Have you found suspicious holes in your framework? Finding mouse poop in with the utensils? Maybe you are trying to grow some prize winning tomatoes, but have an infestation of hornworm, or are finding that every time you go down to the basement there is a string of ants moving back and forth.

If you have these or any other pest problems, you have probably considered calling a pest control company to help deal with the situation. A lot of people will try to get rid of pests on their own first, but quite often this does not solve the problem in the long run. Most pests are prolific and reproduce in hard to reach areas. In this way, they are a lot like weeds; you have to address the problem at it’ root. The problem with pests is that they are living and the “roots” can be hard to find.

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Finding pests around your home and in your yard can be more than just annoying. Many kinds of pests have the potential to spread disease, while most create some form of hassle or another in the form of painful bites, destruction of property and a lot of extra work, or the annihilation of entire gardens. For many years people have taken steps to combat the influence of pests in their homes and gardens. While the approaches people took often appeared to work, in reality some of the most popular methods of pest control were ineffective or worse.

Since the middle of the 20th century, the favourite method for most people on both the large and small scale when it came to controlling pests was spraying poisons to wipe them out. Research has proven that not only are chemical insecticides not very effective in the long run, they may also actually pose a serious danger to the health of humans and other animals not considered pests.

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Part One: The hazards

Since the dawn of time man has waged war against various species that we label as pests. It’s a pretty broad category that runs the range of animals which pose a threat to our safety to those that we fight with over resources to those that ruin our hobbies and in some cases our livelihood. The development of poisonous chemicals in the middle of the 20th century brought this war to a whole new level, and people began to feel as though we were finally going to win the war against the pests which plagued us.

Unfortunately the reduction in pests for a short time was a battle won, but we were far from winning the war. In fact, the use of too much chemicals proved an awful mistake in all cases, whether large or small. Today chemical control of pests is restricted by law for commercial interests, but may still be carried on by the individual home owner. Let’s take a look at why too much usage of chemicals (and we’ve coined a new word for it, “chemicalization”, which we hope catches on) can be very hazardous - in the second part of the series we will take a look at why they are also ineffective.

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Part 2: It’s ineffective!

This two part article series, we are talking about the reasons why home owners need to use the least toxic pest control approach, and we are specifically talking about the problems with using too much chemicals. Part one discussed a few of the many hazards inherent in using too many chemicals in pest control, and in this part we will talk about why chemicals are, most of the time, a big waste of money to boot.

They don’t just kill one species

There are no chemicals used for pest control that are targeted to kill only one species. As we pointed out in part one, pesticides are deadly both for insects and for larger animals, including humans. We also talked a bit about how over use of chemicals nearly destroyed birds of prey, leading to further problems. Well, the same principle applies to insects within your own yard.

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Not long ago, pesticides were the only answer when a pest was disturbing the normal operations of a house, garden, or farm, and the more potent the pesticide the better. Plummeting populations of species other than targeted pests, sickness in humans, and the growing resistance of many different target species made people look twice at what exactly these pesticides were doing, and as a result the population in general is more aware of the harmful side effects of potent chemicals and more interested in pesticides that are least toxic. In this article, we will take a look at some pesticides which are low in toxicity that are in use today.

Definition of a pesticide

A pesticide is always a substance, or mix of substances used to deal with pests and the damage they cause. It can be lethal or just repelling, and the term applies to substances used for anything from insects to rodents. The important thing to remember is that pesticides are synthetically created and controlled; a venus fly trap would not be considered a pesticide but a biological deterrent.

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“Organic” seems to be the watchword of the day, for people of a certain frame of mind. An awareness of the health effects of concentrated chemicals within our bodies has brought the organic mindset to the forefront. In this article, we will take a look at organic pest control and if it is really effective when it comes to pest prevention in your home and garden.

A definition of organic

Organic seems to be a term that is fairly straightforward; most of us would say that if something has been labeled as organic, it has come about without any use of chemicals during the process, whether it be growing produce or controlling pests.

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People exploring least toxic and effective methods for dealing with insect pests have long used different applications which have boric acid as the main active ingredient. This solution is extremely deadly to even the hardiest of insects, without posing much risk to humans (outside of fetuses). In fact, it has been found that this acid is not much more toxic than common table salt. This doesn’t mean that you should take any pest control methods which have boric acid at their base lightly and sprinkle them on your popcorn; on the contrary boric acid methods need to be treated as though they were very poisonous when you are using them. They should not be left where pets or children may be exposed to them, and you need to wear adequate protective measures when you are applying the solutions. (more…)