Is There a Boom Or Bust Coming For Natural Pest Control?
The planet is definitely going green. "Green" is the color of environmental stress, the impetus that drives cutting edge technology, the buzzword of the socially conscious. Concern for the natural environment and man's impact on it is bringing a ton of new services and products to promote pest control is no exception. Environmentally-friendly pest control solutions are growing in popularity, particularly in the commercial industry. Even eco-savvy residential individuals are asking about natural alternatives to pesticides that are traditional, but their ardor frequently stinks when faced by the 10 percent to 20% cost differential and lengthier therapy intervals, sometimes a couple weeks.
The increasing of America's environmental awareness, in conjunction with increasingly stringent national regulations governing conventional chemical pesticides, seems to be changing the pest control industry's focus to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods. IPM is regarded as just safer to the environment, but safer for people, pets and secondary scavengers such as owls. Of 378 pest management businesses surveyed in 2008 from Pest Control Technology magazine, two thirds said that they offered IPM professional services of some sort.
Rather than jelqing pest websites with a noxious cocktail of insecticides designed to kill, IPM focuses on environmentally-friendly prevention techniques created to keep pests out. While low- or - no-toxicity products may also be utilised to encourage pests to pack their bags, control and removal efforts focus on finding and eliminating the root of infestation: entrance points, attractants, harborage and food.
Particularly popular with schools and assisted living facilities charged with guarding the overall health of the nation's youngest and oldest citizens, those at greatest risk from toxic compounds, IPM is catching the eye of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other commercial enterprises, as well as eco-conscious residential clients. Driven in equal portions by environmental concerns and health hazard fears, fascination with IPM is attracting a lot of fresh environmentally friendly pest control services and products -- both high- and lowtech -- to promote.
"most likely the very best product out there is a door sweep," confided Tom Green, president of the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America, a non profit organization that certifies green exterminating organizations. In an Associated Press interview posted on MSNBC on the past April,'' Green explained,"A mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a pen diameter. So if you have got a quarter-inch gap underneath your doorway, so much as being a mouse is concerned, there's no door there at all." Cock Roaches can slither via a one eighth inch crevice.
Pest Control Sandy has been"an improved way to pest control to the health of your house, the environment and the household," said Cindy Mannes,'' spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the 6.3 billion pest control industry's own trade association, at exactly the exact same Associated Press story. However, because IPM is still a relatively recent addition into the pest control toolbox, Mannes cautioned that there's very little industry consensus on this is of green services.
IPM prefers mechanical, physical and cultural techniques to control pests, but may use bio-pesticides derived from naturally-occurring materials such as animals, bacteria, plants and certain minerals.
Toxic chemical sprays are giving way to new, sometimes unconventional, means of pests. Some are ultra hightech just like the quick freeze Cryonite process for eliminating bed bugs. The others, like trained dogs that sniff out bed pests, look decidedly lowtech, but employ state-of-the-art methods to achieve effects. For instance, farmers have used dogs' sensitive noses to sniff out pests for centuries; however, educating dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs is a relatively recent development. Employing those same tactics to teach dogs to sniff out termites and bed bugs is considered cutting edge.
Still another new pest control technique is birth control. After bay area was jeopardized with mosquitoes carrying potentially deadly West Nile Virus, bicycle messengers were hired to cruise the city and drop packets of biological insecticide in to the town's 20,000 storm drains. Akind of contraception for mosquitoes, the newest method was considered safer than aerial spraying with the compound pyrethrum, the typical mosquito abatement procedure, according to a recent report published within the National Public Radio site.
Naturallythere are efforts to construct a better mouse trap. The advanced Track & Trap system brings rats or rodents to some food channel dusted with powder. Rodents leave a blacklight-visible trail that allows pest control pros to seal entry avenues. Coming soon, NightWatch uses pheromone research to trap and lure bed bugs. In England, a sonic device made to repel squirrels and rats is being analyzed, along with the aptly named Rat Zapper is purported to deliver a lethal shock using two AA batteries.
Alongside this influx of fresh environmentally friendly products rides a posse of national regulations. Even the EPA's 2004 banning of this compound diazinon for household use a few years past removed a potent ant-killer from the homeowner's pest control arsenal. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations forbidding the sale of small amounts of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside a specific trap, has eliminated rodent-killing compounds from the shelves of both hardware and home improvement stores, limiting the homeowner's ability to protect his family and property from these types of disease-carrying pests.
Acting for the public good, the authorities pesticide-control activities are especially geared toward protecting children. In accordance with a May 20, 2008 report on CNN on the web, a report conducted by the American Association of Poison Control Centers suggested that rat poison had been in charge of almost 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of them leading to serious accidents or death. National Wildlife Service examining in California found rodenticide residue in most animal analyzed.
Individuals are embracing the idea of pest control and environmentally-friendly, cutting off pest control products and techniques. Availability and government regulations are limiting consumers' self-treatment choices, forcing them to turn into professional pest control organizations for rest out of pest invasions. As this has established a viable alternative for business clients, few residential customers seem willing to pay for higher costs for newer, more more laborintensive green pest control products and fewer are prepared to wait the extra week or 2 it may take the products to work. It's taking leadership efforts for pest control businesses to educate consumers from the long term advantages of green and natural pest treatments.
Though the cold, hard fact is that when folks have a problem with pests , they are interested gone and so they want it gone now! If rats or mice come within their property destroying their property and threatening their family disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating their home equity, if roaches are threatening their own kitchen or should they are sharing their bed with bed bugs, consumer attention in environmental surroundings plummets. If people call a pest control organization, the most important thing is that they need the fleas dead! Now! Pest control firms have been standing up against the tide of consumer requirement for immediate eradication by enhancing their natural and green pest control product supplies. These new natural products require the responsible long term strategy to pest control; the one that protects our environment, children, and also our very own health. Some times it is lonely moving against the wave of popular demand, but authentic leadership, in the pest control industry, means embracing these fresh natural technologies when they aren't popular with all the consumer - nonetheless.