One of the many practices used for preventive pest control is exclusion. Exclusion is the practice of keeping the pests out by physically blocking their path of entry.

The pictures below will help to illustrate:

The first picture is of a separation between a door frame, and the brick siding of the home. This opening was large enough to allow many types of pests to enter. Blocking such entries will drastically lower the chances of having pests come inside your home. You may not find all the holes and cracks on the first try, but each one you seal, will be one less entry, and help you to discover others.

The next photograph shows the caulking process at the beginning.

The final picture in this series is the finished product. It will prevent pests, and keep cold air out. It can be painted to match the brick, or the door trim if needed.

There is a lot more to pest control than just spraying out a bunch of chemicals to kill the pests. There is a lot more to pest control than spraying a lot of botanical products. A good pest control program would include a little planning beforehand.

To begin, taking all the appropriate steps to prevent potential pest problems will eliminate most of them. That is the major gap in almost all pest control systems.

I fear that most people, even the ones who are trying to be “green”, have become so deeply entrenched in the “way we have always done it”, that they continue to do the same things they always have done, but with a different set of ingredients. That is at least a partial step in the right direction, but still the wrong way of looking at pest problems, and similar situations.

What we need, is a total re-thinking of pest control from the bottom up, with pest prevention being the foundation on which the rest of the program is built. Doing the same old things with a different set of materials will lead to the same old results.

Pest Prevention is Proactive Pest Control Is Reaction

Pest control is a reaction to a circumstance. The circumstance being, the presence of unwanted pests. Pest prevention is proactive, that is, actively seeking to stop the presence of unwanted pests. The purpose of pest control is to overcome the symptoms of a pest problem. The problem is not the pest. The problem is poor pest prevention!

On the surface, it may appear that pest control is proactive, taking the beetle by the horns, and eliminating it. This is not the case. At first glance, it may seem that pest prevention is not proactive, but it is, since good pest prevention practice takes action to stop the problem before it starts. Once a good pest prevention program is put into place, it becomes a passive means of protection from pests and the problems associated with them.

Pest prevention is the all natural form of pest control. It can be used without the assistance of potentially dangerous and expensive chemicals. Pest prevention can be achieved without the aid of “green” pesticides, which can themselves have a fairly big carbon footprint.

In most cases, pest prevention can be accomplished with little more than some basic lawn, garden and landscape work, and a few handyman skills. The only chemical you need to get started is a tube or two of caulk, and there are no specialized tools involved.

Pest prevention is the definition of natural pest control!

What could be a more natural form of pest control than stopping the pests before they become a problem? What could be more natural than the simple alterations to the habitat which will send pests back into the natural world where they belong?

When it comes to natural pest control, pest prevention is the name of the game! Give it a try! We will be happy to show you how!

Pest Prevention System

Pest prevention is a combination of botany, entomology, lawn, garden, and landscape maintenance, and craftsmanship. If you can handle these basic tasks, you can do it for yourself. The botany and entomology part is not that complex. Note that bugs and weeds like to have certain things in their environment. They need water and food and protection.

Insects like cover and food, and water to survive, and if you deprive them of the things they like to eat, places to hide, and the water they need to live, they will go away and look for more hospitable accommodations. Spiders like bugs to eat, if the bugs go away, the spiders go away. June bugs like certain types of light, deprive them of the light, and they will go away, without laying the eggs which would become the grubs that eat your lawns root system, and attract moles, skunks and armadillos. Eliminate standing water, and mosquitoes have no reason to stick around.

Exclude weed seed from your property, mow frequently, and most of the weeds that are there, will die out without being able to reproduce themselves with seed. Others may require manual removal, or other forms of treatment to get rid of them, and avoiding the practices that reintroduce them will prevent them from coming back.

In other words, the science you need for pest prevention is simply knowing what the bugs and weeds need to survive.Changing the habitats and habits that provide them with what they need to survive is a function of good lawn, garden and landscape practices.

If you do the work that needs to be done to the outside of your property, you will solve most of your homes pest control problems, which will reduce the number of insects trying to get into your home.

If your home becomes the source of food, water and cover for insects and arachnids, the same rules apply. don’t leave anything for them to eat, don’t leave anything for them to drink, and stop them from coming inside, and the battle is won. To stop them from coming inside, you need to practice the art of exclusion. Exclusion is where the craftsmanship part of the equation comes into play. It involves plugging holes, repairing screens, sealing cracks, and repairing weather stripping. It is really as simple as that!

If you want more details on the specifics of what needs to be done to be bug and weed free, start with: Prevention Starts Outdoors

See our newly re written Bugs and Weeds website home page.

The success of pest control has a direct relation to the success of disease control. Our ability to prevent disease, is directly connected to our ability to prevent pests.

The connection is painfully obvious when we look at the names of some of our most notorious and most feared diseases like the avian flu, (bird flu) and some of the diseases transmitted primarily by pests, such as malaria, and dengue fever, transmitted by mosquitoes, and an endless list of diseases carried by flies, fleas, and cockroaches, to name only a few.

Pest control and disease control in under developed regions

In under developed regions, these diseases are difficult to prevent due to insect problems which are themselves difficult to prevent since the technology for pest prevention,  pest control, sanitation, and such advancements as equipment for draining swamps has not kept pace with the human population.

In developed countries, the problem of disease transmitting pest is less obvious, but still real. The threat is always present, and only a system failure or two away from rising up and destroying.

Pest treatments and disease treatments alone will not work

Our chemical pest control methods will go only so far, good pest prevention techniques will provide far better results in the long run. Our disease treatments will only go so far, unless we get rid of the cause of the disease. Keeping the same habits, will only produce the same results. Prevention is the answer for both. In fact, preventing pests will almost eliminate the disease problem in most cases.

It should be remembered that the use of DDT in our own country once destroyed bedbug populations to the extent that an entire generation or more was free of them. With it’s removal from the market, a gradual return of the tiny creatures has been experienced. Preventive measures were never really put into effect on a wide scale.

Evidence that chemicals alone do not work can be seen in areas where DDT is still used, but insects and disease still prevail. In such places, treatment for insects, and treatment for disease will never win unless wide scale prevention becomes the focus.

Flies have always been a nuisance to people and animals. They are troublesome, irritating, and they carry disease. Solomon noticed them enough to say that: “Dead flies make the ointment stink.”

Flies and ancient peoples

The ancient Phonecians thought that flies were the primal form of life. Wherever they saw rotting animals, and filth, flies seemed to rise up from it. They even develop a rudimentary religion based on this ancient version of  spontaneous generation, and they named their god ofter the creatures. In ancient Phonecian, the word for flies was zebub, the term for Lord, or Master was Baal, the Phonecian god was therefore called Baalzebub, the god of the flies.

Fly prevention

In spite of the reverence these ancient worshipers may have had for the fly, most modern people would prefer to avoid their presence. Here are a few things that you can do to control flies by practicing good fly pest control:

Excluding flies

Excluding flies from the home will follow the same rules laid down for exclusion in other parts of this site. See Preventing Pests From Coming In and, Outdoor Pests Indoor Pests Simple Pest Prevention Tips for more details.

The real problem is the outdoor problem. If they were not outdoors, they would not be coming inside to crawl across your sandwich and your tv screen. The pages listed above will offer more details, but we will cover a little of the information here.

Flies and pets

Flies like food, water, and shelter. Deprive them of these, and they go away. If you have pets, feeding more than they eat, will attract flies, their feces will also attract flies. Dog pens, because of the presence of the dogs, who themselves love the same things the flies love, will attract flies. Keep it as far from the home as possible, and keep it as clean as possible to prevent invasion.

Flies and trash

Flies like rotting food, and other rotten materials. Keeping trash cans sealed, and well away from the home will help keep them well away from your home as well. Keeping leftovers, and other food products that need to be discarded frozen untill trash day will also help.

Preventing and controlling rodents

Here we will separate rodents into to non scientific classes: Outdoor rodents, such as moles and gophers, and indoor rodents like rats and mice. We have discussed the outdoor type in several other places, and will focus on the indoor type here.

Both rodent types are really outdoor rodents, since all of the creatures we are dealing with come from outside your home. What we need to focus on, is the way that they get inside.

Preventing Rodents

They obviously don't just materialize inside your home. They have to have an opening of some type. The size of the opening needed for mice and rats to get inside is not all that large.

In fact, a field mouse can get through a hole about one quarter inch in size. That is the size of a standard pencil! A large rat can squeeze through a hole twice that size, or roughly the size of an old grade school pencil or crayon. That's all it takes. A gap in weatherstripping, an ill fitting door, or door sweep, a cable tv opening that might have been done a bit too aggressively, or a small plumbing or electrical opening will do.

The rodents you are attempting to prevent, are coming inside for the same reason you live indoors. They seek protection from the elements, food and water. If you have exposed food, nice dark hiding places, and a small plumbing leak, they will be happy campers in your residence.

The trick is to keep them on the other side of the wall. Rats and mice are notorious nibblers, and if they find a hole too small to gain entry, they will naw and nibble away until it is large enough to get inside.

A few basic  rodent prevention precautions

• Seal all the holes in your abode. A little stainless steel wool shoved and packed into the holes or crevices of an exterior wall followed by a nice bead of caulk will do nicely.

• Changing poorly fitted weather stripping, and repairing doors that don't quite fit, and worn door sweeps will keep the rats and mice from using them as a gateway.

• Check your roof, and roof vents to make sure that they are in good shape as well, and if not repair them. Soffit and eve vents should be screened with a fine mesh on the inside, and anything larger than an eighth of an inch repaired.

• Tree limbs touching the roof, or overhanging the roof should be trimmed to prevent rodents from riding them onto your roof, and into your home.

• Repeat the applicable steps listed, on the inside of your home. Keep food sealed inside containers, and fix any water leaks, and of course, keep everything tidy.

If you already have a rodent or two wandering around in your home, the next section should be of some help.

Trapping Rodents Rodent Control

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am not sure in exactly what context these words were penned or spoken, but have always assumed that it was somehow related to innovation as it relates to basic human needs being the chief way to success. If I am wrong about that, please forgive me Mr. Emerson.

I have looked at a lot of mouse trap innovations, and have yet to see any that actually top the good old spring loaded mechanical apparatus that we have have all been accustomed to seeing from childhood.

These traps have been maligned by users for not being efficient, but the problem is not with our traps, the problem is in the implementation.

Let me put it this way: The mouse trap didn't work because of operator error!

These tips should help.

The old cheese on the mousetrap, made famous by innumerable cartoons is really not the best way to use it.

Peanut butter on the trap is now the common standard, but if you are like me, you have come back to traps to find them licked clean.

1. The best method I have found, is to glue a nut to the trap. This has resulted in a much higher rate of catches than any other method I have used. They can't lick it off, they can't steal it and make a run for the hole with the cat in hot pursuit.
2. If this method does not suit you, try this: take some white bread, squeeze it together in a small ball, and then press it around the bait holder in such a way that it cannot be easily removed.
3. In either method, set more than one trap per location. If one makes a catch, leave the other until you are sure that no others are scouting the same area.

Dealing with the mouse afterward.

This can be the most difficult part of the process. Let me offer a couple of suggestions for the squeamish:

1. When you hear the clap of the trap, don't rush in quickly. In most cases, the unfortunate little critter may have a little kicking and squirming to do. Wait until this is over.
2. If you use plastic grocery bags, get a couple of them, double them, put a hand inside, release the trap, and pick the mouse up with the bag. Pull the bag around the rodent, and tie it off. Drop the whole mess into another bag, and tie it off as well. Dispose of it in a suitable manner.

I do not recommend the use of glue traps. They can lead to some pretty nasty results.

Bird Pest Control

Birds are great to have around your property. They consume insects, and in so doing provide an important part of your pest prevention program. They should be considered when planning your integrated pest management system. They also provide color, interest, and diversions in the home landscape, but too many birds in one place, at one time, can become a nuisance, and even a health problem.

The rules for bird pest control are the same as for any other pest. The first step, is to discover why they are attracted to your property in such large numbers, and alter that part of the habitat to favor fewer birds.

If the reason they are congregating in such large numbers is something off your property, or out of your control, then you should find ways to make your property less attractive to them, and discourage them from using your place as a resting place, or a staging area.

The complaint we hear most often is that birds are roosting in trees, and along eves and edges of the home, or adjacent buildings. The answer is to make these areas less attractive to deter them, or exclude them.

An example of exclusion in this case might be something like covering the existing areas with siding, or screening the area.

An example of deterring them might be adding bird spikes, which are metal or plastic spikes with a number of points at various angles, or tightly stretched thin wire, placed at heights that would discourage the birds by making roosting difficult and uncomfortable.

There are other methods that are used with varying degrees of success. Rubber snakes, fake predators, and even real predators can be used. Gas cannons, set to make loud explosions at predetermined intervals, and various types of streamers, flashers and noises are options with some limitations.

Keep in mind that birds can carry diseases that can be transferred to humans. The bird flu, is just one of many, so when cleaning up after them, please take the proper precautions, such as masks, face shields, and rubber gloves.

Bird pest control, is just like pest control for any other critter. Prevention is the best option.

Winter pest prevention indoors

Pest prevention for winter involves many of the same methods you would use to winterize your home. Think about it: If you have your home buttoned up tightly enough to keep the cold air from coming inside, you will also have your home sealed well enough to keep pests from coming inside.

Of course, the opposite is also true. If you seal your home from bugs and rodents, you will be sealed from the wiles of winter as well. You will save money on pest control, and save money on energy use.

In short, sealing your home is something you should do anyway for many reasons, pest prevention is just one of them.

Winter pest prevention outdoor considerations.

If you have neglected to spruce up your property in the summer because of the heat, the fall and winter offer the opportunity to work outdoors under cooler conditions.

Tree trimming, which can be a very important part of of your home pest prevention program, is best done during the cooler months. Remove limbs that might be touching your home, and which might be providing a freeway for insects and rodents into your home.

The way you trim is important for preventing pests as well. A bad tree pruning job can be an open invitation to insects and disease. Always prune back to a lateral branch, make a clean cut just outside the calloused area at the joint, and avoid tearing or stripping off any bark. Don’t use pruning paint. It only serves to suspend proper recovery.

It is a good time of the year to move those brush and rubble piles, (be sure to watch for snakes that might be bedding down underneath) and clear any brush from your property. Do it now to prevent pests from having a place to spend the winter in preparation for the springtime blitz. When spring rolls around, you will be glad you took these steps.