Pest monitoring is a regular inspection that aims to collect information at a particular time in a given area to monitor the recurrence of a pest problem.
The main steps in pest monitoring are:
- identifying the pest,
- locating the nest and infested areas,
- and rating the severity of an infestation.
The data collected can be used to predict and project future population through pests management models. Frequent pest monitoring works well to evaluate the success or failure of a pest control strategy. Accurate identification allows you to manage the actual source of the problem and avoid merely treating the symptoms.
Pest populations differ from building to building, year to year. It requires absolute commitment. Each case of a pest infestation is different, that’s why it is crucial to conduct regular pest monitoring.
Regular inspections function as an early alert system that will help prevent or minimise the risk of an unexpected pest damage.
SEE: Building and Pest Inspection in Sydney
Pest Monitoring Traps
Sticky traps. These traps are normally used indoors to help manage structural and nuisance pests in a small house or school, but variations of these with pheromone attractants (chemical lures) can be applied in conjunction outdoors. To create this trap, people often incorporate a plastic or cardboard base, cover it with a very sticky, glue-like substance. The huge advantage of this type of monitor is that it can be used any time and any day throughout the year.
Pheromone Traps: Individually packaged pheromone traps are suitable for monitoring when insects reproduce. A trap can be set to lure a mate by mimicking the odor given off by female moths to invite males for mating.
Light traps can attract some kind of insects. Berlese funnels are a prominent variation of a monitoring trap that uses heat and light to handle pests successfully. A form of substrates, like grain, leaf litter, or soil, is put on top of a fine-mesh screen, into the container. We turn the lights on and leave it there for a while to trap insects.
Plastic pitfall traps are applied for crawling pests in the field and stored grain bins. The species and number of insects found in a trap should be recorded so that variations in population size can be quickly recognized.
Vertebrate Monitoring Traps: Tiny secretive and nocturnal vertebrate pests are often very hard to monitor. These vertebrate monitoring traps are highly necessary when investigating domestic rodent populations, rats and mice.
These are just some of examples of tools used to catch and monitor a pest population.