There are many parts of the country where residential customers still seek out the spraying of pesticides to kill bed bugs, ants, and other crawling insects as a normal way of asking for a treatment. In many ways, this is out of habit, with most people having grown up using chemicals to treat for insects.

But like anything in life, habits can change. The use of green products in pest control has grown steadily over the last several years among Pest Management Professionals (PMPs) and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

The last State of the Naturals survey conducted by PCT and Readex Research found that PMPs, on average, consider just over 18 percent of the solutions they use for treating pests to be “green.” Twenty nine percent of PMPs use “green products” as a part of their standard protocol program and 36 percent of them use “green products” in sensitive locations only.

Adding a green product to your standard program offering will do a few things for your business:
• First, you’ll be able to cater to an important segment of the customer base and a loyal one at that;
• Second, green products allow you to treat sensitive areas like hospitals, schools, senior centers, etc.; and
• Third, you can brag about using a product that truly has fewer resistant properties (or in some cases none) than chemical pesticides.

It is also important to showcase natural solutions when seeking an IPM solution to pest problems. This includes the ability to eliminate resistance issues while increasing performance. Toxicity levels are greatly reduced as well as when compared to using conventional pesticides.

A Green Protocol
Developing a green protocol is really taking what’s truly an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to pest control. IPM was first developed as a method of protecting both facilities and their sensitive contents – think museums, archives, libraries – from products that could, over the short and long term, cause damage to both.

By implementing an IPM program, PMPs are committing to several aspects of pest control, including: not just insect removal but more importantly, prevention of pests; and use of least toxic products – and in many cases products with zero toxicity to humans and pets.

The advantages to offering a green protocol to your customers will provide these specific benefits: reduced or no use of chemical pesticides provides reduced risk to humans and pets; less chance of damage to the environment and the valued contents of certain facilities. Again – think of libraries and archives.

IPM potentially offers a cost savings for you as you will likely be using less pesticides than in a conventional program. In addition, many commercial customers will ask if you provide IPM programs.

Here’s a process for implementing a green program, step-by-step:
1) Formulate the list of products you’ll be using and which pests you’ll be using them to target.
2) Develop a list of facilities where you’ll be treating those pests and then make changes to your product protocol based on whether or not those products are allowed to be used in those settings.
3) Set goals for your green program – establish agreed upon thresholds to prevent call backs.
4) Educate your customers; expect insects to appear occasionally; this is an expected part of the process, not a sign of failure.
5) Monitor and track your results – make changes as needed based on performance.

Implement strong communications protocols with your customers. This will enable you to more effectively track the progress of your green program, just as you would with any conventional service.

As your green program bears fruit – it’s time to help you and your customers celebrate the successes. For you, it’s about touting the fact that your customers have fewer insects and that the issues they have been facing are now going away on a long-term basis and in a safer way than previously attempted.

In addition, if you’re treating a commercial customer like a hospital, senior center, or school – they can tout through their own public relations efforts that they are working hard to keep their customers safe by using a green pest control program – making it a win-win for everyone.

About EcoRaider
EcoRaider is a highly efficacious botanical-based bio-insecticide that can be applied anywhere bed bugs or ants are found without restriction. It carries no signal words or cautions and has no label restrictions or precautions on usage.

Because EcoRaider is a green product, it is an ideal fit for sensitive accounts and environments where low-impact methods are advised. These include college dorms, senior-living facilities, managed-care and assisted-living housing, schools, health-care facilities, public housing, multi-family, and hotels.

For more information, visit https://www.ecovengerpro.com/ or call 1-800-338-0212. Also, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Visit the EcoRaider booth (#1342) next week at PestWorld in Baltimore and register to win a GoPro Camera – ideal for shooting pest control infestations hands-free!

EcoRaider is every PMP’s must-have product for successful and safe pest management control. It provides unrivaled efficacy for the eradication of bed bugs as a green product and can also be used on mosquitoes, roaches, ants, and for other perimeter treatment needs. EcoRaider delivers unrivaled performance by nature!

All licensed pest management professionals can stop by the EcoRaider booth (#1342) and submit a business card for a chance to win a GoPro.

The EcoRaider Giveaways will be:

Tuesday 10-24 at 5:30 pm
Wednesday 10-25 at 12:30 pm.
Thursday 10-26 at 12:30 pm

Prior to visiting EcoRaider at PestWorld 2017, you can try our product with the free test run program by signing up online. For more information, visit www.ecoraiderpmp.com.

There’s one aspect of any pest control product that is beyond important above everything else – the level of its performance against the pest that it’s labeled to control. When bed bugs were re-introduced to the world over a decade ago, several pesticides could offer strong control to PMPs.

Almost 70 years ago, DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was developed as one of the first modern synthetic pesticides, even being touted as the “wonder chemical” to solve all pest problems big and small. As that was phased out not only for resistance but for the other issues it caused in the environment, it was replaced by numerous other types of chemicals.

Most recently, pyrethroids and neonicotinoids have been used to control bed bugs, but the resistance issues have been well documented. The journal PLOS One reported in April 2016 that bed bugs have been developing a thicker skin that provides a greater deal of resistance to traditional pesticides.

A year earlier, Dr. Fang Zhu of Washington State University released the findings of his bed bug project, which explored the role of resistance in pesticides. From his findings: “For the first time, we provided evidences that pyrethroid resistance is widely dispersed in western US bed bug populations.” Dr. Zhu’s study showed also showed that EcoRaider is “an effective product for controlling pyrethroid resistant bed bugs.”

Resistance forces pest control professionals to explore options that do not relate specifically to penetrating the exo-skeleton of the bed bug with a pesticide. Bed bugs also now have higher levels of enzymes that can detoxify the chemicals and their nervous system has adapted to allow its cells to withstand toxic effects.

Because of all of this – synthetic pesticides are no longer the automatic solution that they were years ago. PMPs are now using a wider array of solutions in their “toolbox” to try to reduce the resistance issue. A mixed use of heat treatments, green / natural solutions, pesticides and other approaches are now being used by many professionals.
For PMPs to maintain a strong level of performance against bed bugs, a solid IPM program must be maintained to rotate classes and integrate a good amount of natural solutions, which do not face resistance, to balance out the pesticide use.

About EcoRaider
EcoRaider is a highly efficacious botanical-based bio-insecticide that can be applied anywhere bed bugs or ants are found without restriction. It carries no signal words or cautions and has no label restrictions or precautions on usage.

Because EcoRaider is a green product, it is an ideal fit for sensitive accounts and environments where low-impact methods are advised. These include college dorms, senior-living facilities, managed-care and assisted-living housing, schools, health-care facilities, public housing, multi-family, and hotels.

For more information, visit https://www.ecovengerpro.com/ or call 1-800-338-0212. Also, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.