The idea is simple: make the home an unattractive place for pests by fixing leaky pipes, filling cracks in walls and gaps under ba...
Case Studies
In a large block of flats, it's impossible to avoid the neighbours. You can hear the Bruce Springsteen that the tenant in 7B cranks while vacuuming, the kids in 8A directly above tromping around, and if someone decides to paint, the fumes reach everyone on the floor.
So when a building supervisor notified owners in a sixty-unit building in Cambridgeshire that one of the flats had a bed bug infestation, Eddie Rosenthal feared that it was only a matter of time until the bugs spread to his home.
"There are lots and lots of cracks in the walls, said Rosenthal, a 30-year resident of the nearly century-old building. "There are so many places for them to hide."
But it wasn't just the tiny, biting bugs that gave Rosenthal the creeps. So did the prospect of using pesticides inside his home. So Rosenthal decided to try a few tricks that might keep his home bug-free without spraying chemicals. He raised his bed off the ground, filled some cracks in walls and applied nontoxic powder to spaces between the walls where many bugs live.
Now research has shown that these good housekeeping techniques not only minimise chemical use, but can be even more effective at controlling pests than hiring an exterminator to spray powerful, toxic pesticides.
A single use of such techniques in 13 blocks of flats eliminated substantially more cockroaches and mice than repeated professional applications of pesticides in other buildings, according to a new study by the Department of Health.
In addition, asthma-triggering allergens related to cockroaches were between 40 and 70 percent lower in the residences using preventive techniques than those using standard insecticides, according to the study.
To pest control professionals, these techniques have a name: Integrated Pest Management, or IPM. The idea is simple: make the home an unattractive place for insects and other pests by fixing leaky pipes, filling cracks in walls and gaps under baseboards and thoroughly cleaning kitchens and bathrooms.
This is not the first research demonstrating that IPM is effective, but it is the most extensive study yet showing the benefits of a single treatment. For the study, an IPM treatment was conducted a single time in 169 apartments in 13 public housing apartment buildings in Cambridgeshire. Teams trained in Integrated Pest Management inspected the kitchen and bathrooms, filled any holes or cracks in walls and baseboards and thoroughly cleaned problem areas.
Exterminators treated another 111 apartments in nearby buildings using standard chemical procedures, spraying pesticides around baseboards up to two times in the six-month period.
Twice during the study, after three months and six months, researchers trapped insects in glue traps scented with a cockroach attractant. During both collection periods, 68 percent of the homes receiving IPM had reduced cockroach numbers by at least half, while 48 percent of the pesticide-treated apartments over three months, and 56 percent over six months, had similar reductions.
Commenting on the study, Steve Anderson of SDA Pest Control said the methods used in the new study "are extremely important and necessary parts of IPM." But he added that pesticides are also part of an integrated approach to controlling pests, and stresses that every infestation is different so chemical use should not be off-limits.
Also, it is not always cheap or easy to implement IPM. Initial costs in a block of flats can be two to three times higher than traditional treatments for the first year.
"It is more expensive to do implement IPM techniques,” said Steve, "but IPM is likely to be cheaper in the long term. Many IPM interventions are permanent. Once you caulk something, it does not need to be reapplied," he said. "Pesticides however, move around with time, sinking into baseboards, so treatments must be repeated."
Many experts agree that Integrated Pest Management can't solve every pest problem. But this survey has highlighted the effectiveness of IPM techniques – something that we can all take forward and learn from.
Article provided by SDA Pest Control