Wikipedia defines pest control as the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest, usually because it is perceived to be detrimental to a person’s health, the ecology, or the economy. Just for clarification purposes, ecology is defined as the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment
So do you think pest control is important? What do you think the world would be like without pest control?
As far as a person’s health is concerned, there are a few examples that immediately come to mind.
German roaches commonly infest homes, restaurants, schools, hospitals, and any other buildings that have kitchens or eating areas. German roaches are known to cause allergic reactions, bacterial infections, and numerous respiratory issues. Without the control of German Roaches, these rapidly multiplying insects would quickly begin to wreak havoc.
Rats and mice are known to be major carriers of fleas. Do you remember reading about the Bubonic Plague? Rat fleas are known carriers of this disease…even today. In December of 2013, the country of Madagascar reported 84 suspected cases of the Bubonic Plague in the past month, with 32 confirmed deaths. You might be thinking that we are safe because Madagascar is so far away, but all it would take would be for one of the infected rats or mice to hop aboard a package, crate, or crop that is being shipped out of the country, and the disease could begin to spread. There are documented cases of the Bubonic Plague in the U.S. each year as well.
Ecology
In this world, we have insects that fall into the category of being damaging or bad, and other insects that would all into the category of being beneficial insects. It is important to maintain a good balance of these two. An example of a beneficial insect could be a spider. Many people do not like spiders, but spiders are known to eat other insects. This is not only a good example of the relationship between insects, but also a great example of natural pest control.
Again, its important to note that pest control is not always about just spraying chemicals. Sometimes its about knowing about certain conditions that exist that allow certain insects to thrive and survive. Being able to remove or alter those conditions, regardless of the method, would be considered pest control.
For most of us, the kudzu bug is nothing more than a nuisance. For farmers however, the kudzu bug can be an absolute nightmare, due to the fact that kudzu bugs can cause significant damage to soy beans crops. The relationship between the kudzu bug and its environment (soy bean farms) is not a good one.
In the Atlanta area, one insect that we started to have issues with about 4 or 5 years ago is the kudzu bug, which is a variation of a stink bug. It was determined that they somehow migrated over here from Asia, which is also where kudzu originally came from a long time ago. After these bugs were discovered and identified, it was determined that they were indeed kudzu bugs, and that they live in kudzu patches. Shortly after this info came out, I remember reading a story in the paper about a young man in Atlanta that had started, and was quickly growing his business of kudzu eating goats. Goats will eat just about anything! People that were having lots of issues with kudzu bugs in certain parts of town started calling this guy for his services. He would show up at their house with a trailer full of goats, build a temporary fence around their property, unleash the goats, and leave them there to do their work until they were done. Sometimes it could take a day, other times it could take weeks, depending on the size of the lot, and the amount of kudzu. This could be considered a natural form of pest control, because the goats are eating the kudzu, which is the source of the kudzu bugs. Without this particular form of pest control, the kudzu would continue to spread, as would the kudzu bugs. Anyone who has lived in the south for any length of time knows that kudzu grows about a foot a minute. No, seriously….it does.
How is pest control detrimental to the economy?
To make this a little bit easier to understand, lets start out by thinking about this on a very small scale. If your home was infested with roaches, ants, or rodents, they would destroy a lot of your food either by eating it, or by spreading their germs and diseases to it through their filth, urine, saliva, fecal matter, etc. It would definitely affect your budget, because you would now have to spend lots of money ridding your home of these pests, and also spend lots of money replacing all of your food.
Now think of yourself as being in the same situation, but a little bit larger scale, such as being the owner of a local restaurant. In this particular example, the insects / rodents are now having a direct impact on your livelihood. In addition to the above mentioned problems, now you have paying customers that are seeing the rodents and bugs firsthand. Do you think that pest control, or lack thereof, would affect the bank account and survival of this small business? Would you go to a restaurant that you knew was overrun with roaches or rodents?
Now let’s step this up a few notches and think of this in terms of the national economy. There are lots of crop damaging pests out there. If we did not have pest control, and our nations crops became overrun with these crop eating pests, it could be absolutely catastrophic. Farmers couldn’t successfully produce crops, which means that they would go out of business, losing their farms, homes, etc. What about if it was a crop that the United States regularly exports to other parts of the world? It could potentially cause the price of this crop to skyrocket, assuming that it’s even available at all.
Do we need pest control? YES! Pest control is essential to our well-being and survival.
Read our other blog articles on:
Common insects and the diseases they spread
Are cockroaches harmful to my family’s health?
Are mosquitoes harmful to my family’s health?
West Nile virus and the current epidemic