# Treatment approaches


Every approach below is described in terms of what it addresses and when it is appropriate. None is described as a procedure, because the directions for any specific product are on that product's label and nowhere else. [Why the label is the law](/regulations/fifra-and-labels/).

## Integrated pest management is the framework

Integrated pest management is not a technique, it is a decision order: identify the pest, monitor to establish whether and where a population exists, remove what supports it, and treat only when monitoring shows treatment is warranted. Everything else on this page sits inside that order.

Its practical consequence is that identification and habitat correction come before any product decision — which is also why a large share of pest problems resolve without one.

## Exclusion

Physically closing the gaps a pest uses to enter. Unregulated, inexpensive, permanent, and the only measure that prevents recurrence rather than repeating a treatment. Appropriate for rodents, most occasional invaders, and as the durable half of nearly every other approach. [Exclusion and sealing](/prevention/).

## Monitoring and inspection

Placing devices to detect whether a population exists and where it is concentrated. Appropriate as the first step in essentially every case, and particularly valuable where the population lives in harbourage you cannot see. The count over several weeks is the signal, not any single reading.

## Baiting

An approach in which the insect carries a slow-acting material back to the colony, so the colony rather than the individual is affected. Appropriate for many ant species and for cockroaches. Placement and product selection are label-governed and species-specific, so we describe the approach rather than instructing it — and note that with ants, using a repellent product alongside bait usually defeats it.

## Heat

Raising a space or its contents to a temperature lethal to the target insect. Used professionally for bed bugs. We describe it as a description of professional practice only. **Do not improvise heat.** DIY heating attempts have caused structure fires, and this is one of the two DIY practices in this field with a record of killing people.

## Liquid soil treatment and termite baiting

The two principal professional approaches to subterranean termites. A liquid soil treatment establishes a treated zone in the soil around and beneath a structure. A bait system uses in-ground stations intended to affect the colony. Both address a colony living in the soil rather than in the wood, which is why removing damaged timber does not resolve a termite problem. [Termites](/termites/).

## Biological control

Using natural enemies — predators, parasitoids, or entomopathogenic nematodes. Genuinely useful in some outdoor and turf contexts. Largely not applicable to structural pests indoors, and worth being straightforward about rather than overselling.

## Fumigation

A licensed operation that seals a structure and fills it with a gaseous pesticide. It is used for drywood termites and some other whole-structure problems. We explain what it is and never how it is done: it is restricted, requires the building to be vacated entirely, and has fatal failure modes.

## What does not work

[Ultrasonic and electronic repellers](/treatments/ultrasonic-repellers/) do not control household pest populations, and the FTC has acted against manufacturers over the claim.


Source: https://againstpest.shop/treatments/