Integrated Pest Management
Our approach to pest control is a little different than your traditional pest company or what you may have in your mind. Old school approaches to pest management were to basically cover your house in chemicals. The chemical and side effects weren’t a big consideration as long as the bugs were killed.
These days we’re smarter in our approach. We realize that the traditional pest control chemicals are harmful to humans and pets and when a technician works with these chemicals daily, they’re at greater risk. So we use significantly healthier chemicals derived from the chrysanthemum flower as well as offer organic pest control options that use essential oils.
In addition to safer chemicals, we use an integrated approach to ensure your family and our environment are better. Below we explain what IPM is and why it’s important…
What is IPM?
IPM or integrated pest management is a new, better approach to pest control. Instead of dousing your home in chemicals, we use healthier chemicals in the right amounts and the right areas. This approach has a wide range of benefits including:
- It’s better for the environment. There’s less runoff into the water supply.
- It’s better for the natural predators you want to have at your house. Instead of killing everything in sight, we use a targeted approach that doesn’t kill the good predators and doesn’t affect things like the natural bacteria in the soil which you want. For example, you want ladybugs in your garden because they eat aphids. With IPM, you can trust that the natural ecosystem around your home will remain intact and the ladybugs won’t be killed.
- It’s a holistic approach that leverages not just sprays but also good, general healthy practices to keep pests out.
The 4 Main Components Of IPM
Biological
This is the process of planting competing plants, parasites, and predators which will discourage harmful pests as well as exterminate any that find their way into your yard.
Cultural
This involves using good practices that can include things like securing your trash can lids, cleaning up garbage piles, removing dead stumps, reducing water practices, etc. The point of this step is to reduce the things that pests rely on like food, water, and shelter.
Mechanical
Mechanical is the process of using traps and other mechanical means to make the environment unfriendly to pests. For example, a mouse trap that’s designed to capture a mouse would be a mechanical tactic.
Chemical
The chemical element is what most people think of when they think about pest control. It’s the actual use of chemicals to kill existing pests as well as to create a barrier around your home that keeps them out. With an IPM approach, we’re not relying solely on chemicals to do the heavy lifting which allows us to use fewer chemicals and be more effective.