Author: Kurt Treftz, Cascade Pest Control
Pest control has been a part of the human experience all the way back since we began farming for ourselves. Even contending with mosquitos and fleas could be considered pest management, and those insects even have preceded our existence.
In order to understand how to implement pest control and protect your home or business, it might be useful to understand how pest control has changed and developed over the years. Seeing how far we have come with understanding and being able to prevent infestations or pest / rodent damage is invaluable context for your own contemporary pest control journey.
Pre-Modern Pest Control Techniques
Many early interactions with pesky insects and rodents have informed how we learned and evolved to be more immune to these forces of nature. These critters have preceded us by many accounts, and fossil evidence supports their co-existence with humans as early as 2500 BCE.
Early on, we can also trace the parasitic relationship between humans and pests through the numerous disease epidemics caused by pests. From the fleas and rats that contributed to Europe’s Bubonic Plague, the microorganisms working with Ireland’s Potato Blight, deadly Typhoid and Malaria outbreaks across the world, to the boll weevil epidemic, pests and rodent’s dependency and close proximity to humans has been rather detrimental.
Most of this early damage these insects and animals inflicted was agriculture-related, and therein, intensely dangerous to the livelihood of whole populations. Farmers adjusted planting seasons, introduced competitive or predator species, or even used sulfur to ward off crop-damaging pests.
During this time, cataloguing of the different species of pests and their effect on the environment was also critical. Not only did it create a database for farmers and other scientists to work off of and strategize defense plans, it also kept a record for future generations so they could build on existing technologies to combat those problems.
Modern Pest Management and Extermination Methods
As technology has advanced, our ability to research and access to advanced procedures has significantly improved preventative pest management techniques to contain infestations and avoid extermination.
Benefitting from university programs of study as well as increased hygiene standards for the agricultural industry, the wide-spread outbreaks of deadly diseases dwindled. It has also been shown that the catalogues kept by earlier scientists and members of the industry allowed for correlations and causations to be drawn between certain insects or critters and diseases dangerous to humans.
Not only that, but our medical advancements in the vaccination department as well as the development of cures for the previously fatal outbreaks the world experienced allowed for people to navigate and interact with certain pests in a safer way.
Along with medical advancements, the 20th century brought around chemical pesticides that further protected crop populations. From these compounds, household rodent and pest repellents were developed, as well as products to exterminate larger infestations.
Chemical extermination and protection was the largest catalyst the pest control and management industry saw. We continue to learn and evolve as it relates to the effectiveness and safety of these products to our long-term health.
Lately, due to the rise in the pest control industry and a comprehensive understanding of pest management protocol, there has been a push towards pest and rodent prevention measures. As opposed to waiting for an infestation to arise, home and business owners are now regularly aware and tending to the safety and cleanliness of their spaces in order to avoid the necessity of large-scale extermination procedures.
From here, we can only hope to continue to move forward in our understanding of rodent and pest behavior in relation to human lifestyles and behaviors in order to continue to be innovative in our prevention and control measures.
Cascade Pest Control—Your 21st Century Option for Rodent & Pest Management
For 40 years, we at Cascade have been dedicated to implementing and utilizing the latest, safest, and eco-friendliest pest, and rodent control techniques. Our expertly trained and professionally certified technicians take advantage of the ages of pest management and extermination methods in order to provide you with quality, timely service.
Our goal is to regularly inspect and maintain your home or business’s space to prevent pests or rodents from being able to infest in the first place.
To learn more about our pest or rodent control services, visit us online or call 888-989-8979 for a quote today!