Questions & Answers

Q: We offer both monthly and quarterly residential service. On all of our monthlies and many of our quarterlies we often find ourselves at the customer’s home during the colder winter months. I know that it’s probably not a good idea to do power spraying outside at that time and many of our customers don’t have much of an indoor pest problem in the winter. What types of activities can we do that will be valuable to our customer and justify our servicing their property? (R.J.)

A: Great question. We could write an entire article on this, however, due to space limitations, I’ll give your four things I can think of off the top of my head that you can perform in and around your customers’ homes during cold periods.

First, undoubtedly, there are a number of voids in your customers’ home construction. These can be under cabinets in kitchens and bathrooms, under bay windows, in moist walls, under some types of steps or stairways and in attics. Winter months would be an excellent time to provide treatment with long-lasting inorganic dusts. For example, these voids could be treated with boric acid or silica gel dust. These applications could be made from within the house as well as on the exterior.

For example, you may find openings around water faucets, doors and windows that lead into wall voids. These voids could be dusted from the exterior of the home. Be careful, however, because sometimes dusts find their way through openings in the house and out into the living space.

Winter months are also an excellent time (at least inside) to apply caulk to cracks and crevices that are better sealed and eliminated. If it’s not too cold outside or if you warm the caulk to room temperature, you may also be able to do some caulking around the exterior of the structure depending on what part of the country you do business. It is a good idea to have caulk in several colors, as well as clear, so that you can as closely as possible match your customer’s decor.

Another activity that could be performed during colder months but probably should also be done during warmer months is the installation of various monitoring traps. This may be particularly helpful if done near the end of the cold season in anticipation of potential pest activity as the temperature warms. While doing this you may want to draw a map of the structure and indicate the location of the traps.

Another good idea during one of your winter services would be to perform a top-to-bottom and inside-and-out pest management survey on your customer’s structure. This survey would serve as the basis for making recommendations to the home-owner about structural and sanitary situations they may need to address. Many service technicians perform an inspection as part of their ongoing service; however, rarely do most homes get a very thorough and complete inspection. Perhaps a separate form could be used for this once-a-year evaluation of the cus-tomer’s premises. This may even be a good idea to use as a sales or marketing tool for your company.

The above suggestions will certainly keep you busy, although there are a number of other add-on services that some companies are also performing. Examples include changing of HVAC filters, deck refinishing and installing and servicing water treatment or filtration devices.

And before I forget, it may also be an excellent idea that if your residential service customer is also a termite control customer, then one of the cold weather services could also include a very thorough indoor and outdoor inspection for termite activity.

Jeffrey Tucker is president of Entomology Associates, Houston. Questions can be sent to Questions & Answers, c/o Entomology Associates, P.O. Box 70375, Houston TX 77270, or faxed to 713/681-9069.