[Anesta Jones] 
Hello, and welcome to 
EPA's "Green Scene,"
an environmental podcast 
you can take with you.
I'm Anesta Jones of the Office 
of Public Affairs.
Spring is the time of year when 
many people shop for pesticide
products to use in their homes 
and on their lawns and gardens.
The good news for consumers 
and the environment is that
there are greener, reduced-risk 
pesticides on the market
to control pests.
Green gardening, however, 
requires planning carefully,
and taking action early, to 
prevent pest-infestations.
Joining me today to 
talk about safer and
greener pest management 
is Tom Brennan,
of EPA's Office of 
Pesticide Programs.
Tom, welcome to the show.
[Tom Brennan] 
Thanks, it's great to be here 
to talk about such a fun topic.
[Anesta Jones] 
Let's start with the benefits:
what is EPA's role in promoting 
healthy lawns and landscapes?
[Tom Brennan] 
Well, there are a lot of 
benefits to healthy
lawns and landscapes.
I mean, first, it's a great 
hobby that millions of
Americans, including myself, 
enjoy very much.
And it's an opportunity to get 
out in the yard and do
a little stress relief, get 
a little exercise.
And healthy landscapes can 
increase your property
value and your community appeal, 
and studies have shown
that work environments that 
are properly landscaped
actually increase productivity, 
which is nice.
In addition, there's a lot of 
environmental benefits from
these landscapes, as well, 
including being a home
for different kinds of wildlife, 
and a great habitat for birds
and backyard critters; and also 
urban and suburban centers
often hold a lot of heat in 
the summertime with their
impervious surfaces like 
streets and buildings,
and driveways and parking lots, 
and these landscapes could be
a buffer to those 
heat problems.
And that can often show during 
summer thunderstorms, where
warm water will go into surface 
waters, and can be quite
detrimental to the aquatic 
environment.
So healthy lawns, you know, 
they sequester carbon,
and it's good for the air and 
the water, and it's good
for your property values.
At the EPA, we have a 
partnership program called
the pesticide environmental 
stewardship program,
and with that program we partner 
with major users of pesticides,
like the pest control industry, 
or even the golf industry,
and try to find people who are 
using these products in lawns
and landscaping, and promote 
healthy choices
with integrated pest management.
Integrated pest management is 
not really a method or a
product, it's more like a 
technique or a decision
logic for making good 
choices with IPM.
Some of our partners include the 
National Pest Management
Association, and that group 
represents pest control
operators, and the kinds of 
people that would
come to your house when you 
have a pest problem;
includes Golf Course 
 Superintendents
Association of America, and 
they're -- they represent
superintendents, who have a 
lot of choices to make
about their inputs on golf 
courses; and also, we have
partners with the IPM Institute 
of North America,
and that group educates 
consumers on how
to choose integrated pest 
management; and finally,
the Audubon International, which 
is an organization dedicated
to promoting wildlife 
opportunities in
communities and golf courses.
So we're really proud of our 
partnerships, and we've got
a great roster of partners.
[Anesta Jones] 
What happens if a consumer, 
like you and I, decide
they want to go the green route 
in getting rid of pests?
What should they do?
[Tom Brennan] 
At the Office of Pesticide 
Programs, we register all of 
the pesticides that are made 
available to the public, so by 
law we're not allowed 
to recommend any one product 
over another. 
But we do like to recommend 
integrated pest management as 
a philosophy for addressing your 
pest problems at your house. 
And the first step of that, 
really, is the concept 
of having a threshold. 
So, Anesta, one ant will not 
ruin a picnic, you know that.  
So you kind of have to 
have a concept of when
you even need to bother
to do this.
I mean, if you have a beautiful 
lawn, and you have
a little bit of clover in your 
front yard, I mean,
for some people that won't be 
that big a deal.
Now, everyone has to make their 
own choice of what they
are going to tolerate and 
what their threshold is,
but understanding that for you 
is really the right first step.
Next, you really need to monitor 
the potential pest problems
and try to identify what 
pests you have.
If you need help with that -- 
and it's not always easy
when you're looking at, you 
know, at bugs and insects,
but if you need help with 
that you can check
with your local garden 
center for advice.
The third part is really one 
of the most important parts,
and that's prevention.
A lot of people don't realize 
that even in a really
well-maintained house and 
space, that there are
a lot of opportunities for 
pests to enter into your
home environment; around the 
windows, maybe you haven't
properly used caulking; or 
doors, with door sweeps
that don't quite touch 
the ground.
I mean, ants and mice and other 
things that you don't want in
your house can come through 
remarkably small spaces.
So doing a good search 
of your property
and trying to understand where 
the pest opportunities is,
is really smart.
And then finally, if you are 
going to use pesticides,
it's really important that you 
read the label and understand
how to use the product, 
and that you also
apply some common sense as well.
For instance, if you had an ant 
problem that you wanted to
treat, and you're able to see, 
you have one or two ant hills
in your back yard, you wouldn't 
have to spray the whole yard,
you could just spot treat right 
where the problem is,
and that would have less of an 
environmental footprint,
and it would take care 
of the job.
[Anesta Jones] 
Are these just best 
practices that you
only can use in your home?
[Tom Brennan] 
Well, they're useful at the 
home, but of course
you can use these in parks, at 
golf courses, at schools,
in office buildings; these same 
techniques are transferable
over a lot of different fields.
[Anesta Jones] 
Speaking of ants, as it 
gets warmer outside,
you're noticing them more, 
they're more annoying.
How can people get rid of pests 
in a safe and effective way?
[Tom Brennan] 
Yeah, this is definitely 
the time of year when
ants are trying to get in your 
house, and other critters
are getting more active.
Ants are usually pretty easy, 
because ants go in straight
lines, they're looking for food 
and water, and they're taking
it back to their mound.
So knowing that, if you see 
an ant in your kitchen,
rather than just spray 
them, I mean,
a little bit of detective work 
will tell you a lot.
They're probably coming in under 
a door or through a window
crack, so finding where they're 
coming in is important.
And if you know that they're 
looking for food and water,
taking care of that around your 
kitchen so you're not
leaving food and water out is a 
great way to handle it.
One way someone told it to me 
was, if you have a pet,
you give it food and water; if 
you have a pest, and you're 
providing food and water, you're 
actually inviting this ant
in like it's welcome in your 
house, just like a pet.
So take care of the 
food and water.
And some other things that you 
can do besides prevention is
if you do decide to use a 
chemical treatment 
for whatever reason, let's 
say you want to -- 
you have a cockroach problem 
in your kitchen 
and you want to take care of it. 
Choosing things like baits 
versus sprays might be a
wise first choice, because 
they'll probably minimize 
exposure, and they're still 
pretty effective.
So even within 
using pesticides, 
you really have to do 
the right things. 
Like, always read the label 
first on a pesticide.
I mean, you spent the money 
to buy the product,
you've identified a problem, 
you want it to work, 
the label will have instructions 
on how it works 
and how much you're 
supposed to use. 
I mean, plus, you want to be 
safe around your house,
you know, for yourself, and for 
those of us who have kids
and pets, and our property, we 
want to do it correctly. 
So reading the label first 
is an absolute must 
first step before you 
use any chemical.
[Anesta Jones] 
Tom, let's go outside, 
the weather's nice. 
Everyone wants a green lawn and 
a healthy flower garden.
Can they do this using organic 
type practices?
[Tom Brennan] 
Yeah, It seems like everyone 
is going green these days. 
Even the Obamas, one of our 
newest neighbors here
in D.C., they started an organic 
garden at the White House. 
And that's been fun, it's 
gotten a lot of press,
and I'm sure they'll get a 
lot of good food.  
And a lot of people, really, 
organics is associated
with food production. 
But I think those same 
techniques have some
transferability over to 
gardens and landscapes.
One way to know you're buying 
an organic product 
is to make sure it's been -- has 
a logo on the label 
of the National Organic Program, 
which is from the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
or the OMRI Institute, 
which is the Organic Materials 
Review Institute. 
So if it has those logos, you 
know you're buying organic.
But there are still other 
things that you can do
that are green that 
aren't organic. 
One of the best things you can 
do is build soil health. 
Soil is really the foundation 
of all the plant growing,
and healthy soil is going to 
equal healthy plants 
and less pest pressure.   
You can do this with mulch, and 
proper mulching and compost.
And also, a lot of suburban 
and urban yards are really
compacted, and breaking that 
up -- I highly recommend,
if you haven't done it in a 
couple years, aerate 
your lawn; it's a great way to 
let more oxygen into the soil, 
and to loosen it up, and 
to have it hold water better. 
So that's one great 
way to do it.
In addition to that, 
picking plants 
that match your environment is
really critical.   
In my house, I have a 
combination of some things 
that are very sunny and some 
that are shady, and matching 
plants to those environments is 
really important. 
And some people even try to 
go with native plants. 
And this country is so broad -- 
we have desertscapes,
we have sub-tropical and 
temperate areas, 
there's so much diversity.   
And one of the newest trends is 
to have your yard match the 
environment, and to use local 
plants and local styles, 
and it can be very pretty, and 
if someone's thinking about 
starting over and doing 
something different, 
I would recommend they 
look into that.
[Anesta Jones] 
Let's say a consumer wants to 
forego doing this themselves, 
and they want to hire a company 
that has green practices. 
What should they look 
for as a consumer, 
and what should the 
company tell them? 
[Tom Brennan] 
Well, they should definitely be 
asking a lot of questions. 
I mean, get engaged in the 
process, and really work
closely with the technician 
that comes out.
Some of the things you should 
ask them right up front is if
they use integrated pest 
management practices.
That's becoming much more 
common, and those practices 
help lead to the appropriate 
amount of chemical use, 
by replacing it with common 
sense and some things 
you can do to prevent pests from 
moving in the first place. 
So feel empowered to ask 
questions, talk to the 
person about what they're 
seeing at your yard, 
and the choices that 
they're making.
Find out if there are other 
things you can do besides
chemical approaches to 
deal with the problem.
Educate yourself on 
how to solve it.
And then, finally, if they 
do recommend a pesticide
treatment, find out what the 
pesticide is, ask questions,
ask about exposure to you and 
your family and your pets, 
and just get some good advice.  
[Anesta Jones] 
Tom, thank you for 
being here today. 
[Tom Brennan] 
Thank you. 
[Anesta Jones] 
Now, we all can practice green 
and safe practices around the 
home and in the garden. 
For more information on EPA's 
integrated pest management 
and pesticide programs, go to 
www.epa.gov/pesticides.     
See you next time 
on "Green Scene."