All materials leave a residual.  A residue from being applied. From the glass cleaner you use on your mirrors, to the detergent you wash your clothes in, to the minerals in your drinking water- there is a minute trace left behind.

That is one of the main reasons why we use super low toxic control materials. Our materials generally have little or no odor, no fume, and no vapor. They are less toxic than most household cleansers, even before they are diluted with water.

Residue can be a good thing. Most pests do not all die instantly with one application. Most pests are in a home because they are nesting, from roaches, to carpet beetles, to ants, or rodents. They come to our houses for food and somewhere to live.

Carpet beetles can take a year to complete their life cycle in the cracks and crevices of your home. Fleas can take up to a month to hatch out of their pupal cases - longer if in an area you don't frequent. Carpenter ant workers can live up from 8 to 10 years. So there are plenty of reasons to use a control material with some residual activity.

In fact, one of the biggest drawback to most 'natural' or natural based control materials is the fact they have such little residual activity that they don't last long enough to control an infestation, requiring that your apply and re-apply - a lot, so that your actual exposure to them is much higher.

To lower your exposure to any chemical in your living area we do have some great suggestions: 

1.  Visit our page on pest prevention and lower your homes attractiveness to pests. This wont keep you from ever having pest problems - but it will make it less likely, and make your pests easier to control, with less pesticide, if you get pests.

2.  Work with us to formulate a control plan the minimizes your exposure to residual materials if you have a concern - but understand that some pests may take longer to control with restrictions and some warranties may be compromised.

3.  Consider a quarterly exterior control program with our super low toxicity control materials. If the pests are eliminated before they get in - there is no need to apply on the inside.

4. Many of our customers are turning to a regular quarterly program of professional inspection, pest prevention, and prescriptive application - further reducing the need or use of pesticides. The application of pesticides is only one aspect of pest control.

A final note about residue:

You have probably seen pesticides advertized on TV, with products that claim to last anywhere from a 'season' to a year. If these materials are available, and they work, why don't we, the professionals, use them?

We have access to the same materials - in better formulations, that work longer and control more pests than the same materials sold to homeowners, but we don't get the claimed results.

In laboratory conditions, many materials can last for really extended periods of time.  There is no sunlight - the biggest single destroyer of pesticide residues. Also, in laboratories, since you control the tests, you can set the bar for what you consider effectiveness. If you seal the material for a year, so there is no air flow to it, no sunlight, no rain, and the chemical isn't applied to concrete wich conatines lime and other chemicals which breakdown pesticides, and it kills one ant out of a hundred that live on it for a week - is it really effective for homeowners for a full year? Not hardly.