Little Bit of Green

The powder post beetle, a typical household pest, may require American consumers to fork out an additional $145 million dollars each year, as a result of new government regulations, one insecticide segment official forecast. The Environmental Protection Agency was hasty in its dispute of this claim, though, saying that government studies have shown that there are several effective alternative treatments that should be available at costs similar to current methods.

Resulting in far greater expenses to treat houses which are infested by the powder post beetle, the EPA’s prior decision to remove one brand of pesticide from the market generally raised costs for consumers, said the vice president of one pest control firm. He remarked that this pest, which is somewhat similar to termites, takes over a projected 140,000 American households per year. The product that was banned used to be the most reliable product on the market, and it only required that it be sprayed one time a year to guarantee the homeowner that the beetles were gone. Since it was banned, the only practice that remains in dealing with the beetle is to fumigate the whole house, although this chemical offered a secure and efficient procedure, he claimed. Pest Control Australia information is only a click away.

So the occupant must flee his house during the time in which it is filled by a chemical gas cloud. Rather than simply paying a small amount of money charged for the typical chemical application, most homeowners with this pest now have to come out of pocket about $1,000 to $2,000. The EPA seems unwilling to concede the point, though, and says that there is another chemical available that should work about as well as the previous treatment for a similar cost.Causing no damage to structure as does the termite, the powder post beetle offers only appearance problems, the spokesman further claimed, concerning this pest.

Even so, the EPA has sanctioned the use of a new substance to battle the problem, pentachlorophenol, which is very similarly priced to the now banned chemical and should also be effective. The American homeowner, therefore, need not anticipate much of an increase, if any, in the cost of this pesticide. Even the company who prduced the banned chemical and some members of the pest control association are in agreement with the findings of the EPA. The testimony can be tied to some hearings the agency held when they were deciding what course of action they would take regarding halting use of the chemical.

Still, many argue that the cost increase to consumers could number in the millions of dollars each year nationwide in the battle to control the powder post beetle. The owner of a local pest control company lamented that his company had successfully and safely used the now banned substance for more than 30 years, and now he is left with little other choice than to inform his customers that if they want to stop powder post beetles they will need to have treatments costing more than $1000. The EPA made their decision founded on incomplete data, he further claimed. He finally went so far as to say that the verdict was a huge error, but the EPA still has not overturned their decision and the trial may continue for several more years.

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