Thursday is World Pest Day. This was apparently initiated in 2017 and it “aims to raise awareness about the critical role of pest management in protecting public health, food safety, and the environment.” And that is incredibly important when considering all the damage pests can do to our structures, foods, and health. Pest control protects people.
While the pest management industry is highly regulated by both federal and state, homeowners are not. There are many things people can buy at their local big box store to treat a problem themselves. That’s where problems can happen because they don’t follow the label. If the label says to use one “glug”, people might decide two “glugs” is better. Professionals know to rotate their products to prevent resistance, but many commercially available products contain the same active ingredient, making pests harder to deal with. I won’t even get started on bug bombs.
To make matters worse for everyone involved is the misinformation printed out there. As I was looking for more info on World Pest Day, I found this:
First – treating regularly with no evidence of pests or conducive conditions is a really bad idea. Second – using consumer products isn’t a bad idea, but it doesn’t address the underlying conditions that are causing the problem.
Then there was this gem:
I’m really hoping whoever wrote this was completely misinformed and didn’t do their research on what a fumigation is. There is no reason to fumigate for the majority of pests. Then there’s the comment about cats and other means of pest control.
Pest control isn’t new, it’s thousands of years old. As soon as humans started settling down in one place, pests started taking advantage of that. Over the years we’ve learned a lot about pest control. Our products have gotten better, more environmentally friendly, and we are able to target more which means less pesticides being used while still protecting people. We continue to learn more about pest behaviors and their biology so new super-targeted products can be used with less impact on people, pets, and the environment.
Bottom line: professional pest control is saving people’s lives, structures, and food. Homeowners have a role to play especially in sanitation and exclusion. Using an off-the-shelf product is not terrible, but if you do, do it correctly and safely.
And of course contact us to help you out!
Lagniappe - an oldie but a goodie.
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