Most professional services include various insect and urban wildlife controls programs. Today we can do the same job, with at least 1,000 times less chemicals. University of Florida programs regularly work with builders, regulatory agencies and schools to coordinate integrated pest-management programs aimed to apply methods appropriate to actual need. New building requirements, including removing termite food sources from soil, more efficient and alternate pesticides and termite barriers and more information for homeowners is expected to become part of the new state building codes due to take effect July 1. Six years ago, about 75 percent of Florida schools had contracts to have pesticides applied on regular scheduled whether they needed it or not, Kohler said.
Many homeowners still do that.
Modern programs focus on professional monitoring to see if pests are a problem, rather than randomly spraying.