Integrated Pest Management for Your Tiny House

The concept of Integrated Pest Management or IPM is usually referenced in agriculture. It is a system designed to lessen the use of pesticides and their impact on the environment, but to still offer farmers a means to prevent and control pest damage to their crops and livestock. The same tenet and series of steps can be applied to pest control in the home.

Agricultural IPM is based on a series of steps that increase in potential environmental harm and are applicable to all situations:

1. Identification - identify the pest and develop an understanding of its anatomy, life cycle, feeding habits, behaviours and mating practices
2. Monitoring - observe the pest, the damage it causes, and establish the numbers involved.

In agriculture thresholds are developed to indicate what numbers are tolerable and what numbers require action before there is too much or irreversible loss.

3. Prevention - always the first line of defence
4. Mechanical Controls - removing or reduce its numbers by hand or machinery
5. Biological Controls - removing or reduce its numbers by using other animals, such as predators, insects and diseases
6. Pesticides - removing or reduce its numbers by killing it with chemicals

Let's start by looking at ants. Although most ants in Canada are soil dwellers and not of concern in the house, we do have Carpenter Ants.

Carpenter Ants are nature's mulch makers; they don't eat wood but they chew it up and create sawdust as they excavate tunnels. They are extremely important in woodlands and forests as they break down decaying logs into fine sawdust that can quickly turn into compost and feed the growing trees. In a house though, they are a destructive force that weakens support beams and can cause windows to fall out frames, stairs to collapse and railings to break.

To follow the Agricultural IPM steps, first we need to look at Identification. In Canada we have two common types - a black one, which is black-brown all over and a red one, which is also black-brown except for it reddish-brown thorax. The size varies depending on the species and the role in the nest but they range from 6mm to 25mm. They have bent antennae and a pinched lower thorax which makes them look small-waisted.

In Monitoring for the presence of Carpenter Ants, you need to know the threshold of concern. Or in other words, how many ants is a problem? One or two ants can be just foragers looking for food but if there are 10 or more, that could indicate the nest is in the house.

Understanding the Carpenter Ants build their primary nest in decaying wood and will only expand into other areas after it is well established is the foundation of preventing an infestation.

Some of the things you can do for Prevention are:

1. Keep all wood structures, in good condition
2. Remove or elevate all
• decaying logs,
• landscaping ties or
• wood piles
3. Ensure good drainage
4. Ensure adequate ventilation

Ensuring good drainage and ventilation will make the house less ideal for nest construction as Carpenter Ants need moisture, especially for the primary nest.

Although normally with IPM, you would continue with the same pest and move onto mechanical control, ants are easier to prevent than they are to remove and rodents provide a better example as they are bigger and can easily be trapped.

Let's say you have discovered Deer Mice in your home, they have come through a hole not much more than a centimetre wide, have chewed through everything cardboard or plastic in the pantry and are leaving droppings on the kitchen counter.

Its too late for Prevention for this mouse family, as they are already in, but to prevent others you can:

• Block all the holes with steel wool and wire mesh
• Keep nuts, grains, flours and pet food in tightly sealed glass or metal containers
• Wipe down counter tops, keep garbage sealed and sweep regularly
• Don't put meats, oils or whole eggs in the compost, and
• Place the compost well away from the house
• Use a heavy mesh lid to cover fruit on the counter

The Mechanical means of trapping them can be done with humane traps but studies have shown that they have excellent homing instincts and will return from distances of up to 2km. So you are in for some transportation costs or you are using well-placed snap traps.

As mice tend to run along the floor next to the wall, place the traps in their path and also where you have seen evidence of their activity

Using Biological Control to reduce a rodent population would involve looking at what eats them. Owls and small mammals like cats, weasels and coyotes are the best rodent predators. A well fed domestic cat isn't likely to take down too many mice, except to play with one occasionally and then drop it at your doorstep. An owl, on the other hand, can keep the numbers of both mice and rats in check. The Canadian Raptor Conservancy talks about the benefits of Barn Owls in rodent control

Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents than possibly any other creature. Studies have shown that an individual Barn Owl may eat one or more rodents per night; a nesting pair and their young can eat more than 1,000 rodents per year!

If none of the above has worked, or worked to your satisfaction, then you would move on to Pesticides. However, as there is ample information on the internet about products and their safe use, try searching 'pesticides for deer mice'. And remember controlling an infestation once is established is much more difficult than preventing one; always consider prevention first - and pesticides of any kind, last.