The world is definitely green. "Green" is your color of ecological dilemma, the impetus that compels cutting edge technology, the buzz word of this socially conscious. Concern for the environment and man's impact on it's bringing a ton of new services to market, and pest control isn't any exception. Environmentally-friendly pest control companies are growing in popularity, particularly in the industrial industry. Even eco-savvy residential individuals are requesting about natural alternatives to traditional pesticides, but their ardor frequently cools when faced with the 10 percent to 20% cost differential and more extended therapy times, sometimes several weeks.
The raising of America's environmental awareness, along with increasingly stringent national regulations regulating conventional chemical pesticides, seems to be changing the pest control industry's attention on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods. IPM is considered not merely safer to the environment, however safer for people, pets and secondary scavengers such as owls. Of 378 pest control companies surveyed in 2008 by Pest Control Technology magazine, two thirds said that they offered IPM services of some sort.
Instead of lacing pest web sites with a poisonous cocktail of insecticides designed to kill,'' IPM focuses on chemical avoidance methods created to keep pests out. While low- or no-toxicity services and products may also be utilised to encourage pests to pack their bags, elimination and control efforts focus on finding and eliminating the root of infestation: entrance points, attractants, harborage and food.
Particularly popular with schools and nursing homes charged with guarding the wellbeing of the nation's youngest and oldest citizens, people at greatest risk from hazardous compounds, IPM is catching the interest of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other commercial sectors, as well as low-income residential clients. Founded in equivalent parts by ecological concerns and health hazard fears, curiosity about IPM is bringing a lot of fresh environmentally friendly pest management services and products -- both high- and - low-tech -- to promote.
"Probably the most useful product out there is just 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 published on MSNBC on the past April,'' Green clarified,"A mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a pencil diameter. So in case you've found a quarter-inch gap under your door, so much as a mouse is concerned, there's no door there whatsoever." Cockroaches can slither through a one-eighth inch crevice.
IPM has been"a better approach to pest control for the health of the house, the surroundings and your household," explained Cindy Mannes,'' spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the 6.3 billion pest control industry's trade association, in the exact same Associated Press story. However, because IPM has been a relatively recent addition to the pest control toolbox, Mannes cautioned that there is little industry consensus on the definition of services that are green.
IPM favors mechanical, cultural and physical procedures to control pests, but may use bio-pesticides derived from naturally-occurring materials such as animals, plants, bacteria and certain minerals.
Some are ultra hightech just like the quick freeze Cryonite process for eliminating bed bugs. The others, like trained dogs who sniff out bed bugs, seem unnaturally low tech, but employ advanced procedures to achieve results. Using those very same approaches to show dogs to sniff out termites and bed bugs will be considered cutting edge.
Another new pest control technique is contraceptive. When bay area was jeopardized by mosquitoes carrying potentially deadly West Nile Virus, bike messengers were hired to flee the city and drop packets of biological insecticide in to the town's 20,000 storm drains. A kind of contraception for mosquitoes, the new method has been considered safer compared to airborne spraying with the chemical pyrethrum, the normal mosquito abatement procedure, as shown by a recent report published on the National Public Radio website.
Naturallythere are efforts underway to construct a better mouse trap. The advanced Track & Trap system attracts rats or rodents to some food channel dusted with powder. Rodents render a blacklight-visible trail that allows pest control pros to seal entry avenues. Coming soon, night watch uses pheromone research to trap and lure bed bugs. Back in England, a sonic apparatus designed to repel squirrels and rats is being tested, as well as the aptly called Rat Zapper is purported to provide a deadly jolt using just two AA batteries.
With this influx of new environmentally friendly services and products rides a posse of national regulations. The EPA's 2004 banning of this compound diazinon for household usage a few years past removed a potent ant-killer from the homeowner's pest control toolbox. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations prohibiting the sale of small amounts of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside an enclosed snare, has eliminated rodent-killing chemicals from the shelves of both hardware and home improvement stores, limiting the homeowner's capacity to secure his property and family from these disease-carrying pests.
Acting for people well, the government's pesticide-control activities are especially geared toward protecting children. In Pest Control Ware with a May 20, 2008 report on CNN on the web, a study conducted by the American Association of Poison Control Centers signaled that rat poison had been responsible for nearly 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of them leading to serious injuries or death. National Wildlife Service examining in California found rodenticide residue in every animal tested.
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 respite in pest invasions. While it's established a viable alternative for industrial customers, few residential clients seem willing to pay for high charges for newer, more labor intensive green pest control products and fewer are willing to wait the further week or two it could take these products to do the job. It is taking leadership efforts for pest control businesses to educate consumers in the long-term advantages of green and organic pest treatments.
Although the cold, hard reality is that if people have a problem with pests , they are interested gone and they want it gone today! If rats or rodents have been within their house destroying their property and endangering their family disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating their home equity, if roaches are invading their own kitchen or should they are sharing their bed with bed bugs, even consumer attention in ecological surroundings plummets. When folks 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 wave of consumer requirement for immediate eradication by enhancing their green and natural pest control product offerings. These brand new natural products take the responsible long term strategy to pest control; one which protects the environment, kids, and also our own health. Some times it's alone moving against the tide of popular demand, but authentic leadership, at the pest control industry, means embracing these new organic and natural technologies even when they aren't popular with all the consumer - yet.