Professional Pest Control Tools

Agricultural Tools

• Pesticides were first used for agricultural pest control to protect food crops from predatory depletion. The bulk sprayers and ground spreaders of those days have developed into safer and more efficient equipment. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations published guidelines for modern pest control machinery in a 2001 report titled, “Guidelines on Minimum Requirements for Agricultural Pesticide Application Equipment.” The section titled, Pesticide Application Technology describes portable applicators, including rotary atomizers, lever-operated knapsack sprayers, motorized mist blowers, hand-held foggers and compression sprayers. Equipment pulled by a tractor includes boom sprayers, which consist of a horizontal row of nozzles for ground treatments, and tree and bush crop sprayers, which are designed to reach the tops of trees and high bushes.

  FAO guidelines also include factors to be considered when using professional pest control tools, such as spray drifts, pressure calculation for maximum coverage and nozzle choices. Safety guidelines also cover the proper assembly and use of portable tools and injury-prevention equipment, especially tractor-towed equipment.

Commercial Dust Sprayers

• The professional pest control tools commercial companies use more often today are dust sprayers. These applicators are safer for both the technician and the environment because spray drifts are less likely and dust can be applied more precisely.

  According to Rick Steinau, a professional exterminator, two main types of dusting tools are hand-operated dusters and power dusters. Hand dusters have a crank that spreads the dust through a front-end dust tube. Power dusters use a rechargeable battery-generated motor to push the dust through the tube. The bulb duster (which has been in use for decades) is a small, squeezable bulb attached to a nozzle with a small opening. This duster penetrates cracks and crevices. Bellow dusters are larger versions of the bulb-type and are used to cover large areas such as attics.

Commercial Liquid Applicators

• Many of the commercial pesticide tools apply liquid chemical solutions. These are used either for outdoor applications on lawns and exterior foundation areas or for indoor floor and crack-and-crevice applications.

  Outdoor sprayers generally have a tank reservoir (30 to 50 gallons), a hose reel, spray hose (100 to 200 feet or more in length), and a spray gun attached to the hose. A small 10- or 20-horsepower motor powers these sprayers, which pump pressure through the system for flea treatments on lawns and for trench-and-treat and rod-and-treat applications of termiticides around building foundations.

  Indoor applicators are often a hand-held pump sprayer with a 5- or 10-gallon tank, spray hose and a wand with a nozzle. The nozzle is either a fan type for the broadcast carpet treatment of fleas or a pin type for the crack-and-crevice treatment of ants, spiders and roaches.