[Problems & Solutions] Does it Matter?

Does it Matter?

The area of inspection is important to our services, and speakers always stress the importance of the identification of pest problems, meaning identifying specific insects, rodents, etc. But why is this so important? Rodenticides kill rodents — insecticides kill insects. We have so many good products that work on a wide variety of pests. Do customers really care what is causing the problem?

Well, this certainly is an interesting question. To answer the last item first, in general, no, I do not think the average homeowner really cares what specific insect or rodent is causing their problem. They probably listen to the technician, then forget what he or she said. For commercial accounts, however, especially food production or storage facilities, I believe they listen more and want documentation for their files. This is an important area to the "corporate guys" (who review the records) and to third-party inspection teams.

Identification of the pest problem has (in my opinion) several important aspects. The first is that the technician knows what the pest is and treats the infestation with the appropriate material in the appropriate areas. True, we do have many products that have labels that include many insects. When looking at those labels you will see many pests listed, then the label is broken down into several sections often discussing a particular group of insects like ants, cockroaches, fleas, perimeter pests, etc. There may be application specifics for those insects rather then one "spray" (think dosage, application rate) gets ’em all.

Next is documentation. Misidentification is a frequent problem. Misidentifying a springtail as a psocid makes quite a difference in terms of control. It also makes a difference when advising customers as to their responsibilities. Placing rodent bait and then killing other non-targets (field mice, voles, cotton rats, etc.) when they are not listed on the label also is a concern. And we have many "look-alike" pests (e.g., confused flour beetle and foreign grain beetle, Anobiid beetle and cigarette beetle, bed bug and bat bug) with different habits. That means different treatments or protocols.

In many cases, service tickets are our documentation. I have seen service tickets that list pests with little boxes to be checked off by the technician. These boxes often conveniently list and group some pests, especially ants and roaches. I have seen "ants" listed as one group or broken into "household ants," "carpenter ants," "outside ants," and cockroaches listed as "Germans" or "others." In this day and age of specialties this is not a good practice. Any ant can be a "household ant" or "outside ant" if that is where it is found. And there are several species of carpenter ants. Yes, I am getting nitpicky here because some carpenter ants do not enter houses. (I guess they are part of the "outside" ant group?)

In addition, identification is important for these insects and others because the public (your customer) has access to a vast array of information (the Internet), which gives them access to many experts at universities who spend their careers specifically studying these insects and animals. The information can be interpreted many ways by the layman.

Also, consider what you want to accomplish in your business. Do you want a technician who is technically strong or one that just kills things indiscriminately because they are there? We do this every day with perimeter control programs because the public expects it of us. Why? Because our industry has taught the public to expect this.

Do customers really want to know what the pest is? I once was summarily "dismissed" by a client’s customer because of my zeal to explain the problem. I didn’t see that they weren’t interested. Imagine an infestation of bugs they wanted to get rid of yet they weren’t interested in my explanation as to the problem! It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last that our customers don’t want to hear the specifics of their pest infestation.

Fax questions to Rambo at 864/654-2447 or via e-mail at grambo@giemedia.com.