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A lot of pesticide use on the consumer side comes from pest control companies where people have a recurring service that preemptively sprays the entire yard and
by orev 5y ago
A lot of pesticide use on the consumer side comes from pest control companies where people have a recurring service that preemptively sprays the entire yard and house. The customer just sees that they don’t have bugs, and assumes it’s because the service is working.
For there to be a decline in sales, consumers would need to be purchasing products only in response to an infestation, but with such a service, they aren’t doing that. And the pest control company has no incentive to tell people “by the way, you can cancel the service now because everything is extinct”.
- WalterBright 5y agoI used to use a lawn service, and told them no pesticides or herbicides.
- orev 5y agoI’m talking about pest control services, not lawn (i.e. mowing) services. Depending on where you live, it’s legal to “treat” the entire lawn area preemptively, not just the areas within a few feet of the house. Part of the sales pitch is also “if we treat all your neighbors, then all those bugs are going to come to your yard”. They really have no interest in just pest control; it’s a hard sell to sign up another customer.