by Brianna Crandall — March 27, 2015—A new mosquito control program designed to meet cities’ and their residents’ sustainability goals has begun to attract attention from property and facilities managers after more than a dozen towns and one corporation decided to renew the program for this year. Increasingly, municipalities are embracing policies to protect the environment, notes the company.
This year, 13 Illinois towns and a major corporation in the Chicago area and Fulton County, Georgia, have renewed agreements to continue the program developed to reduce environmental impact. The towns are Bannockburn, Deerfield, Fort Sheridan, Highland Park, Highwood, Hinsdale, Lake Bluff, Lincolnshire, Lombard, Oakbrook Terrace, Ravinia, Riverwoods, and Westmont.
The program, called EarthRight, from Clarke, a global environmental products and services company, is said to be the first and only public health mosquito control program that uses two EPA-registered products that are also listed with the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI). That means they can be used in and around organic gardens and farms.
It also minimizes the carbon footprint by using bicycles and Prius cars to transport the crews applying larvicide, along with electric ultra-low volume applicators for adult mosquito treatments.
Natular, the EarthRight larvicide, earned the EPA’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 2010, and was reportedly the first “Reduced Risk” larvicide the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered. It also contains the first new active ingredient for public health in nearly three decades, adds Clarke.
EarthRight also provides Merus, with an active ingredient derived from chrysanthemum flowers. Clarke says it is the first OMRI-listed adulticide for wide-area mosquito control.
Dave Gorman, Lombard’s assistant public works director, calls EarthRight a “sensible” program, noting that there was easy acceptance when Clarke first presented the novel program. He also says the program’s reduced carbon footprint as compared with traditional mosquito control programs “is a nice thing to relate to the public.”
Nationwide, roughly half the states have some sort of sustainable purchasing policy, and 68 percent of counties say they have sustainable strategies underway. Clarke’s EarthRight program can help communities meet their growing sustainability needs, points out the company.
Clarke, a family-owned business now based in St. Charles, Illinois, aims to make communities more livable, safe, and comfortable for families around the world. It does this by pioneering, developing, and delivering environmentally responsible mosquito control and aquatic services to help prevent disease, control nuisances, and create healthy waterways.
