Pest Control Chesterfield MO involves managing organisms that damage or spoil crops, food, property, and other materials. Strategies include prevention, suppression, and eradication.
Prevent pests by eliminating their hiding places and making it hard for them to enter your home. For example, install door sweeps and replace weatherstripping. Examine and repair any screens and eliminate holes in them.
Before the widespread use of synthetic insecticides, the blood-sucking bed bug was perhaps the most hated pest in America. Although pestbugs have gone by pesticides on bugs, they have really reduced, the bugs’ persistent critters, which are a serious nuisance and difficult to control. Bed bugs feed by attaching themselves to a host through the mouthparts lined with needle-like teeth. They bite repeatedly, painlessly and without resistance, and inject saliva to ensure blood flow. After feeding, the bugs swell and become reddish in color. The bugs then return to their hiding places. A single bed bug can lay up to five adhesive eggs a day. Eggs and nymphs are translucent and about one-sixteenth of an inch in length.
Bed bugs are wingless and flat to fit in crevices and depressions where they hide during the day. They are most active at night, seeking warm hosts. The pests spread from room to room and apartment or hotel to apartment through vents, walls and nooks and crannies. They can also hitch a ride on clothing, luggage and shoes.
If a bed bug infestation is discovered, cooperation from building owners and occupants is necessary to achieve successful treatment. Excess clutter should be removed so that areas can be inspected and treated effectively. Infested items should be placed in plastic bags and sealed for up to a year so that bugs cannot escape and reinfest the area. Purchase protective covers that completely seal mattresses and box springs.
Educate employees and students, as well as visitors to offices, schools, libraries and public spaces, about the presence of bed bugs. Educate them about how to avoid transporting the insects from one building to another. This should include instructions for cleaning clothing and avoiding bringing infested items into unaffected areas.
Establish a system of routine visual inspections throughout the building. Install interceptors (dish-shaped traps) under the legs of beds, sofas and plush chairs to halt the bugs’ pbugs’ss. Check the traps every 1-2 weeks. In addition, clean interceptors with a cotton ball dabbed with talcum powder to reduce the number of bug bites.
Termites
Termites are a common household pest, and one that can cause serious structural damage to your home. It’s a It’s idea to hire a professional for annual inspections and treatment when necessary. A trained pest control expert knows all about termite biology, behavior and prevention and control methods.
Subterranean termites are responsible for most of the damage to homes in the United States. These wood-eating insects live in colonies that are divided into castes. Workers, which are sexually and developmentally immature adults, take care of building out nests, locating food, and foraging. Soldiers, which are mature and have well-developed mandibles for defense, are a higher caste in the hierarchy. Swarmers are winged males and females that are the product of a mature colony. They swarm during warm weather and shed their wings shortly afterward. Swarmers seek out mates to start new colonies.
You can help keep these destructive pests away from your home by reducing moisture and not piling firewood or other wood debris against your foundation. You should also divert rainwater away from your home and promptly repair any leaks or plumbing issues. Do not plant wooded areas too close to your house, and keep trees, stumps, roots and limbs well-away from the structure.
Inspecting your home regularly for warning signs is essential to prevent a significant termite infestation. Common indications include a hollow sound when tapping wood, mud tubes and discarded wings. In addition, look for swarmers in and around your home and monitor any wooden furniture for signs of activity.
If you suspect a termite problem, contact your local pest control specialist immediately. While there are some DIY measures you can take, hiring a pest control expert is the best way to avoid a costly termite infestation.
A licensed pest control expert can treat the soil in and around your home to create a termite barrier. With a liquid-soil termite treatment, a trench is dug around the perimeter of your home and a liquid termiticide is applied to the soil. This acts as a termite treatment barrier that deters future attacks and kills existing termites as they attempt to travel between the colony and their food sources.
Mosquitoes
Many people think mosquitoes serve no purpose beyond annoying them with their bites, but mosquitoes are among the most intensely studied insects on Earth. There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes, found on every continent except Antarctica, but only a small fraction transmit diseases that threaten human health.
The mosquito life cycle begins with eggs laid on the surface of water and then hatch into motile larvae that feed on aquatic algae and organic material. After several weeks, larvae pupate on the bottom of shallow water bodies and eventually become adult mosquitoes that fly away to mate and lay eggs. Mosquitoes have mouthparts that are adapted to pierce the skin of an animal and drink its blood. They also have six legs and a hard exoskeleton.
When mosquitoes are in their flight phase, they can travel great distances. Many Aedes and Ochlerotatus species are capable of flying up to 20 miles from their breeding areas, allowing them to disperse over large areas. This makes routine surveillance and control of breeding sites essential.
Adult mosquitoes can be controlled with spraying of liquid pesticides that are designed to kill them on contact. Fogging is typically performed indoors and outdoor, and it requires specialized equipment to disperse the chemicals into the air where mosquitoes rest. Barrier sprays are less demanding in terms of environmental conditions and equipment. They involve applying liquid pesticides to vegetation and structures that harbor mosquitoes on their perimeter.
Regularly removing or emptying outdoor containers that can hold standing water, such as old tires and wheelbarrows, can reduce the number of mosquitoes around a home. Draining or turning over containers that can hold water (such as trash cans, birdbaths and ornamental pools) on a weekly basis also helps. Netting and screens can be used on porches, windows and doors to prevent mosquito entry into homes.
Larvicides are chemicals that kill mosquito larvae or interfere with their development in water. Examples include contact poisons, growth regulators, surface films, stomach poisons and formulations of natural mosquito parasites or diseases that the Environmental Protection Agency registers as pesticides.
Fleas
Fleas are tiny, jumping specks that cause itchy, irritating bites. These pests transmit bacteria that can cause plague and murine typhus (a serious disease of rodents). Fleas find hosts by sensing body heat, movement and vibrations caused by the host’s host’sing. Adult fleas feed on the blood of dogs, cats and other mammals and birds and will even bite people. Fleas also transmit germs from their feces, when they scratch their heads and lick their legs, into open wounds.
A comprehensive flea control program includes treating pets, cleaning bedding and vacuuming regularly. In addition, a product labeled as an insect growth regulator, or IGR, should be used at regular intervals to prevent immature fleas from developing into adults. It is important to treat the entire home and especially pay attention to “hot sp”ts” where”a pet sleeps or rests, such as the cushions of furniture and bed frames.
Fleas hatch from eggs in areas of high humidity and are repelled by light, so they move away from sunny spots to develop into larvae. Once mature, the larvae burrow into cracks and crevices in carpeting and rugs or under upholstered furnishings. When not feeding, they spin a small cocoon that can be a few weeks or months long. Fleas that emerge from pupal stages are impervious to most pesticides, which is why a full treatment regimen is necessary for effective flea control.
The best way to control fleas on your pets is to use a commercial dust, spray, dip or aerosol that contains an adulticide and an IGR. Be sure to follow the application instructions closely. When possible, remove pet food and water dishes from the premises before treatments and cover aquarium filters.
A good lawn treatment is important for flea control as well. The IGR in the grass will prevent immature fleas from developing, while the adulticide will kill existing fleas on your pets. Avoid feeding wild or stray animals free-choice on your property and make sure to clean out crawl spaces under buildings and porches, where fleas may hide. It is also a good idea to fence the yard to prevent strays and other animals from entering the house, where they can bring fleas with them.