Residents of Bangalore are increasingly turning to pest control services to end the menace of bedbugs, rodents, cockroaches, mosquitoes and houseflies at their homes. But the trouble starts soon after they avail themselves of the services because its side effect, which is experienced in the form of skin irritation, allergies and suffocation.
However, customers have nobody to turn to to complain as there is no monitoring mechanism for administration of pest control services. Lax regulations and standards in administering chemicals, pesticides and insecticides in homes and office complexes sometimes leave customers in potentially hazardous conditions. A customer, who availed herself of the pest control service about three months ago from a “reputed” pest control agency, said that she felt suffocated, fell down and had to be hospitalised.
“We followed all the instructions given by the pest control agency. But we were inconvenienced because of its side effects. There is a need to bring greater regulation among them so that customers are not duped,” he said.
Queries made by The Hindu among various pest control agencies revealed that many of them were not registered and lacked technical know-how.
V. Murali, who runs Infopest, said that well-known agencies have good technical knowledge. “We generally initiate pest control measures based on insect lifecycle and behaviour. The chemical concentration used for pest control is based on the body weight of the insect. If this is followed, there will be no side effects,” he said.
B.K. Dharmarajan, Director, Department of Agriculture, said that while the inspectors of the Agriculture Department are responsible for approving storing and selling of insecticides and pesticides, they are not responsible for administrating these in households and other spaces.
Nirmala Buggi, in-charge Chief Health Officer, said Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike would obtain a feedback from the public on the pest control services to put in place a system to regulate them.
