The 5 Steps of GPM®
An effective Green Pest Management® program requires the guidance of a Pest Management Professional. When executed properly, it is a true partnership between homeowners and PMPs that can help manage pest populations in and around your home.
1. Inspection
This is a critical first step that, when performed correctly and with diligence, can get your GPM® program on track. In this phase, your Pest Management Professional will assess your home's risk of infestation. The PMP will identify any existing pests and note cracks, crevices and other points of entry into your home. He will uncover potential food sources, the presence of water sources, and look for signs of existing pest activity. From this, your PMP will develop a prevention plan that can drastically reduce your home’s susceptibility to invasion.
2. Removal of food and harborage
In a chemically oriented approach to traditional pest control, all other steps to discourage and control infestations are ignored in favor of introducing large amounts of pesticides into the environment. In an effective pest control GPM® program, however, pests are first discouraged by creating an environment unsuitable for them. This means removing food and water supply sources (including leaky pipes), compost sites, general yard debris, accessible pet food, garbage and other food sources.
3. Exclusion
During the inspection process, your Pest Management Professional will identify specific areas of vulnerability to pest invasion and create a customized plan for controlling and eliminating any problems without introducing unnecessary chemicals and hazards. Your PMP will maintain a vigilant effort to remove or seal points of entry into your home and keep them sealed. He will help you identify situations such as high moisture areas, overhanging branches or debris piles – which could attract common pests or provide pathways into your home. This ongoing service has a major impact on keeping your home from becoming an attractive living site for common insects, termites and other unwanted pests.
4. Judicious usage of pesticides
Even after a thorough assessment of conditions, development of a management plan and creation of a “pest proofing” program, there may be the need to eliminate an existing infestation. Because in GPM®, pesticide product application is just one part of an effective multi-faceted program, it can be performed with restraint and focus. This means only those pesticides necessary to address your specific problem will be used and only in the locations and quantities necessary. And as much as possible, these eco-friendly products will be specially selected for lower toxicity to people, pets, nontarget pests and the environment in general.
5. Monitoring
The final part of GPM® is an ongoing monitoring program to ensure that your home maintains conditions that discourage pests and to identify the presence of unwelcome pests before they become full-blown infestations.
Protect It
Your family, your home, your health, your life—put them all together and you have your world. With that world come responsibilities, like the need to keep it as safe and sound as you can make it. And one way to do that is to keep your home free from pest infestations. Insects play an important role in the earth’s eco-system, but when insects invade your world and become household pests…it is time for action.
In another time and place, pest management just meant the application of pesticides to eliminate pests. Over the years, pest management has evolved into a more precise science. Leading manufacturers and pest management professionals have been refining products and safe methods in order to eliminate target pests with the lowest impact on non-target pests and the environment. Now many Pest Management Professionals (PMPs) are moving forward to create the next level of eco-friendly pest management. Pest control solutions based on your family and the environment.
Remember, this is your world we’re talking about, and in your world, there are options that can benefit your family. At the top of the list is something called Green Pest Management®, an environmentally sensitive, green solution that can provide the pest protection you want with the earth-centered properties you need to protect your world.
