Pest Control North Vancouver, BC, involves managing pests in our homes, businesses, and food processing environments. This is accomplished through prevention, suppression, and eradication.

Preventing a pest infestation is much easier than eliminating one once it has become established. Proper inspection and identification will help tailor management tactics. Prevention includes correct environmental conditions, resistant varieties, and traps or baits.

In retail and hospitality environments, pests can be a serious health risk, spreading diseases such as salmonella or causing allergic reactions in humans. Whether at home or work, proper hygiene will help prevent these problems. Keep food in tightly closed containers, and ensure that surfaces such as counters and sinks are kept clean and sanitized after each use. Rodents will typically seek food near living spaces, so blocking entrance points such as vents and gaps with gnawing-resistant materials is essential. In addition, fit screens to doors and windows that are regularly left open.

Outdoors, keep wood piles away from your house’s foundation and trim back shrubs or tree limbs that are touching the roofline. These provide pathways for pests to access your home and can also give them a place to hide. Keep trash cans and dumpster areas well-sealed to avoid rodents and other pests from accessing them.

Indoors, regularly vacuum to eliminate fleas, cockroaches, ants and other pests that can spread disease. Also, avoid accumulating moisture, as this will attract many pests including rodents and bugs. Humidity can be a particular problem for buildings, so ensure air conditioning and ventilation systems are working well.

Prevention is the most important part of a pest control strategy, and it should be done in conjunction with monitoring and other controls. When a pest infestation occurs, identify the pest to help determine the best course of action. This is called pest identification and should be done before spraying, as incorrect identification could result in wasting time and money on the wrong products.

The goal of prevention is to stop pests before they cause significant damage or nuisance. To do this, perform regular scouting and monitoring of the environment around your property. For example, if you see an increase in the number of fungus gnats or thrips in your garden, early releases of the predatory mites Stratiolaelaps and Amblyseious fallacis will help decrease these pest populations.

Many homeowners end up reaching for their spray bottles in a panic when they see pests, but this is not always the best approach. Sprays should be used sparingly, if at all, and only when other preventive measures are not enough to control pests.

Suppression

Using preventive measures, it’s possible to keep pest populations from getting out of control. If, however, pests do invade, there are several ways to control them without resorting to harmful chemicals. This is known as suppression. The goal of this control is to reduce pest numbers to an acceptable level and cause as little harm as possible to nontarget organisms.

Biological control involves the use of natural enemies to injure or consume target pests, such as predators, parasites and pathogens. These natural controls can be supplemented by the artificial introduction of these “enemies” into a targeted area, either in small batches repeated over time or in large releases. Pheromones and juvenile hormones, which are naturally produced by certain insects and plants, can also be used to control pests.

Mechanical and physical controls include traps, screens, barriers, fences, radiation, and other devices that directly impact pest populations or limit or alter their access to environmental factors needed for survival (e.g., sunlight, temperature, moisture). These methods can be effective for direct control of some pests, such as mice and ants, but are less likely to work on larger infestations.

Inspect your home or workplace regularly for areas where pests could enter and hide, such as cracks in foundations, vents, and walls; loose siding, roof, and window frames; door sweeps and caulk; and open trash cans. Make sure to seal up any openings immediately, and get rid of clutter (like stacks of newspapers or cardboard) that could provide hiding places for pests.

If you do need to use pesticides, be careful to follow the label’s directions and safety warnings. When spraying, try to hit only the pests, not surrounding plants or people. And always use nonchemical, safe alternatives to pesticides, such as baits and traps, before resorting to chemical sprays. These nonchemical tools are more likely to be environmentally friendly and safer for children, pets, and wildlife. They can also be more effective than chemical pesticides. Biological control methods, such as the release of beneficial organisms, are usually cheaper than chemical pesticides and can be used in combination with other control tactics.

Eradication

Pest control is the attempt to reduce a pest population to an acceptable level. This may be done through prevention, suppression or eradication. Pests can be a nuisance, or they may cause damage to structures or crops. They can also be a carrier of disease. Eradication is the most extreme form of pest control and involves killing all living pests. This can be difficult, especially if the pests have built up resistance to certain types of chemicals.

Generally speaking, pest control methods can be divided into categories of physical traps and devices, chemical spraying or baits, and biological controls. Often, a combination of these is necessary to manage pests in different environments. Physical traps and devices include netting, sticky tapes, and traps that can kill or repel the pests. These are simple to use and relatively safe, but they may not be as effective or reliable as other pest control methods. Chemicals may be more effective than physical traps and devices, but they come with their own set of risks. These are most often the result of improper use, which could lead to human or environmental harm. Chemicals can be used for a variety of purposes, from repellents to insecticides and even fertilizers.

Sanitation practices can prevent and suppress some pests, particularly those that attack agricultural crops. This includes using pest-free seeds or transplants and removing crop debris. It also includes storing grain in sealed containers and keeping livestock away from pests’ harborages. In urban settings, sanitation measures include improving cleanliness and reducing garbage buildup. Frequent garbage pickup can help eliminate the sources of food and shelter for pests.

Clutter provides places for pests to hide, such as under sinks and in unused cardboard boxes. Clean up your yard to get rid of tall weeds, dead plant material and woodpiles that can serve as breeding or nesting sites. In the house, keep clutter to a minimum and fix leaky plumbing. Store food in sealed plastic or glass containers, and regularly clean under sinks, in cabinets and in the pantry. Keeping the areas where you store food, garbage and pet food clean can help control pests such as rodents, cockroaches, earwigs, silverfish and bed bugs.

Monitoring

A pest control program is not complete without effective monitoring. This includes regular checking or scouting of sites to determine what pests are present and their level of problem. It also includes assessing the impact of any previously applied control tactics and recording those results.

Monitoring can help determine if thresholds are being exceeded, and is important to determining when to begin control measures. Thresholds are the levels of pest populations at which action is required to prevent unacceptable harm or damage. This information is used to develop an IPM strategy, and may also be useful in determining when and how often control tactics are required.

Pests that can pose a threat to food processing environments include rodents (e.g., rats and mice), cockroaches (which carry more than 45 pathogens that cause illness in humans, including E. coli and salmonella), and flying insects (e.g., houseflies, blow flies, fermentation flies and aphids). They can lead to physical contamination of the food product and its packaging by droppings, urine or excreta, and they may transmit disease to people through direct contact or from their body fluids.

Preventing pests in your facility is the most effective method. Pests are drawn to food processing environments for the water, food, and shelter they provide. A pest management program that relies heavily on prevention will reduce the need for costly control activities.

Pest control programs should include a plan for preventing pests from entering a facility. In addition to a regular inspection schedule, this may include the use of barriers such as fences and tarps, and the placement of traps. Traps can be passive, such as those that use the physical shape of a structure or its nooks and crannies to lure pests, or they can be baited with attractants such as pheromones.

A Pest Sighting Register should be maintained at each site, capturing the date of any pest sighting and recording details of what was seen and what action was taken. This register is a valuable tool for both evaluating the effectiveness of a pest control program and as evidence for compliance with third party food safety standards.