Eco-Friendly Pest Control Products & Services In Demand
BY CLARE TRAPASSO — ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK – Detergent water, vaccum cleaners, door sweeps.
These simple household products are on the front lines of “green” pest control.
Amid a new wave of environmentalism, eco-savvy consumers are realizing they no longer need to rely on traditional pesticides _ which may pose health risks _ to combat rodents and insects.
Environmentally friendly exterminating services, dubbed integrative pest management, are popping up across the nation. The companies, which mostly work with commercial clients, say the demand for their services is on the rise.
“Traditional pest control companies run around spraying pesticides,” said Joel Sklar, vice president of sales at Assured Environments, an integrated pest management company in Manhattan. “We’re using glue traps to find out where there are animals and pests, and we seal holes and areas to prevent them from getting in.”
Instead of using chemicals, eco-warriors investigate how and why pests infiltrate a building. Then they rely on detergent water, vacuum cleaners and low- or no-toxicity products to fight the problem.
“Probably the best product out there is a door sweep,” said Tom Green, president of the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America in Wisconsin, referring to the vinyl strips installed on the bottoms of doors.
“A mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a pencil diameter. So if you’ve got a quarter-inch gap underneath your door, as far as a mouse is concerned, there’s no door there at all.”
He also recommends using sealant on cracks to keep bugs from getting inside homes and moving garbage cans far from residential buildings to keep rodents away.
Besides such prevention strategies, green pest control products are also in demand.
“Natural pest controls are the fastest growing part of our business,” said Eric Vinje, owner of Planet Natural, an online and catalog-based organic gardening supply business based in Montana. “A lot of the ingredients in these products are everyday ingredients, like mint oil or orange peel.”
His most popular products include Orange Guard, which suffocates insects, and Diatomaceous Earth, made from skeletal remains of plants that can cut through insects’ protective shells and kill them. He also recommended boric acid-based products, like Terra Ant Killer.
“It acts as a stomach poison to insects,” Vinje said. But “for us, it’s about as toxic as table salt.”
Vinje also provides clients with more unusual solutions.
Last October, for instance, his company sent more than 720,000 ladybugs to two Manhattan apartment complexes where the landscaping was being decimated by aphids and mites. The ladybugs were unleashed on the 80-acre grounds to eat the pests.
The stakes are high in the battle against pests.
Research has shown that cockroach and rodent infestations can pose health risks, with children who live in poorly maintained, low-income housing particularly susceptible.
“Their airways and lungs are still developing,” said Anhthu Hoang, a former biologist and general counsel at We Act for Environmental Justice, an environmental justice organization in West Harlem. “They tend to be lower on the ground.”
Hoang gave some examples of the health risks: Roach wings and excrement “dry up and create an asthma trigger” when they get into the air, and chemicals and sprays can sometimes exacerbate the problem.
Green, whose organization certifies green exterminating companies, says there are always going to be situations where a pesticide is needed. But he also believes the demand for natural pest management services and products is growing.
“The pesticide manufacturing industry has really worked hard over the last 10 years to bring new products to market that are much less toxic,” he said. “We’re making a lot of progress.”
Go Green In The Garden
BY DEAN FOSDICK — ASSOCIATED PRESS
Keeping your garden “green” is harder than it might sound.
There’s the pesticide. The emissions from your mower. The invasive plants that drink up all your water.
So while getting back to nature may feel like a bonding experience with Mother Earth, that doesn’t mean you’re doing her any favors.
For the most part, creating an eco-friendly garden involves returning to the Earth as much as or more than what you’ve been taking out of it. Water, for instance. Soil nutrients. And it can be done on the cheap.
Here’s how to get started improving your own little piece of the universe:
Enrich the Soil
Opt for minimum tillage when you garden, which doesn’t tear up healthy root systems. It also prevents erosion and saves unnecessary springtime spadework.
Think Organic
Renew tired topsoil with decomposed kitchen scraps, shredded leaves and rotting bark. That doesn’t mean eliminating chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides – but the garden-friendly insects and cash you save by going natural will greatly add up.
Layer mineral- and microbe-rich mulches and compost over vegetable gardens and flowerbeds at the start of each growing season. That helps the ground retain water while at the same time smothers invasive weeds.
Go Native
Choose self-reliant plants well suited to the area, which will boost survivability.
Rotate vegetable crops on at least a four-year production cycle. That will discourage crop-specific bugs from returning on their destructive feeding rounds.
Save Water
Use soaker hoses rather than less efficient sprinklers. Add rain gardens around the yard to eliminate runoff. Place rain barrels under eave spouts and use the stored water for irrigation.
Replace thirsty lawns and fast-fading flowerbeds with such heat- and drought-tolerant plant varieties as succulents. If you do intend to continue with turf, then buy grass seed blends tending toward fescues and ryes rather than the more moisture- and fertilizer-demanding bluegrasses.
Reduce Emissions
Go retro by exchanging that noisy, smoke-belching power mower for a mechanical push mower. Shred leaves, turning them into compost rather than herding them with a gas-driven blower into piles destined for the local landfill.
Recycle
Put Mother Nature to work. Use biodegradable pots for seedlings and then stick both into the ground, easing transplant stress.
Go Paperless
Order garden supplies via the Internet rather than from catalogs, saving production and material costs. (Look to CatalogChoice.org, a free service telling merchants which, if any, of their print catalogs you want to receive.)
Get Practical
Plant trees alongside your house for use as windbreaks in winter and for cooling shade in summer. That saves on heating and air conditioning costs, respectively, and provides cover for many species of watchable wildlife.
Then go yard art one better by installing some utilitarian ornaments – a pair of clothesline poles, for example. There’s no greater symbol of being at one with nature than seeing some just-washed bed sheets billowing in the breeze.