Consider Green Mosquito Control This National Mosquito Control Awareness Week

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Summer is officially here! That means pool parties and backyard BBQs, of course, but for the homeowner it also means the dreaded mosquito season has arrived. The American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) has declared this week of June 23-29, 2019 as National Mosquito Control Awareness Week. Mosquito-borne diseases are more prevalent than ever before and the height of mosquito season is fast approaching. There are numerous ways for you to help your customers declare independence from hungry mosquitos who want nothing more than our blood for their next meal. As a pest professional, be sure to reach out to your community and customers to educate them on mosquito prevention.

As you treat your customers homes take a look around their property making recommendations to help them create a mosquito-free zone:

1. Dispose of any tires – Mosquitos lay eggs in the standing water that often collects in tires. It is a safer place as the water in the tires can withstand heavy storms and acts as an insulation.
2. Drill holes in the bottom of trash and recycling containers – We don’t always realize it, but water can collect in our trash cans. Drilling holes keeps water from collecting in these common areas.
3. Clear roof gutters of debris – Mosquitos don’t need much water in which to lay their eggs. Even the small amount that collects in roof gutters can be the perfect place for eggs to hatch.
4. Clean pet water dishes regularly – If you leave water outside for your pet, be sure to change it daily. This is not only a good idea for the health of your pet, but also to keep mosquitos from laying eggs and spreading in your backyard.
5. Empty children’s toys – Beach buckets, pint-size toy trucks, and tea party sets left outside in the rain should be checked and cleaned regularly. Mosquitos could be preparing to hatch inside these often forgotten items.
6. Repair leaky outdoor faucets – The water from these faucets quickly collects and is just enough.
7. Change the water in bird baths at least once a week – A bird bath is great for the birds and perfect for mosquito breeding. Clean out baths each week to avoid problems.

The goal of pest control professionals should be to prevent the spread of mosquitos throughout our public health landscape. One of the best ways is with green mosquito control such as ER-3 by EcoRaider. ER-3 is a green, triple-action breakthrough mosquito formula that knocks down adult mosquito populations, kills adults, kills larvae to prevent future generations and acts as a barrier by spatial repellency to keep mosquitoes from the area. ER-3 is ideal for all mosquito and general pest control needs: affordable, reduces treatment time and has no restrictions.  ER-3 is complete mosquito control with one single product.

In a crowded market, EcoRaider ER-3 stands out above the rest with a solution that can increase mosquito program revenues with a green, 25b exempt product that does not require spray notifications. Click here for more information, request a free product test run, or visit your local pest supplies distributor to buy today.

Top Tips for PMPs to Treating Sensitive Accounts for Bed Bugs

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Just as the name implies bed bugs prefer to live near their host, and so, can be found living on or near beds or sleeping areas. This creates a unique enough challenge for the pest professional but when an account has young, sick or elderly people, the best course of treatment may be a green one that does not include the use of pesticides.

Bed bugs can be controlled in a fast, effective, lasting and green manner with these tips:

  1. Vacuum – Begin by reducing the number of bugs with a good HEPA bed bug vacuum with a self contained HEPA filter. It is highly recommended that you use a vacuum made specifically for bed bugs that comes complete with a crevice tool to reach cracks and crevices where bed bugs can hide. Vacuum the mattress, box spring, baseboards and all cracks and crevices where bed bugs and their eggs can hide.
  2. Use steam or heat – Vacuuming alone will not completely eliminate all bed bugs and their eggs from a room. Therefore a chemical-free method to kill off bed bugs missed during Step #1 is to use heat or steam. Bed bugs will die at temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Follow your heat or steam company recommendations and safety steps prior to and during treatment.
  3. Choose an effective green product with residual – Choose a minimum risk pest control product preferably one that carries no signal words or cautions. EcoRaider is an ideal choice for sensitive accounts. It has no label restrictions or precautions on usage and may be used alone or as part of an IPM program in a variety of settings from schools and healthcare facilities to public spaces. EcoRaider kills bed bugs at all life stages: eggs, nymphs and adults. It has a lab reported 14-day residual with low-odor and non-staining.

Every pest management professional is asked at one time or another to respond to a pest problem in a green manner. EcoRaider provides the performance and quick kill that pest professionals have come to rely on with traditional pesticides. It is an essential tool in the pest management toolbox.

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.

Register for the March 14th Webinar on the Resistance Issue – and Explains Why EcoRaider is a tool for Combating It

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Registration is now open for the free EcoRaider webinar “Pesticide Resistance,” being given by industry expert Dennis Judy on March 14th from 3-4 pm ET. Resistance is likely the most important issue facing pest control as an industry, and Judy will examine all aspects of resistance as well as how to combat it. To register, click here.

Resistance is the issue of synthetic pesticides becoming less effective over time in killing or controlling various pests. As species of pests evolve, they become more resistant to existing chemicals and harder to control. Judy, a longtime industry expert, will discuss resistance overall, how it came to occur, best practices for resistance management, and the products that are experiencing issues with bed bug resistance.

Judy, who started his career with Orkin, is a member of the Georgia Pest Control Association’s Hall of Fame. He serves as the technical consultant for EcoRaider, assisting in the development and presentation of training materials and webinars for Pest Management Professionals (PMPs) and distributor representatives.

The webinar will be approximately 30 minutes of presentation followed by question and answer. Also, PMPs or distributor reps can submit questions online during the webinar. Click here to register for the March 14th webinar.

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.

Why Performance Should Never Be Overlooked when Comparing Pest Control Products

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Think about the word performance and what it means in every day society. It’s an expected level of achievement or effort from a person or a product. When you purchase a phone, television, new car – you name it – you have expectations for performance.

If it doesn’t work correctly, meaning it’s not performing up to promoted standards … you return it. Because the basic benchmark for any product is that it needs to perform – it needs to do what it’s supposed to do.

Pest control is no different. For many years there were green products that did not perform nearly as well as their synthetic counterparts, and the result – pest management professionals (PMPs) stopped relying on them. The same thing has happened to synthetic chemicals thanks to bed bugs developing a resistance to them – PMPs have had to change products or use multiple products in an IPM approach in order to continue to perform at satisfactory levels for their customers.

EcoRaider was designed to perform, both immediately and as a residual product. In studies performed by Rutgers University, EcoRaider killed 90 percent of bed bugs on contact within one hour, including adults, nymphs, and eggs.
But EcoRaider performs by delivering more than just a quick kill – it leaves behind a residual that Rutgers proved still kills 100 percent of bed bugs after only five minutes of contact even 14 days after application. So, brief exposure to EcoRaider’s high residual efficacy is enough to kill bed bugs of even resistant strains.

Beyond the performance of EcoRaider, it also has no issues with resistance. EcoRaider has shown to flourish against all strains of bed bugs, even the most resistant, because bed bugs have zero resistance to the product’s natural ingredients.

As you explore the many products available in the professional pest control market, remember to try EcoRaider knowing it performs at the highest level.

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.

How Resistance Does or Doesn’t Affect the Use of Green Pest Control Products

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Resistance is one of the most important issues facing pest control. It’s not a hot-button topic, it’s a true concern for all of professional pest management because it really does have an effect on everyone in the industry.

Manufacturers make products that are designed to eliminate pests and provide answers to real-world problems. Pest Management Professionals (PMPs) are focused on making their customers happy by providing solutions to their pest issues that work. Distributors are in the business of selling products but most, if not all, want the products to do what they are supposed to do.

Bed bugs building up a resistance to synthetic chemicals has changed all of that – not being able to rely on solutions doesn’t eliminate the pest problems and leaves the end customer seeking an alternative or in worst case, a new PMP. But with certain green products, the PMP, manufacturer, distributor, and end user can all count on solutions being delivered because resistance does not affect the product’s performance.

From the early to mid-1950s until now, there have been hundreds of insect species that have grown resistant to traditional synthetic pesticides. From DDT to organophosphates to carbamates, man-made solutions have been broken down by bed bugs and other insects. A 2007 study in the Journal of Medical Entomology showed that bed bug resistance increased 10,000-fold against bed bugs.

One of the study’s overviews summed up the resistance issue in succinct fashion: “Infestations of the bed bug …. are increasing around the world at an alarming rate and have become a major public health concern. The evolution of insect resistance could be a primary factor in explaining this resurgence.”

But while pesticides have suffered the fate of resistance, some green products have been affected in the opposite manner. EcoRaider, for example, has shown to flourish against all strains of bed bugs, even the most resistant, because bed bugs have zero resistance to the product’s natural ingredients.

So, resistance does affect the use of green pest control products – it helps promote the benefits of products like EcoRaider! There’s tremendous data from Rutgers University studies to prove the performance of EcoRaider, but the ability to withstand resistance is a tremendous benefit.

Every PMP needs to have products that contribute to their IPM approach and EcoRaider does just that – but it also provides the performance and quick kill of bed bugs that all professionals can rely on.

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.

Testimonial: “Why EcoRaider Works in Public Housing Facilities”

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Geffry Gorman works in the heart of Orlando providing 100 percent green pest control solutions, mostly to rentals, homeowners and public housing. In his 25 years, he’s seen the worst bed bug infestations you could imagine and he’s treated them successfully with EcoRaider.

“Generally there are a lot of people who don’t like synthetic chemicals in Florida because they care about the environment, and health and safety is important to them,” said Gorman, president of Green Flag Services. “I like EcoRaider because it has a quick kill, I know I’m getting control using it. Then I go in 14 days later for a follow-up inspection and I’ve never once had a call back. EcoRaider really works.”

Gorman suggests public housing officials should not only use EcoRaider, but provide residents with two-ounce travel size bottles for when traveling or simply between inspections. “You never see any resistance with EcoRaider and you’d be surprised how happy people are when I give out the two-ounce bottles,” he said. For more about EcoRaider, visit www.ecoraiderpmp.com.

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.

Why Putting a Green Product is a Good Idea – and How to Develop a Green Protocol for Your Pest Control Operation

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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) at PestWorld 2017 in Baltimore & Register for a Chance to Win a GoPro!

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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.

25(b) Exempt Products Like EcoRaider Can Be Used In a Variety of Settings – Including the Most Sensitive Environments

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EcoRaider’s green formulation not only provides the product with a variety of benefits from a resistance perspective – in other words, its natural makeup means it doesn’t have resistance issues – but one of the larger aspects is that the product is FIFRA 25(b) Exempt. What does this mean?

EcoRaider is categorized as FIFRA 25(b) Exempt because the product is minimum or low risk when it comes to the product’s classification with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This designation allows it to be used in many settings where traditional pesticides cannot.

EcoRaider’s low risk comes because it attacks a unique insect receptor that does not exist in vertebrates and thus distinguishes between target insects and non-target humans & pets. So, it is lethal to target insects but of minimum risk to humans & pets.

As a result, EcoRaider can be used in sensitive environments ranging from Homes, Nursing Homes, Restaurants, Office Buildings, Hotels/ Motels, Day Care Centers, Dormitories, Hospitals / Medical
Schools, and Public Transport.

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.

To learn more about the product, visit www.ecoraiderpmp.com. Also, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Synthetic Chemicals Face Huge Obstacles as Resistance Affects Performance

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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.