We get asked a lot about “all-natural treatment options,” for mosquito control, and some of our competitors advertise these all-natural treatment options. At Pestecs we stay on top of best-practice and our goal is to truly minimize the use of harmful chemicals, but we are also skeptical of “all-natural” claims, and we firmly believe in being 100% transparent with what we are doing.
The two most common “all-natural treatment options” we get asked about are Cedar Oil and Pyrethoids. We’ll save Cedar Oil for another time and focus on Pyrethoids for this post.
Often other pest control companies reference Pyrethoids as being a naturally occurring derivative of the Chrysanthemum flower. While that statement is broadly speaking true, it’s said more to make you as a consumer feel “ok” about signing up for repeated pesticide applications.
Three things to keep in mind about Pyrethoids:
The Research:
Pyrethoids are some of the most widely used pesticides on the market today and play an important role in the management of mosquitoes, ticks, ants, and a wide range of other insects. Permethrin, which is one of the pyrethoids, is used to treat scabies and lice (active ingredient in Nix), and is the active ingredient in some dog flea and tick shampoos as well as Advantix, which is one of the brands of monthly spot treatments applied to dogs to repel fleas, ticks and mosquitoes.
Permethrin can also be found as the active ingredient in Insect Shield, and other insect repellent clothing such as ExOfficio, which can be found at Orvis and other retailers. Insect repellent clothing is becoming more and more popular as diseases such as Zika and Lyme Disease are featured more on the news. The US military has conducted extensive testing on the effectiveness of Permethrin and other Pyrethoids in a variety of field applications and as repellents for troops in the field.
Permethrin has been around since 1973 and is on the list of USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Essential Medicines List, as well as the WHO (World Health Organization) Model List of Essential Medicines (April 2015). There is no question that Permethrin (and other Pyrethoids) has been widely studied and is widely used.
Permethrin is one in a long list of Pyrethoids. Some of the other Pyrethoids that are used in pest management applications include: Bifenthrin (sold under the trade name Talstar is probably the most widely used insecticide in Fairfield county if I had to guess), Cyfluthrin, Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin, Lambda Cyhalothrin, and Sumithrin. Most of these names can be found as the active ingredient in products sold at Home Depot, and even the grocery store. They have all been engineered for different applications and may be labeled for different uses.
We routinely use Pyrethoids in our own business and are strongly convinced of their effectiveness and relative safety when used responsibly. It’s important to keep in mind the origin and nature of chemicals we are treating our homes and lawns with and to keep in mind what else is being killed in addition to the nuisance species being targeted.
It’s all of our responsibility to make sure we are treating ourselves and our environment with care.
Whether you choose PesTecs or another pest management firm we ask that you please –
Bee Responsible with Pesticides
Contact Us today for more information or to schedule an in-person quote for service.