Is There a Boom Or Bust Coming For Natural Pest Control
The entire world is definitely green. "Green" is your color of ecological stress, the impetus that drives cutting-edge technology, the buzz word of this socially conscious. Concern for the environment and man's impact on it's bringing a slew of new services to advertise , and pest control is no exception. Environmentally-friendly pest control companies are growing in popularity, especially in the industrial industry. Even eco-savvy residential individuals are requesting about natural alternatives to traditional pesticides, however, their ardor frequently cools when faced with the 10% to 20% cost differential and longer therapy intervals, some times a couple weeks.
The increasing of America's environmental consciousness, coupled with increasingly stringent federal regulations governing traditional chemical pesticides, appears to be altering the pest control industry's focus on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods. IPM is considered not only safer for the environment, yet safer for people, pets and secondary scavengers such as owls. Of 378 pest management organizations surveyed in 2008 from Pest Control Technology magazine, also two thirds said that they offered IPM services of some kind.
Rather than jelqing pest sites with a noxious cocktail of insecticides intended to kill, IPM is targeted on environmentally-friendly prevention methods designed to keep pests out. While low- or no-toxicity services and products may also be used to encourage pests to package their bags, control and elimination efforts revolve around finding and eliminating the source of infestation: entry points, attractants, harborage and food.
Notably popular with schools and assisted living facilities charged with guarding the health and fitness of the world's youngest and oldest citizens, those at greatest risk from hazardous compounds, IPM is grabbing the eye of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other industrial businesses, in addition to eco-conscious residential customers. Founded in equivalent parts by environmental concerns and health danger fears, curiosity about IPM is bringing a host of new environmentally friendly pest control services and products -- both high- and - low tech -- to promote.
"Probably the very best product out there's really a door sweep," confided Tom Green, president of the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America, a non-profit company that permeates green exterminating companies. In an Associated Press interview posted on MSNBC on the past April, Green clarified,"A mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a pencil diameter. Therefore, if you have obtained a quarter-inch gap under your doorway, so much as being a mouse is more concerned, there's no door there at all." Cock Roaches can slither through a one-eighth inch crevice.
IPM is"a better way to pest control for the wellness of the home, the surroundings and your household," said Cindy Mannes, spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the $6.3 billion pest control industry's trade association, in exactly the same Associated Press story. But because IPM is still a relatively recent addition to this pest control toolbox, Mannes cautioned that there's little industry consensus on the definition of services that are green.
In Order to create industry standards for IPM providers and providers, the Integrated Pest Management Institute of the United States produced the Green Shield Certified (GSC) software. Pinpointing pest control services and products and companies that eschew conventional pesticides in support of environmentally friendly control procedures, GSC is supported by the EPA, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and HUD. IPM prefers mechanical, cultural and physical procedures to control pests, but may 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, means of treating pests. The others, like trained dogs who snore bed pests, look decidedly low-tech, but apply innovative techniques to reach effects. Using those exact methods to teach dogs to sniff out termites and bed bugs will be considered cutting edge.
Yet another fresh pest control procedure is contraceptive. When bay area was threatened with mosquitoes carrying potentially life threatening West Nile Virus, bike messengers were hired to cruise the town and drop packets of biological insecticide in to the town's 20,000 storm drains. Akind of contraceptive for mosquitoes, the newest method was considered safer than airborne spraying with the chemical pyrethrum, the typical mosquito abatement procedure, as demonstrated by a recent report published within the National Public Radio site.
Of course there are efforts to construct a better mousetrap. The advanced Track & Trap system attracts mice or rats to your food station dusted with fluorescent powder. Rodents render a blacklight-visible course which allows pest control pros to seal entrance paths. Coming soon, NightWatch uses pheromone research to trap and lure bed bugs. In Englanda sonic device built to repel rodents and rats is being analyzed, along with the aptly named Rat Zapper is supposed to provide a lethal shock using only two AA batteries.
With this influx of fresh environmentally friendly services and products rides a posse of federal regulations. Critics of recent EPA regulations restricting the sale of certain pest-killing chemicals accuse the government of limiting a homeowner's ability to guard his residence. Even the EPA's 2004 banning of the chemical diazinon for household usage a few years ago removed a potent ant-killer from the homeowner's pest control arsenal. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations forbidding the sale of small quantities of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside a specific snare, has stripped rodent-killing chemicals from the shelves of both hardware and diy stores, limiting the homeowner's capacity to protect his property and family from these disease-carrying insects.
Acting for people good, the authorities pesticide-control activities are especially geared toward protecting children. Based on a May 20, 2008 report CNN on the web, a report performed by the American Association of Poison Control Centers indicated that rat poison had been in charge of almost 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of these leading to serious injuries or death. National Wildlife Service analyzing in California found rodenticide residue in most 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 limiting consumers' self-treatment choices, forcing them to turn into pest control companies for relief in pest invasions. While this has proved a viable alternative for industrial customers, few residential customers seem willing to pay for higher costs for newer, more labor-intensive green pest control services and products and fewer are prepared to wait the additional week or 2 it could take the products to do the job. It is taking leadership efforts for pest control companies to educate consumers from 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 so they want it gone today! If rats or rodents are inside their property destroying their property and threatening their family with disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating away their home equity, if roaches are invading their toilet or if they're sharing their bed with bed bugs, consumer interest in environmental friendliness plummets. When folks call a pest control organization, the most important thing is that they want the fleas dead! Now! Pest control firms are standing up against the wave of consumer demand for prompt eradication by enhancing their green and natural pest control product offerings. These new natural products require the most responsible long term approach to pest control; one that protects our environment, children, and also our very own health. Pest Control Henlow is lonely moving against the tide of popular demand, but true leadership, in the pest control business, means embracing these new natural technologies even when they are not popular with all the consumer - yet.
