I’ve run into a lot of folks who have legitimate concerns of what I’m using and how I plan to apply it. I have absolutely zero problems with this because I’m in their home or business and and they have every right to know. Generally speaking these folks hear about 20 seconds of what I have to say and they simply nod their heads and say go ahead. Since a few seconds isn’t enough time to even explain the theory of crack and crevice treatments I can only assume that my confident reassurance is all they really needed. Still I treat their castle with care and respect and place my ‘cides’ where they’ll do the most good and be out of harms way. I have very few people who after watching me service a home that ever still have questions about my commitment to their safety and I believe the same is true with almost every pro.
Unless you’ve lived on another planet you can’t help but notice the huge push for everything green and pest control is no exception. My question is however where the push is coming from? Is it the home owner demanding this new way of service based on the non stop flood of global crisis information? Or is it in fact coming from our industry itself and the manufacturers who seeing the trend have bent over backwards to stay ahead of the curve?
Is it the customer
I have a lot of steady customers Thank God plus new ones everyday and have to say I really don’t see this as a huge phobia at all. They aren’t phased or swayed in the least if I mention DE (diamataceous earth) or boric acid and baits. I would assume this would be all they wanted or some Eco spray touted on the market but that just isn’t the case even if I bring it up. Outside only approaches are also met with skepticism and I’m not here to say why but one would think this would be automatically well received. Hardly anyone I meet whose considering my service is concerned with my work hurting the earth in fact I don’t think they care at all or think that it does. At least I’m not asked about it in any way that leads me to believe they just came back from and Al Gore convention and no one criticizes me for pulling up in a F150 that I park next to their SUV.
The questions I get are almost always about personal safety–“Will this poison my well? Will my kids be safe? What about my pets? Is this stuff safe for me to breathe?” Not am I using recycled labels? Is that an all natural product? Is oil used to make up that spray?”
Now before you think I live in an area where the environmentalists are banned let me tell you they are alive and well. The push is on like 
never before for clean cars, green earth and responsible living. We read the same news paper stories you read, the same intranet blogs are on the top of our Google searches you get and the same anchors and anchorets spout their views on their unbiased stations every single night. There’s not a day that goes by that someone isn’t mentioning mankind is destroying the earth-not one. Still I just don’t see the everyday push for major reforms for pest control from everyday folks, I see it from within.
I’m all for being ahead of the curve and planning for the future but planning usually involves intelligent people giving the people what they want or will want. Do people want to go to all natural products that have very little environmental impact or do they want dead bugs and at the same time to be safe? Do they care my granules were processed and laced with lethal poisons or does their concern stop once they hear it would take 9 pounds to kill their pet? Where is the outrage when sprays are used to stop chinch bugs from destroying your beautiful lawn? While legitimate concerns for health and well being are something I applaud I openly ask the question, where does this phobia get its legs?
Anecdotal, hypocritical, naive might be a few ways to describe me and truthfully that’s just fine but when it comes the phobia of pest control creating a irreversible disaster I think that dog won’t hunt. What I do think is a fear however is the manufacturers and pest control companies that don’t want to be left out and looking bad in the perception that they’ve helped create and that’s a phobia I never thought I’d see.
