There are some things that we can't do a lot about. The price of tea in China, earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters, but we can plan ahead on the best ways to deal with such an eventuality.

Prevention Is Best.

When dealing with pests, it is far better to prevent them, than to try to control or manage them. Sometimes prevention fails, not as often as many in the pest industry would have us think, but it does happen. This failure is usually due to unforeseen occurrences in nature, or the over ridding necessity of doing something that would have been better left undone.

IPM

When this happens, what do we do? Well, this is the place where the old standard definitions of IPM kick in. Prevention is always preferred, but now we have to do something else.

We want to use the least invasive and damaging methods to get the best control. This may be something mechanical, or something involving chemicals. We want to prevent economic damage from the pest, and prevent environmental damage from the treatment.

Standard Chemical Pest Control

Standard pest treatments have improved a lot in the past few years. The chemical insecticides and herbicides are applied in lower doses, with far less environmental impact than ever before, and they are very effective. One product for the control of an invasive grass, is applied at one third ounce per acre! There is little to fear from a normal application by a skilled professional. If prevention fails, this is still the best solution.

There are some great tools on the market for doing this. One that I like, and wish I had thought of myself, is the misting system. It is similar to an irrigation system that works from fences and overhangs. It comes on automatically at pre set times, several times a day, for a short burst of spray with a small amount of insecticide. Most companies offer an alternative to standard pesticides, which contains natural oils and fragrances which control the pests. I would call this pest management.

Biological Pest Control 

Biological controls are becoming more prevalent, and some of them show great potential. I still have a little bit of concern about the wisdom of releasing biological predators into nature. Despite the control mechanisms used, the laws of nature are still against us being able to control every aspect of a new life form being introduced into a new environment. We can't know everything about everything!

Mechanical, Electronic Pest Control

Mechanical and electronic controls are showing some promise. There are a lot of things on the market now that may yield some great results in the future. Most of the products of which I am aware, are still in the early stages of testing, and the results and reviews are mixed. Sonic and electronic devises might be the future of pest management, but the data is still not sufficient to offer any real conclusions, at least not to my satisfaction.

Lake and pond weed management mechanical controls show a lot of improvement. There are several excellent tools on the market, but it should be remembered that these are mostly maintenance tools. They are for use when everything else has failed and we are resigned to the fact that we now have to mow our lake as we do our lawn. This is an important distinction, since chopping up an invader like hydrilla, will invariably create new plants.

Organic and Natural Pest Control

Organic and natural pest control has made some headway into the pesticide market. Some of these products are pretty good. Most of them are some type of insecticidal soap, or crop oil with natural pest deterrents such as natural pyrethrins. Some rely on natural repellents, or naturally occurring acids to destroy a pests exoskeleton. Natural herbicides seem to rely on the same sort of acid qualities to burn holes in plants so that they lose chlorophyll, and desiccate.

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Copyright (C) 2007 James Burns  Note: The material on these pages is original content except where noted otherwise. This is the contents point of origin. Some of this content can also be found on blogs, and is published though ezines and various other media on the internet and in print, where it is on loan from the author. "Bugs and Weeds, Lawns to Lakes" is a trademark of Rational Environmental Solutions and TexPest, and is included on alienpest.com and enviroprotex.com our informational sites.