Is There a Boom Or Bust Coming For Natural Pest Control

The entire world is definitely green. "Green" is your color of environmental stress, the impetus that pushes cuttingedge technology, the buzzword of the conscious. Concern for the environment and man's impact on it's bringing a ton of new services to marketpest control is no exception. Environmentally-friendly pest control products and services are growing in popularity, especially in the industrial sector. Even eco-savvy residential consumers are requesting about natural alternatives to pesticides that are traditional, however, their ardor often stinks when confronted with the 10 percent to 20% cost differential and lengthier therapy times, some times a few weeks.

The raising of America's environmental consciousness, in conjunction with increasingly stringent federal regulations governing conventional chemical dyes, appears to be changing the pest control industry's attention on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. IPM is considered not 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 they offered IPM professional services of some type.

Rather than jelqing pest sites with a noxious cocktail of powerful insecticides intended to kill, IPM is targeted on chemical avoidance methods developed to keep pests out. While non - or - no-toxicity products could also be utilised to encourage pests to pack their bags, control and elimination efforts revolve around finding and eliminating the source of infestation: entrance points, attractants, harborage and food.

Notably popular with both schools and nursing homes charged with protecting the fitness of the world's youngest and oldest citizens, those at highest risk from toxic chemicals, IPM is catching the eye of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other commercial enterprises, as well as eco-conscious residential clients. Founded in equivalent portions by environmental concerns and health hazard anxieties, fascination with IPM is attracting a multitude of brand new environmentally-friendly pest control services and products -- both high- and low tech -- to advertise.

In an Associated Press interview posted on MSNBC online last April, Green clarified,"A mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a pen diameter. Therefore, if you've received a quarter-inch gap under your doorway, as far as a mouse is more concerned, there isn't any door there whatsoever." Cock Roaches can slither through a one-eighth inch crevice.

IPM has been"a better way to pest control for the wellness of the house, the environment and the household," explained Cindy Mannes, spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the 6.3 billion pest control industry's trade association, at exactly the same Associated Press story. However, because IPM is still a rather recent addition to the pest control toolbox, Mannes cautioned that there's very little industry consensus on this is of services that are green.

In an effort to produce industry standards for IPM providers and providers, the Integrated Pest Management Institute of the United States produced the Green Shield Certified (GSC) program. Pinpointing pest control services and products 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 prefers mechanical, cultural and physical techniques to control pests, but might use bio-pesticides derived from naturally occurring materials such as animals, bacteria, plants and certain minerals.

The others, like trained dogs who snore bed bugs, seem unnaturally lowtech, but employ innovative techniques to achieve benefits. As Pest Control Ware , farmers used dogs' sensitive noses to sniff out problem pests for centuries; nevertheless training dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs is a rather recent growth. Utilizing those same techniques to teach dogs to sniff out termites and bed bugs will be considered cutting edge.

Yet another fresh pest control technique is birth control. When bay area was jeopardized by mosquitoes carrying potentially lethal West Nile Virus, bicycle messengers were hired to flee the city and shed packets of biological insecticide in to the city's 20,000 storm drains. A kind of birth control for mosquitoes, the new method was considered safer compared to airborne spraying with the compound pyrethrum, the typical mosquito abatement procedure, as per a recent story posted within the National Public Radio site.

Of course , there are efforts underway to build a better mouse trap. The advanced Track & Trap system attracts rats or mice to some food station dusted with powder. Rodents render a blacklight-visible trail which allows pest control pros to seal entry paths. Coming soon, night watch uses pheromone research to lure and trap bed bugs. Back in Englanda sonic device built to repel rats and squirrels is being analyzed, as well as the aptly named Rat Zapper is purported to supply a deadly jolt using two AA batteries.

With this influx of fresh environmentally-friendly services and products rides a posse of national regulations. Critics of contemporary EPA regulations restricting the sale of certain pest-killing chemicals accuse the government of limiting a homeowner's power to protect his home. The EPA's 2004 banning of this chemical diazinon for household usage a few years past removed a potent ant-killer from the homeowner's pest control arsenal. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations prohibiting the selling of small amounts of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside an enclosed trap, has eliminated rodent-killing compounds from the shelves of hardware and home improvement stores, limiting the homeowner's capacity to protect his family and property from such disease-carrying insects.

Acting for the public well, the authorities pesticide-control activities are particularly geared toward protecting kids. Based on a May 20, 2008 report on CNN on the web, a report performed by the American Association of Poison Control Centers indicated that the rat poison was in charge of nearly 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of them resulting in serious accidents or death. National Wildlife Service testing in California found rodenticide residue in every animal analyzed.



Individuals are embracing the notion of natural pest control and environmentally-friendly, cutting off pest management products and processes. Availability and government regulations are increasingly limiting consumers' self-treatment options, forcing them to turn into pest control companies to get respite out of pest invasions. While it's established a viable solution for commercial customers, few residential clients seem willing to pay for high charges for newer, more labor intensive green pest control services and products and even fewer are willing to wait for the additional week or two it may possibly take these items to work. It is taking direction efforts on the part of pest control companies to teach consumers in the long term benefits of green and organic pest control treatments.

Although the cold, hard fact is that if people have a pest problem, they are interested gone and so they want it gone today! If rats or mice come inside their house destroying their property and threatening their family with disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating away their home equity, even if roaches are invading their own kitchen or if they are sharing their bed with bed bugs, consumer interest in ecological surroundings plummets. If folks call a pest control firm, the bottom line is they want the pests dead! Now! Pest control firms are standing facing the tide of consumer demand for prompt eradication by enhancing their natural and green pest control product supplies. These fresh organic products take the responsible long term strategy to pest control; one which protects our environment, kids, and also our personal wellness. Sometimes it is lonely moving against the tide of popular requirement, but true leadership, at the pest control industry, means embracing these fresh natural technologies even when they are not popular with the user - nonetheless.