Gabrielle Walker – Total Floorings

Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, reduces risk from pests in urban, agricultural wildland, and natural areas by using monitoring and non-chemical control methods. This approach also focuses on the prevention of future pest problems through monitoring, habitat manipulation, change in cultural practices, and resistant plant varieties.

These techniques minimize reliance on chemicals, but when necessary, use the least toxic chemicals to protect people, pets, and the environment. Call Pest Control O’Fallon MO now for more details.

Cost-Effectiveness

Pest control can be a costly endeavor, and it’s important to know that the right pest management strategies are used to ensure that long-term results are achieved. With IPM, you can minimize the amount of chemical pesticides required to get results and lower recurring costs.

In addition, IPM’s focus on prevention also helps to lower health risks and minimize environmental impact compared to other forms of pest control. IPM is a great option for businesses that prioritize the health of their employees and the environment.

Pests are unwanted organisms, including insects, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, plants, vertebrates, and weeds that damage or devalue properties or products, displace native species, and disrupt natural ecosystems. While some pests pose a direct threat to human health, many are simply a nuisance.

To identify a pest infestation, experts first evaluate the situation and environmental conditions that caused it to occur. Then, they set an action threshold—the point at which the pests and their damage become significant enough to justify intervention. This process eliminates the risk that pesticides will be used when they are not needed and prevents inappropriate use of harsher chemicals.

Next, the pest control strategy is implemented, incorporating all tools available. Monitoring allows for the identification of the pests and their life cycles, which in turn helps guide the best control options. Control methods include biological, physical, mechanical, cultural, and regulatory controls. Biological controls utilize predators or parasites to manage population sizes; physical controls include traps and barriers, such as steam sterilization of soil or blocking access to habitats that support pest populations; and cultural practices include changing land usage, cropping patterns, and modifying planting and harvesting techniques.

These tactics reduce the need for chemical interventions and allow for precise targeting. Precise monitoring allows for the determination of what is and is not working, reducing costs and potential negative impacts. IPM’s flexibility enables it to better fit the needs of each pest and environment. This helps to avoid over-treatment, which can lead to wasteful investments and unnecessary exposure to harmful substances. In short, IPM is the future of pest control because it provides lasting results while minimizing risk to humans and the environment.

Less Residue

Pesticides leave behind a residue that can harm the environment, people, and animals. IPM aims to minimize pesticide use, only use it when necessary, and limit the amount of chemicals used. This helps to reduce short- and long-term effects, such as cancer and air pollution.

IPM is an all-encompassing strategy that can be applied to agricultural production, military landscapes, public health settings, schools, and residential homes and communities. It can also be used in natural areas to manage invasive species that compete with or predate native plants and animals.

The first step in IPM is to monitor and identify the pests that are affecting your crops or environment. This allows you to determine whether the pests can be tolerated or if control methods are needed. IPM requires the consideration of all the information about the pests’ biology and environmental factors to make these decisions.

After monitoring, the next step in IPM is to set action thresholds, which are based on the pest population levels or environmental conditions that indicate it’s time to act. This ensures that pest control measures are only used when they’re needed, as opposed to being a blanket spray across the entire field.

Prevention is a big part of IPM, as it’s cheaper than controlling pest populations once they’ve already reached economically damaging levels. This can be done through several different strategies, such as planting disease-resistant crops, removing weeds before they flower, or installing bird feeders and pheromone traps to attract natural predators.

IPM also prioritizes cultural controls, which involve making the environment less conducive to pests’ growth. For example, reducing food and water sources, eliminating weeds, and keeping trash bins clean can all help deter unwanted guests. By combining all of these methods, IPM is the most effective and environmentally friendly way to control pests. If you’re looking for an eco-friendly pest control solution, contact Rid-A-Bug today to learn more about IPM and our services. We can protect your home or business from the threat of pests and keep them out for good. We’re committed to ensuring the well-being of our customers, community, and the environment.

Less Resistance

Integrated pest management practices prevent the development of pest resistance to pesticides by using a variety of techniques, including biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties. It also uses monitoring to reduce unnecessary pesticide applications. When used correctly, IPM methods provide a win-win situation for the environment and people alike.

To minimize the risk of developing resistance to pesticides, IPM programs typically avoid applying chemical controls until they reach a threshold of economic injury (EIL), which is based on the damage that can be caused by the pest in its present abundance and the expected cost of controlling it at that population level. EIL should take into account the likelihood that the pest may develop resistance, as determined by the proportion of individuals in the population carrying resistance alleles.

Because they are designed to be less damaging to the environment, IPM strategies try to limit their use to the amount needed to meet their objectives. Pest populations should be kept below the EIL, and if possible, the threshold for pesticide application should be set at levels that can be sustained over time without creating significant short-term economic yield loss, or “future EIL,” as envisioned by Menegat, Jack, and Gerhard (2015).

IPM also encourages the use of plant varieties that are more tolerant to diseases and insect pests, which can improve crop quality and yield. These resistant or tolerant plant varieties can be developed through breeding programs, or are often the result of natural selection in fields where the crops have been exposed to many different factors such as soil type, climate, and other cropping systems.

Biological pest controls, such as the use of parasitoids that are predators or destroyers of harmful insects, also play an important role in IPM. Parasitoid attacks on insects can significantly decrease the pest populations, and in some cases can kill them entirely.

Mechanical and physical controls, such as traps, are also commonly used in IPM. These can kill the pests by contact or block them from accessing the crops.

Environmentally Friendly

Eco-friendly pest control methods are kinder to humans, pets, and the environment than their chemical counterparts. Because they are designed to be sustainable, they minimize the need for chemicals and their metabolites, which can cause harm to ecosystems and human health. They also avoid the “pesticide treadmill,” where repeated use of pesticides leads to resistance and environmental damage.

In addition, eco-friendly strategies preserve the beneficial insects that work with nature to keep pest populations in check, such as ladybugs and lacewings. These natural predators, parasites, and pollinators can be devastated by the broad spectrum of chemicals used in traditional pest control. This results in fewer natural enemies, leaving pest populations unchecked.

IPM practices include monitoring and scouting of fields, forests, and other sites to assess pest presence, damage, and population trends. This information helps to determine whether the pest can be tolerated or needs to be controlled. It can also help to develop objectives for the management of the pest and identify the best management strategy.

Using a variety of tools and strategies to control pests, including biological, physical, and cultural controls, IPM is an environmentally friendly approach to preserving the biodiversity of our planet. It also contributes to healthy ecosystems, which are vital to human health and prosperity.

A comprehensive integrated pest management program can reduce or eliminate the need for synthetic chemical pesticides and other toxic substances. By implementing eco-friendly methods, you can protect your human and pet health, the environment, and your crop yields.

If you are interested in learning more about the eco-friendly pest control options available, contact your local pest management experts. These professionals can offer advice about what preventative and curative practices are right for your particular situation. They can also explain how IPM programs save money in the long run by reducing the need for costly, harmful chemicals. They can even show you how to use stickies with specific pheromones embedded in them to lure different pest species, or how to make your reusable insect traps at home. These are all great tools to add to your arsenal when fighting your local pests!

Publication

Natalie Wood

May 23, 2024 Gabrielle Walker

In 1956, Natalie Wood became a major star with her Oscar-nominated turn as a rebellious teenager in the film Rebel Without a Cause. She would earn two more nominations, for the period drama Splendor in the Grass and the romance Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

In November 1981, she was shooting her final film, the sci-fi thriller Brainstorm. She and her co-stars, husband Robert Wagner and boat captain Dennis Davern, took a weekend trip to California’s Catalina Island.

Natalie Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents. Her mother, Maria Gurdin, a housewife who had multiple aliases, and her father, Nick, a janitor and prop builder, moved to Santa Rosa when she was three or four. In 1942, she and her family bought a home in the city, where she was noticed by members of a crew during a film shoot downtown. The film’s producer, Irving Pichel, helped her get a screen test. She made her first film at age five in Happy Land (1943), playing the role of a girl who drops an ice cream cone and gets blamed. Her scene lasted 15 seconds.

Wood’s dark ethnic beauty helped her stand out in the film business. She began to receive leading roles, beginning with her Academy Award-nominated performance in Splendor in the Grass (1957). As she entered her teenage years, she became a star with her appearance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). In 1961, she appeared as restless Puerto Rican youth Maria in West Side Story.

The sixties were a productive time for Wood, both professionally and personally. Her films often reflected the times, such as West Side Story, which dealt with racial prejudice; Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, about middle class housewives; and Gypsy, in which she played burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee.

Wood’s volatile personal life also garnered media attention. She dated actor Dennis Hopper, hotel dynasty heir Nicky Hilton and other high-profile men. She married director Richard Gregson in 1957 (divorced 1962; remarried 1972) and had a daughter with him, Courtney. She also had a daughter from her second marriage, to actor Robert Wagner.

Early life

A young Natalie Wood grew up in the shadow of her mother’s unfulfilled dreams of stardom. Mary Tatuloff, who had danced professionally in the Russian city of Ussuriysk before emigrating to America with her husband Alexander Zacharenko, passed her passion for film acting onto her daughter. Despite a skewed moral compass, she used her talent to manipulate her daughter’s life.

Wood’s early career was marked by child roles and by her mother’s maniacal obsession with her image. She feared losing her audience once she outgrew the child actor stage and tried to control every aspect of her daughter’s public image. She also manipulated her daughter’s dating and marriage choices. Ultimately she caused her daughter great heartache with her constant need to curry favor with powerful men in order to further her career.

The film West Side Story was a pivotal point in Wood’s career. Her role as the restless Maria portrayed an important cultural phenomenon for young Americans at the time, and her performance earned her an Oscar nomination. Wood’s next significant role was in Gypsy Rose Lee, which gave her the opportunity to showcase her witty dialogue and deeper emotional range.

Throughout the 1960s, Wood was cast in a number of “girlfriend” films that she found less gratifying. But in 1970, she starred in the well-received melodrama Intimate Strangers. It was the first film to show that she could handle adult roles.

In the last decade of her life, Wood acted on occasion in television shows such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Cracker Factory and Hart to Hart. She remarried British producer Richard Gregson and had a daughter with him before her death in 1981.

Education

Natalie Wood’s acting career started at age five with a brief scene in the 1943 film Happy Land. Her performance in that film earned her media attention, and she received a contract from 20th Century Fox. Her film roles became more numerous after that, usually playing the daughter of star actors such as Fred MacMurray, Margaret Sullivan, James Stewart, and Joan Blondell. California laws at the time required child actresses to attend three hours of school each day. Wood took her lessons on the set of her films, and she was considered a straight-A student.

By the time she was 16, Wood was a teen idol. She starred with James Dean in the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, and the movie earned her an Academy Award nomination. She followed it with the box office hits West Side Story and Gypsy. She also appeared in the movies Splendor in the Grass and Love with a Proper Stranger, receiving Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for her work in both of them.

In 1957, she married actor Robert Wagner, eight years her senior, and their relationship attracted media attention. In her later years, she struggled with depression and sought therapy. She reportedly was influenced by her mother and her husband, and she made some movies that were not to her liking. She was a fashion icon of her time, and she influenced many trends in dressing. She was an avid reader, and she enjoyed cooking and hosting parties for her friends and family. She was also a vegetarian. Her untimely death at the age of 47 while on vacation with her husband and co-star Christopher Walken off the coast of Santa Catalina Island, California in 1981 was ruled a suicide. However, in 2018, fresh evidence prompted authorities to reopen the investigation into her death. Wagner was named a person of interest in her case.

Career

After making her screen debut in the 1943 film Happy Land, Natalie Wood appeared in a few more films before moving into teenage and young adult roles. Her work in these early films earned her critical praise and the attention of 20th Century Fox studio chief Irving Pichel, who signed her to a contract after she made a minor appearance in the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street.

In 1955, she starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause, the groundbreaking depiction of teenage rebellion and angst that cemented her as one of Hollywood’s top young stars. In the next several years, Wood’s work in a variety of films won her two more Oscar nominations—for Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with a Proper Stranger (1963)—and numerous Golden Globe nominations.

While she often found herself cast as the girlfriend of her male co-stars, Wood made a few exceptions to play a more substantial character. In the 1956 Western The Searchers, she played abducted Native American girl Debbie Edwards, the daughter of John Wayne’s character, a role that broke ground for its use of a white actress in a Native American role.

Later in her career, Wood portrayed Maria in the Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise musical West Side Story, which was also a box office success. As Tibbetts writes, Wood “represents a modern allegory on the themes of Romeo and Juliet—in particular, youth gangs and juvenile delinquency, rock and roll music and its sexual freedom, private restlessness and public alienation.”

Wood also had more serious dramas to her credit, including This Property Is Condemned (1966) and Inside Daisy Clover (which was based on a true story). After finding herself in demand as an older actress, she turned down many roles—including that of a woman seeking emotional stability in Bonnie and Clyde opposite Faye Dunaway—and pursued professional therapy. Toward the end of her life, Wood was cast in four more theatrical films, including the mystery comedy Peeper (1975), science fiction film Meteor (1979) and the comedy The Last Married Couple in America (1980).

Death

Natalie Wood was a popular actress and the object of intense media attention. Her first marriage to Robert Wagner, eight years her senior, in 1957 made headlines and she was a regular feature in fan magazines. The fairy tale union didn’t last long, however, and by 1962 the two were separated. By that time, she had begun dating Hollywood heartthrob Warren Beatty.

When she died in 1981, the mystery surrounding her death grew even more complex. The official cause of her death was listed as accidental drowning, but in 2012 the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reopened the case, citing new information that called into question the original ruling. Bruises found on her body were a key piece of the new evidence.

On the night of her death, Wood, Wagner, and her Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken were cruising on their boat Splendour off California’s Catalina Island. They stopped for dinner at Doug’s Harbor Reef, where the manager later testified that all four were drunk. After the meal, they were drinking ashore when Wagner became agitated and jealous of Walken, who was flirting with another woman.

Wagner then broke a bottle over Walken’s head, and the rest of the night turned violent. The couple eventually separated, but they were back together by the end of the filming for Brainstorm.

Despite her turbulent personal life, Wood continued to act in films like West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), Inside Daisy Clover (1965), Pepper (1975) and The Last Married Couple in America (1980). She also appeared in two TV series, including the critically acclaimed Western The Big Valley (1984) and the less successful The New Frontier (1989). In 1969, she married British talent agent Richard Gregson, with whom she had one child before they divorced in 1972.

Author: Gabrielle Walker

Why Integrated Pest Management is the Future of Pest Control