The planet is definitely green. “Green” could be the color of environmental concern, the impetus that pushes cutting edge technology, the buzz word of this socially conscious. Concern for the environment and man’s impact on it is bringing a ton of new services to advertise insect control is no exception. Environmentally-friendly pest control companies are growing in popularity, especially in the industrial sector. Even eco-savvy residential consumers are asking about natural alternatives to pesticides that are traditional, but their ardor usually cools when confronted by the 10% to 20% cost differential and more extended therapy times, sometimes a few weeks.
The raising of America’s environmental consciousness, coupled with increasingly strict national regulations governing traditional chemical pesticides, seems to be changing the pest control industry’s focus on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. IPM is considered not merely safer for the environment, however safer for people, pets and secondary scavengers such as owls. Of 378 pest management businesses surveyed in 2008 from Pest Control Technology magazine, twothirds said that they offered IPM services of some kind.
Instead of lacing pest websites with a poisonous cocktail of powerful insecticides designed to kill, ” IPM focuses on chemical avoidance methods developed to maintain insects out. While non- or – no-toxicity services and products might also be used to encourage pests to pack their bags, control and removal efforts focus on finding and eliminating the causes of infestation: entrance points, attractants, harborage and food.
Notably popular with both schools and assisted living facilities charged with guarding the health of the nation’s youngest and oldest citizens, those at greatest risk from hazardous chemicals, IPM is grabbing the eye of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other commercial ventures, in addition to low-income residential customers. Founded in equivalent parts by ecological concerns and health hazard fears, curiosity about IPM is bringing a range of new environmentally friendly pest management products — both high- and – low tech — to promote.
“most likely the best product out there’s a door sweep,” confided Tom Green, president of the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America, a non-profit organization which certifies green exterminating companies. In an Associated Press interview published on MSNBC online last April, ” Green clarified, “A mouse could squeeze through a gap the size of a pencil diameter. So in the event you have secured a quarter-inch gap under your doorway, as far as being a mouse is concerned, there isn’t any door there at all.” Cockroaches can slither via a oneeighth inch crevice.
IPM is “an improved approach to pest control for the wellness of the home, the environment and your family,” said Cindy Mannes, spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the $6.3 billion pest control industry’s trade association, at the exact same Associated Press story. However, because IPM has been a relatively new addition to the pest control software arsenal, Mannes cautioned that there’s not much industry consensus on the definition of services that are green.
In an effort to produce industry standards for IPM services and suppliers, the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America developed the Green Shield Certified (GSC) software. Identifying pest control services and products and companies which eschew traditional pesticides in favor of environmentally-friendly control procedures, GSC is backed by the EPA, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and HUD. IPM favors mechanical, physical and cultural methods to control insects, but may use bio-pesticides derived from naturally-occurring materials like animals, plants, bacteria and certain minerals.
Some are ultra high tech like the quick freeze Cryonite process for eliminating bed bugs. The others, like trained dogs who sniff out bed bugs, seem decidedly low tech, but employ stateoftheart procedures to achieve benefits. By way of example, farmers have used dogs’ allergic noses to sniff pests for years and years; but educating dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs is a relatively recent growth.
The following new pest control technique is birth control. After bay area was threatened by mosquitoes carrying potentially deadly West Nile Virus, bike messengers were hired to flee the town and drop packets of biological insecticide in to the town’s 20,000 storm drains. A kind of contraceptive for mosquitoes, the newest method has been considered safer than airborne spraying with the compound pyrethrum, the typical mosquito abatement procedure, as shown by a recent report published within the National Public Radio site.
Naturally, there are efforts underway to construct a better mousetrap. The advanced Track & Trap system brings rats or mice to some food station dusted with fluorescent powder. Rodents render a blacklight-visible course that allows pest control pros to seal entrance paths. Coming soon, night watch uses pheromone research to lure and trap bed bugs. Back in England, a sonic apparatus supposed to repel rodents and rats is being analyzed, as well as the aptly called Rat Zapper is purported to deliver a deadly shock using just two AA batteries.
With this influx of new environmentally-friendly services and products rides a posse of national regulations. Critics of contemporary EPA regulations restricting the sale of certain pest-killing chemicals accuse the government of limiting a homeowner’s power to protect his home. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations forbidding the selling of small quantities of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside a specific snare, has eliminated rodent-killing chemicals from the shelves of hardware and home improvement stores, limiting the homeowner’s capacity to secure his property and family from such disease-carrying pests.
Acting for people well, the authorities pesticide-control actions are specially aimed at protecting children. National Wildlife Service analyzing in California found rodenticide deposit in most animal analyzed.
Consumers are embracing the idea of pest control and environmentally-friendly, cutting-edge pest management products and processes. Availability and government regulations are increasingly limiting consumers’ self-treatment choices, forcing them to show into pest control companies for respite from insect invasions. While this has proved a viable solution for business clients, few residential customers seem willing to pay for high charges for newer, more more labor intensive green pest control services and products and even fewer are willing to wait for the additional week or 2 it may possibly take the products to do the job. It’s taking leadership efforts for pest control companies to educate consumers in the long term benefits of green and natural pest treatments.
Although the cold, hard fact is that when individuals have a problem with pests they want it gone and they want it gone now! If rats or rodents come within their residence ruining their property and endangering their family with disorder, if termites or carpenter ants are eating their home equity, even if roaches are threatening their kitchen or should they are sharing their bed with bed bugs, consumer attention in ecological surroundings plummets. If folks call a pest control organization, the bottom line is that they want the fleas dead! Now! Pest control firms are standing up against the tide of consumer requirement for immediate eradication by enhancing their green and natural pest control product offerings. These fresh all-natural products require the most responsible long term approach to pest control; one that protects our environment, kids, and our own health. Some times it is lonely moving from the wave of popular demand, but authentic leadership, in the pest control business, means embracing these new organic and natural technologies when they aren’t popular with all the consumer – yet.
