Public Health Pest Control
The IPM frame
Public health work targets mosquitoes, ticks, flies, fleas, cockroaches, rodents, and stinging insects where disease or nuisance risk exists. Source reduction and sanitation come first, then larviciding, then adulticiding as a last step. Adulticiding kills only the flying adults present and does nothing to the breeding sites - a favorite exam point.
Mosquitoes
Larvicides include Bti, methoprene, and monomolecular films; adulticides include malathion, permethrin/resmethrin, and naled, usually applied by ultra-low-volume equipment producing very fine droplets (roughly 10–25 microns) during dawn or dusk when adults are active and pollinators are not. Applications to waters of the U.S. may need NPDES permit coverage. Rotate modes of action where resistance is suspected.
Ticks, rodents, and stinging insects
Tick control combines personal protection, host reduction, and targeted barrier or perimeter treatments at lawn edges and wooded margins. Rodenticides are mostly anticoagulants (first and second generation) plus cholecalciferol; second-generation products carry secondary-poisoning risk to predators and pets, so use secured bait stations. Never treat blooming plants where bees are foraging, and treat stinging insect nests at dusk with labeled products and proper PPE.
Traps
Believing spraying fixes a container-breeding problem; applying adulticide in midday heat or inversion; treating open blooms; placing bait where children, pets, or nontarget wildlife reach it. Rule of thumb: remove the water, then treat the larvae, and only then consider adulticide.