Pestworld Magazine Focusing on the Business of Pest Management
The Professional Pest Management Alliance encourages industry participation to raise consumer awareness of the health and property threats rodents pose.
This October 17-23, 2021, is Rodent Awareness Week, an annual designation established by the Professional Pest Management Alliance (PPMA) and recognized by Chase’s Calendar of Events, to promote public knowledge of rodents and the dangers they present to home and health. PPMA, which serves as the public outreach arm of the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), also uses this week to encourage homeowners to work with a qualified pest control professional to address rodent issues.
Recently, PPMA conducted over 1,000 online interviews with homeowners in the interest of understanding similarities and differences across Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers related to pest control needs and perceptions. The study showed that when aided, homeowners quickly make the connection between pest control professionals and protecting both public and family health. Yet less than 40% of homeowners across all generations will call a professional if they find several rodents in their home. PPMA wants to move that needle.
“Rodent Awareness Week presents a unique opportunity for pest control companies to unite behind a timely and pertinent campaign” said Cindy Mannes, executive director of PPMA. “It is imperative that we continually educate the public about the property and health risks associated with rodents when they invade people’s homes and businesses and that we urge them to call a professional instead of attempting to handle a mouse or rat problem on their own.”
Rodents are top of mind for consumers during the fall months. According to PPMA’s Living Survey using its artificial intelligence research, there was over 1.2 million online engagements on the topic of rodents in November of 2020, a 27.9% increase from October of 2020. Rodents were also a top concern as a health and home issue in November 2020, with over 266,000 engagements on the topic.*
During this Rodent Awareness Week, PPMA, will devote all @PestWorld social media pages to address these persistent pests, highlighting its Rodents Revealed microsite and consumer site, PestWorld.org. The group is also working on a new consumer campaign featuring rodents that will be revealed in October. PPMA is asking all pest control companies to join in this awareness initiative by focusing their social media content on rodents throughout the week and to use the hashtag #RodentAwareness in all posts.
PPMA has created an exclusive Rodent Awareness Week toolkit available for Mainframe subscribers to download on PPMAMainframe.org. The toolkit includes a customizable press release, suggested social media content, Rodent Awareness Week logos, high-resolution photography, media training documents as well as a list of video content that can be directly embedded on a company’s website.
For more information about PPMA, its marketing programs or how to get involved in supporting these important consumer education programs, please visit http://www.NPMApestworld.org/PPMA.
*Online engagement findings are a result of research conducted by Advanced Symbolics Inc.
About the Professional Pest Management Alliance
The PPMA was founded in 1997 to grow, promote and defend the pest management industry. For more than 20 years, PPMA has served as the voice of the industry and continues to proactively provide the public with information and education on the value of professional pest management through its media relations, public service announcement, advertising and online communications programs it conducts on behalf of the National Pest Management Association. It actively manages the consumer website, PestWorld.org, and social media channels as @PestWorld on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. For more information, please visit PPMAMainframe.org or NPMAPestWorld.org/PPMA.
About the National Pest Management Association
The National Pest Management Association (NPMA), a non-profit organization with nearly 5,000 members from around the world, was established in 1933 to support the pest management industry’s commitment to the protection of public health, food and property. This commitment is reflected both in the continuing education of pest management professionals and the dissemination of timely information to homeowners and businesses. For more information, please visit NPMAPestWorld.org.
