Where, When and How Natural Products Are Being Used

“Green has been really good to me. About 80 percent of the time, I go to a green product first,” says Sam Soto, First Rate Pest Solutions. Why his preference for green products?

“It starts with health — my employees’ health, my health and clients’ health. My employees are using products all day, every day, so minimizing their exposure is at the top of my list. We are all committed to the environment as well,” Soto explains. “And, more often than not, green products used in an IPM program solve the problem. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be my go-to.”

On the effectiveness point, Soto isn’t relying solely on anecdotal results. About five years ago, he collaborated with his son, then a statistics student at Boston University, on an in-house study pitting a green product against a conventional pesticide in dozens of bed bug accounts. Analysis of callback data revealed that the green product was at least as effective as, and sometimes more effective than, the conventional product. “Seeing it on paper — that I could effectively treat bed bug infestations without exposing my clients to traditional chemicals — confirmed that I was on track relying on the green solution,” Soto says.

Chad Highley, Environmental Pest Control, is a fan of natural products, too. “I like the green stuff and I’m intrigued by its potential,” he says. “My wife introduced me to essential oils, and I’ve been learning as I go. Since attending the Purdue conference in January, I’ve been really geeking out on the science behind them. They can do amazing things.”

Currently, Highley uses botanicals less than 10 percent of the time, but he continues to find new opportunities for their application. At one of his commercial accounts, where freestanding ATMs became the target of various pest infestations, he uses essential oil products to deter spiders and an all-natural rodent repellent to keep mice from getting into the ATMs themselves. “The more we use these products, the better the residual. We’ve achieved excellent control, which is critical to the client since so many customers come into contact with those ATMs.”

More than a third of PMPs who use natural products (36 percent) report that they use them primarily in outdoor applications. Another third-plus (35 percent) use them mostly indoors. And just under a third (30 percent) use them indoors and outdoors equally. There’s some variance in these percentages from region to region — notably, well over half of Midwestern PMPs (56 percent) use the products primarily indoors while half of Northeast PMPs (50 percent) use them primarily outdoors.

The three types of accounts most often treated with a green program are residential (74 percent), schools and daycare centers (46 percent) and commercial/office buildings (34 percent).

No matter where you use natural products, success lies in using them within a strategic, integrated plan that maximizes effectiveness and minimizes exposure. “Careful inspections and pest identification, structural modifications and monitoring all play an important role in an IPM program that incorporates green products,” says Bob Gordon, Gordon Termite Control. “And even where we’re not using botanicals, we are applying much less pesticide than we did 10 or 20 years ago.”