[On the Road] Home Is Where the ‘Bugs’ Are

Just as no two pests are alike, no two homes are alike. This ever-present circumstance presents unique challenges to pest management professionals involved in residential pest control.

To help pest management professionals gain better results with their residential programs, Whitmire Micro-Gen recently held a series of one-day seminars featuring leading industry speaker and noted entomologist Jeffrey Tucker.

As part of his presentation, Tucker outlined some of the obstacles presented by today’s homes, many of which were constructed by homebuilders more interested in aesthetics than functionality. For example, homebuilders might choose eye-pleasing features without taking into account a region’s climate and environment. These types of decisions often have resulted in homes with structural anomalies conducive to pest problems.

For example, the energy crisis of the 1970s made many experts predict that homes would be built smaller in the future. However, the exact opposite has happened.

The pest control industry also has adapted its strategies, offering services to control a wide variety of pests and innovative packages. For example, from the 1950s to the 1970s, the standard service offerings were rodents, ants and silverfish and the service frequency was generally once a month. Contrast that to today, where pest professionals treat for just about every type of pest imaginable, offering programs with service frequencies ranging from monthly to quarterly to even once-a-year. Tucker said that while today’s residential programs may differ, they all have the same goals.

• Efficiency
• Achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense. (In other words, programs that take into consideration scheduling, time required to perform the service and ease of service performance.)
• Customer satisfaction
• Technologically correct or appropriate
• Reduced impact

MAXIMIZING EFFICIENCY. Tucker said a key to successful residential pest management is spending the proper amount of time in each of a home’s zones: primary, secondary and tertiary. Tucker said technicians should spend the majority of their time inspecting and treating the primary zones, especially the exterior perimeter, noting that almost 95 percent of all residential pest problems originate outdoors. Perimeter pest control focuses on source reduction rather than symptom treatment, and also results in less pesticide use indoors. Since this type of treatment is made outside the house, it can be done so without the homeowner being present, making scheduling and servicing accounts easier.

Within all of the zones, there is both the habitat and micro-habitat. The habitat is the area in which an insect normally lives, while the micro-habitat is the specific location within a habitat where an insect can usually be found and where pesticides should be targeted. Micro-habitats include areas such as weep holes, and Tucker urged pest management professionals to concentrate their efforts on these areas to get the best results from their products and to reduce pesticide usage.

The author is Internet editor of PCT Online.

For More Information

To order a copy of Whitmire Micro-Gen’s 16-page Residential Pest Management Strategy and Treatment brochure, visit www.wmmg.com/training/literature.asp or call 800/777-8570, ext. 1 (for customer service).

You May Already Be Greener Than You Realize

At the Whitmire Micro-Gen Residential Pest Seminar held in Chicago on April 1, the program was presented by Brian Mann, Whitmire SPC education and market development manager. Mann discussed several environmental issues, including the green movement. Mann said that “going green” for pest professionals can involve: 1) Doing your part to support environmental conservation within your business practices; and/or 2) offering service programs that appeal to green-oriented customers.

Mann said that in many ways the pest control industry is well-positioned for the green movement because it has generally moved toward services that involve Integrated Pest Management (IPM). While the term “green” means different things to different people, by and large, green equates to being responsible. Marketing to the green segment does not necessarily require a radical departure. An IPM approach guides responsible choice-making. In fact, the process of decision making is as important as the products used. “Many companies have been knocking themselves out trying to create special programs that they can market as green, but they may already be ‘greener’ than they realize,” Mann said. “It’s time we paused a moment and told our customers how green IPM is.”

Mann discussed relative toxicity of common insecticides compared to various household items to give the audience some talking points when discussing pesticides with customers.

He then discussed the wide range of choices a pest professional is faced with when it is determined that an application is necessary. “Many things factor into both the effectiveness of the treatment and the environmental exposure. It’s not simply choosing one product or active ingredient over another. It’s the complete thinking leading up to and following the application that really matters,” Mann said. Factors may include:

• Quantity applied
• Treatment site (location)
• Formulation of insecticide
• Active ingredient
• Frequency of reapplication
• Purpose (goal) of the application
• Treatment technique

Mann then proceeded to describe several treatment strategies and products that pest management professionals can implement to help them achieve green goals and ended with this simple reminder: “Being green equates to being responsible.”