As seems to be my nature I'd like to talk about this awhile, but I will start by saying that you can contact your local Univar PP&S office at 1-800-888-4897 and discuss this with our Customer Service Representatives there. Not too long ago we compiled an "internal" listing of products that nicely fit within a "green" pest management program, but we do not want to promote this list as one of Green Pesticides because there simply is no such list. Green is not about the pesticides. It is about HOW they are used. Now, your customers may have a very different view of what green means to them than you have for your own definition, so it is important to have a talk with customers who ask for green pest management on their property to understand what their perceptions are. In their mind green may mean that you use no pesticides, or only natural pesticides, and knowing this in advance helps you plan the proper strategy on their property that fits their needs.

Green Pest Management (GPM) may be a re-worded way of saying what we have said for decades, and that is Integrated Pest Management. But, IPM never really caught on with our customer bases, although all states now have in place School Pesticide Use regulations, and in most states part of this regulation is that the schools must have in place a written IPM Program. So, IPM is not dead, it just is not as trendy and catchy as Green has become, so we go with the times. GPM and IPM state that we use not just chemical methods for controlling a pest problem, but that we also look at the overall picture to determine what the contributing conditions are that are producing the pest problem. How is it entering a structure, what food and water resources are available to it, what harborage sites are available. And, then we make a strong effort to correct all of these contributing conditions as a major part of the control program. We do not just reach for the spray can and rely on pesticides to do all the work.

Both GPM and IPM also mandate the use of the many non-chemical tools, such as traps, exclusion materials, vacuums, steam, freezing, or mattress encasements in the case of bed bugs. These kinds of weapons can be effective without creating any environmental contamination, and they can be used in a very specific way for the intended pest. This is the emphasis behind Green Pest Management - minimal impact on the environment and other living organisms while at the same time achieving the NECESSARY pest management.

Chemicals are certainly part of both GPM and IPM, but we never settle into a one-shoe-fits-all approach to what we use. I often am asked what is "the best" product for flea control, but what you choose depends on a lot of variables - is this a home or an office, people present or absent, the wishes of the customer, carpet or hard flooring, etc. We choose the product that is best for a particular pest problem by taking these variables into account, but also with an eye to using the product that has the least potential to harm non-targeted organisms or the environment, again while still achieving the control we need. It would be pointless to use an insecticide that causes ZERO harm to the environment but doesn't kill the pest either.

So, to that end we look at bait products that can be placed without polluting the environment and which may be very specific to the intended pest. We place them so that only the pest animal can access them. We use sprays and dusts only within cracks and crevices and voids, knowing that these are the best locations to put them if we want the maximum contact time with the pest. This also points out that just about any insecticide could be used in a "Green" program if it is placed where it cannot be contacted by other organims.

If we were to create a list of Green pesticides, again contrary to what green is really all about, we could place certain materials on that list. These would include IGR's, as most growth regulators are effective only on insects. It would include all pheromones used on traps. It could include many (but not all) of the plant-derived active ingredients, and in general these may be what most homeowners think of when they think of "green". But, not all plant-derived pesticides are necessarily safe for human exposure, as some of them can be really toxic or irritating or even possibly trigger allergenic responses. The list would contain many repellents as most of these are plant oils of some kind. Plant oils include MANY different products, but some are pyrethrum, clove, mint, garlic, d-limonene, Neem, rosemary, castor oil, and others. We should never represent that these are in any way NON-toxic, because they very definitely are toxic. However, they are "natural" and they break down rapidly in the environment.

Do natural, plant-derived oils kill only the "pest" insects? Certainly not, so even these so called green products could be used in a very Un-green manner. If you fogged a back yard with pyrethrum you likely kill all the ladybugs, lacewings, praying mantids, and other beneficial predators too, so as I said in the first paragraph - it is not about the pesticides, it is about how they are used that makes them green.