Routine pest control protects your property from damage and preserves the value of your belongings. It also prevents the spread of harmful pathogens and allergens.

Open food sources, crumbs on the floor and counters, and clutter provide hiding spots for pests. Keeping your kitchen and pantry areas clean and storing food in airtight containers helps, as does removing garbage often and sanitizing indoor trash bins. Contact Pest Control Fort Pierce for professional help.
Accurate pest identification is the first step in implementing effective and safe pest control. Knowing the exact species of pest infesting a garden, home or business allows for targeted treatment methods and avoiding damage to non-target organisms.
Different types of pests have different habits and behaviors, and can be controlled using a variety of techniques. Knowing the life cycle of a pest and understanding how it affects plants or structures can help to develop an integrated pest management (IPM) plan that minimizes risk to human health and the environment.
Proper pest identification also helps to prevent misapplication of pesticides. Many pesticides are designed for specific pests, and are ineffective or even dangerous if used on the wrong type of organism. This can be particularly true for pesticides that are applied by spray or bait, where the proper application rate is vital for effective use.
To identify a pest, start by looking at its overall appearance. Take note of its size, shape and color. Look for distinguishing features, such as wings or antennae. If it moves, note how it moves – for example, ants crawl in straight lines, while rodents leave gnaw marks and droppings. If possible, examine the pest’s feeding habits and habitat, and note any other signs of infestation such as chewed wires or holes in leaves.
Another important consideration is the timing of the pest’s infestation. Most insect species go through significant changes in appearance as they progress through their life cycles. It’s critical to recognize these stages so that control measures can be timed to target the most vulnerable stage of development – or, alternatively, so that they are aimed at adults instead of eggs or larvae.
If you are not sure how to identify a pest, or you have an extensive pest infestation, it’s best to contact a professional pest control company in Chicago. These experts have the knowledge and tools to quickly and accurately determine the pests infesting your property, and can offer targeted treatments to eradicate them. They can also help to prevent future infestations by identifying potential entry points and breeding grounds.
Pest Prevention
The goal of pest prevention is to stop pest infestations from occurring in the first place. This is accomplished by implementing an integrated pest management program. This process includes inspections, monitoring, and treatment. It also involves education, documentation and sanitation/exclusion recommendations. In general, preventative pest control is less expensive than treating a pest infestation after it occurs.
Pests can cause many types of damage to your home or business. They can also pose health risks to your family or employees. For instance, cockroaches are known carriers of more than 100 different kinds of pathogens that can make humans and animals ill. Other pests like rodents and birds can carry a number of diseases and even contaminate food.
In order to keep pests away from your property, it is important to understand their life cycles and the conditions that lead to them. This allows you to create a barrier and eliminate their ability to reproduce. Identifying the pest’s life cycle stages can help you select the best control methods.
For example, if you know that harlequin beetles are attracted to brassica plants in the garden, you can use cultural methods (pulling all the broccoli plants in July) or physical/mechanical controls (using bug netting) to disrupt their life cycle. This will reduce the amount of damage they cause to your garden and lower the overall risk of harm to other organisms.
A preventative pest control program will include regular inspections and treatments to establish a protective barrier around your property. This prevents pests from being able to access the interior of your home or business. It is important to have this done at the earliest possible time in order to protect your belongings and keep them free of pests.
Responsive prevention services are also important for commercial properties, especially those that handle food. These treatments are done after a pest problem has occurred and are meant to stop a pest infestation from reoccurring. This may include removing contaminated produce from a store shelf, cleaning a warehouse to remove the presence of flies or other pests and setting up traps in a processing plant to control rodents and birds that can carry disease-causing pathogens.
Pest Suppression
Pests are undesirable organisms (insects, fungi, viruses, nematodes, weeds, diseases or vertebrates) that damage or devalue crops, lawns, trees and gardens. They also displace native plants and interfere with terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Pests can be controlled through natural, biological, chemical, cultural and mechanical techniques. Natural controls, such as weather and topography, limit the growth and spread of pest populations. Biological controls use natural enemies that injure or consume pests to manage their numbers. Chemical control methods include natural and synthetic chemicals that directly impact pest populations. Cultural and physical techniques make the environment less suitable for pests by limiting their access to environmental factors needed for survival, growth and reproduction.
Monitoring pests is an essential part of any integrated pest management (PAMS) approach. It involves watching for the appearance of insects, weeds, diseases or mollusks and recording their number or severity. Monitoring can be done visually, with traps or by scouting. When pests reach unacceptable levels, preventive or control measures must be taken.
Observing the behavior of pests, including their movement, feeding and breeding habits, can help determine when control measures should be initiated. This is especially important with invasive pests that can cause significant economic loss in agricultural settings. Monitoring also can provide clues about what kind of environmental conditions or management practices may be influencing pest activity, such as the presence of certain soil nutrients that encourage pest development.
Once prevention and monitoring efforts have been initiated, the goal is to suppress a pest population below an economic injury threshold. This can be achieved through natural enemy guilds, such as parasitoids and ground-dwelling predators that interact to suppress crop pests, or through the introduction of specific natural enemies to target a particular pest species. For example, virus-based biopesticides have been used to control a variety of insect pests, such as codling moths, gypsy moths and cereal leaf beetles.
Often, natural enemies do not provide enough suppression to reduce pest numbers below economic injury levels. This is when chemical control may be necessary. When pesticides are applied, they must be chosen carefully and applied at the right time and place to effectively manage a pest problem. For example, a pesticide that is applied at the wrong time or in the incorrect life cycle stage will have little or no effect.
Pest Eradication
A pest is defined as any organism (insects, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, viruses or weeds) that interferes with human economic activity. Pests reduce the quality or quantity of products such as agricultural crops, food, garden plants and home furnishings. They can also negatively impact the environment and human health. Pests can damage or devalue buildings, structures and lawns, disturb or displace native plant species, and interfere with the health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
Typically, organisms rise to pest status when they escape normal control by natural regulating agents such as predators or competitors. This can happen when they are introduced to a new area (e.g., a codling moth swarm stripping apples off trees), when they are unable to regulate their population growth and reach damaging levels (e.g., locust swarms eating their way through landscapes), or when human activities alter the habitat and limit the ability of natural enemies to control them (e.g., the spraying of broad-spectrum insecticides that kill both target and natural enemy species).
Some organisms that are considered pests have an ugly or grotesque appearance, such as ticks, silverfish, bed bugs or earwigs. Others bite or sting, such as mosquitoes, ants, bees and wasps. Other pests cause diseases or contaminate foods or other items, such as salmonella in eggs and cockroaches.
Commercial pest infestations are not only costly but can have a negative impact on the reputation of your business. Dealing with pests quickly and efficiently can save you money and hassle as well as time and effort in ongoing maintenance and extra cleaning.
Pointe Pest Control provides preventative, suppressive and eradication treatments to protect your property. Preventive measures include cleaning areas where pests tend to live or develop and identifying influences that contribute to pest attraction. Pest control technicians can identify entry points, nesting sites and more to help keep pests out.
Suppression methods restrict the development and growth of pest populations through rapid application of pest management tools while their numbers are low. Eradication techniques destroy pests and their eggs to remove the threat of future infestations. Generally, preventative, suppression and eradication techniques are used in combination to effectively manage pests. Chemical, biological, cultural, physical/mechanical, and genetic controls are the most common ways to manage pests.