Hi ,

The pest control industry, like many others, was hit hard by the pandemic in 2020. The shuttering of hotels, office centers and restrictions on access to residential buildings made pest control often nearly impossible to effectively implement. However, 2021 is poised to be a year of growth for pest control as businesses slowly recover across the country. We are committed to providing the industry the resources needed to succeed in expanding your bed bug service offering portfolio and growing your bottom line. To do that, we are relaunching The Bed Bug Authority, your quarterly guide on bed bug related issues with a focus on effectively and sustainably making bed bug prevention a reality.

This month’s edition of The Bed Bug Authority will discuss with Allergy Technologies’ President Joseph Latino what prevention truly means in today’s world where products are sometimes associated with ‘unclear’ marketing claims. In addition, we will discuss bed bug prevention in context of legal liability for pest control operators. Finally, we preview an upcoming PCT Bed Bug Supplement featuring a paradigm shift for bed bug control in affordable housing…where prevention replaces the reactive approach.

by Joseph Latino

The buzz word ‘prevention’ is always on the lips of progressive and successful pest management professionals. The business paradigm of adopting a preventive strategic approach rather than a remediative one has proven over time to be the most effective and sustainable approach to combating pests. Prevention protects your customer and enhances PMP’s bottom line growth by minimizing unforeseen events and streamlining labor utilization. Simply stated, a satisfied customer is a retained customer. When coupled with enhanced labor deployment, PMPs can enjoy significantly increased net revenue allowing for expansion of their client base without incurring increased labor costs.

However, the implementation of prevention requires the usage of products that are labelled appropriately. How many times have we heard, “the label is the law?” As an example, for a product targeting bed bug control desiring to have a label claim of prevention, data must support this attribute, as defined by the manufacturer. While ‘stopping’ an introduction is likely remote, prevention of the establishment of an infestation is a candidate claim. Data needs to be generated that evidences use of the product, preferably in field trials, prevents infestations from developing. Study design could compare usage of the product with an untreated parallel environment or compared against historical frequency of infestations in absence of the product’s usage. The duration of the study dictates the duration of the preventive claim. For example, a study of six months in duration should only be expected to derive a 6-month preventive claim. These data are submitted to the EPA for review in consideration of allowed inclusion on the product’s label. If permitted at the federal level, registration for sale of the product with a label’s preventive claim in the fifty states requires each state’s approval.

Only those products that have extraordinarily long residual activity, low environmental impact and documented excellent human compatibility represent candidate products for assessment as a potential preventive. Frankly, products with three months residual activity or less are likely not useful in prevention as their re-application requirements and related expense preclude their practical use in the field.

However, products today often use their ‘residual claim’ of activity as a ‘loose’ marketing claim misconstruing it for prevention.   Residual activity confers single application of a product and the subsequent length of time it can effectively control the target pest. It was not intended to represent the application of the product in absence of the pest but rather to control a present pest or in some instances when the target pest has a high degree of likeliness to be introduced. Residual activity is neither synonymous with a preventive labeling claim nor intended to circumvent use instructions allowing for widespread application to attain prevention. However, this distinction remains a grey area of the law pertaining to pesticide application. Generally, broad application of a pesticide in anticipation of a pest unless labeled as a preventive, is not consistent with the spirit of an integrated pest management strategy.

What is key here is that each individual state has its own guidelines as to the application of a product for use as a preventive. Some states are liberal in interpretation whereas others are stricter in their enforcement. Swab tests performed by state or local environmental officials indicating presence of a pesticide not documented to be in response to a target pest may result in sanctions including financial penalties.

Bottom line…prevention is transformative and the best way forward in pest control...just be aware of the regulated products you choose!

 

Controlling bed bugs in affordable housing has long been considered one of the most difficult tasks for any pest control manager. Bed bug infestations are, to be frank, an extremely difficult problem to effectively resolve with a very high-risk component for failure. One of the main results of this heightened risk is the threat of legal action. To put this risk into perspective, consider the following simplified example. A tenant sues their landlord for a persistent bed bug problem that has not been resolved through repeated application of an ‘old-school’ remediative approach. Regardless of a host of other mitigating factors, the tenant, or even the landlord, may look for relief by suing their pest control operator for not resolving their bed bug problem.

Prevention is the best strategy to adopt in controlling bed bugs BEFORE they become a major infestation, and to protect yourself from litigation. Here is a recent article from Whitney, LLP, a law firm that specializes in bed bug infestations in Maryland. The article describes the scenario above, where two tenants received a $135,000 settlement, even though the landlord hired a pest control company. While the landlord has an obvious disclosure issue for lack of reporting previous bed bug activity in that residence, the pest control company may be vulnerable from lawsuits from both tenant and the landlord for ineffectual remediation.

As Jeffrey Lipman, Consumer Class Action Bed Bug Litigator writes, “Reactive based measures alone, however implemented, […] is an ancient and ineffective way of dealing with bed bugs in hotels and will assuredly create legal peril for hotel property owners.” Although Lipman’s advice is geared towards the hospitality industry, the same holds true for the pest control industry. Additional defendants, in this case the PMP, are typically brought in to increase potential award amounts. This scenario and financial consequences are magnified even further in class action lawsuits.

Upcoming PCT Bed Bug Supplement Announcement

Keep an eye out later this month for PCT’s newest Bed Bug Supplement, “Novel Bed Bug Strategy,” a deep dive into the ATAHC Program. Developed by Allergy Technologies, the ATAHC (Allergy Technologies’ Affordable Housing Control & Prevention) Program, (pronounced “attack”) is a collaborative prevention-based program that targets the entire living community instead of targeting individual units. The upcoming PCT release discusses the program in detail, shares data on program efficacy and discusses how ATAHC creates a new business opportunity for pest control companies seeking to increase their bed bug line of business.

If you would like additional information on the ATAHC Program, contact Allergy Technologies at info@allergytechnologies.com or at (866) 978-6288 to learn more.

ActiveGuard Mattress Liners are covered under U.S. Patents 5,916,580, 6,214,365, 6,440,438 and pending patents. ActiveGuard's formulation represents a unique and proprietary delivery system that offers sustained bioavailability of permethrin for two years.  Allergy Technologies is a subsidiary of A. Carey Co. LLC, which focuses on using philanthropy as a core business strategy for its businesses. Through its Philanprofit (SM) strategy, a portion of all ActiveGuard proceeds go to help fund inner-city homeless and women's shelters and asthma clinics.

ActiveGuard Mattress Liners kill bed bugs. Newest research supports that after short exposure to ActiveGuard of only 10 min, bed bugs regardless of their level of resistance, begin to show significant reductions in feeding (biting) and a dramatic inability to lay eggs. Real world consequences of this data include discontinuation of population growth thereby halting progression of an incident to an infestation.

If you are seeking a pro-active preventative approach, ActiveGuard should be considered as the centerpiece of your long term solution to keep bedding from being infested! As part of a comprehensive strategy for treating an active bed bug infestation, ActiveGuard is an excellent choice for use as the final step in treating the mattress and box spring sleeping area. These liners' two-year ability to keep on killing bed bugs provides for continual prevention and control against any adult bed bugs, nymphs or eggs missed during initial treatment and any bed bugs re-introduced after treatment has been concluded.

Please add info@allergytechnologies.com to your contacts to ensure the receipt of this e-newsletter on a regular basis.