Use a control strategy that will reduce the pest numbers to an acceptable level. Cause as little harm as possible to everything except the pest. Prevention may be a goal when the pest's presence or abundance can be predicted in advance. Suppression is a common goal in many pest situations. The intent is to reduce the number of pests to a level where the harm they are causing is acceptable.
Eradication is a rare goal in outdoor pest situations, because it is difficult to achieve.
In indoor areas, eradication is a more common goal. Enclosed environments usually are smaller, less complex, and more easily controlled than outdoor areas. Threshold Levels Thresholds are the levels of pest populations at which you should take pest control action if you want to prevent the pests in an area from causing unacceptable injury or harm. Thresholds may be based on esthetic, health, or economic considerations. A threshold often is set at the level where the economic losses caused by pest damage, if the pest population continued to grow, would be greater than the cost of controlling the pests.