The test given for Mississippians to get a private applicators license to use certain pesticides asks for the definition of a pest. Luckily it is a multiple choice question. 

So if a person has previously read the long, cumbersome correct answer in the study manual, it’s a fairly easy recall. It’s one of those all-inclusive definitions, covering every possibility of health, annoyance, economics, structural damage and so forth. Simply put, a pest is any living organism that bothers another organism or any structure at a particular time. Thus pests can be insects, fungi, weeds or wildlife. 

Taking a broad look at how we go about solving pest problems, think of pest control as a triangle with three things needed for there to be a problem. One is the pest. Another is the host. And the third is the conditions necessary for the pest to be a problem for the host. We only need to attend to any one of the three. 

Beginning with the host corner of the triangle, one way to prevent specific pests is to avoid the host altogether; don’t own it. 

Among the hosts avoided by some folks are chickens because of predators, gardens because of weeds, pets because of fleas, and peach trees because of most every bug and disease fungus out there looking for a sweet spot to do damage. 

Protection for hosts comes in the forms of fences, vaccines, paint, and guard dogs.

In the plant world, hosts’ genetic resistance to diseases is the primary method of dealing with fungi, bacteria and viruses. Plant breeding programs emphasizing genetic resistance is why we have soybeans that fend off nematodes, tomato varieties that don’t die from fusarium wilt and Knockout roses that more or less ignore blackspot.

As for going with the triangle corner of “necessary conditions,” there is not a whole lot we can do about weather impacting conditions favorable for pest infestations. But we can work around seasonal weather to a degree. 

We plant sweet corn early to beat ear worms to the crop and plant wheat late to avoid fall aphids. Watering when needed helps with pests that like it hot and dry. And things like eliminating stagnant water for mosquito control and repairing leaks to forego wood-rotting fungi are based on targeting conditions that pests need. 

Saving the actual culprits for last, we swat, trap, shoot, relocate, dig up, mow down and look to natural enemies for help with dealing with pests. 

The release of lab-sterilized male moths for insect birth control was dreamed up in the 1930s and became effective in the 1950s. Chemical pesticides have been used for thousands of years but nowadays attention is focused on creating products that have minimal or no effect on the environment. It’s kind of a balancing act; seven billion of us want a healthy environment and we all want to eat today. 

The pest, the host, the right conditions; we don’t have to fix all three.  Just one will do for dealing with pests.

Terry Rector is spokesman for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District.