Pest Control History

Pest control refers to 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.

Pest control is at least as old as agriculture. In order to maximize food production, it is advantageous to protect crops from competing species of plants, as well as from herbivores competing with humans.
The conventional approach was probably the first to be employed, since it is comparatively easy to destroy weeds by burning them or plowing them under, and to kill larger competing herbivores, such as crows and other birds eating seeds. Techniques such as crop rotation, companion planting (also known as intercropping or mixed cropping), and the selective breeding of pest-resistant cultivars have a long history.

Many pests have only become a problem because of the direct actions of humans. Modifying these actions can often substantially reduce the pest problem. In the USA, raccoons caused a nuisance by tearing open refuse sacks. Many householders introduced bins with locking lids, which deterred the raccoons from visiting. House flies tend to accumulate wherever there is human activity and is virtually a global phenomenon, especially where food or food waste is exposed. Similarly, seagulls have become pests at many seaside resorts. Tourists would often feed the birds with scraps of fish and chips, and before long, the birds would become dependent on this food source and act aggressively towards humans.

Notable Groups or Informative Resources

National Pest Management Association
PestWorld.org is the official Web site of the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), a non-profit organization committed to the protection of public health, food and property. This Web site serves as a comprehensive resource for consumers, media, educators and pest control professionals.

Pest control tactics
The history of pest control probably began with the first human who ever swatted a mosquito or picked off a louse. From the fossil record, we know that all major taxa of biting flies and external parasites already existed by the time Homo sapiens first appeared on earth. Phthirus and Pediculus, the two genera of lice that feed on humans, have a host range that is limited to primates (apes and monkeys). And we suspect that human fleas (Pulex irritans) and bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) adopted cave-dwellers as hosts because these insects are most closely related to other species that live on bats. But since our primitive ancestors were hunters and gatherers, they probably found that insects were more useful as food than they were troublesome as pests. (Even today, people in some primitive cultures eat the lice they pick from one another's hair). It was probably not until the dawn of organized agriculture, when insects attacked the plants we grew for food, that we first recognized them as a potential threat to our own survival.

Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers
The Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers (ANBP)...is a professional association representing the biological pest management industry. Augmentative biological control utilizes beneficial insects, mites and nematodes to manage agricultural, horticultural and plant pests. ANBP membership includes producers, distributors, and in addition, users of natural enemies as well as allied industry supporters, university researchers, extension agents and regulatory representatives.

Read more about the history of pests and pest control

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pest Control".