Annihilation vs. Integration
When we are talking about pest control, there are usually two areas that concern the home owner: the interior of the home, and the yard (which includes your garden). Pests can be found in both areas, although the extent of damage they can cause is different in both, as your approach will be as well.
In general, we tend to use an annihilation mentality when it comes to pests, particularly in the home. We want them gone, and we want them gone totally. This actually isn’t a very realistic possibility in most cases, as pests by nature can thrive just about anywhere in pretty good numbers. After all, they are at the bottom of the food chain and have been for thousands of years, so they need to be able to survive through proliferation.
So don’t expect to get rid of all pests within your home, although in some cases it is a possibility; lice, rodents, and termites can all be taken care of totally within your home with little damage done and no chemicals used. When it comes to the exterior of your house, though, it`s a different story.
Most people will automatically look for annihilating measures when they see a particular type of pest in their yard. They want to kill off the entire population, and do so before much more damage occurs. The problem is that most of the fastest working solutions are chemical, and chemical pest control means a large number of additional problems.
Instead of going for the annihilation approach, pest management today calls for a greater level of integration. This doesn’t mean integrating pests into your life, you may continue to trap them, squash them, or kill them whenever possible. What is does mean, though, is that you integrate a greater understanding of why that particular pest has appeared and what it is likely to do into your routine both inside and outside the house.
One of the first steps of an integrated approach to pest management is recognizing that you will never kill every pest that makes its way into your yard; they are simply too tough and too good at breeding to succumb to even the strongest chemicals, as has been proven over and over again over the last fifty years. Instead, you need to integrate more effective control and prevention methods into your lifestyle.
In some cases, this can be as easy as going to your local home and garden store or calling up the pest control company to see what products they carry in the way of least toxic means of getting rid of pests. This usually includes methods such as traps or even diseases. In other cases it may mean encouraging species which make a meal out of your pests to take up residence in your garden; again, easy enough to do and it can add immeasurably to you landscaping to boot.
Overall, the integrated pest control mindset is much more effective than those which call for annihilation of all pest species. It is more practical, less costly, and above all, it works!
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