Although it seems rather easy to set up gardening and pest control, there are many things that you must consider first. In fact, many of the things that you'll read about here are not discussed often. Before you start your garden pest control, consider this...

Gardening and pest control is at least as old as agriculture. It's an industry that's growing rapidly. The pest control business has grown more than 50 percent in the last 5 years or so, and nationwide it has become a $7 billion industry.

With more homes being built in rural areas the problem of pest control has become more urgent.

What is Gardening and Pest Control?

It's basically the reduction or eradication of pests. Whereas structural pest control is the control of household pests and wood-destroying pests and organisms or such other pests which may invade households or structures, gardening and pest control tends to be the control of pests that are affecting your plants, lawn and/or soil. That can sometimes spill over into the house as well, but by and large, it's the garden we're talking about here.

In order to protect our growing areas as well as our health, proper gardening and pest control is a necessity. It is often ignored until pests and their damage are discovered or it has got out of hand. Well there are measures you can take to help eradicate the problem.

How Do We Control Pests in the Garden?

Many people see gardening and pest control as a do-it-yourself job. Well that's fair enough - up to a point. Gardening pest control is like visiting the doctor: to prescribe effective treatment your physician must correctly diagnose the problem and determine the extent of the injury as well as the potential for further injury. In surveys, it's been found that many householders don't bother to read the instructions carefully or feel the need to vary the instructions 'because they feel they know better'.

That leads to over-concentrated doses of insecticide for example which could be hazardous to your health and any visitors. Of course we are specifically referring to chemicals, as chemical pest control is still the predominant type today. However, that said, the long-term effects of chemicals has led to a renewed interest in traditional and biological pest control towards the end of the 20th century.

For those who don't do DIY gardening and pest control, there is the option of monthly visits from your local company. One advantage is that someone should be looking at your house and garden for pest problems regularly. One disadvantage is that homeowners insist that PCOs apply a chemical treatment monthly whether there is a pest problem or not!

The facts of pesticide use in the home and garden are very surprising:

- Each year 67 million pounds of pesticides are applied to lawns.

- Suburban lawns and gardens receive far heavier pesticide applications per acre than most agricultural areas.

Think before you spray a pesticide. You may kill the insects that are helping you keep pests in check. This means you will have to spray more in the future. Also, insects benefit your garden by pollinating your plants, helping them grow and propagate. Don't use persistent, broad-spectrum, contact insecticides like diazinon, malathion and carbaryl. These provide only temporary pest control and are likely to kill more of the natural enemies than the pests. When their enemies are gone, pest populations may soar and become more of a problem than before they were sprayed.

Most consumers also don't realize how potentially harmful they can be:

- Pesticides are easily tracked indoors -- an EPA study found 23 pesticides in dust and air inside homes.

- Lawn chemicals can harm pets. Dog owners who use the herbicide 2,4,-D four or more times per season, double their dog's risk of developing lymphoma.

It's an eye-opening shock isn't it? Can we really, really not be without these methods of pest control?

Gardening and Natural Pest Control

We believe the logical approach to gardening and pest control is to create a balance of organisms in your yard or garden. Natural pest control is less expensive than buying and applying pesticides, and it's safer for your garden, natural wildlife and the environment.

Let's look at some hints and tips to help your gardening and pest control:

- Beneficial insects that prey on problem bugs are available for sale

- If a plant, even a tree, has insect pest or disease problems every year, it's time to replace it with a more tolerant variety, or another type of plant that doesn't have these problems.

- By preventing pests from reaching your plants, you can avoid the damage they cause. And in cases where you only see a few pests, physically removing them can often keep the problem under control.

Let's also look at some useful bugs you want to encourage in your garden:

Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.)

Bald-faced hornet

Centipede

Damselfly

Ground beetle

Honey bee

Mason bee

Parasitic wasp

Soldier beetle

Yellow jacket

Use these tips to make dealing with gardening and pest control a lot easier. If you follow the basics you will virtually eliminate your problem of garden pests forever.

The world is going green. "Green" is the color of environmental concern, the impetus that drives cutting-edge technology, the buzz word of the socially conscious. Concern for the environment and man's impact on it is bringing a slew of new products to market, and pest control is no exception. Environmentally-friendly pest control services are growing in popularity, particularly in the commercial sector. Even eco-savvy residential consumers are asking about natural alternatives to traditional pesticides, but their ardor often cools when confronted with the 10% to 20% cost differential and lengthier treatment times, sometimes several weeks.

The raising of America's environmental consciousness, coupled with increasingly stringent federal regulations governing traditional chemical pesticides, appears to be shifting the pest control industry's focus to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. IPM is considered not only safer for the environment, but safer for people, pets and secondary scavengers such as owls. Of 378 pest management companies surveyed in 2008 by Pest Control Technology magazine, two-thirds said they offered IPM services of some sort.

Instead of lacing pest sites with a poisonous cocktail of powerful insecticides designed to kill, IPM focuses on environmentally-friendly prevention techniques designed to keep pests out. While low- or no-toxicity products may also be used to encourage pests to pack their bags, elimination and control efforts focus on finding and eliminating the causes of infestation: entry points, attractants, harborage and food.

Particularly popular with schools and nursing homes charged with guarding the health of the nation's youngest and oldest citizens, those at greatest risk from hazardous chemicals, IPM is catching the attention of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other commercial enterprises, as well as eco-conscious residential customers. Driven in equal parts by environmental concerns and health hazard fears, interest in IPM is bringing a host of new environmentally-friendly pest management products -- both high- and low-tech -- to market.

"Probably the best product out there is a door sweep," confided Tom Green, president of the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America, a non-profit organization that certifies green exterminating companies. In an Associated Press interview posted on MSNBC online last April, Green explained, "A mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a pencil diameter. So if you've got a quarter-inch gap underneath your door, as far as a mouse is concerned, there's no door there at all." Cockroaches can slither through a one-eighth inch crevice.

IPM is "a better approach to pest control for the health of the home, the environment and the family," said Cindy Mannes, spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the $6.3 billion pest control industry's trade association, in the same Associated Press story. However, because IPM is a relatively new addition to the pest control arsenal, Mannes cautioned that there is little industry consensus on the definition of green services.

control industry, means embracing these new organic and natural technologies even when they are not popular with the consumer - yet.

In an effort to create industry standards for IPM services and providers, the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America developed the Green Shield Certified (GSC) program. Identifying pest control products and companies that eschew traditional pesticides in favor of environmentally-friendly control methods, GSC is endorsed by the EPA, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and HUD. IPM favors mechanical, physical and cultural methods to control pests, but may use bio-pesticides derived from naturally-occurring materials such as animals, plants, bacteria and certain minerals.

Toxic chemical sprays are giving way to new, sometimes unconventional, methods of treating pests. Some are ultra high-tech like the quick-freeze Cryonite process for eliminating bed bugs. Others, like trained dogs that sniff out bed bugs, seem decidedly low-tech, but employ state-of-the-art methods to achieve results. For example, farmers have used dogs' sensitive noses to sniff out problem pests for centuries; but training dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs is a relatively recent development. Using those same techniques to teach dogs to sniff out termites and bed bugs is considered cutting-edge.

Another new pest control technique is birth control. When San Francisco was threatened by mosquitoes carrying potentially life-threatening West Nile Virus, bicycle messengers were hired to cruise the city and drop packets of biological insecticide into the city's 20,000 storm drains. A kind of birth control for mosquitoes, the new method was considered safer than aerial spraying with the chemical pyrethrum, the typical mosquito abatement procedure, according to a recent story posted on the National Public Radio website.

Naturally, there are efforts underway to build a better mousetrap. The innovative Track & Trap system attracts mice or rats to a food station dusted with fluorescent powder. Rodents leave a blacklight-visible trail that allows pest control experts to seal entry paths. Coming soon, NightWatch uses pheromone research to lure and trap bed bugs. In England, a sonic device designed to repel rats and squirrels is being tested, and the aptly named Rat Zapper is purported to deliver a lethal shock using just two AA batteries.

Alongside this influx of new environmentally-friendly products rides a posse of federal regulations. Critics of recent EPA regulations restricting the sale of certain pest-killing chemicals accuse the government of unfairly limiting a homeowner's ability to protect his property. The EPA's 2004 banning of the chemical diazinon for household use a couple of years ago removed a potent ant-killer from the homeowner's pest control arsenal. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations prohibiting the sale of small quantities of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside an enclosed trap, has stripped rodent-killing chemicals from the shelves of hardware and home improvement stores, limiting the homeowner's ability to protect his property and family from these disease-carrying pests.

Acting for the public good, the government's pesticide-control actions are particularly aimed at protecting children. According to a May 20, 2008 report on CNN online, a study conducted by the American Association of Poison Control Centers indicated that rat poison was responsible for nearly 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of them resulting in serious injuries or death. National Wildlife Service testing in California found rodenticide residue in every animal tested.

Consumers are embracing the idea of natural pest control and environmentally-friendly, cutting-edge pest management products and techniques. Availability and government regulations are increasingly limiting consumers' self-treatment options, forcing them to turn to professional pest control companies for relief from pest invasions. While this has proved a viable option for commercial customers, few residential customers seem willing to pay higher prices for newer, more labor-intensive green pest control products and even fewer are willing to wait the additional week or two it may take these products to work. It is taking leadership efforts on the part of pest control companies to educate consumers in the long term benefits of green and natural pest treatments.

Even though the cold, hard truth is that when people have a pest problem, they want it gone and they want it gone now! If rats or mice are in their house destroying their property and threatening their family with disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating away their home equity, if roaches are invading their kitchen or if they're sharing their bed with bed bugs, consumer interest in environmental friendliness plummets. When people call a pest control company, the bottom line is that they want the pests dead! Now! Pest control firms are standing up against the tide of consumer demand for immediate eradication by enhancing their natural and green pest control product offerings. These new natural products take the most responsible long term approach to pest control; one that protects our environment, children, and our own health. Sometimes it is lonely moving against the tide of popular demand, but true leadership, in the pest

Pest control in commercial warehouses is a big challenge for most pest control companies. Various types of pests, animals and insects can plague your warehouse. Commercial warehouse clients know how valuable it is to treat warehouses and facilities effectively. Food stocks and other perishable items add to the difficulty of treating warehouses. There are 6 steps in protecting your storage and making sure that your warehouse is free from pest infestations.

Assessment. This is the initial step to create an effective pest control program. Assessing warehouses is a complicated job. Special concentration is given to entry points, food sources, water sources, shelter areas, and employee and customers corners. They will also assess all areas in the warehouse like cafeterias, pantry, janitorial closets, storage room, utility room, comfort rooms, and shipping and receiving area.

Examine building design. After the thorough assessment and identifying existing and possible problem areas, the next thing to do is find out the building's customer and employee traffic which is the total number of individuals going in and out of the building every day. Inspect entry areas such as pedestrian doors, electrical conduits, overhead doors, water sources, and exterior perimeters including dumpster areas, fence lines, storage buildings, etc.

Pest ID. Each type of pest has a different treatment technique depending on the reaction of the pests to each treatment. Pest management professionals usually gather information from employees to get precise information about the pests to avoid further infestations and monitor current problems.

Customized programs. Each warehouse is different from the other warehouses, thus, each warehouse requires a different pest control program from the other. Some factors to consider are location, age of building, weather, size of the warehouse and many other factors. To develop the best pest management program that will fir the requirements of your warehouse, professionals will inspect and break down facilities and will talk to employees.

Sanitation. The bottom line in every pest control and maintenance is sanitation. The success of any pest control program and maintaining pest free warehouse will depend on the sanitation in your warehouse. Pest controllers will make use of service record logs, application records, sighting logs, and sanitation report for the program to be effective. You will be able to prevent health risks, financial and legal problems connected with pests' invasion.

Integrated Pest Management Techniques

Integrated pest management is a pest control technique that uses inspection, records, sanitation, elimination, traps, pest monitors, and chemicals if necessary. Combining these techniques will provide a program that will eliminate pests. The approach used in controlling pests centers to sanitation and prevention. It will also teach your employees on right practices and correct strategies on pest control. IPM method diminishes the use of dangerous chemicals and other harmful materials. Other services that are offered may include:

Caulking lines and pipes

Using rodent and insect traps

Installing or modifying insect traps

Making changes in structure

Documenting insect sightings

Maintain records and reports for clients and officials

Commitment to safety. Be certain that safety is necessary to IPM as much as it is necessary to warehouse industry.

The program's key benefits may include the following:

24-hr service. Services are available anytime you need them. They have flexible schedules and plans based on warehouse needs.

Best quality. Quality level is monitored consistently and surpasses standards set by state and licensing bureau. They provide personalized sanitation and documents together with log books. Their technicians are licensed who passed thorough background investigation.

Clear communication. IPM provides the best results. Their log books give access to pertinent data, proposed guidelines, and reports which are needed during inspection, safety and review check.

Professional entomologist. You will be able to hire pests and insect experts that are knowledgeable in what they are doing.

Types of warehouses that pest control services can help includes:

Data warehouse

Food warehouse

Dry goods warehouse

Importers warehouse

Exporter warehouse

Wholesalers warehouse

Transport business

Customs warehouse

Automated warehouse

Refrigerated warehouse

Manufacturing warehouse

Third party logistics warehouse

Cold storage warehouse

Drug warehousing

Moving and storage companies

Medical warehouse

Green pest control does not mean ineffective pest control; rather, it is all about integrated pest management, or IPM. A pest control company that embraces IPM believes prevention, client awareness and education, and building inspections are all as important as controlling pests.

What Green Pest Control Is

Integrated pest management begins with learning how and why a pest entered a home or building. Professionals in this field are knowledgeable about the life cycle of pests and their preferred nesting locations. Thus, they are able to use innovative pest prevention techniques that are the least hazardous to plant life, property, pets and people.

IPM uses common sense practices in coordination with environmentally sensitive chemicals. For example, instead of using harmful chemicals to prevent the return of a pest, pest control specialists may install preventative materials such as new window and door screens, fresh caulking, new door sweeps, and so on. The professionals may also set up traps to learn about additional areas a pest may live or install solar powered repellants as an alternative to using harmful chemicals.

The Benefits of Green Pest Control

Pest control products that are green are made of organic and natural ingredients. Additionally, these products are engineered to be biodegradable and equally as effective as their non-green counterparts.

Green pest management practices help promote the health and structure of plants, as they provide a biologically based alternative to chemical sprays. The control tactics used in IPM are benign and therefore reduce the environmental risk often associated with traditional pest management, such as ground water contamination. IPM also helps reduce the risk of an infestation and is a cost effective solution.

How It Works

Rather than spray a multi-purpose pesticide all over an infested property, IPM experts use a process that sets an action threshold, monitors the pests in order to identify them, prevents their return and uses control methods.

When an action threshold is set, the professional learns how large an infestation is, how much of a danger the pests pose, and determines the type of immediate action needed.

When an IPM professional monitors pests, he is making sure he is identifying the pest correctly. Proper identification of a pest helps ensure the right types of pesticides are used, but pesticides are avoided if they are not needed.

Prevention of pest invasions is one of the key components to green pest control. IPM includes identifying and correcting problems that make a home or building welcoming to pests. Prevention is cost effective and does not risk the health of individuals or the earth.

If pest prevention methods are ineffective by themselves, control methods are required. When professionals implement a control method, they first evaluate it for risk and effectiveness. Methods that pose the least risk, such as traps or the use of pheromones to disrupt mating, are used first. If the thresholds in place indicate these methods are not effective, the control process then moves to the use of pesticides in targeted areas.

What to Look for in a Green Pest Control Company

When looking for a green pest control company, seek one that will create a plan that meets your needs. The company should take into consideration the type of pest, the size of the infestation and the environment in which the pests live.

Learn about the process and chemicals a company uses before hiring them. Some professionals use green pest control products initially and then follow them with traditional chemicals, which you may not want. A good environmentally friendly exterminator should focus on using quality products that are low or non-toxic rather than products that are the least expensive, which are often highly toxic. Additionally, quality green pest control companies educate their clients on how to prevent the return of pest, help correct conditions that are inviting to them and offer to install pest-proofing materials.

The observation, prevention and intervention approach to green pest control helps consumers have peace of mind knowing that evicting pests from the home does not mean hurting the environment. Whenever you need the help of professionals to assist with unwanted pests, keep in mind that green pest management is the only method that has both your personal and financial well-being in mind.

The application of pest control ranges from do-it-yourself arrangements to

scientific and very precise deployment of chemicals and predatory insects by

highly skilled practitioners. Despite the fact that pest control is a world-wide

industry it is still dominated by family or 1-person businesses. Those that need

to control pests range from householders to

large scale agri-conglomerates who need to maximise their yield. In between

these two are restaurants, bars, food production facilities, farmers - in fact,

anybody that routinely deals with food. Pest control can make us more

comfortable - but can also save lives.

The word pest is subjective as one man's pest may be another man's

helper. For instance, pest A may be a threat to crop A, and pest B a threat to

crop B. However, if pest B is a natural predator to pest A, then the farmer who

wishes to protect crop A may cultivate and release pest B amongst his crops.

There is a theory that without man's intervention in the food chain through

agriculture, hunting and long distance travel there would be no pests. The

theory continues that man's intervention (for instance, in cultivating and

releasing pest B, or in carrying creatures long distances) has upset the balance

of the food chain, producing instability in insect and other animal numbers and

distorting their evolution. This instability has led to over-population of a

given

species with the result that they have become pests. Having said this, if we assume that the very first fly swat was the first

instance of pest control - and we know that large animals swat flies - it could be

argued that pest control dates back way before humans came on the scene.

The first recorded instance of pest control takes us back to 2500BC when the Sumerians

used sulphur to control insects. Then around 1200BC the Chinese, in their great

age of discovery towards the end of the Shang Dynasty, were using chemicals to

control insects. The Chinese continued to develop ever more sophisticated

chemicals and methods of controlling insects for crops and for people's comfort.

No doubt the spread of pest control know-how was helped by the advanced state of

Chinese writing ability. Although progress in pest control methods undoubtedly

continued, the next significant scrap of evidence does not come until around

750BC when Homer described the Greek use of wood ash spread on land as a form of

pest control.

Around 500BC the Chinese were using mercury and arsenic compounds as a means

to control body lice, a common problem throughout history. In 440BC the Ancient

Egyptian's used fishing nets to cover their beds or their homes at night as a

protection from mosquitoes

From 300BC

there is evidence of the use of use of predatory insects to control pests,

although this method was almost certainly developed before this date. The Romans

developed pest control methods and these ideas were spread throughout the

empire. In

200BC, Roman censor Cato encouraged the use of oils as a means of pest control

and in 70AD Pliny the Elder wrote that galbanum resin (from the fennel plant)

should be added to sulphur in order to discourage mosquitoes. In 13BC the first recorded rat-proof grain store was built by the Romans.

The first known instance where predatory insects were transported from one area to another comes from Arabia around 1000AD where date growers moved cultures of ants from neighboring mountains to their oasis plantations in order

to prey on phytophagous ants which attacked date palm.

Despite the enlightenment provided by the ancient Chinese, Arabs and Romans,

many of their teachings did not pass down though time. Certainly in Europe

during the dark ages, methods of pest control were just as likely to be based on

superstition and local spiritual rituals as any proven method. Pests were often

seen as workers of evil - especially those that ruined food, crops or livestock.

Although there were undoubtedly studies of pests during the dark ages, we do not

have any recorded evidence of this.

It is not until the European renaissance when more evidence of pest control

emerges. In 1758 the great Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus

catalogued and named many pests. His writings were (and remain) the root and

source of future study into pests (as well as plants and animals generally). At

the same time, the agricultural revolution began in Europe and heralded a more widespread application of pest control. With the work of Linnaeus and other

scholars and the commercial needs to ensure crops and livestock were protected,

pest control became more systemized and spread throughout the world. As global

trade increased, new pesticides were discovered.

At this point pest control was carried out by farmers and some householders

as an everyday activity. By the early nineteenth century however, this changed

as studies and writings started to appear that treated pest control as a

separate discipline. Increasing use of intensive and large scale farming brought

matching increases in the intensity and scale of pest scares such as the

disastrous potato famine in Ireland in 1840. Pest control management was scaled

up to meet these demands, to the point that dedicated pest controllers began to

emerge throughout the 20th century.

In 1921 the first crop-spraying aeroplane was employed and in 1962 flying insect control was revolutionized when Insect-o-cutor started selling fly killer

machines using ultra violet lamps.

Pest control is still carried out by farmers and householders to this day.

There are also pest control specialists (sometimes called pesties); many

are one-person businesses and others work for large companies. In most countries

the pest control industry has been dogged by a few bad practitioners who have

tarnished the reputation for the highly professional and responsible majority.