Sustainability and safety – we cannot choose one

Pest Control Southend
Pest Control Southend

Pests are present almost everywhere and the danger to the environment is also omnipresent with the increasing technological advancements. How are we relating these terms, this must be a question.

Let’s see how. Pest control is a well-known method to Pest Control Southend including insects, rodents, and small animals. This becomes an important method due to the long list of harms caused by the presence of pests in a particular area. Pest control is useful for all areas like houses, offices, farms, gardens, hotels, and many more on the list.

Pest Control Southend

Although pest control involves mechanical, chemical, and physical methods. But with the growing times, the meaning of pest control has evolved to the use of chemicals to kill pests. Synthetic poisons and chemicals are largely used for pest control due to their easy availability and instant and impactful results.

Chemicals pest control methods have proved to be harmful in many ways-

  • Chemicals are generally nonspecific and they kill all the insects in that environment. Many of the insects that are beneficial for farming are also killed.
  • Pests develop resistance to the chemicals with the evolving times and this creates hassle to change the pesticide with time.
  • Pesticides enter the food chains through various methods. They reach in small quantities in the bodies but the amount increases at the ending of a long food chain. They accumulate in the bodies causing harm.
  • Chemical residues after pest control harm the people living around.
  • Longer use of pesticides makes a steep fall in the quality of the soil and the water.

These are the various disadvantages of chemical pesticides but many sustainable and eco-friendly techniques like biological pest control, IPM, etc. are introduced.

Let’s have a deep dive into Biological pest control

Biological pest control is a method that makes use of non-chemical methods like predators, enemy animals, and physical methods to curb the growth of pests. It is majorly used in agriculture.

Major principles used in biological pest control

  • Using A herbivore to control weeds
  • Using a carnivore to control a herbivorous pest
  • Using a parasite to control its host
  • Disrupt a breeding cycle of a pest
  • Control the behaviour of a pest

Advantages of biological control –

  • Specificity – It kills specific organisms and not any useful organism.
  • It can prove to be a long-term solution, unlike the chemical pesticide which needs to be turned in each fixed interval every 2-3 months.
  • Pests do not become resistant which saves the discovery of new material every time.
  • Biological pest control does not harm the environment, humans, and animals.

But the use of biological pest control has not been more efficient and affordable and this is the reason why people shift to the use of chemical pesticides. Biological control methods cannot be employed for pest control in households and other areas. It is mainly employed for agricultural areas.

There are many other methods that are non-chemical and useful for households and offices. These methods include physical methods like baits, traps, electrical grids, sticky boards, and many more. The bottom line is that we have to both be safe from pests and save the environment.