Oct 17, 2011 – Don’t Go In The Water
QUESTION:
I live in Phoenix, AZ and I am just starting my own company. I have been offered a job to do general pest control around Phoenix water treatment plants where there is ground water and potable water and I wanted to know a safe product to use in that situation.
ANSWER:
I think this is a situation that absolutely demands IPM, and the insecticides should not even take the forefront in your approach. Obviously you are dealing with a sensitive site that could have serious consequences if you somehow managed to get any kind of pesticide into the drinking water for a city. The reality may be that ground water is not a major concern, since nearly all of our synthetic and natural insecticides have very low water solubility, and therefore have little likelihood of moving down through the soil to enter underground water aquifers. Certainly, though, any runoff of pesticides from treated sites or dust blown off treated soils and into drinking water might be a concern, and given that pesticides can be detected at extremely low concentrations these days (in parts per trillion) someone really looking for these molecules in the water could stand a chance of finding them if you are careless.
I don't know exactly what pest problems would occur around a water treatment plant, other than the usual assortment of crawling pests. But, I think it would be important for you to put in writing exactly what pests you have discovered there with your inspection and exactly what contributing conditions you have found that are encouraging these pests to be in this location. You then can outline the steps needed to correct those contributing conditions, such as physical changes to the landscape, better storage practices for things that may be stored outside, sanitation to remove unnecessary rubbish or plant materials, exclusion to prevent bugs from entering the facilities. Every step you can make in these areas means less insecticide usage and longer relief from the pests.
Since contamination of the water is the principal concern you should look at products and application methods that would prevent any possibility of the products entering the water. One of these would be the use of bait products, and these could be placed within bait stations where only the pest animals would have access to them. Again, it all depends on what the pests are as to whether or not baits are useful, but you can determine that. Another preventive method is to avoid any treatments that may enter the air, so fogging is out and perhaps even power spraying should be avoided. If you need to "spray" you can use a backpack or hand sprayer to control the mist and to direct the application only into pest harborage points. These may be cracks and crevices, voids, under objects on the ground, etc.
I don't know that any "pesticide" would be considered 100% "safe", and of course we avoid the use of the "S" word anyhow. Some groups of insecticides may be more suspicious than others, such as the pyrethroids that currently are taking hits in the political arena with respect to potential contamination of waterways. You may want to stick with products that have very short residuals, such as many of the plant-derived insecticides. Not only might these be more acceptable to this kind of customer, but their rapid degradation once applied means less chance of their finding a way into the water. Granular formulations, applied carefully and only to selected sites, might be good choices to prevent the chance of runoff or drift into water.
If there are any pigeons or other pest birds hanging around these facilities this also gives you a great opportunity to offer bird exclusion and management. There have been some highly publicized incidents in my area where local water supplies were contaminated with bird feces, and the facilities had to shut down to correct the health problem.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
I live in Phoenix, AZ and I am just starting my own company. I have been offered a job to do general pest control around Phoenix water treatment plants where there is ground water and potable water and I wanted to know a safe product to use in that situation.
ANSWER:
I think this is a situation that absolutely demands IPM, and the insecticides should not even take the forefront in your approach. Obviously you are dealing with a sensitive site that could have serious consequences if you somehow managed to get any kind of pesticide into the drinking water for a city. The reality may be that ground water is not a major concern, since nearly all of our synthetic and natural insecticides have very low water solubility, and therefore have little likelihood of moving down through the soil to enter underground water aquifers. Certainly, though, any runoff of pesticides from treated sites or dust blown off treated soils and into drinking water might be a concern, and given that pesticides can be detected at extremely low concentrations these days (in parts per trillion) someone really looking for these molecules in the water could stand a chance of finding them if you are careless.
I don't know exactly what pest problems would occur around a water treatment plant, other than the usual assortment of crawling pests. But, I think it would be important for you to put in writing exactly what pests you have discovered there with your inspection and exactly what contributing conditions you have found that are encouraging these pests to be in this location. You then can outline the steps needed to correct those contributing conditions, such as physical changes to the landscape, better storage practices for things that may be stored outside, sanitation to remove unnecessary rubbish or plant materials, exclusion to prevent bugs from entering the facilities. Every step you can make in these areas means less insecticide usage and longer relief from the pests.
Since contamination of the water is the principal concern you should look at products and application methods that would prevent any possibility of the products entering the water. One of these would be the use of bait products, and these could be placed within bait stations where only the pest animals would have access to them. Again, it all depends on what the pests are as to whether or not baits are useful, but you can determine that. Another preventive method is to avoid any treatments that may enter the air, so fogging is out and perhaps even power spraying should be avoided. If you need to "spray" you can use a backpack or hand sprayer to control the mist and to direct the application only into pest harborage points. These may be cracks and crevices, voids, under objects on the ground, etc.
I don't know that any "pesticide" would be considered 100% "safe", and of course we avoid the use of the "S" word anyhow. Some groups of insecticides may be more suspicious than others, such as the pyrethroids that currently are taking hits in the political arena with respect to potential contamination of waterways. You may want to stick with products that have very short residuals, such as many of the plant-derived insecticides. Not only might these be more acceptable to this kind of customer, but their rapid degradation once applied means less chance of their finding a way into the water. Granular formulations, applied carefully and only to selected sites, might be good choices to prevent the chance of runoff or drift into water.
If there are any pigeons or other pest birds hanging around these facilities this also gives you a great opportunity to offer bird exclusion and management. There have been some highly publicized incidents in my area where local water supplies were contaminated with bird feces, and the facilities had to shut down to correct the health problem.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
