other animals. The term pest can be used to describe rodents, birds, insects and other animals, as well as diseases, weeds or fungus. In general, humans want to keep populations of pests below what they consider unacceptable levels for a variety of reasons, including safety, esthetic and economic.

Integrated pest management, or IPM, is an ecosystem-based approach to managing pests in homes, businesses and gardens, farms and natural areas. IPM uses prevention, monitoring and suppression tactics that minimize risks to people, beneficial organisms and the environment. Prevention strategies include avoiding pest habitats and conditions that make them more likely to occur, and reducing the availability of food, water or shelter that can attract and support pests. Monitoring includes scouting for insect, mollusk and vertebrate pests, trapping or observing weed pests, and checking environmental conditions such as temperature and moisture levels.

Chemical controls include pesticides that can be used to kill or control a specific pest species, but should always be applied in a way that minimizes risks to human health and the environment. When pesticides are used, they must be chosen and applied according to established guidelines. When pesticides are ineffective, the reason is often that they were not used correctly – they may not have been applied at the right time or to the correct location. It is also possible that the pests have developed resistance to the chemicals.

Some plants, trees, woods and other material have naturally occurring characteristics that make them resistant to pest attack. Incorporating these resistant materials into a treatment site can help keep pests below harmful levels.

Biological Control

Biological pest control uses predators, parasites and disease organisms to keep pest populations below damaging or intolerable levels. Unlike chemical pesticides, which can have detrimental effects on ecosystems, biological organisms attack the specific species they target without impacting other wildlife or non-target plants. There are three general ways to use these natural enemies in gardens, greenhouses or farms as a means of biological pest control: importation, augmentation and conservation of native natural enemies.

Importation (also known as classical biological control) involves bringing non-native organisms from their country of origin to suppress or eradicate invasive pests in their new environment. Scientists sponsor expeditions to the region of origin to search for and collect natural enemies that are appropriate for the target pest. The natural enemies are then tested, usually in quarantine for a number of generations to ensure that they won’t cause any negative side-effects, such as hyperparasitoids or disease-causing pathogens, and then reared and released into the environment where the pest is threatening crops. Rodolia cardinalis (vedalia beetle) from Australia was introduced to California in the 19th century to control cottony cushion scale on orange trees; Hippodamia convergens (convergent lady beetles) from Europe are now sold by biocontrol dealers for controlling aphids and other plant pests.

The augmentation of natural enemy populations can be done by purchasing and releasing the organisms in large numbers to quickly overwhelm and suppress a pest population. This is often used in emergency situations when pests are already damaging crops or damaging the environment. It can also be used in preventive applications by releasing small numbers of natural enemies when the pests are just starting to develop or in the early stages of their life cycles.

In the long term, a goal of classic biological control is to establish self-sustaining populations of natural enemies that will continue to suppress or eliminate pests on their own. This will take several generations, perhaps ten or more, but can be much less costly than chemical pesticides. Often, the natural enemies will be more effective when they are targeted at the early stage of a pest’s life cycle when it is most vulnerable and vulnerable to the biological controls.

Mechanical or Physical Controls

Physical pest control techniques kill or make the environment unsuitable for pests, such as by installing screens or netting to keep insects out of buildings or gardens or using traps to capture rodents. These methods are usually chemical-free, but they do require monitoring and regular adjustment to ensure effectiveness. This type of control is an important component of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) because it helps reduce the reliance on chemicals and the risk that resistance will develop to pesticides.

Weather conditions can directly affect the population of many pests by limiting their ability to reproduce or by killing them through drought, freezing temperatures, wind or rain. Climate also influences pests indirectly by affecting the growth and development of their host plants.

Some types of vegetation, such as weeds, can suppress or kill pests by competing with them for water and nutrients. The use of crop rotation, modification of planting times and plant spacing, cleaning soil from machinery between fields, grazing livestock or cover cropping can help limit the spread of some pests.

Natural enemies of pests—such as parasites, predators and pathogens—can be introduced to control their populations. They can be introduced naturally through the environment or in controlled settings, such as a greenhouse or laboratory. Examples include predatory mites, nematodes, fungi and bacteria, plant-parasitic wasps, predacious bugs and beetles and other insect predators.

Biological controls are usually introduced through selective breeding programs that select for traits such as disease or pest resistance, early emergence, heat or cold tolerance and canopy or leaf traits. They can also be introduced through grafting, steam sterilization of the soil and other horticultural practices.

Humans can also act as natural enemies by reducing the availability of food or shelter to pests. Good housekeeping, including sealing cracks and crevices, can prevent pests from entering homes or commercial buildings. In addition, keeping garbage cans tightly closed and away from buildings and storing trash in sealed containers can discourage pests. Regularly removing leaves and brush from around structures can also discourage pests, as can trimming trees to eliminate places for them to hide or nest.