Pest control began when the first human swatted a mosquito or picked off a louse, and has continued until today.  

Fossil records tell us that all major families and types of flies and parasites had already existed before Homo sapiens first appeared on the Earth.  It is believed that fleas and bed bugs that live on or with humans adapted back in teh days of cave-dwelling as they are most closely related to species that live on bats.  It was probably not until organised agriculture was developed that we considered insects a threat to our food supply and existence.

Pest control is mentioned in writings of Sumerian, Chinese, and Egyptian scholars.   Many methods were religious or superstitious in nature and had no real scientific basis.   Predatory ants were used in China almost 800 years ago to protect citrus groves from caterpillars and beetles.   Ropes or bamboo between branches helped the ants move easily from tree to tree or branch to branch. 

A passage in the Iliad describes using fire to drive locusts into the sea, and ancient Egyptians organized long lines of humans to repel locust swarms.   Pythagorus was credited with clearing malaria from an area over 2,500 years ago by instructing its residents to kill off the mosquitos by draining the nearby marshes.   

Chemical substances to kill or repel insects were used, and although many were of little value, some actually worked and a few are still in use in modern times.  Inorganic compounds such as arsenic and sulfur have well-established insecticidal properties, and science has recently come to acknowledge that many ancient apothecaries compounds (fleabane, hellebore, wormwood, lemon oil, etc) do provide a useful deterrence to insects.

Following the Dark Ages, a renewed interest developed in insects as organisms and as pests.   More accurate observations of behaviour led to inventive methods.   Manual labour was used in early pest control, but cultural, physical, and chemical practices also evolved.   Germans in the early 1700s designed the first mechanical insect traps.   Fly traps consisting of a wooden box baited with sweets and equipped with a spring-loaded lid, or hollow cylinders baited with blood or honey and worn around the neck as a pendant served to effectively deal with flies and fleas, and these flea trap pendants, often crafted from silver or ivory and ornate in design, were fashion accessories worn by aristocracy.

Entomologists and chemists have made much progress in pest control technology.   Today there exist cultural, genetic, physical, and biological methods in addition to common pesticides.   All of these work in one or more of the following ways:

Most tactics commonly used are either natural and artificial controls.   Artificial methods utilise products or processes to change the distribution, behavior or physiology of the pest, insecticides or fly swatters are examples.   Some strategies straddle the line by having characteristics of both groups or not fitting into either.   Some of the most effective are natural methods that can be improved, enhanced, accelerated, or augmented.