When most of us hear the term ‘pest control’ what immediately comes to our minds is the image of someone with a sprayer on their back, or perhaps a light aircraft hovering over a thorough farm, trying to combat pests. In both cases, of course, it is the chemicals which are sprayed that may eventually eliminate pests in question. Put simply, for most of us, pest-control has become equated to ‘use of chemicals.’ Perhaps this is something caused by the informational campaigns done by the makers of the various pest control chemicals. Perhaps it is something to do with what we learn, regarding pest-control, from our educational systems. But whatever its source, the end result is some type of ‘hype:’ where chemicals come to be viewed as the only real solutions to the problem with pests. Whether the pests troubling you happen to be cockroaches in your kitchen, rats in your store-room, bedbugs in your bedroom or aphids on your garden, the solution is simply to find the right chemical – and they’re going to soon be history; you’re told.

Now there is not any denying that the chemical method of pest control is a highly effective one: sometimes with a 100% success rate. Addititionally there is no denying that it’s an extremely efficient one. And there is absolutely no denying that sometimes, it can be the only viable pest-control mechanism: like where in fact the pest infestation problem is a very big one, or where in fact the problem is relatively modest, but the area on which pest control is essential too huge.

Yet we must not let ourselves be boxed into equating pest-control with chemical use. Pest control can be done even without the application of chemicals in many cases. That is delighting information in a situation where some of the chemicals used in pest control do the environment no favors. Since it turns out, there are lots of other little hyped, yet highly effective pest control methods, which (where suitable), may be used in place of chemicals.

One of the simplest, yet impressive pest control approach is merely eliminating the pests’ breeding grounds. Most pests don’t invade en masse, but rather a couple (roughly) come in, and reproduce to end up with the troublesome swarms that can only be eradicated chemically. If the breeding grounds could be identified early enough and destroyed, the problem with pests could have been nipped in the bud, and the necessity for chemical intervention could not arise.
Another simple, yet often ignored method of pest-control is trapping (like where the pests in question will be the things like rats). Yet one need not use chemicals to combat these kind of pests, when they could possibly be just as easily -and probably more effectively – combated by trapping.

For the more troublesome insect pests like aphids, one of the least talked about yet highly effective pest-control approaches is that which is known as biological control. What happens here’s that other organisms that can feed on the troubling pests (say aphids in this case) are introduced into the field where the pests are causing trouble. The outcome is a party for the predators so introduced – and complete elimination on the part of the pests being controlled.

Destruction of plants which have been infected (in case it really is plant pests we are looking at) can also often yield remarkable results in term of preventive pest control. So can approaches like the burning of fields after crop harvesting; where the pests that could have started developing are burnt, and hence their cycles broken.