Why the urban environmental pest management industry is important:

Why the urban environmental pest management industry is important:
• Pests destroy homes and buildings and their contents; termites alone cause over $2.5 billion in damage annually.
• Pests can transmit as many as fifteen major disease-causing organisms including West Nile Virus, Lyme Disease, malaria, plague, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, hantavavirus, and encephalitis.
• Insect stings force half a million people to the emergency room every year.
• Rodents consume or contaminate about 20 percent of the world’s food supply. They carry fleas and ticks, which potentially carry diseases
• Rodents have also been implicated in fires across the country by chewing wires and spilling flammables.
The size of the industry (2002 estimation):

• 18,425 companies
• Over 125,000 service personnel
• $5.65 billion in annual billing
• Performing over 60 million services a year in the residential and commercial markets

Most people tend to think of pest management in terms of residential problems (mice, termites, fleas, etc.). The importance of the industry to the nations as a whole is much broader.

• Public health officials attribute the quality of life we have today to three things: better pharmaceuticals and vaccines, better sanitation and better pest control.
• Rats bite more than 45,000 people each year. Rats can cause fires by chewing wires and transmit disease organisms such as rat bite fever, salmonellosis, trichinosis, murine typhus, the plague, and leptospirosis.
• According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, more than two million Americans are allergic to stinging insects, more than 500,000 enter hospital emergency rooms every year suffering from insect stings, and between 40-150 people a year die as a result to these stings.
• Without pest management practices pests could destroy more than 50 % of our food crops. Only 11% of the average U. S. disposable income is spent on food and compared to 19.9% Japan and 52.6% China.
• In a recent consumer survey, 93% of people expressed concern over finding insects within their home. According to survey cited by the Army Community Service, insects and bugs rank as the public’s third most common fear, behind public speaking, and heights.
• Seven to eight percent of the general population is allergic to cockroaches. Studies of inner city children in Atlanta with chronic wheezing, runny noseesrevealed that 44% of them were allergic to cockroaches) Recent surveys attribute cockroach allergens as the number three contributor to children’s asthma.
• Cockroach suppression and eradications arevital to health care facilities, homes, and sites where food is prepared or served. Cockroaches contaminate food and spreadfilthby walking through contaminated areas. They commonly carry a staphylococi, streptococcus, coliforms, molds, salmonella, yeasts and clostridia.
• Innovations in pest management parallel an increase in life expectancy A child born in 1900 had a life expectancy of just 49 years which a child born in 2000 had a life expectancy of 79 years.
• In a consumer survey, renters and homeowners were asked about the problems they’ve had with their homes or apartments. The number one problem they cited was insects. In fact, nearly half (45%) of the complaints dealt with insects or rodents in the home.
• It would be difficult to find any segment of the food industry that could comply with federal regulations for sanitation and health without an adequate pest management program.
• Bedbugs have made resurgence in the U.S. primarily due to increased travel as well as new methods employed by our industry to control targeted pests.