Pest Control vs. Exterminator: Which is Viking? What is the difference?
If you're like most homeowners, you're undoubtedly familiar with the terms "pest control" and "exterminator" — and you've probably also heard them used interchangeably for years. However, these two terms do not mean quite the same thing, even though they're often used in exactly the same way in conversation and in written material. Let's discuss the difference between the two terms and what they mean to homeowners looking to minimize the number of pests in their homes.
What Is an Extermination Service?
An extermination service kills unwanted pests in a quick and efficient manner, typically, though not always, with heavy applications of commercial products. Although this definitely provides immediate or nearly immediate relief from pest infestations, aggressive solutions to pest problems can result in an unhealthy indoor home environment and can also cause pests to build up a resistance to commonly used active compounds.
The main problem with extermination-first services is that they fail to play the long game necessary for keeping a home consistently pest-free. The time will come when pest populations build up again, leading to another extermination using the same types of products.
What Is a Pest Control Service?
Don't be confused, pest control services are exterminators. They just offer so much more. Pest control involves a multi-tiered strategy to dealing with household pests. Although pest elimination treatments may sometimes play a part in this approach, it's far from the only piece of the overall pest control puzzle. To put an even finer point on things, effective pest control strategies use a system known as integrated pest management.
What Is Integrated Pest Management?
Integrated pest management is a comprehensive pest control approach involving a range of targeted practices designed to work in tandem with one another. Typically an ongoing process, the end goal of integrated pest management is to keep household pests to a minimum or to even eliminate them from the environment on a long-term basis. Benefits of integrated pest management are that the approach is cost-effective, is better for the environment than repeated exterminations, allows for more customized solutions to pest problems for each individual household, and reduces the probability that pests will build up a resistance to the active compounds in commercial treatments
An example of integrated pest management for rodents includes the following strategies:
- Sealing up all possible exterior entry points
- Keeping indoor and outdoor trash contained in rodent-proof receptacles
- Keeping vegetation trimmed near the home exterior to discourage nesting
- Keeping gutters clean to prevent water buildup
- Regular inspection of food preparation areas for signs of rodents
- Conservative use of commercial treatments
- Unique to Viking in our service area, SMART rodent control
Contact Viking Pest Control for More Information
Don't trust the comfort and safety of your household to a single-skill specialist like a pure exterminator. Viking Pest Control takes the kind of nuanced approach that modern homeowners need and appreciate. We bring cutting-edge, non-toxic smart technology to the table in the form of Anticimex SMART, which provides 24-hour monitoring and prevention.
Viking Pest Control has recently been honored by inclusion by The Spruce and Forbes on their lists of leading pest control companies — contact us today to let us show you why.
