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.
