Pest control advice from Nigerian pest management expert

The following advice on pest control is based on a report by Vanguard posted Dec 6, 2006.

Dr Godwin Oyediji, Managing Director of Godoye Enterprises Ltd., is a pest management expert who has been practising for over 22 years.
He defined pest management as a system designed to maintain a healthy living environment and provide food safety where minimal damage can only be inflicted by pests. It entails control and prevention of pests.

“The system begins with education. Education about pest management begins with public enlightenment in terms of seminars, group meetings at rural level and public health campaigns to maintain a clean environment where there would be none or a minimal presence of habourages (pest- breeding grounds). It also involves education about an efficient garbage disposal system that would not promote multiplication of pests.”

However, even with best practices pests will still occur at minimal level., because this is a tropical region. The tropical environment promotes rapid multiplication of pests because we have high humidity and high temperatures.

Dr Oyediji said that in order to prevent pests in the environment, what was needed was the application of an Integrated Pest Management ( IPM) approach.

“This approach looks first at human and environmental safety above every other consideration. It starts with designing houses in such a way that all the entry doors into the house are built with iron which cannot be eaten by pests like rats. Other examples of what could be done to minimise the presence of pests include placement of mosquito nets or mesh at the windows; removal of stagnant water and destruction of pest habourages.”

For farmers this should include use of clean seeds. This means that whatever is being planted must be pest and disease free. They must be obtained from tissue culture laboratories by means of cloning. But in-spite of education and preventive measures, there would still be pests around.

“When education and preventive measures fail to minimise the presence of pests in the environment the IPM approach would be utilised to integrate control , educative and preventive measures in the process of pest management”.

The process of IPM involves first of all knowing the pest, and the type of damage it could cause.
“In addition to this, there is need to exercise restraint and patience when pests are noticed. Control measures should only be initiated after pests have exceeded a defined acceptable limit. When control measures are initiated, it must start from non-chemical methods such as physical methods which could include use of fly traps, rat traps, or insect traps.

“Where this is not feasible, he next step should be to introduce biological means. This includes measures like using cats to eliminate rats, or using some types of birds to eliminate certain types of insects; or using some types of bacteria to eliminate certain viruses. But if all these approaches fail, then use of chemical means could be considered.”
When it becomes inevitable to use chemical control for pest management, then chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants must be avoided. The chemical to be used should be such that it is highly biodegradable. This means the chemical must be such that it would completely decay into the environment.

“Part of pest management is bio-security which is the prevention of disease agents from being introduced into an environment usually through pests. Such pests include rats, cockroaches, flies and birds.”
For instance, bio-security could be aimed at stopping birds which carry the bacteria or virus responsible for the bird flu disease from entering the country. Bio-security also combines physical, biological and chemical means to attain food safety and disease prevention.
“Pest management as a business is still in its infancy in Nigeria.

“You need to be an agriculturist to be in this segment so as not to use what will leave undesirable residue in the end-product. A major example is pineapple which is being rejected in some European countries due to high level of ethylene used for inducing flowering or ripening.”
Another sub-sector is livestock pest control for controlling pests like lice and teaks in dogs and within poultry, cattle or pigs.

“If you are not an animal scientist or veterinary doctor, you may not be able to operate in this segment. This is because it is important for you to know the biology of the animal.”
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