The world is going green. "Green" could be the color of environmental dilemma, the impetus that pushes cutting edge technology, the buzzword of this socially conscious. Concern for the natural environment and man's impact on it's bringing a slew of new services and products to promote pest control is no exception. Environmentally friendly pest control companies are growing in popularity, especially in the commercial industry. Even eco-savvy residential consumers are asking about natural alternatives to pesticides that are traditional, however, their ardor usually cools when confronted by the 10% to 20% cost differential and lengthier treatment intervals, some times a few weeks.

The raising of America's environmental consciousness, in conjunction with increasingly stringent federal regulations regulating conventional chemical pesticides, seems to be altering the pest control industry's attention to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. Of 378 pest control organizations surveyed in 2008 by Pest Control Technology magazine, twothirds said 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 might also be utilised to encourage pests to pack their bags, control and elimination efforts revolve around finding and eliminating the source of infestation: entry points, attractants, harborage and food.

Notably popular with both schools and nursing homes charged with guarding the health of the nation's youngest and oldest citizens, those at greatest risk from toxic compounds, IPM is catching the attention of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and other industrial businesses, as well as eco-conscious residential clients. Driven in equal portions by ecological concerns and health danger anxieties, interest in IPM is attracting a host of new environmentally-friendly pest control services and products -- both high- and lowtech -- to promote.

In an Associated Press interview posted on MSNBC on the past April,'' Green explained,"A mouse could squeeze through a gap the size of a pen diameter. So if you have acquired a quarter-inch gap underneath your door, 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 approach to pest control for the health of your house, the environment and the family," explained 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 a comparatively new addition to the pest control arsenal, Mannes cautioned that there's very little industry consensus on this is of green services.

In an effort to create industry standards for IPM services and providers, the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America produced the Green Shield Certified (GSC) program. Identifying pest control services and products and businesses which eschew traditional pesticides in favor of environmentally-friendly control techniques, GSC is supported by the EPA, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and HUD. IPM favors mechanical, physical and cultural procedures to control insects, but may use bio-pesticides produced from naturally occurring materials such as animals, bacteria, plants and certain minerals.

Hazardous chemical sprays are giving way to new, sometimes unconventional, methods of treating pests. The others, like trained dogs that snore bed bugs, seem decidedly low tech, but employ state-of-the-art procedures to achieve results. As an instance, farmers used dogs' sensitive noses to sniff out pests for years and years; but educating dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs is a rather recent development.

Still another new pest control technique is birth control. When San Francisco was threatened by mosquitoes carrying potentially life threatening West Nile Virus, bike messengers were hired to flee the city and drop packets of biological insecticide into the town's 20,000 storm drains. Akind of contraceptive for mosquitoes, the newest method was considered safer than aerial spraying with the compound pyrethrum, the normal mosquito abatement procedure, as per a recent report published within the National Public Radio site.

Of course there are efforts to construct a better mousetrap. The innovative Track & Trap system brings rats or mice to your food station dusted with fluorescent powder. Rodents leave a blacklight-visible course that allows pest control experts to seal entrance paths. Coming soon, NightWatch uses pheromone research to trap and lure bed bugs. Back in England, a sonic device built to repel rodents and rats is being analyzed, along with the aptly named Rat Zapper is supposed to deliver a deadly jolt using only two AA batteries.

Alongside 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 unfairly limiting a homeowner's ability to protect his house. Even the EPA's 2004 banning of this chemical diazinon for household usage a couple of years ago removed a potent ant-killer from the homeowner's insect control arsenal. Similarly, 2008 EPA regulations prohibiting the selling of small quantities of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside an enclosed snare, has eliminated rodent-killing compounds from the shelves of hardware and diy stores, limiting the homeowner's capacity to protect his property and family from such disease-carrying pests.

Acting for people good, the government's pesticide-control activities are especially geared toward protecting children. In accordance with a May 20, 2008 report on CNN online, a study performed by the American Association of Poison Control Centers signaled that rat poison was responsible for almost 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of these causing serious accidents or death. National Wildlife Service testing in California found rodenticide residue in every creature analyzed.


Consumers are embracing the idea of pest control and environmentally friendly, cutting-edge pest management products and techniques. Availability and government regulations are increasingly limiting consumers' self-treatment possibilities, forcing them to show to pest control organizations for respite from pest invasions. While it's proved a viable alternative for commercial customers, few residential customers seem willing to pay high prices for newer, more labor intensive green pest control products and much fewer are willing to wait for the extra week or two it could take these items to work. It is taking leadership efforts for pest control companies to teach consumers in the long-term advantages of green and organic pest control treatments.

Despite the fact that the cold, hard reality is that when individuals have a problem with pests , they are interested gone and so they need it gone today! If rats or mice have been within their house ruining their property and threatening their family together with disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating away their home equity, if roaches are invading their kitchen or should they're sharing their bed with bed bugs, consumer attention in environmental friendliness plummets. When Pest Control Stevenage call a pest control firm, the most important thing is that they desire the pests dead! Now! Pest control firms have been standing up against the wave of consumer demand for immediate eradication by enhancing their natural and green pest control product offers. These new organic products take the responsible long term approach to pest control; one that protects our environment, children, and also our personal wellbeing. Some times it is alone moving against the wave of popular demand, but authentic leadership, in the pest control industry, means embracing these new organic and natural technologies when they aren't popular with all the user - nonetheless.