[Technically Speaking] Winning the tick-tac-toe game

If you have not performed pest management services in a commercial office or apartment building you may not appreciate the significance of winning the tick-tac-toe game. However, for those companies and technicians servicing these accounts, winning this game is imperative to solving pest problems and avoiding costly callbacks.

ROOT OF THE PROBLEM. When servicing these types of facilities, we tend to focus on the complaint and frequently overlook the root of the problem. In an effort to cut costs, property owners and management companies frequently contract for services that include inspection and treatment of common areas and called-in complaints. This is of particular concern in apartment buildings when only some of the tenants experiencing pest problems willingly report them to management and request service.

There are many reasons tenants are reluctant to report pest problems.

• They don’t want management and/or a pest management technician in their unit.

• Their perception is that they don’t have a pest problem — when in fact hundreds if not thousands of bugs are present.

• They perceive that pest problems reflect on their personal hygiene and living conditions — and sometimes they do.

• They are not complying with the lease, e.g., unauthorized pets, too many occupants, etc.

Unreported and unaddressed pest problems lead to a potential infusion of pests from adjoining areas. This is particularly important when dealing with cockroaches, ants, mice, rats and most recently the resurgence of bedbugs.

Pest management professionals and property managers literally need to start thinking outside the box when pest problems persist in a given unit. A pest problem in an apartment or office space frequently involves as many as eight other units, i.e., those surrounding the central unit reporting the problem.

Many of us tend to think in one dimension, i.e., what is going on either side of the problem area, and neglect to think about what may be happening directly above, below or diagonally in relationship to the affected area. Apartment and office buildings frequently share common walls that house pipe, electrical and more recently cable chases. This allows pests to move freely from one unit to another in multi-dimensional planes.

The most likely areas for this to occur are common walls between kitchens and bathrooms. It is not unusual to inspect kitchen base cabinets that have gaping holes in them resulting from a plumbing repair. While you can’t see into the adjoining unit you can rest assured that pests can readily find that opening into the next unit to expand their range or escape treatment.

Individual hot water and steam heating units have common pipe chases that run vertically and horizontally in buildings. We find this to be one of the most frequent highways for mice to move throughout office and apartment buildings. Sometimes these units have air exchanges to the outside of the structure that permit insects and small rodents easy access into the building, particularly as winter approaches.

WHAT TO DO. Following are some methods to overcome these problems.

• Building-wide inspections. We have found this strategy to be extremely effective in resolving bedbug, cockroach and mouse problems in apartment buildings. Useful information can be obtained from the building-wide inspection, e.g., extent of the pest infestation, number of people living in the unit, presence of pets, number of beds, structural issues, level of sanitation and degree of clutter. I am extremely reluctant to rely on management to conduct this inspection. This is a job for an experienced pest management technician and a charge for this service is appropriate.

• Rotary service of all units, preferably twice per year. Many property managers are reluctant to request this type of service, believing that it will save them money. In the short run perhaps this is true; however, down the road undetected problems persist and it costs more to resolve the problem, not to mention lost revenue from disgruntled tenants or responding to housing violation complaints. This type of service assures the inspection of each unit twice per year for conditions previously mentioned that contribute to persistent pest problems.

• Avoid use of repellent insecticides and flushing materials. This has become a significant problem with the recent increase in bedbug infestations. Many of us have learned through experience and hard knocks that applications of some pyrethroid insecticides cause bedbugs to spread to adjoining apartments, making control much more difficult.

• Caulking, sealing and clutter removal reduce movement in structures and eliminate the protection offered by cracks and crevices and untreatable objects. Today, one of the most common problems in commercial buildings is retrofitting for telephone, computer and TV cable. Typically, cabling companies open gaping holes laterally and vertically in structures allowing pests, particularly mice, to exploit areas previously inaccessible to them. Furthermore, their concept of sealing these openings falls far short of what is required to prevent pest movement.

When these common-sense practices are ignored by property managers and owners, it is imperative that we play the tick-tac-toe game until we win.

The author is technical director of American Pest Management, Takoma Park, Md. He can be reached at 301/891-2600 or via e-mail rkramer@giemedia.com.