Pest Control

When you think of pest control, you are probably imagining hunting down that annoying housefly and swatting it with the nearest available weapon.  Actually, pest control refers to a whole lot more.

The sign that shows a dead cockroach on that truck you see with all the sprayers is not telling the full truth.  This industry is about pest control or management not eradication.  The idea behind pest control is to keep the numbers of the little critters to a comfortable few.  If that is not possible, the job is to at least to keep them away from us.

The current structure of pest control is much more complex when taken with the modern idea of manageable numbers or distribution management.  And it is not about coming up with a stronger pesticide or finding a way to apply it directly to their home base.  Managing the numbers is still a throw back to pest elimination through whatever means necessary but now much more emphasis is put on eliminating them without eliminating us.  This is accomplished through such exotic methods as implementing bug 'birth control' and getting bigger, friendlier creepy-crawlies to take out the less-desirables.  There is also the idea that you are somehow to blame and we should not take it out on our fellow planetary inhabitants.  Take ants for instance.  We all know there are always going to be more of them than there are of us.

Taking them down one at a time with a hammer as they crawl across the floor heading towards your food supply is not going to work.  So, we need to employ professional pest managers.  These people no longer come out smelling like vile chemicals, but with something resembling organizational charts.  You cannot eliminate the ants.  You need to keep them out of your house.  If you cannot do that, steer them away from the kitchen.  If they breach that line of defense, protect the cookie jar at all costs.  If all else fails, consider changing from chocolate chip to a recipe that is less attractive to ants.

They call this "Redefining and redesigning management systems that meet the demands of preventative management".  Now that is real 21st century pest control.  But if you have ever had the local ant colony seeking a drier place to set up shop when three days of rain has turned their outside environment soggy, you know this kind of management might not be successful.  Your kitchen cabinets are fortresses that can always be breeched.  The experts are not going to desert you.  They will lead you through the "design and management of systems that meet real needs".

This approach requires "clarification of priorities, values, resource conservation, and increased production".  In other words, if you can't beat them, join them.  How bad can a cookie taste with a couple of ants anyway?  Besides, whacking a poor defenseless any with a hammer is barbarian.  Some of us using prefer the 'big toe.'