The raising of America's environmental consciousness, in conjunction with increasingly stringent national regulations regulating conventional chemical pesticides, appears to be shifting the pest control industry's focus to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods. IPM is considered not merely safer to your environment, but 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 sort.
Instead of lacing pest sites with a noxious cocktail of powerful insecticides designed to kill,'' IPM is targeted on environmentally-friendly prevention methods developed to maintain pests out. While non - or no-toxicity products could also be used to encourage pests to pack their bags, control and elimination efforts focus on finding and eliminating the causes of infestation: entry points, attractants, harborage and food.
Particularly popular with schools and nursing homes charged with guarding the overall health of the world's youngest and oldest citizens, those at greatest risk from toxic chemicals, IPM is grabbing the eye of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other industrial enterprises, as well as eco-conscious residential customers. Founded in equivalent portions by ecological concerns and health danger fears, interest in IPM is attracting a multitude of fresh environmentally-friendly pest control products -- both high- and - lowtech -- to promote.
"most likely the very best product out there is 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 companies. In an Associated Press interview posted on MSNBC online last April, Green explained,"A mouse can squeeze through a gap the size of a pen diameter. So in case you have secured a quarter-inch gap underneath your doorway, so much as a mouse is more concerned, there isn't any door there at all." Cock Roaches can slither via a one-eighth inch crevice.
IPM has been"a better way to pest control to the wellness of the house, the surroundings and your household," said Cindy Mannes, spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the $6.3 billion pest control industry's own trade association, at the exact same Associated Press story. But because IPM is a relatively recent addition into the pest control toolbox, Mannes cautioned that there is very little industry consensus on this is of green services.
In an effort to produce industry standards for IPM providers and providers, the Integrated Pest Management Institute of United States created the Green Shield Certified (GSC) program. Identifying Pest Control Letchworth and companies that eschew conventional pesticides in favor of environmentally friendly control procedures, GSC is backed by the EPA, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and HUD. IPM favors mechanical, cultural and physical methods to control insects, but may use bio-pesticides produced from naturally occurring materials like animals, bacteria, plants and certain minerals.
Toxic chemical sprays are giving way to new, sometimes unconventional, means of treating pests. Some are ultra high-tech such as the quick-freeze Cryonite process for eliminating bed bugs. Others, like trained dogs who sniff out bed bugs, seem decidedly low-tech, but employ advanced methods to reach results. For example, farmers have used dogs' sensitive noses to sniff out problem pests for centuries; however, training dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs is a rather recent growth. Using those very same techniques to teach dogs to sniff out termites and bed bugs is recognized as cuttingedge.
Still another fresh pest control technique is contraceptive. When San Francisco was threatened by mosquitoes carrying potentially lethal West Nile Virus, bike messengers were hired to flee the town and shed packets of biological insecticide into the town's 20,000 storm drains. A kind of birth control for mosquitoes, the newest method has been considered safer compared to aerial spraying with the compound pyrethrum, the normal mosquito abatement procedure, according to a recent report published on the National Public Radio site.
Of course , there are efforts underway to construct a better mouse trap. The innovative Track & Trap system brings rats or rodents to some food channel dusted with fluorescent powder. Rodents leave a blacklight-visible trail which allows pest control pros to secure entrance avenues. Coming soon, NightWatch uses pheromone research to trap and lure bed bugs. Back in England, a sonic apparatus built to repel squirrels and rats is being tested, as well as the aptly named Rat Zapper is purported to supply a lethal shock using two AA batteries.
With this influx of new environmentally-friendly products rides a posse of federal regulations. Even the EPA's 2004 banning of this compound diazinon for household usage a couple of years ago removed a potent ant-killer from the homeowner's pest control arsenal. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations prohibiting the sale of small amounts of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside an enclosed trap, has stripped rodent-killing chemicals from the shelves of hardware and home improvement stores, limiting the homeowner's capacity to protect his property and family from such disease-carrying pests.
Acting for the public good, the government's pesticide-control actions are especially aimed at protecting kids. According to a May 20, 2008 report CNN on the web, a study performed 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 them leading to serious accidents or death. National Wildlife Service analyzing in California found rodenticide residue in most creature analyzed.
Consumers are embracing the notion of natural pest control and environmentally friendly, cutting-edge pest control products and techniques. Availability and government regulations are limiting consumers' self-treatment choices, forcing them to turn into pest control businesses to get rest from pest invasions. As it's proved a viable solution for business clients, few residential clients seem willing to pay for high charges for newer, more labor-intensive green pest control products and even fewer are prepared to wait the additional week or two it might take the items to work. It is taking direction efforts on the part of pest control organizations to teach consumers in the long term benefits of green and organic pest treatments.
Even though the cold, hard reality is that if folks have a pest problemthey are interested gone and they need it gone now! If rats or rodents have been within their house ruining their property and threatening their family disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating their home equity, in case roaches are invading their own kitchen or if they're sharing their bed with bed bugs, even consumer attention in environmental surroundings plummets. If people call a pest control business, the main point is they want the pests dead! Now! Pest control firms have been standing up against the tide of consumer requirement for immediate eradication by enhancing their green and natural pest control product offers. These new all-natural products require the responsible long-term approach to pest control; the one that protects our environment, kids, and also our own wellbeing. Some times it 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 aren't popular with all the user - yet.