The globe is going green. "Green" is the color of environmental concern, the impetus that drives cutting-edge technologies, the buzz word of the socially conscious. Concern for the atmosphere and man's impact on it is bringing a slew of new goods to market, and pest control is no exception. Environmentally-friendly pest control solutions are developing in reputation, particularly in the industrial sector. Even eco-savvy residential customers are asking about all-natural alternatives to standard pesticides, but their ardor often cools when confronted with the 10% to 20% cost differential and lengthier therapy occasions, sometimes several weeks.

The raising of America's environmental consciousness, coupled with increasingly stringent federal regulations governing standard chemical pesticides, appears to be shifting the pest control industry's focus to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. IPM is deemed not merely safer for the atmosphere, but safer for individuals, pets and secondary scavengers such as owls. Of 378 pest management businesses surveyed in 2008 by Pest Control Technology magazine, two-thirds stated they provided IPM solutions of some sort.

Instead of lacing pest sites using a poisonous cocktail of effective insecticides developed to kill, IPM focuses on environmentally-friendly prevention methods designed to preserve pests out. Whilst low- or no-toxicity items might also be employed to encourage pests to pack their bags, elimination and control efforts focus on locating and eliminating the causes of infestation: entry points, attractants, harborage and food.

Specifically well-liked with schools and nursing homes charged with guarding the health of the nation's youngest and oldest citizens, those at greatest risk from hazardous chemical compounds, IPM is catching the focus of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes as well as other Jupiter commercial pest control enterprises, as nicely as eco-conscious residential customers. Driven in equal components by environmental concerns and health hazard fears, interest in IPM is bringing a host of new environmentally-friendly pest management items -- each high- and low-tech -- to marketplace.

"Probably the very best solution available 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 on the internet final April, Green explained, "A mouse can squeeze via a hole the size of a pencil diameter. So if you have got a quarter-inch gap underneath your door, as far as a mouse is concerned, there is no door there at all." Cockroaches can slither via a one-eighth inch crevice.

IPM is "a better strategy to pest control for the wellness of the home, the environment and the family," stated Cindy Mannes, spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the $6.three billion pest control industry's trade association, in the exact same Associated Press story. Nonetheless, simply because IPM is really a relatively new addition to the pest control arsenal, Mannes cautioned that there is certainly little market consensus on the definition of green solutions.

In an effort to produce market standards for IPM solutions and providers, the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America created the Green Shield Certified (GSC) program. Identifying pest control goods and businesses that eschew standard pesticides in favor of environmentally-friendly control techniques, GSC is endorsed by the EPA, Natural Sources Defense Council (NRDC) and HUD. IPM favors mechanical, physical and cultural methods to control pests, but might use bio-pesticides derived from naturally-occurring components such as animals, plants, bacteria and particular minerals.

Toxic chemical sprays are providing way to new, sometimes unconventional, strategies of treating pests. Some are ultra high-tech like the quick-freeze Cryonite process for eliminating bed bugs. Other people, like educated dogs that sniff out bed bugs, seem decidedly low-tech, but employ state-of-the-art strategies to achieve results. For example, farmers have utilized dogs' sensitive noses to sniff out issue pests for centuries; but coaching dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs is actually a fairly current development. Making use of these identical methods to teach dogs to sniff out termites and bed bugs is considered cutting-edge.

Yet another new pest control method is birth control. When San Francisco was threatened by mosquitoes carrying potentially life-threatening West Nile Virus, bicycle messengers have been hired to cruise the city and drop packets of biological insecticide into the city's 20,000 storm drains. A type of birth control for mosquitoes, the new technique was considered safer than aerial spraying with the chemical pyrethrum, the common mosquito abatement process, according to a current story posted on the National Public Radio web site.

Naturally, there are efforts underway to develop a much better mousetrap. The revolutionary Track & Trap system attracts mice or rats to a food station dusted with fluorescent powder. Rodents leave a blacklight-visible trail that allows pest control experts to seal entry paths. Coming soon, NightWatch uses pheromone research to lure and trap bed bugs. In England, a sonic device designed to repel rats and squirrels is being tested, and the aptly named Rat Zapper is purported to deliver a lethal shock utilizing just two AA batteries.

Alongside this influx of new environmentally-friendly products rides a posse of federal regulations. Critics of current EPA regulations restricting the sale of particular pest-killing chemical substances accuse the government of unfairly limiting a homeowner's ability to protect his property. The EPA's 2004 banning of the chemical diazinon for household use 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 quantities of effective rodenticides, unless sold inside an enclosed trap, has stripped rodent-killing chemicals from the shelves of hardware and residence improvement stores, limiting the homeowner's ability to protect his property and family members from these disease-carrying pests.

Acting for the public good, the government's pesticide-control actions are particularly aimed at protecting children. According to a Could 20, 2008 report on CNN on the internet, a study conducted by the American Association of Poison Control Centers indicated that rat poison was responsible for nearly 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of them resulting in serious injuries or death. National Wildlife Service testing in California found rodenticide residue in every animal tested.

Consumers are embracing the idea of organic pest control and environmentally-friendly, cutting-edge pest management products and strategies. Availability and government regulations are increasingly limiting consumers' self-treatment options, forcing them to turn to professional pest control businesses for relief from pest invasions. Although this has proved a viable option for commercial clients, few residential clients seem willing to pay higher prices for newer, more labor-intensive green pest control products and even fewer are willing to wait the additional week or two it might take these goods to work. It really is taking leadership efforts on the part of pest control businesses to educate consumers in the long term benefits of green and organic pest treatments.

Even though the cold, hard truth is that when folks have a pest issue, they want it gone and they want it gone now! If rats or mice are in their house destroying their property and threatening their family members with disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating away their home equity, if roaches are invading their kitchen or if they're sharing their bed with bed bugs, consumer interest in environmental friendliness plummets. When people call a pest control company, the bottom line is that they want the pests dead! Now! Pest control firms are standing up against the tide of consumer demand for immediate eradication by enhancing their natural and green pest control item offerings. These new all-natural items take the most responsible long term strategy to pest control; 1 that protects our atmosphere, children, and our own health. Occasionally it really is lonely moving against the tide of well-known demand, but true leadership, in the pest control market, means embracing these new organic and organic technologies even when they are not well-known with the consumer - yet.