Pest control has had a ton of great ideas and inventions that have made all our lives so much simpler and pest free but I bet you’d be surprised to hear of some the great ideas that never made it to the market place. Now if you decide to take some of these ideas and run with them, do so at your own peril. Tens of dollars and a couple hours of research went into these products but for some strange reason they just never appealed to the public.
#1 The bed bug glue sheet; This great idea actually caught 100% of biting bed bugs before they could ever climb on their unsuspecting host. Available in king, queen and twin sizes this form fitting pest control device fits any mattress but just never caught the attention of the average consumer and so it sits on a warehouse shelf gathering dust.
#2 The glass spray tank; Made completely of hand blown glass this spray tank allows the consumer to see the insecticidal mix the technician is using in their home. Using glass proved to be a much cheaper way to manufacture a tank so everyone could now afford a professional pest control sprayer. Things were all set and the motto was going to be, “A tank that won’t break your bank,” but John Q Public once again had no desire for this visionary equipment and so it vanished almost as quickly as it came.
#3 Balsa wood wall studs; Billed as the next great housing material that would alert homeowners to termite infestations much faster than traditional pine. The theory was, why wait years for signs and symptoms of the destructive insect when you could find them half way up your wall so much quicker. The stud production company sank millions into launching this product but for some unexplained reason no homes were ever built with this new stud.
#4 Candy flavored rodent bait; Everybody loves candy right? Well so do rodents and tests showed bait acceptance 
was off the charts compared to any other rodent bait on the market even when it came to to the very bait aversive norway rat. Packaging was a cinch too- The bait was a pretty blue and pictures of happy children on the boxes all exclaim the excitement of a rodent free home. I’m scratching my head on this one as to why it never even had a chance.
#5 Screened eye glasses; Made for those who didn’t need glasses but still wanted to keep bugs out of their eyes. Quite fashionable and ergonomic this apparatus allowed you to enjoy the wind in your face while protecting your valuable eyesight. Sadly, it too never made it.
All kidding aside;
They say it take 10 to 12 years of testing any new pesticide before it ever comes to market. That means millions if not a billion dollars are spent figuring out things like doses that work best, formulations that are as safe as they can be and places that this new product can be used. In that time these new products are put to the test much like automobiles when they purposefully crash them over and over into a lab room wall. Smart scientists and Doctors of Entomology pour over all the technical data and chemical equations that look like hieroglyphics just so we can look at the label, see a picture of a roach and decide that this is what we want to spray. We take it home and put no thought into the thousands of man hours that produced this product or the thousands of governmental hoops that had to be jumped just so this new can of roach killer would do what it says in the most responsible manner.
Your local pest pro knows how these products work and they also know the habits and hiding places of the bugs you’re after. While those in the white lab coats prepare the formulations it is the tech in the coveralls who applies them with their keen knowledge of pest control. They also have the awareness that it is your home with your loved ones that they are trying to protect from unwanted pests. Advertising is a wonderful thing and as much as I rail on it, so is regulation. Don’t be fooled in to buying the next best can of spray just because of the pictures on the package. Consider what you’re after and ask yourself if you know how to do it or does it just sound like it will work? Then consider the use of a professional service- do so because you’ll not only get the vast amount of knowledge that went into making the spray, you’ll also get the very important practical knowledge of the person applying it.
