If Pest Prevention Isn’t Enough

If Pest Prevention Isn’t Enough

What to do if pest prevention fails

What if pest prevention isn't enough? There are some things that we can't do a lot about. The price of tea in China, earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters, but we can plan ahead on the best ways to deal with such an eventuality. Some of the things we can't do much about end up effecting the things we are trying to do something about, and this can adversely effect our pest prevention efforts. If natural circumstances, or man made situations alter our surroundings in such a way that pest invasion becomes a part of our larger landscape, we may need to use means other than prevention to control the situation.

Prevention Is Best

When dealing with pests, it is far better to prevent them, than to try to control or manage them. Sometimes prevention fails, not as often as many in the pest industry would have us think, but it does happen. This failure is usually due to unforeseen occurrences in nature, or the over ridding necessity of doing something that would have been better left undone.

IPM

When this happens, what do we do? Well, this is the place where the old standard definitions of IPM kick in. Prevention is always preferred, but now we have to do something else.

We want to use the least invasive and damaging methods to get the best control. This may be something mechanical, or something involving chemicals. We want to prevent economic damage from the pest, and prevent environmental damage from the treatment.

Standard Chemical Pest Control

Standard pest treatments have improved a lot in the past few years. The chemical insecticides and herbicides are applied in lower doses, with far less environmental impact than ever before, and they are very effective. One product for the control of an invasive grass, is applied at one third ounce per acre! There is little to fear from a normal application by a skilled professional. If prevention fails, this is still the best solution.

There are some great tools on the market for doing this. One that I like, and wish I had thought of myself, is the misting system. It is similar to an irrigation system that works from fences and overhangs. It comes on automatically at preset times, several times a day, for a short burst of spray with a small amount of insecticide. Most companies offer an alternative to standard pesticides, which contains natural oils and fragrances which control the pests. I would call this pest management. Do be aware that chemical insecticides used in this type of equipment have come under considerable scrutiny in the past few years, based on the idea that they may be applying insecticides that are not needed.

Biological Pest Control

Biological controls are becoming more prevalent, and some of them show great potential. I still have a little bit of concern about the wisdom of releasing biological predators into nature. Despite the control mechanisms used, the laws of nature are still against us being able to control every aspect of a new life form being introduced into a new environment. We can't know everything about everything!

Mechanical, Electronic Pest Control

Mechanical and electronic controls are showing some promise. There are a lot of things on the market now that may yield some great results in the future. Most of the products of which I am aware, are still in the early stages of testing, and the results and reviews are mixed. Sonic and electronic devises might be the future of pest management, but the data is still not sufficient to offer any real conclusions, at least not to my satisfaction.

Lake and pond weed management mechanical controls show a lot of improvement. There are several excellent tools on the market, but it should be remembered that these are mostly maintenance tools. They are for use when everything else has failed and we are resigned to the fact that we now have to mow our lake as we do our lawn. This is an important distinction, since chopping up an invader like hydrilla, will invariably create new plants.

Organic and Natural Pest Control

Organic and natural pest control has made some headway into the pesticide market. Some of these products are pretty good. Most of them are some type of insecticidal soap, or crop oil with natural pest deterrents such as natural pyrethrins. Some rely on natural repellents, or naturally occurring acids to destroy a pests exoskeleton. Natural herbicides seem to rely on the same qualities of acids to burn holes in plants so that they lose chlorophyll, and desiccate. It should be noted that these natural pesticides are basically "contact" killers which work only on the pests present at the time of application. There are however, new products that do have some residual effect on insects, and I suspect we will see more progress in residual natural herbicides in the short term as well.

Those are the choices as they stand today, perhaps more will show up in the future. The good thing is, that one or more of these methods will do what you need done if properly applied.

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