You might have encountered several lifehacks to eliminate insects or repel rodents. But nothing is as permanent a solution as professional pest control.
Fortunately, pest control specialists have their own life hacks that they have been using to make their services safer. If you are looking to get rid of bed bugs, rats, or other pests but are worried about the side effects of traditional pest control, the following high-tech hacks will help you.
In this article, you will find seven game-changing technologies that are improving the effectiveness of pest control while reducing its toxic footprint. Some of these you can use at home, and others you can call for professionals. Ultimately, this post outlines the latest developments for safe and efficient pest control that every homeowner and gardener should know about.
Non-Toxic Heat Treatments
Heat treatments have gotten a non-toxic upgrade, with recent iterations of the modern pest control measure being much safer for humans. Infrared rays can kill insects without harming physical infrastructure or leaving behind toxic residue. High-tech contemporary pest-control providers can use this technology to eradicate pests in crawlspaces, basements, and attics, without compromising the safety of kids and pets.
Clean Water With Sonic Wands
Pest control in water can be quite challenging because standing water attracts mosquitoes and other insects. It can also provide a launchpad for the reproduction and propagation of many microbes. But because of the soluble nature of most pesticides, anything added to the water to kill the mosquitoes is likely to stay in the water.
As a result, water can be pest-free but not safe for drinking. Sonic wands are gadgets that can help rid the water of mosquito larvae and insect eggs with the help of sound vibrations. It is an alternative to chlorinating water that leaves zero chemical footprint.
Smart Mosquito Attractant
Using this technology is more of an efficiency hack than a safety hack. Traditional pest control devices for mosquitoes are designed to attract and kill most insects. This can harm the environment, where harmless insects play a net-positive role. Light and heat do not attract mosquitoes exclusively.
Recently designed smart attractants, however, can target mosquitoes without attracting other insects. As a result, you can minimize the risk of mosquito bites without ruining the pollination potential of your backyard garden or courtyard flower bed.
Insect Birth Control
If your pest control measures are meant to minimize insects in a garden/farm environment, you can understand how much of a tightrope walk it can be. Not only are chemical pesticides likely to remain on the actual plants and their yield, but they can also eradicate too many insects.
As most gardeners and farmers understand, insects can play a vital role in the ecosystem. Radiation-driven sterilization can reduce the insect reproduction rate allowing the garden owner to control their population. Consequently, enough insects can exist in the ecosystem to sustain its lifecycle without overwhelming it.
High-Tech Pest Detection
Using high-tech pest detection can help you eliminate early-stage infestations. It can also help you narrow the area of focus of your pesticide campaign, improving its efficiency. Traditional pest detection revolved around visible signs of infestations, like spotting the pests or the effects of their existence.
Symptoms of an infestation would be detected by pest control specialists, who would be 70% to 90% correct in their assessment. In most cases, a pan-area fumigation campaign would be executed for good measure. The problem with this kind of pest control is that it is inefficient at best and excessive at worst.
With thermal imaging, advanced AI algorithms, sound sensors, motion detection, and specific chemical residue detection, pest detection has become far more precise. Not only can homeowners learn about rodent infestations, insect colonies, and random pests before they become a practical inconvenience, but they can get rid of such pests quickly and with minimal action.
Non-Toxic Pesticides
The pest control industry is quite aware of its environmental footprint as well as its inherently toxic lean. There is constant research into non-toxic pesticides, and many pest control companies in the USA and Canada have started using non-toxic pesticides. One of the pest control measures with zero toxic residue is the dissemination of solidified Carbon Dioxide, which is also known as dry ice.
It is typically used to create stage smoke in the entertainment industry. Since many insects die when they come in direct contact with dry ice, small dry ice disseminators are used for localized pest control. Non-toxic pest eradication is becoming popular in residential pest control in Toronto, though it is expected to become trendy in coastal cities in the US as well.
Automated Pest Management
You might have noticed that certain pests have their high season, and their infestations can be cyclical. Instead of peppering your house or garden with pesticides every year, you can install a system that takes into account the pest’s overall lifecycle.
This is possible with the integrated pest management technology that is available in the US, Canada, and western Europe. The system automatically adjusts its pesticide delivery and propagation control measures according to the factors that increase and decrease the pest’s presence.
Integrated Pest Management solutions provide round-the-clock, year-round protection. It is a “set and forget” type of technology that homeowners have to pay once for. In other words, it doesn’t just save time, but it also saves money. This system can be used in any context where the infestation is cyclical, and there are waves of pests that fluctuate throughout the year.
Final Thoughts
There are plenty of game-changing developments in pest control. Some are aimed at making pest control more effective, while others are designed to reduce their toxic footprint.
Traditional pest control has a few drawbacks, including difficulty and delay in detection, toxic chemical use, eradication of useful insects, and difficulty in setting an area of focus for the campaign.
Recent technological developments in pest control have made it possible to use non-toxic pesticides, kill pests with sound and heat, target specific species of pests, and detect infestations in the early stages.
