Under control

Moths are one of the insect pests which can do damage both inside and outside of the home, although different species are generally responsible for different types of damage. In this article, we will take a look at why the integrated pest management strategy is so important when it comes to controlling pest populations, and ways in which you can keep moth numbers both inside and outside your home from growing into infestations.

Integrated pest management means following some basic steps to control pest numbers, depending on what stage your problem is at. The approach recognizes the fact that for years humans have waged a chemical warfare on almost all varieties of pests, and have done so unsuccessfully. Not only do the pests seem to adapt and survive, but the chemicals end up doing more damage to helpful species and even to humans than they do to pest numbers.

(more…)

You’ve probably heard that if there ever was a total nuclear war, it would be cockroaches that inherited the planet. While the gallows humor of the statement is debatable, it is true that cockroaches are one of the hardiest species to inhabit our planet. They have several adaptations which make have helped them to become either first or second on the list of pests in the United States, depending on where you live. These adaptations are also very useful when it comes to pest control, for the cockroach that is. Let’s take a look at what makes the cockroach so hardy and how you can control the population in your house without the use of atomic weapons or others that are overly threatening to your own existence.

(more…)

Wasps and yellow jackets are generally looked down on by everyone, and I will admit that I include myself in that category. I don’t like them, they swarm and they sting, and not always when they are provoked. Still as a conscientious person I do feel the need to point out that these insects have a more detrimental effect on other pest insects than they do on people in general; they often swarm and kill the bugs we don’t want around in our gardens and on our trees.

Still, there is little use for wasps in urban areas, and they can be a real risk to those who are allergic to their stings or their bites. Dealing with wasps and yellow jackets is a risky and difficult business for several reasons:

(more…)

I think it’s important to get one thing clear from the start: I am not a person who thinks that spiders fall into the category of pest. Quite the opposite, I think that spiders are a great anti-pest; the number of house flies living with me was reduced dramatically by the influx of spiders in my house this year, a fact for which I am grateful.

Still, there are many people who are averse to the idea of sharing a home with an eight legged friend (or enemy, as the case may be) and even I will agree that there are some cases in which a spider should be eliminated or dealt with appropriately.

(more…)

There are dozens of species of moth, many of them quite beneficial to humans and the ecology of the earth as a whole. However there are also many species of moth that are pests both in and out of the home. In this article, we are going to consider two of the most common inside moth pests, the Indian meal moth and the clothes moth (actually three species, but you can deal with them all in the same way).

We have gone through the trouble that these moths can cause in a home in a separate article, so you do know what’s in store if you wait too long. Let’s see which least toxic measures we can take in dealing with moths.

(more…)

You have probably had the frustration of reaching into your closet or your drawer for a favorite piece of clothing - a sweater, a housecoat, a pair of comfy pants - and found to your dismay that it has been reduced to a piece of clothing that seeks to emulate Swiss cheese. There could be two culprits here, either the carpet beetle or the clothes moth, and your positive identification will likely be visual.

Lt’s face it, even if they didn’t do too much damage to your clothes, it can mean the difference that gets a nice sweater downgraded from party apparel to wear around the house casual. It’s a pain, but there are a few ways to get rid of the damage these pests create in your home.

(more…)

People with hobby gardens are often concerned about the pests they see or may encounter that have the potential to wreak havoc on the harvest they are counting on. Beginning gardeners, especially, tend to hold to the belief that the presence of pests means that their hard work is ultimately doomed to failure.

There really is no such thing as a pest free garden; any outside area is going to have a certain amount of creepy crawlers or scurries which gain nutrition off the gardener’s hard work. The key is to define in your mind what a pest really is, and to focus not on eradication but on control. We will discuss some options for maintaining a garden where the pest population is controlled, but it is important to keep in mind that with some exceptions that we will note, sighting a few pests does not mean your garden is going to be reduced to a few sad looking green stumps.

(more…)

Understanding the life cycles, eating habits, and habitat preferences of different species that we call pests is an important foundation in integrated pest control. The days of using toxic chemical sprays to control pests are almost gone; this method is harmful to almost all living organisms, negatively affected the environments in which it was used (including soil and water quality) and more often than not did not solve the pest control problem it was supposed to address in the first place.

(more…)

One of the weirdest pets out there in the United States today is the garden snail. Snails are a bit of a confusing category because in fact the name refers to an entire line of animals, in fact the second most successful invertebrate after insects. The snail we usually think of when we are talking about garden pests is the helix aspera or garden snail (surprise). The weird thing about this species is that it is the same type of snail that people eat as escargot, and it is also used in different types of skin creams. Diverse applications, for a pest that you are likely going to just throw away!

(more…)

Snails are an incredibly amazing naturally occurring pest; the average snail can lay up to 300 eggs per day during the laying season, and these eggs can lie in the ground for eleven years or more until conditions are right for them to hatch. It’s easy to see how a snail infestation can occur overnight, and a bad infestation can prove very detrimental to your garden.

Snails are a pest which truly demonstrate the ineffectiveness of a toxic chemical approach to pest control. While they will perish individually, over use of toxic chemicals will actually create the ideal habitat for snails and their eggs as it kills the soil and dries it out. The only way to deal with snails is through time and patience, and here are some ways to do it.
(more…)