575-725-9331
Integrated Pest Management
Carlsbad Pest And Weed Control
With its warmer seasonal climate, Carlsbad has a unique variety of weeds and insects that don't always respond to any single method of control. Chemical control with herbicides and insecticides is generally the first method that homeowners and technicians turn to. However, this alone may not always be sufficient, complete, or even necessary.
Chemical control should actually be the last resort or supplemental to other control methods. With insects, it may be as simple as using cultural control and with weeds it could simply take some mechanical control.
For most people, the term pest management or pest control gives the idea that it deals only with spraying insects. However, pests can be defined as anything that is where it shouldn't be. This would include controlling birds, rodents, and spraying for weeds. In Carlsbad, some types of weed control are incorporated into IPM services and programs where weeds and unwanted vegetation are the pest.
Integrated Pest Management, also referred to as IPM, uses all means available to keep pests from becoming a problem in a given situation. Using biological, cultural, mechanical, physical, and chemical control methods, it often depends on chemical control as a last resort. Biological control, not often used in Carlsbad, is becoming more popular because of its green roots.
While these methods are most often referred to and used for agricultural and farming, they apply to all areas of pest control including residential homes and businesses. See Integrated Pest Management For Homes for some good guidelines, tips, and ideas on how these methods can be applied in homes and businesses outside the agricultural realm.
Rather than simply spraying a pesticide to eliminate an insect infestation, rodent or bird issue, or even a weed problem, IPM takes the approach of creating environmental conditions that are unfavorable for the pest to survive and thrive.
For example, after inspection and evaluation of an insect infestation, we can often create conditions that are simply unfavorable for the bug, weed, or other pest. While we may most often apply some type of chemical control, that in itself doesn't keep the bugs and weeds from wanting to return.
Using a cockroach infestation as an example and from experience learned from treating cockroach infestations here in Carlsbad, simply spraying insecticide isn't usually enough to create any long term results. Spraying may give a quick knockdown and temporary relief but it isn't a form of pest control that eliminates the reasons the bugs set up home in the first place.
A good program will usually include an IPM system of eliminating food and water source, creating exclusion, using growth regulators to keep them from reproducing, tasty baits, and non-repellant pesticide.
A common method of biological pest control that many homeowners and gardeners are familiar with is the use of Lady Bugs to eliminate Aphids and other harmful insects from Rose Bushes and other desirable plants in the home garden. And they will overnight them to Carlsbad or most anywhere in the U.S.. This is just one example but there are many.
Methods Of IPM
The main methods of Integrated Pest Management can be described as follows -
- Biological Control - Using natural enemies, parasites, or enemies of a pest to either compete with it or kill it in order to control it.
- Cultural Control - Eliminating food or water sources or even favorable living conditions.
- Mechanical Or Physical - Traps or exclusion for pests and mulching for weeds are good examples.
- Chemical Control - The use of pesticides
Creating An IPM Program
There are certain principles that are followed to create a good Integrated Pest Management program.
- Identify the pest
- Monitor the number of pests and their damage
- Determine when and if action is necessary
- Prevention methods
- A combination of the 4 methods outlined above