Reference

Pest Control Glossary

Name: The Wild Pest
Address: North Delta, BC, Delta, British Columbia, V4C 0A0, CA
Telephone: +1-800-293-2847
Price range: $$
Rating: 4.9

Every term a Metro Vancouver homeowner, property manager, or food-safety auditor should know — plain-English definitions paired with the BC regulatory context that makes them actionable.

A B C D E F G H I M N O P Q R S T V W

Alate: A winged reproductive ant or termite. In BC, spring emergence of black alates at windowsills is almost always carpenter ants (Camponotus modoc), not termites.
AnimalKind: A BC SPCA accreditation program that certifies wildlife control companies meeting strict humane standards (no live trap-and-relocate of urban wildlife, maternity-aware timing, one-way door exclusion). The Wild Pest operates to AnimalKind standards.
Anticoagulant Rodenticide: A class of rat and mouse poisons that prevents blood clotting. Divided into first-generation (multi-feeding required) and second-generation (SGARs, single-feeding lethal). BC restricted SGAR professional use in 2023.
Bait Station: A tamper-resistant plastic or metal housing that secures rodenticide bait so it can be accessed by rats or mice but not by children, pets, or non-target wildlife. Required by BC best practice for any exterior baiting.
Bed Bug (Cimex lectularius): The reddish-brown insect, 5–7mm adult, that lives in mattress seams, headboards, and nearby harborage. Bed bugs do not transmit disease but cause significant welts. Metro Vancouver has year-round pressure driven by travel and density.
BRC / BRCGS: British Retail Consortium Global Standards — a food-safety certification standard widely used in Canadian food processing. BRC Issue 9 clause 4.14 covers pest management requirements.
Canine Bed Bug Detection: The use of professionally trained scent-detection dogs to locate live bed bugs and viable eggs. NESDCA-certified teams can confirm infestations at roughly 95% accuracy in field conditions. Used before thermal treatment to map target zones.
Camponotus modoc: The western black carpenter ant — the most common structural carpenter ant in BC. Workers range 6–13mm. Excavates moist wood for nest galleries but does not eat wood.
Cluster Fly (Pollenia spp.): A non-biting fly species that overwinters in attics and wall voids of BC homes, especially those adjacent to greenspace. Distinct from house flies by larger body, sluggish flight, and fall-season indoor emergence. Signals a sealing gap, not a sanitation issue.
Contact Insecticide: A pesticide that kills on direct contact without the target ingesting it. Contrast with systemic insecticides or non-repellent baits. Used for knockdown of visible populations rather than colony elimination.
CPMA: Canadian Pest Management Association — the national trade body for pest management in Canada. Membership signals adherence to the CPMA code of ethics and IPM practices.
Crawlspace: The unconditioned sub-floor space beneath a BC home, typically 2–4 feet in height. Common rodent harborage and the primary site for Norway rat exclusion work. Older Vancouver homes often have uncapped crawlspace vents that are the single most common rodent ingress point.
Crevice Treatment: Targeted pesticide application into gaps, cracks, and structural voids where pests harbour, rather than broadcast spraying of exposed surfaces. Standard of care for cockroach, ant, and bed bug treatment under IPM.
Dermestid: A family of beetles (Dermestidae) including carpet beetles, hide beetles, and warehouse beetles that scavenge on dead insect accumulations, fur, feathers, and stored-product residue. Often appear as secondary pests after cluster fly or Asian lady beetle die-offs in attics.
Diatomaceous Earth (DE): A powder made from fossilised diatoms that kills insects by abrading their exoskeleton and causing desiccation. Low-toxicity, mechanical-mode-of-action pesticide useful for ants, bed bugs, and stored-product pests. Requires professional-grade placement for effectiveness.
Ectoparasite: A parasite that lives on the outside of its host. Bed bugs, fleas, and ticks are the main ectoparasites encountered in Metro Vancouver pest control.
Exclusion: The physical sealing of entry points to prevent pests or wildlife from re-entering a structure. Standard of care for rodent and wildlife management in BC — exclusion replaces the older live-trap-and-relocate model.
Fraser Health: The regional health authority covering Burnaby, New Westminster, Tri-Cities, Surrey, Delta, Langley, White Rock, and the Fraser Valley. Conducts food-safety and public-health inspections that audit pest management records for commercial operators in the region.
Frass: Insect droppings or wood debris left by wood-boring insects. Carpenter ant frass is coarse, fibrous, and slightly fluffy — often found in small piles near gallery openings.
Fumigation: Whole-structure gaseous pesticide treatment for severe infestations. Requires occupant evacuation and specialised certification. Rarely used in Metro Vancouver residential pest control — thermal eradication and targeted IPM have largely replaced it.
Galvanized Hardware Cloth: 6mm (¼-inch) woven zinc-coated steel mesh used to seal rodent and wildlife entry points. The BC standard material for rodent exclusion because rats cannot chew through it and it resists corrosion in coastal moisture. Foam sealants are not an acceptable substitute.
Gel Bait: A semi-liquid bait formulation applied as small dots or beads into crevices where pests forage. The industry standard for German cockroach treatment — cockroaches consume the bait, return to harborage, and secondary contact with other colony members spreads control through the population.
Glue Board: A flat monitor with adhesive used to capture crawling insects or small rodents for population assessment. Primarily a monitoring tool, not a treatment tool. Raises welfare concerns for mammalian targets; many BC operators use snap traps rather than glue boards for mice and rats.
Hantavirus (Sin Nombre): A rodent-borne viral infection carried in the urine, droppings, and saliva of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) and transmitted to humans via inhalation of aerosolised particles. Rare but documented in BC. Dictates wet-method sanitisation protocols after deer mouse activity.
Harborage: The physical location where a pest shelters, nests, or rests between foraging. Eliminating harborage is a core IPM principle — cockroach treatment, for example, depends on locating every harborage site, not just spraying surfaces.
Heat Treatment (Thermal Eradication): A chemical-free pest control protocol that raises room or structure temperature to 50–55°C for 6–8 hours to kill every life stage of target insects, including bed bug eggs. The gold standard for bed bug control in heritage, luxury, and chemical-sensitive environments. Also used for stored-product pests.
Hobo Spider (Eratigena agrestis): A European funnel-web spider species present in BC basements and crawlspaces. Sometimes confused with more medically concerning species. Recent research downgrades the medical significance of its bite, though it remains unpleasant. Distinct chevron pattern on abdomen.
HACCP: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — the food-safety management framework mandated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and required by every credible food processor. Pest management is a prerequisite program under HACCP.
Ingress Point: An opening through which pests or wildlife enter a structure. Metro Vancouver homes typically have 5–20 ingress points, most of them on the roofline, at utility penetrations, or in crawlspace vents.
Insect Growth Regulator (IGR): A class of pesticides that interferes with insect development rather than killing adults directly. Particularly effective for cockroaches and stored-product pests. Used heavily in commercial HACCP programs.
Insecticide Resistance: The evolutionary adaptation of a pest population such that a previously effective pesticide no longer controls it. Well-documented in bed bugs, German cockroaches, and some Metro Vancouver Norway rat populations to specific anticoagulant rodenticides. IPM-grade programs rotate modes of action to mitigate.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): A science-based framework that combines inspection, exclusion, sanitation, and targeted treatment to manage pests with minimum pesticide use. The BC Integrated Pest Management Act governs licensed pest work in British Columbia.
Maternity Season: The biological window during which female wildlife species give birth and raise young. In BC, bat maternity season runs May 1 to August 15 — bat exclusion during this window is illegal under the Wildlife Act.
Moisture Audit: The diagnostic step of identifying building-envelope moisture sources (roof leaks, failed flashing, plumbing leaks, plugged gutters) that are actively creating the conditions for carpenter ants, wood-destroying organisms, and some fungal-linked insects. The Wild Pest pairs every carpenter ant treatment with a moisture audit because treating the insect without fixing the moisture produces a repeat infestation.
Monitor Station: A numbered inspection device placed at strategic locations to detect pest activity and population density over time. Core to any food-safety-graded IPM program — SQF, BRC, and HACCP all require monitor-station records with dated inspections and corrective-action logs.
Non-Target Species: Any organism inadvertently affected by a pest control treatment — typically pets, children, beneficial insects, or protected wildlife. Pesticide label rates and placement requirements exist primarily to minimise non-target exposure. The 2023 BC SGAR restriction is a non-target-species response to raptor secondary poisoning.
Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus): The brown rat — the larger of the two rat species in Metro Vancouver (200–500g adult). Prefers ground-level burrows and crawlspaces. Dominant rat species in the Lower Mainland.
Oothecae: Cockroach egg cases — small reddish-brown capsules that each contain 12–48 eggs. Finding oothecae in kitchens, cabinets, or behind appliances indicates an established breeding population rather than occasional intrusion.
One-Way Door: A mechanical exclusion device installed over an active wildlife entry point. The animal exits normally but cannot re-enter. Standard of care for raccoon, squirrel, skunk, and most bird exclusion in BC.
Pest Control Products Act (PCP Act): The Canadian federal legislation administered by Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency. Every professionally applied pesticide in Canada carries a PCP registration number that auditors will request.
Pheromone Trap: A monitoring device that uses synthesised species-specific pheromones to lure insects. Primarily used in commercial HACCP programs for stored-product moths, beetles, and weevils.
Pyrethroid: A class of synthetic insecticides (permethrin, deltamethrin, cypermethrin, bifenthrin) modelled on pyrethrum, the naturally occurring insecticide in chrysanthemum flowers. Widely used for residential perimeter treatments. Bed bug populations in many regions show documented pyrethroid resistance.
Quality Pro: A voluntary credentialing program for pest management companies administered by the US NPMA, recognised by some Canadian HACCP auditors. Abell, Orkin, and Terminix hold QualityPro credentials in Canada.
Reticulitermes hesperus: The western subterranean termite — the primary structural termite species in BC. Present in the Fraser Valley and on southern Vancouver Island but rare in urban Metro Vancouver.
Roof Rat (Rattus rattus): The smaller climbing rat species present in Metro Vancouver, 150–230g adult. Prefers attic nesting and travels roof-to-roof via overhead wires and tree canopy. More common in Kitsilano, Dunbar, and mature-canopy west-side neighbourhoods than in east Vancouver.
Sanitation (IPM pillar): The IPM pillar that removes food, water, and harborage resources that support pest populations. For cockroaches, this means closing food containers and drying sinks overnight. For rodents, it means securing organics and trash. Sanitation alone rarely solves infestations but is a prerequisite for every durable treatment outcome.
Satellite Colony: A secondary carpenter ant (Camponotus modoc) colony established within a building, fed by and queen-less relative to a larger parent colony typically living in a tree or stump nearby. Satellite colonies are where structural damage happens. Treatment must address both parent and satellite.
Sentinel Trap: A non-toxic monitoring device that signals pest presence through visible catch or remote electronic sensing, without treating the population directly. Core to monitor-driven IPM programs for early-warning detection in food-safety facilities.
Service Report: The written documentation left at the conclusion of every professional pest treatment — findings, conditions observed, products applied, PCP registration numbers, recommended follow-up, and technician signature. Required for auditable IPM programs and increasingly expected for residential work by informed customers.
SGAR: Second-Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticide — a class of single-feeding lethal rodent poisons including brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, and difethialone. BC restricted SGAR professional sales and application in 2023 due to secondary poisoning of raptors.
SQF: Safe Quality Food — a GFSI-recognised food-safety certification program. SQF 9th edition Module 11 specifies the pest-management prerequisite program expectations.
Sticky Trap: A disposable glue-based monitor used to quantify crawling-insect activity. Primary tool for baseline and ongoing cockroach, silverfish, and spider population assessment. Low cost, high-information; multi-placement grids map hot zones within a facility.
Stored Product Pest: Any insect whose life cycle completes within stored food or dry goods — Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella), warehouse beetle, grain weevils, and similar species. Common in pantries, grain mills, and dry-goods warehouses. Heat treatment and pheromone monitoring are the core controls.
Structural Pesticide Applicator: The BC licence required to apply pesticides in a structural pest-control context. Issued under the BC Integrated Pest Management Act by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
Swarmer: A winged reproductive caste in ants or termites that leaves the parent colony to start new colonies. Carpenter ant swarmers typically appear in BC in late April through June on warm, sunny afternoons.
Tracking Powder: A fine-powder rodenticide or monitor material applied lightly in suspected rodent travel corridors. Animals walk through the powder and either ingest it grooming (toxic variant) or leave visible tracks (non-toxic monitor variant). Restricted in residential BC use.
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH): The regional health authority covering Vancouver, Richmond, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and the Sea-to-Sky corridor. Conducts food-safety inspections that audit pest management records.
Western Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus): BC's only medically significant native spider, identified by glossy black body and red hourglass marking on the underside. Present but uncommon in urban Metro Vancouver — typically found in detached outbuildings, woodpiles, and rarely-used sheds. Bites can require medical attention for young children and vulnerable adults.
Wildlife Act (RSBC 1996, c. 488): The BC statute governing wildlife protection, including urban species like raccoons, squirrels, bats, and skunks. Requires a Wildlife Control Operator Licence to legally remove protected species.
Wildlife Control Operator: The BC credential required to capture, exclude, or remove protected wildlife under the Wildlife Act. The Wild Pest technicians hold active WCO licences.
Wild Pest Index™: The Wild Pest's quarterly published data report on Metro Vancouver pest pressure, released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Draws on anonymised internal service records to report year-over-year pressure trends by species, neighbourhood, and season.
WorkSafeBC: British Columbia's workers' compensation board. All legitimate pest control contractors in BC must be WorkSafeBC-registered — confirms insurance coverage for the technician on your property and protects homeowners from liability. Verify any contractor's registration at worksafebc.com.