Green Pest Management

Today we are featuring an inspiring article written by Tiffany Olson, Communications Manager for Optimize Worldwide. Tiffany  is a passionate blogger who writes for small businesses in order for them to increase their online presence. This article was inspired by Killroy.com and their work with termite inspection in Union City.

What Is Green Pest Management And Can It Solve My Termite Problem?

So you want to kill all the bugs... but nicely? You’ve decided that toxic pesticides are a no-go and anything synthetic should be kept off your property. But you still want to murder all those dirty, dirty termites that virtually eliminated your favorite wall yesterday. Fair enough. A few decades ago, if you told that to the pest control guy that just arrived at your house, he would laugh and proceed dumping gallons of bio-hazard into your lawn until everyone single one of those horrid little bite-sized devils were lying belly up, six feet under (can somebody say “figure of speech pun combo!”). But we live in a different time, a time where being environmentally friendly is socially acceptable. Options exist for you to protect the little slice of heaven you call home. One of these options is Green Pest Management.

Green Pest Management (GPM) is “a pest control strategy that sets pest action thresholds, monitors pest levels, takes steps to prevent pest problems and uses control methods that are organic (plant based) materials or materials of natural origin.” Basically, it’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) with an organic twist. But you may don’t know what IPM is either, so we’ll start from the beginning. After World War II, scientists decided that having a short-sighted view of pest control just wasn’t cost efficient anymore, so they began researching more efficient ways to approach pest control that would have the desired effect on any targeted pest while delivering minimal damage to the surrounding environment. They succeeded in revolutionizing pest control with IPM. IPM is centered on six basic components. IPM’s green counterpart GPM shares these components with the only exception being GPM’s strict use of solely organic pesticides. We’ll just go ahead and jump right in.

1) Acceptable Pest Levels

IPM seeks to take a broad based, long-term approach to pest control. Accordingly, under this approach we are willing to accept that certain pests are impossible to eradicate entirely, and instead, should be contained. So effectively, we are going to decide how many termites are allowed to ambush your antique furniture at any given time. If they make too many babies, we go to war until their numbers fall below our determined threshold.

2) Preventative Cultural Practices

As the name would imply, this component is all about taking preventative measures. If your farm is home to cannibals, you don’t plant any humans. This could also look like designing your 500 acre strawberry farm for the purpose of isolating, quarantining, and eradicating any outbreak of strawberry-eating mutant grasshoppers.

3) Monitoring

This is the cornerstone of IPM, and consequently GPM. It may not involve hiring a tiny man to perform daily termite inspections, but keeping detailed records of your area allows for quick identification of intruders and, consequently, efficient administration of (in our case) organic consequences.

4) Mechanical Controls

So what do we do when the pests are engaging in furiously efficient baby making? The same thing teachers do in high school: we break it up! Common methods for mechanical destruction of bug copulation include placing barriers, setting traps, tilling or breaking up the nests, and vacuuming.

5) Biological Controls

At this point, we consider bringing in something that eats termites. While termites don‘t really provide the greatest analogy for this component of IPM, the idea is to introduce a natural predator, eliminating the need for pesticides.

6) Responsible Pesticide Use

This final component is where the main difference between IPM and GPM comes into play. With IPM, the number one priority is keeping the pests below the acceptable threshold. If toxic biohazard is the only way to make that happen, fire away! With GPM, keeping all methods organic supersedes successful eradication, and only organic pesticides made from naturally occurring materials will be used.

So basically, if you must be green, you might just have to put up with a few more termites and a bit less furniture than you’re used to. In all seriousness, GPM will typically achieve the same results as IPM in most situations. Hopefully, your termite issues aren’t one of the exceptions!

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