With Tick Season Bearing Down, a Greener Defense

After what feels like a year’s worth of winter, New England summers are welcomed as an almost divine respite.

Except, that is, when your weekend hike or garden excursion ends with an itch on your leg or side that you absently keep scratching. Then it gets so intense it’s all you’re thinking about, until you peel everything off and first see it.

You have a tick.

Short of using traditional chemical techniques, the options for dealing with these nefarious arachnids might seem limited. Not so, says Tom Pray, founder Eliot-based Ecotech Pest Control Services.

A degreed entomologist with over 25 years of experience in the industry, Pray launched Ecotech in 2000 with the aim of helping homeowner’s beat back pest problems not just using traditional chemicals alone, but by managing the environment responsible for fostering that very infestation. 

“People much prefer actual, scientifically-backed information over a sales pitch – it just makes them feel more comfortable with you as a business,” says Tom. “Folks have commented that it’s because of that information that they’re empowered to do more themselves to help the program I lay out with them. It’s why we succeed.”

There exist plenty of chemical-dependent methods for reducing one’s exposure to the Lyme disease-carrying critters. However, Pray’s Select TCS “tick boxes” represent an optimal combination of effectiveness and minimal environmental impact.

Designed to eliminate ticks before they become a threat, the system involves a baited box that laces the backs of rodents with a safe treatment – the same chemical found in Front Line, a product well known to any cat or dog owner – targeting and killing the ticks at early stages of development.

“It’s the greenest solution out there by far,” says Tom. “Not only does it not involve spray; it’s more effective than spraying, because rodents run everywhere, and that means you hit a much broader area.”

The tick boxes – which are made from recycled plastic – are specifically design to let in only mice and chipmunks without increasing their ranks.
The Seacoast region of Maine and New Hampshire leads the nation in reported Lyme disease cases per capita and “For people who like to spend a lot of time out in their yard – there’s no better option,” says Pray. “Anyone with a yard has mice or chipmunks in it that will take the bait every time.”

Eschewing alarmism, Tom warns that along with rising cases of Lyme, now we see cases of Babesiosis and Ehrlichiosis, two diseases that are similar. Doing nothing is gambling.

With spring approaching fast a host of unwanted pests are ready to return. From Carpenter Ants to mosquitoes and rodents – The bugman is anxious to get back into the field. Not just to help his growing throng of customers rid themselves of woe and worry; but to show them a better, greener way to do so.

It’s called Integrated Pest Management (IPM), and it’s how Ecotech is fast setting itself apart from the industry pack. Through a combination of customer education –apparent with his engaging, informative website – and environmental consciousness, Tom offers a method of pest control a green breed apart from the competition.

“Using a delicate and strategic treatment application is part of the package, but so is fostering environmental awareness,” exclaims Pray, who recently joined the Portsmouth-based Green Alliance in an effort to promote his business’ unique sustainability efforts. “It’s about actually educating the homeowner and how they can play a major part in prevention.”

That includes ticks. Tom believes they will be active sooner and become more problematic, this spring. Tick boxes are becoming a focal point in Ecotech’s growing business. The boxes are minimally environmentally invasive and they are the only tick control method to protect the yard year round and it does take an army.

“The thing to remember about tick boxes is, when you install them, you’re not fighting them alone,” says Pray. “The mice and chipmunks out there – those are your troops. So recruit them!”

EcoTech Pest Control is a Business Partner of Green Alliance, a Portsmouth-based organization that seeks to connect green-minded consumers with the businesses doing their part to lessen their environmental impact.

Learn more about EcoTech at www.ecotechpc.net

For more information on Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz