Pest Control Boise involves preventing unwanted pests from entering your home, garden, and property. This is accomplished through a variety of physical, biological and chemical methods.

Pests enter homes in search of food, water and shelter. Eliminating these attractants is essential to prevent pest infestations. Remove debris and empty garbage cans regularly.

Insects are the most abundant animals on Earth and occupy a wide range of ecological niches. They have a variety of functions, including pest control, pollination, and decomposition. However, their high densities and often disruptive behaviors (biting, sucking, stinging) can cause stress in livestock and lead to loss of feed intake, sleep, and production.

In addition, insect-borne diseases can have serious health implications in humans. Insects can also become invasive species that negatively impact ecosystems and human economic activities. In outdoor pest situations, eradication is rarely a goal; prevention and suppression are the primary objectives. Eradication is more feasible in enclosed environments, such as indoors.

The environmental risks of insects are largely related to the types of chemicals used to control them. Insecticides are deposited in surface water and groundwater, and can be transported by stormwater runoff, groundwater flow, and direct discharges.

Insecticides can affect aquatic organisms by causing toxicity, altering the balance of nutrients in water bodies, and affecting the trophic level. Insecticides can be absorbed by plants and accumulated in the food chain. They can also be transported to other habitats by wind or rain. Nonpoint source inputs to surface waters can occur due to agricultural practices and land use patterns, resulting in increased concentrations of pesticides in surface water.

Rodents

Rodents are warm-blooded mammals that are found throughout the world. They are extremely diverse in size and appearance; they range from the pygmy mouse to the capybara. Many rodent species are considered pests because they spoil food, contaminate water supplies and soil with their droppings and urine, and carry fleas that spread diseases. However, some rodent species provide food and clothing fibers and serve as laboratory animals in biomedical research.

Rodents also damage property by chewing through wires and other materials. This can lead to power outages, fires and injuries. Moreover, their constant gnawing can weaken building structures and create craters in sidewalks and roads.

Rodents can contaminate food by chewing through it and leaving behind droppings, saliva and hair. Their urine and saliva can also cause stains on fabrics, carpets and other household items. In addition, they can destroy personal belongings such as paper products, clothing and furniture. They can also cause structural damage by chewing through wood and steel. To prevent rodent infestations, store food in sealed plastic containers and keep trashcans tightly closed. It is also recommended to clean up frequently and to dispose of waste promptly. Additionally, homeowners can reduce the risk of rodents by sealing entry points into their homes, such as gaps around pipes and vents and patching holes in walls and floors.

Fleas

Fleas are wingless, flat, reddish brown insects that jump to attach themselves to hair, fur and feathers of their hosts in order to suck blood with their specialized mouth parts. They are excellent runners and leapers, capable of jumping vertical distances equal to their own body length.

Female fleas lay 15 to 20 eggs each day (up to 600 in a lifetime) which are loosely attached to the host’s skin, fur or feathers. The larvae feed on the host’s blood and secretions until they reach maturity at about five weeks. They then develop into pupae within silk-like cocoons where they remain for two to four weeks until the emergence of adult fleas.

Indoors, fleas are most common in pet bedding and resting areas, in carpet fibers and beneath furniture cushions. They are also found in shady, cool, dry locations such as animal kennels and crawl spaces under buildings. For mild infestations, a combination of frequent washing and vacuuming plus the use of products like insect growth regulators can be effective.

For more serious flea problems, a professional may need to spray areas where pets rest and sleep inside and out. Be sure to wear long sleeves and gloves when using any sprays, and always follow label directions.

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are small, reddish-brown blood-sucking wingless insects that hide in the cracks and crevices of beds, box springs, headboards and bed frames and emerge at night to feed on humans. Bed bug bites can cause a painful, itchy skin reaction in some people.

Clutter reduction can help a homeowner minimize the number of places where bed bugs can hide. For example, removing clothing and shoes from closets and drawers makes it easier to inspect the contents and reduce the risk of an infestation. Similarly, placing file cabinets and other furniture at least 4 inches away from walls allows a licensed pesticide applicator to spray the insides.

When a home or apartment becomes infested with bed bugs, the homeowner should decide between discarded vs. encasement and the use of interceptor traps. The most effective treatment includes multiple rounds of pesticide dusts, pesticide sprays and cracks and crevice treatments, followed by mattress encasements.

Over-the-counter total-release aerosol foggers, which are widely available in hardware stores, don’t work well against bed bug infestations and can be harmful to household occupants. Only a licensed pesticide applicator should apply insecticides to beds and other furniture, as most products require precision application to be effective.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are the world’s most feared insect, but their biology and ecology make them both fascinating objects of study and vital to humans. Their sensory systems and behavioural adaptations allow them to exploit diverse habitats.

Most mosquito species never bite humans, instead preferring to feed on other mammalian, avian or reptilian hosts. But mosquitoes that carry arboviruses – including dengue, yellow fever and Zika virus – can pose health risks to humans. In tropical and subtropical regions, reducing mosquito densities in order to interrupt disease transmission requires routine larval control, breeding site removal and community participation through education programmes.

Aedes aegypti is the dominant dengue vector species and is closely linked to human habitation in all steps of its life cycle. This forest-dwelling species adapted to urban areas by becoming more anthropophilic and breeding in buckets, cisterns and other human-made containers.

Homeowners can reduce the amount of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes harboring around their houses by removing weeds and debris that might provide breeding sites, and by maintaining lawns and shrubberies with regular mowing and trimming. Insecticides can also be used to target adult mosquitoes resting in vegetation and on surfaces around homes, by applying liquid pesticides as coarse sprays (e.g., deltamethrin and lambda-cyhalothrin).

Wasps

Although many people avoid them because of their painful stings, wasps are spectacular pest controllers. Over 30,000 species of solitary and social wasps hunt invertebrates like beetles, spiders and flies to help regulate populations of these insects that are detrimental to crops and garden plants.

Paper wasps, yellowjackets and cicada killers are examples of wasps that attack and destroy other pests in and around homes and gardens. While stinging humans may occur if they walk too close to a nest, these insects only do so in defense of their colonies. However, if the nest is near children or in areas that are frequented by humans (including lawns and vegetable gardens) the nest should be destroyed for safety reasons.

In order to control a large wasp or yellowjacket nest, the most effective method is to use a protein bait such as Vespex. It is a specialized product that contains the insecticide fipronil and is designed to kill wasps when they feed on it. This is especially useful when a large nest or colonies of wasps are found in attics and crawl spaces. Professional pest control services can use this product and other insecticides to effectively eliminate wasp and yellowjacket nests.

Ants

Ants (Order Hymenoptera) are incredibly successful insects that can cause problems around homes and businesses. A professional pest control company will use a combination of insecticides and bait to eliminate the problem.

It’s important to determine the type of ant before spraying. Different species have unique body contours, hairs and spines, antennal segments and other features that can be used to identify them. For example, the narrow front portion of an ant’s abdomen, called the petiole, may have one or two nodes, or none at all.

Outdoor ants can be beneficial, aerating soil and removing weed seeds, but if they invade your home, consider contacting a professional pest control service for assistance. Inside the house, ants can be controlled using a perimeter treatment of residual insecticides such as bifenthrin, cypermethrin and lambda-cyhalothrin.

It’s important to remember that ants are important components of many ecosystems. Although ants can be direct pests in some cases, such as when they tend honeydew-producing insects that damage plants, they also provide many other services, including reducing the population of these pests by feeding on them. Our analysis of ant effects on crop damage, natural enemies and yield found that field size, pest order, enemy specialization and dispersal, and ant size were the main moderators (electronic supplementary material, table S2). These results suggest that managers should target the ants that are negatively impacting their crops and try to boost positive ant-crop matches.