Integrated Pest Management: How to Use the Least Amount to Get the Best Results

For four years I worked in a large Pest Control Company's Food Safety Division, and practiced what is called Integrated Pest Management, during that time. Unlike our other Divisions, Residential and Commercial, whose primary goal seemed to be to impress the customer with the quantity of pesticide used, our goal and practice was to use the least amount to achieve the maximum results. As we dealt with large corporations such as K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Kroger's and others, we had to adopt an education process that taught the workers how to help themselves, as well as help us.

To set a guideline of the IPM program you must understand some basic facts;

All insects and pest require these to flourish: Food Source, Heat Source, Harborage, (a place to live), and a Water Source. To disrupt any two of these factors is to begin the removal of any pest. Without food and water, they will go away. With out a place to stay, and a constant temp level, they will go away, so on and so forth.

Not all pesticides will kill all pest. If you have, let's say German Cockroaches, the most common of the breed, if you spray an over the counter insecticide, you will only kill what it touches, and send the others running outside to the neighbors house, (not a bad idea maybe), or into other places in your house. They can smell better than you can any day of the week, and require little amounts of food to survive. In general, two pieces of cornmeal will last a single roach about three to four days. They also love soap, hair, (a great surce of protein), glue in boxes, and almost anything else they can find. So don't waste your time or money buying roach insecticides such as RAID to combat them. There is one thing to understand about roaches. They must have something pressing against their feet and back to be in their comfort zone. Crack and crevice treatment is the best control method.