Natural forces affect pest populations, limiting them to the food, water and shelter they need. These include climate, natural enemies, overwintering sites and natural barriers.

The most effective pest control combines prevention, suppression and eradication. Preventive measures include eliminating the things that attract pests (clutter, removing food sources) and treating the area where they are living. Suppression reduces pest numbers to an acceptable level and eradication completely destroys them. Contact Pest Control Flower Mound TX now!

Insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth and play critical roles in ecosystems as pollinators, decomposers, food sources for other organisms, and pest control. While they can also be damaging to crops, landscapes, and structures, insects are generally beneficial from an environmental perspective.

Only one to three percent of the world’s insect species are considered pests in human societies, according to experts. The vast majority of insects provide important ecological services, such as pollinating plants and dispersing seeds, reducing erosion by eating weeds and other vegetation, and acting as scavengers and disease vectors.

Several types of insects help with pest control. For instance, predatory insects like spiders, beetles, flies, and true bugs reduce pest populations by consuming them or by parasitizing their eggs. Some dung beetles break down and bury animal waste, which helps reduce methane emissions on dairy and beef farms. And the larvae of some insects, such as the drugstore beetle (Stegobium paniceum), which is a common bookworm, tunnel from cover to cover and can actually clean dust off pages—so they’re useful in libraries.

A wide range of behavioral strategies exist to protect insects from natural enemies, including camouflage, pheromones, and chemical repellents. Insects that use their wings to fly are protected from birds and other predators by having a hard body armor, while others, such as dragonflies, tiger beetles, and predaceous water beetles, can outrun or outswim their foes.

Insecticides can disrupt these natural defense systems and lead to reduced populations and a disruption in ecological balance. This is especially problematic for native insects. For example, if insects were not around to eat gypsy moth larvae in their homelands of Europe and Asia, the outbreaks that occur here could be more severe and last longer.

Rodents

Rodents are a very diverse order of mammals ranging in size from the pygmy mouse to the pig-sized capybara. They are found worldwide and some ocean islands. Rodents have adapted to just about every habitat in the world, living in rainforests, deserts, swamps, tundra, coniferous and deciduous forests and grasslands.

They are important to many ecosystems by recycling waste materials, helping with soil erosion and fertilization, serving as predators and prey and maintaining the health of plants and animals. However, rodents are serious pests around human dwellings, consuming and spoiling food, contaminating water supplies and spreading diseases. They are also responsible for a large portion of fires caused by gnawing on electrical wires.

Often, a visible sign of a rodent problem is the presence of droppings or pilfered foods. Other signs are gnaw marks and grease markings (the dark oily stains left behind by rats rubbing against surfaces) along entry points or corners of walls and floors.

Effective rodent control involves sanitation, exclusion and, when necessary, traps and baits. Keep kitchens, pantries and cabinets clean of loose food debris and garbage. Use metal or concrete “wool” products to seal entrance holes in walls and attics, and maintain gutters, sill plates and crawl spaces free of clogging. Inspect buildings regularly for signs of rodent activity, including scratching noises, gnaw marks, droppings and urine stains. Observe areas where rats and mice spend much of their time such as wall voids, soffits and attics, heating units, utility rooms, garages and vending areas. Place nontoxic monitoring bait blocks in tamper-resistant stations near sources of food, water or shelter. Check these regularly for feeding and bait consumption.

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are difficult to eradicate once established. They are most active at night and hide during the day. They prefer to stay close to their hosts but will crawl longer distances if necessary in search of a meal. If not detected and treated early, they will spread throughout a home and can also hitchhike rides on clothing, luggage and other objects to infest new premises.

A visual inspection of the entire room is essential to identify and treat an infestation. A bright flashlight, magnifying glass and disposable gloves are helpful tools. Strip the bed and examine mattress seams and tufts as well as box springs, upholstered furniture and baseboards.

Vacuuming, removing clutter and washing all fabrics in hot water above 120 degrees Fahrenheit will help eliminate an infestation. Space sprays containing contact or residual pesticides are often used in combination with a thorough inspection to kill existing bugs and prevent them from spreading. These treatments are effective only when applied correctly and are not a substitute for regular, thorough home cleaning.

When misused, space sprays can trigger the pests to exude alert pheromones and disperse them into additional rooms. In addition, the fine droplets can ignite and burn fabric, plastics, paper and other materials.

Fumigation, which involves draping and sealing the structure with tarps to fill it with poisonous gas, can be used to control a severe bed bug problem but is more labor-intensive than heat treatment and cannot be used on delicate contents. It is also more expensive. However, it may be the only treatment that will completely eradicate a serious bed bug infestation.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are a familiar family (Culicidae) of insects that can transmit serious diseases, including Zika virus and malaria. They are also a nuisance pest because their bites interfere with outdoor activities.

Mosquitoes are characterized by a slender segmented body, one pair of wings and three pairs of long hair-like legs with specialized, piercing mouthparts. Only female mosquitoes bite, as they require a blood meal to develop eggs. Different species have specific dietary preferences, with some having narrow restrictions on which animals they will attack, and even then only those that can provide a sufficient supply of blood proteins.

All mosquitoes breed in water and require a moist place to spend their first stages of development, called larval. Larvae feed on a variety of organic material, including plant juices, nectar and animal blood. As they grow, they transform into pupae, which develop in protected places such as hollow logs, discarded tires, leaf litter or containers with corrugated metal roofing.

As adult mosquitoes emerge from their pupal resting sites, they must find a place to lay their eggs. This is why mosquito control begins in the breeding sites.

Keeping mosquitoes away from homes and buildings can be accomplished with the use of mechanical barriers, such as tightly-screened windows, doors and porches (15-18 mesh). Pesticides that target adult mosquitoes can be used indoors or outdoors, depending on the situation. Indoors, products containing synthetic pyrethroids are effective, but they must be used carefully since these chemicals can also attack other beneficial insects and pets. Outdoors, backpack or hand-held foggers that disperse a fine mist of insecticide can kill mosquitoes within a large area.

As mosquitoes are good fliers and many species (such as floodwater or saltmarsh species) can disperse for several miles, effective mosquito control requires multiple strategies, including source reduction through physical control (digging ditches and ponds to drain breeding habitats) and biological control (placing mosquito fish in salt marshes to eat mosquito larvae). In addition, yard treatments involving liquid adulticides sprayed on vegetation, walls and other potential mosquito resting sites can be done with sprayers that are calibrated to produce an insecticidal mist.

Termites

Termites, wood-eating insects that live in a eusocial structure similar to ants, are found throughout the world and are responsible for over $1 billion worth of damage each year in the United States alone. There are more than 2750 different species of termites, and while they are an important part of many ecosystems by breaking down dead organisms and returning nutrients to the soil, some termite species also consume structures, including homes.

Unlike ants, which are often solitary, termites are social insects that form colonies with a distinct caste system. At the lowest level are the workers, which are blind and wingless and provide food for the colony by tunneling through wood, creating mud tubes to access moist soil or to reach the exterior of buildings, and building shelters from bark or cellulose-rich materials.

The next level of the colony are the soldiers, which are larger than the workers and have well-developed mandibles for defense. Then come the reproductives, which are winged male and female forms that swarm in warm weather and then lose their wings after they establish new colonies. These are the future kings and queens of the colony.

While a variety of products are available to treat and prevent a termite infestation, the University of Kentucky’s Entomology Department recommends consulting a pest control professional for assistance. This is particularly true when dealing with subterranean termites, the most destructive type of wood-eating insect.

Termite inspections can include tapping on a wood surface to listen for hollow or papery sounds, as well as looking for pellet-like droppings called frass near the source of an infestation. Termite treatments include injections of liquid pesticide into the ground surrounding a structure, such as with a Sentricon® system, or using termiticide-laden wood products in building construction. In addition, beneficial nematodes may be used to target and destroy termite populations.