Can There Be A Boom Or Bust Coming For Natural Pest Control?The world is going green. "Green" is your color of environmental stress, the impetus which compels cuttingedge technology, the buzz word of the socially conscious. Concern for the natural environment and man's impact on it's bringing a slew of new products to market, and pest control is no exception. Environmentally-friendly pest control products and services are growing in popularity, particularly in the commercial industry. Even eco-savvy residential consumers are requesting about natural alternatives to traditional pesticides, however, their ardor usually cools when faced by the 10% to 20% cost differential and more extended therapy intervals, sometimes a few weeks.
The raising of America's environmental awareness, in conjunction with increasingly stringent federal regulations regulating traditional chemical dyes, seems to be changing the pest control industry's attention on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. IPM is considered not just safer for your environment, yet safer for people, pets and secondary scavengers such as owls. Of 378 pest control companies surveyed in 2008 by Pest Control Technology magazine, also two-thirds said they offered IPM services of some type.
Rather than jelqing pest websites with a poisonous cocktail of powerful insecticides designed to kill, IPM is targeted on environmentally-friendly prevention methods developed to keep insects out. While non - or no-toxicity products might also be used to support pests to pack their bags, control and elimination efforts focus on finding and eliminating the root of infestation: entry 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 highest risk from toxic compounds, IPM is catching the attention of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other commercial enterprises, in addition to eco-conscious residential customers. Founded in equivalent parts by ecological concerns and health danger fears, fascination with IPM is bringing a range of new environmentally-friendly pest management services and products -- both high- and low tech -- to promote.
"possibly the very best product out there's actually a door sweep," confided Tom Green, president of the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America, a non profit organization that certifies green exterminating businesses. In an Associated Press interview posted on MSNBC online last April, Green explained,"A mouse can squeeze through a gap the size of a pencil diameter. Therefore, in case you've found a quarter-inch gap under your doorway, so much as a mouse is more concerned, there's no door there whatsoever." Cockroaches can slither through a one-eighth inch crevice.
IPM is"an improved approach to pest control to the health of your home, the environment and the family," said Cindy Mannes,'' spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the 6.3 billion pest control industry's trade association, at exactly the exact same Associated Press story. But because IPM has been a comparatively new addition to the pest control toolbox, Mannes cautioned that there's not much industry consensus on the definition of green services.
IPM favors mechanical, cultural and physical methods to control pests, but might use bio-pesticides produced from naturally occurring materials such as animals, plants, bacteria and certain minerals.
Toxic chemical sprays are giving way to new, sometimes unconventional, methods of treating pests. The others, like trained dogs who sniff out bed pests, look decidedly low tech, but employ innovative techniques to achieve effects. As an example, farmers have used dogs' sensitive noses to sniff out problem pests for years and years; however, educating dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs is a relatively recent progress.
Yet another new pest control technique is contraception. After San Francisco was threatened with mosquitoes carrying potentially lethal West Nile Virus, bike messengers were hired to flee the city and drop packets of biological insecticide in to the city's 20,000 storm drains. Akind of contraception for mosquitoes, the new method was considered safer than airborne spraying with the compound pyrethrum, the typical mosquito abatement procedure, as shown by a recent report published on the National Public Radio site.
Naturallythere are efforts underway to build a better mousetrap. The innovative Track & Trap system brings rats or mice to your food channel dusted with powder. Rodents render a blacklight-visible course that allows pest control experts to secure entrance avenues. Coming soon, NightWatch uses pheromone research to lure and trap bed bugs. Back in Englanda sonic device designed to repel rodents and rats is being analyzed, as well as the aptly named Rat Zapper is supposed to deliver a deadly shock using two AA batteries.
Alongside this influx of fresh environmentally-friendly services and products rides a posse of national regulations. Even the EPA's 2004 banning of the compound diazinon for household use a couple of years ago removed a potent ant-killer from the homeowner's pest control arsenal. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations prohibiting the selling of small quantities of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside a specific snare, has eliminated rodent-killing compounds from the shelves of both hardware and diy stores, limiting the homeowner's ability to secure his family and property from these disease-carrying pests.
Acting for people good, the government's pesticide-control activities are specially aimed at protecting children. According to a May 20, 2008 report CNN online, a report conducted by the American Association of Poison Control Centers signaled that rat poison was in charge of nearly 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of these leading to serious accidents or death. pest control company examining in California found rodenticide residue in every animal analyzed.
Consumers are embracing the notion of pest control and environmentally friendly, cutting-edge pest management products and processes. Availability and government regulations are increasingly limiting consumers' self-treatment alternatives, forcing them to show to professional pest control organizations to get relief in pest invasions. While it's proved a viable solution for industrial customers, few residential clients seem willing to pay for high costs for newer, more more labor-intensive green pest control services and products and even fewer are prepared to wait for the extra week or two it may possibly take the products to work. It is taking leadership efforts on the part of pest control companies to educate consumers in the long term benefits of green and natural pest treatments.
Although the cold, hard reality is that if people have a problem with pests they want it gone and so they need it gone today! If rats or rodents are in their residence ruining their property and threatening their family together with disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating away their home equity, in case roaches are invading their kitchen or if they are sharing their bed with bed bugs, consumer interest in environmental friendliness plummets. When folks call a pest control firm, the bottom line is they want the pests dead! Now! Pest control firms are standing up against the tide of consumer demand for prompt eradication by enhancing their green and natural pest control product supplies. These new organic products require the responsible long-term strategy to pest control; one that protects our environment, kids, and our own wellness. Some times it's alone moving from the tide of popular demand, but true leadership, at the pest control industry, means embracing these new organic and natural technologies when they are not popular with all the consumer - yet.
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