Integrated pest management

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that uses a combination of common sense practices to eliminate the causes of pest infestations. It is widely used in agricultural, business and residential pest control.

IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This information is combined with pest control methods to manage pest infestations by the most economical means and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment.

Rentokil has developed a unique IPM approach using our expertise in pest control methods and industry-leading technology that we call ERDM, which stands for exclusion, restriction, destruction and monitoring.

There are four basic principles of Integrated Pest Management:

Rentokil works with customers to understand when pests are a problem for their particular business requirements — each customer segment is different. We help pinpoint the level at which pest populations or environmental conditions indicate that pest control action must be taken. A single pest doesn’t always mean control is needed, but in sectors such as food processing, food retail and healthcare, zero tolerance is expected.

Our technician will make recommendations based on a variety of factors, such as:

• The pest species involved and its appearance
• Individual tolerance
• The environment
• The type of business or structure.

Monitoring and identifying pests includes having highly trained technicians, accurate pest identifications, proper inspections, monitoring devices and client participation.

Client participation is an important part of a successful pest management program. We provide our commercial accounts with a pest sighting logbook on site to help keep track of activity.

In addition, we encourage our customers to look for:

• Pest evidence
• Pest-conducive conditions
• Areas with moisture, heat, humidity
• Food or water that pests can access
• Pest harborage (interior/exterior, trash areas, drains, building perimeter-weeds and debris,)
• pest entry points (doors, loading docks)

There are many procedures from sanitation practices to laying out mechanical trapping devices that help prevent pests from becoming a threat and lowering the risk of infestation.

Practicing good sanitation eliminates food, water, harbourage and concealed routes of movement for pests. Sanitation is assessed at every inspection — in both the interior and exterior of the facility.

Any deficiencies in sanitation are documented and followed by recommendations on how to improve the situation.

Another integral part of IPM is exclusion, which limits pest access to the inside of a facility. Since the majority of insects enter into buildings from the outside, general maintenance measures such as sealing holes and gaps, replacing screens and repairing defects around entryways, pipes, drains and other structures will exclude pests.

Lastly, mechanical trapping devices are a preventative approach to intercept invading pests. They capture flying/crawling insects and rodents such as rats and mice. Our range of devices include rodent trapping devices such as RADAR and Lumnia insect light traps.

An IPM program evaluates the proper control methods both for effectiveness and risk.

• Physical methods: This is the manipulation of an environmental condition to make it unfavourable for a pest to thrive. Environmental conditions that can be manipulated include relative humidity, light and temperature. Examples of physical control tactics or devices include the use of dehumidifiers, less-attractive light bulbs and heat treatments.
• Mechanical methods: Many of the same techniques or devices are used in pest prevention, such as glue traps and insect light traps. Mechanical control also includes using items such as vacuum cleaners and spider/cobweb brushes.
• Chemical methods: Pesticides are an important and necessary part of IPM. The goal of IPM programs, however, is to reduce the amount of pesticides used. When necessary, we make highly targeted applications and follow environmental, health and safety, and wildlife regulations to ensure their application does not harm people, pets or the environment.

Integrated Pest Management programs are continuously evaluated to monitor pest levels and to keep customers informed on sanitation levels in order to prevent new pest problems.

In addition to monitoring practices, Rentokil provides thorough documentation of pest activity and any pesticide application used during a service visit.