Pests can be bad for business. Their presence tends to lower the reputation of any establishment they’re found in. Not to talk of the health risk some pests pose to customers.
However, in a world where we need to be kinder to the environment, resorting to traditional pest control isn’t as eco-friendly. Luckily, integrated pest control is a much safer alternative for the environment and its living things. This article reveals four benefits of IPM for retail properties and shopping centers.
Green Earth Inc. provides environmentally safe beautification services. Contact us for your landscaping and snow removal needs.
What Is IPM?
Integrated Pest Management is an environmentally-friendly pest control method that considers an environment’s ecosystem. Unlike other pest control methods compared to IPM, it uses harmful chemicals as a last resort. Instead, it utilizes methods that solve the pest problem without causing harm to other animals in the environment.
The main thrust of IPM is natural pest control. Methods may involve:
Biological Controls: This means introducing natural predators into an environment.
Mechanical Controls: This method involves adjusting the habitat by including traps, sealing cracks, etc.
Chemical Controls: This type of control is used as a last resort and is applied in specific areas.
Thus, the above methods allow IPM experts to treat a pest problem without causing environmental damage.
In addition, IPM experts follow four core principles when doing their job:
Monitoring: Pest control personnel monitor pest populations and identify the areas in an environment that are most susceptible to pests.
Thresholds: IPM uses action thresholds as a benchmark for measuring the urgency needed to address a pest issue. It considers the pest’s population, in particular, whether its size is big enough to constitute a nuisance or health hazard.
Prevention: This principle involves identifying environmental factors that attract pests. The aim is to prevent pests from showing up by eliminating these factors.
Control: The final core principle of IPM aims to keep pests under control using methods that don’t pose a risk to humans and other living organisms that share the environment.
With the above tenets in mind, let’s see how IPM can benefit retail properties and shopping centers.
Four Benefits of IPM for Retail Properties and Shopping Centers
Here are a couple of benefits you can derive from using IPM for retail properties and shopping centers:
1. Increased Business Reputation
One of the most immediate benefits of IPM for retail properties is a much-needed image boost.
It’s never a good look when your customers can see roaches scurrying around your business establishment. Also, the presence of pests in specific businesses (e.g., restaurants) tends to invite scrutiny from health and safety agencies.
However, when you take care of the problem with IPM, it could turn your business’s image around. Not only will you solve your pest problem, but your establishment will also court a reputation for cleanliness. Customers could come to see it as a place that cares about its customer’s health and safety.
2. Reduced Property Damage
IPM can reduce property damage over time by slowing pests’ resistance to pesticides.
Thanks to natural selection, pests that develop immunity to pesticides due to repeated exposure to them can pass these powers onto their offspring. The result is diminished effectiveness of the chemicals over time and pest generations.
However, because IPM doesn’t use these chemicals copiously, termites, rodents, and other destructive pests can’t develop a resistance to them as quickly. Thus, they won’t birth offspring that can wreak havoc on your business property undeterred by traditional pest control chemicals.
3. Environmentally Safer
Since IPM for retail properties avoids the use of harmful pesticides and chemicals, it’s environmentally safer.
This benefit has two components.
The first is that it can be good for your customers’ health. For example, if you have a pest problem in a restaurant, you won’t have to worry about harmful chemicals ending up in its food and water supply.
In addition, keeping pesticides off the table lowers the risk of harming organisms other than the ones you intend to. You won’t kill plants that beautify your environment and the insects that pollinate them. In other words, IPM can align with your green landscaping efforts.
4. Cost Effective
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledges that IPM can be cost-effective long term.
Initially, IPM for retail properties can seem more expensive than typical pest control. However, unlike traditional methods, it tackles the root cause of the issue.
Typical IPM activities may include sealing cracks through which pests get in and neutering males to reduce birthrates. These measures can help reduce or even eliminate the need for regular exterminator house calls. So even if the upfront cost may seem expensive, you save more money in the long run.
Need Integrated Pest Management Services?
Green Earth Inc. can help. We’re a full-service landscape management and snow service company with three decades of experience serving customers in the mid-Atlantic region. Contact us today for a quote, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!