Okay, a common question I receive is, Do you guys offer organic pest control? Or do you have organic pesticides? This seems to be the trend and its getting more common by the day. By far my favorite answer is of course not. Most of those are illegal not to mention that almost all of them are more dangerous than more commonly used pesticides now a days. Wait, I know what you’re thinking, Illegal and dangerous, how can it be? What this all comes down to is people being misinformed by marketing campaigns and sales tactics. To make matters worse many pest control companies are involved in the generation of these ideas.

So what is organic pesticides? Well, in pesticides as with all chemistry organic means a compound that contains carbon. So obviously something that doesn’t have carbon in its structure can’t be organic. To make things easy the chemical/pesticide industry has classified most common insecticides into families such as Organochlorines, Organophospates, Carbamates and Pyrethroids. The first three being organic lines and the last being inorganic. Lets take a look at some organic pesticides. By far the most known Organochlorine is DDT which you could say its effects on nature started the environmental movement. Organochlorines were made illegal and were replaced with Organophospates and Carbamates. An example of a Organophospates would be Sarin Nerve Gas. Yes, DDT and Sarin gas are both organic. Does that make Saddam Hussein a hipster using an organic gas when he gassed the Irani people, Probably not.

The fact is, pesticide companies have tests done to determine their safety and then the Department of Pesticide Regulation makes sure they disclose that information to the public. Organic isn’t a concern of the DPR. The DPR makes sure all materials are rated for safeness by LD50s. A LD50 is a standard measurement of acute toxicity that is stated in milligrams of pesticide per kilogram of body weight that represents the individual dose required to kill 50 percent of a population of test animals. Basicly, the higher the LD50 the safer the product is and vice versa. So now that your are informed you can check the safety of products you use or are exposed to by others by the material’s LD50 and the next time someone tells you something is safe because its organic, doubt that. Everything must be considered on a individual basis.Traffic Pest Solutions always uses the safest most effective products for its clients by making informed and educated decisions.

Okay then what does Organic mean on a product? Doesn’t that mean no pesticides were involved with the product. No, it means the manufacture pays an “organic agency” to have their product accredited through that agency and the manufacturer has obligations they have to meet for the accreditation. Yet somehow the agencies seem to be very flexible if they are going to lose a client for failure to pass their exam. Traffic Pest Solutions services many organic certified locations and all of them allow any legal pesticide as long as you practice integrated pest management or IPM first. UC Davis defines IPM an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques such as biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties. Pesticides are used only after monitoring indicates they are needed according to established guidelines. That’s a nice way of saying try to remove the problem without insecticide first then apply if needed.