towards zero pests

that's what it says on Health & Environment @ eCitizen.

fair enough until you see what are listed as pests on some of those pest control websites: Ants . Bats . Bees . Beetles . Birds . Butterflies . Caterpillars . Cats . Centipedes . Cockroaches . Crickets . Earwigs . Fleas . Flies . Maggots . Mice . Millipedes . Mites . Mosquitoes . Moths . Rodents . Scorpions . Silverfish . Snakes . Spiders . Termites . Ticks . Wasps . Weevils . Worms

NEA lists mosquito, cockroach, fly, rat/rat flea & termites as the common disease carrying pests (vectors), but seems like these pest control companies will catch anything that people complain about.

particularly worrying: "In line with our mission statement, _______ aims to be (the best) when it comes to being environmentally safe with the use of non-hazardous substances for human and animals wherever possible." wherever possible?

perhaps it is unfair to see pest control companies as the bogeyman when all they are doing is fulfilling a demand (that just doesn't go away) and picking up someone else's dirty work. but their role as a point of final condemnation is cast over and over again. spot this example of a notice on NUS Eusoff Hall General Office News & Notices: Cat Found!! Will the rightful owner of this cat please claim it back from the Hall Office immediately. Please note that if the cat is not claimed by today at 4 pm, it will be given to the Pest Control Company. Please be reminded that residents are not allowed to keep pets in the Hall. In this issue, the owner of the cat will be fined for breaching the Hall's rule.

so either the cat goes with the bogeyman or you get it back with a fine. not sure about you but to me, a person who writes with such methodical dullness is either a nazi or a dead-end administrator. did the owner make the right choice in the end? i hope so. you would think higher education institutions would possess higher ideals, but of course not. the other big local university in town spots the same sweeping cat control policy but in their case, they had enough indignant staff and students to start their own cat cafe to ensure the welfare of the strays on their campus. the world certainly needs more of these people and less dead-end administrators.

but pest control as an industry is here to stay. perhaps to stop the trend of lumping cats with the rest of the vector pests, someone from this side of the fence should start a stray control company dedicated to solving the problem and not the animal, one that possesses more skills then netting and exchanging an AVA acceptance form for a TC pay cheque. they could starve but the world is certainly not saved by fat bottom-line driven men who drive mercedes benz.