A Brief History of Pest Control Services

There have been a lot of pest control methods in the past. These methods have all helped to curb the growth of pests. This can be through the use of chemicals or by using pests themselves. The word pest is very subjective. For this, we need to analyze what kind of people need pest control. Pest control is broadly wanted by agriculturalists and farmers. Also, people who own bars and restaurants require pest control. In general, people who deal with food normally require pest control as this helps not only to save their products but also perhaps lives.

What constitutes a "pest" is subjective. There are insects everywhere. These insects have particular feeding habits. When these feeding habits include destroying a particular crop that a farmer is cultivating, the insect becomes a pest to him. However, if you take another farmer who is growing a different crop, this insect would not bother him much. In fact, this insect would be his best friend if it is eating other insects that are actually attacking his crop. This logic is also employed when pest control is done using other insects. Farmers would actually cultivate and grow insects that devour on other insects that are attacking his crops.

In such a respect, pest control can be said to have started when humans came on the scene of genetic evolution. The first recorded instance of pest control is somewhere around 2500BC when the Sumerians used sulphur to control pests. After this, the next well-documented record of pest control is when the Chinese around 1200BC developed means to control pests. This was well spread because of the well developed Chinese language. This also helped in the significant growth of the Chinese agriculture. The next known significant step in pest control would come from the Greeks at around 750 BC. They would spread wood ash around the crops to control pests. The Chinese by 500BC were controlling pests with the use of mercury and arsenic compounds. These were mainly used to control body lice. The Egyptians by 440 BC were known to use fishing nets to cover their beds at night to prevent mosquitoes from coming in. By 200 BC the Romans were using oils as a means of pest control. The Romans also made the first rat proof grain store by around 13 BC.

The first known record of using insects to attack pests was by the Arabians. They would transport different cultures of ants across the oasis to fight the phytophagous ant that would attack their date plantations.

Despite all the teachings from Romans, Chinese and the Arabs, their teachings did not reach central Europe as it was plagued with pests and associated superstition for a long time. It is not until the renaissance period that pest control picked up again. With advancements in science and technology, there came safer methods of pest control especially concentrating on those that destroyed food crops. Nowadays in modern times, pest control has become much more advanced and safer for humans.