What Kind Of Pesticides Are Used?

While the exact products used at your house will vary, we do use a specific arsenal of pest control products. Keep in mind that we leave it to the technician’s discretion to what products to apply and where. We do apply pesticides according to the Label. And we have protocols that are very effective. With that, we will take into consideration any concerns that you have. If there is an area that you do not want pesticides in, please let us know beforehand. We will accommodate if it does not break our protocol. To provide you with our warranty, we will need to follow our protocol as close as possible.

If you can’t vacate, or if we are not provided access to certain areas, than this can reduce likelihood of success. This will affect your warranty. Please follow your preparation guidelines. Follow all instructions, and any recommendations to the best of your ability. And we will do our best to apply pest control products in a responsible manner.

Customers do not usually comprehend talk about specific product use. Without a formal training, they can be difficult to understand. We do use professional products. We choose the most effective products tailored to specific applications. The safety and toxicity of products is also taken into consideration.

Organic products do not mean that the product poses less health risk. For example, some pyrethrum is pretty toxic, compared to the synthesized versions (pyrethroids). They formulate pesticides for effectiveness and safety. Millions of dollars go into getting a product registered. With that said, there are some cool products out there. And we take advantage of that.

Pest control has evolved from keeping a chemical barrier inside and out. This included consistent sprays to the foundation and baseboards. Nowadays, State authorities teach integrated pest management. That is what I learned in college. IPM includes customer involvement/ education. You also want to set action thresholds and monitor activity. And prioritized are the use of baits and other low risk options. We integrate as much of this as possible. While keeping our protocol affordable and efficient.

Another thing that we keep in mind is pesticide resistance. When you use the same products over and over, they tend to become less effective. Let’s say that you use the normal home defense bug killer. As a result, most of the insects that encounter it will die. The ones that do not, will reproduce. Their offspring will have resistance to this product. Let’s say some time goes by and you spray for these new offspring. Most die but not as many. The next rounds of offspring can end up coming away unscathed from that same jug of bug killer. This is pesticide resistance.

It is not only the products that you use- it is the entire class of pesticide that becomes less effective. So you can’t switch your Raid with Home Defense. They are both the same class (Pyrethroids). And guess what? The only real sprays that they sell to homeowners are Pyrethroids. Bug sprays in stores are pretty much this one class of pesticide. Homeowners do not have many chemical control options when it comes to treating pesticide resistant pests.

In most cases, we retreat using a different class of pesticide. Different classes of pesticides have different modes of action. They kill them in different ways. Pyrethroids work on the sodium channels of a pest’s nervous system. If we suspect pesticide resistance, we will apply a different mode of action.

Another way we approach this is to use multiple modes of action within a single treatment. Our cockroach protocol is a good example of this. We apply borate or silica gel dust to crevices/ electric outlets/ wall voids. Borates prevent a pest from gaining nutrients from the food they eat. Silica gel pulls the oil from their exoskeleton. Both are different classes of insecticide because they kill the pest in a different way. Then we usually mix a neonicotinoid with an Insect growth regulator. These two products are in a class of their own also. We carry baits and other sprays that are in even different classes than the other 4 mentioned.

So you can see the pesticides that we use will vary by the situation. The technician figures this out at the time of service.

We use a microencapsulated pyrethroid for spiders, and general/ all-purpose bug spraying.

For ants, we use Advion products with the meta-active ingredient. Or fipronil sprays along the foundation. We rotate other products in such as neonicotinoids. Borate granular bait is used outside in conjunction with the sprays and a variety of gel bait.

We mentioned cockroaches above. Fleas are similar in respect that they also need us to mix in an insect growth regulator with the spray.

For bed bugs we generally use one hybrid spray product with three classes of insecticides in it. Silica gel dust is also utilized. We also rely on the performance of ActiveGuard liners. Which is a mattress liner lined with a pyrethroid.

We generally apply dusts into inaccessible stinging insect nests. And contact (fast acting) sprays for wasp and hornet nests out in the open.

Flies depend on the species. For house flies we use bait that goes on windows. For fruit flies we treat the drains with a borate- disinfectant foam.

We are happy to discuss any pesticides that we will be applying during our visit. Until we perform the inspection, we cannot state exactly what we will be applying. I hope this gives you a better understanding of what pesticides we use.