The infamous “mole hole” is on its way to extinction throughout the United States, thanks to TALPIRID®, a unique mole control product from Bell Laboratories.
Those who have experienced mole problems know that mole damage can mar the beauty of a green landscape. Moles burrow through the soil in their constant search of food. They leave their ugly mark above-ground: grassless brown streaks running through a yard, or small mounds of earth.
Bell Laboratories, a Madison, Wis.-based manufacturer of high-quality rodenticides, knew of the frustration felt by people who had unsuccessfully used baits, sonic chasers, repellents and various home remedies — from flooding and gassing mole tunnels to dropping mothballs or broken glass down the tunnels. So Bell embarked on an aggressive research effort to develop a product that would address the growing problem of moles in residential and commercial landscapes, introducing TALPIRID in 2004.
Bell’s innovative mole bait, featuring fast-acting bromethalin, was carefully designed to kill moles quickly and efficiently, and resulted from more than three years of extensive scientific research. It has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use on lawns, around homes, in parks, golf courses, ornamental gardens, nurseries and non-crop grassy areas.
PCO SUCCESS STORIES
Prior to TALPIRID, Pest Options Inc., located in California’s Orange County, often had gone to the marketplace to find a product to control moles. “We don’t have a huge mole population out here, but there are enough of them to pose an on-going challenge,” says Bryan X. Thompson, vice president of the Anaheim-based pest management company. “We tried a lot of the existing products,” he says, but the moles survived. “Last year, however, we tried TALPIRID and it proved to be the only product that worked for us. And it really worked well.
“Before TALPIRID came on the scene, we began dropping our mole accounts because of our frustration,” Thompson adds. “For us, mole control had been a shotgun approach. We didn’t know which product would work and we didn’t know our costs because we kept trying different products. But now with this Bell product [TALPIRID] we’re growing our business. We’re confident that our clients will appreciate the results. And because we’re regularly using the product we have an excellent handle on our costs.”
He reports that his company has grossed about $10,000 using TALPIRID, “...but the key thing is we no longer have a hole in our ability to service our clients.”
Pest Options offers a wide range of services and TALPIRID has been a “definite addition to our service,” says Thompson. “It helps us to successfully meet our client expectations,” he says.
BAIT ACCEPTANCE IS KEY
According to Steve Levy, Bell’s CEO, TALPIRID has achieved “excellent product acceptance,” because the bait mimics the mole’s natural food choice, the earthworm. “With TALPIRID, as with any bait, acceptance is key to successful control,” he explains.
“The problem with control techniques stemmed from a lack of sound biological information on moles,” says Levy. “To correct that, we embarked on a scientific study of moles with the aim of creating a truly effective mole bait.”
TALPIRID is sized and shaped like an earthworm and is manufactured with special enhancers to ensure attraction and ingestion of the product. The bait also has a feel and stretch similar to earthworms, another component in acceptance. In fact, TALPIRID so closely resembles the mole’s natural food that moles devour it in the same way as an earthworm — clutching the bait with their powerful forepaws and ingesting it.
TALPIRID — FILLING A MARKET NICHE
Nam Kreer, vice president of sales for APM, a pest control company based in Elkton, Md., agrees that mole control with TALPIRID represents an excellent add-on service. His company, which has six branches in Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, has been using the product “with great success” for more than a year.
“It has resulted in a lot of incremental business for us,” he says. “We’ve marketed mole control successfully to our termite baiting customers — about 90 percent of them.
“Once we get the mole contract, our technicians go out and survey the yard for the evidence. The tech returns in about three days, [and] applies the TALPIRID [in the active tunnels] in those spots and places yellow flags there. After a week or so, the tech checks the area.”
Of the 91 mole jobs APM performed last year, only three required additional baiting, according to Kreer. “This year we’re sending out mailers and relying on word-of-mouth marketing. We expect to double our mole revenues.”
Extermital Termite and Pest Control Service in Dayton, Ohio, is another pest control firm that had quit mole control work. But after learning about TALPIRID and using it, the company has begun offering the service once again.
“We’ve had remarkable success at our two branches in Ohio,” says Joe Ferrau, branch manager. “We used it on different sized yards last year in both rural and urban settings. There were some yards where you couldn’t take a step without trodding on an obvious and unsightly mole run. It only took about two to three weeks to resolve their problem.”
Ferrau feels Bell has come out with a highly effective product. “We’re still evaluating it, but we believe that it’s got excellent potential for new business for us. It’s also important for a technician to know about mole behavior and biology. That’s why the training, which we provide to our people, is necessary.”
Peter Pierleonardi, president of PMSI in Ashburn, Va., says he’s used the Bell product with “great success” for the last year and a half, which has caused mole control to become a significant part of his business.
“It’s been a huge selling point to our clients and has helped us grow our customer base,” he says. “We had a hard time with mole calls prior to TALPIRID and didn’t really want to get into it. But we used it initially on a problem account and got rid of their moles in 14 days. Its effectiveness surprised us and we immediately incorporated it into our services.
“The Bell product, as a stand-alone, increased our business by about 20 percent. We find that exciting. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a pest control product enter the market and be an immediate success and show growth. It’s made a huge impact.”
Pierleonardi says his company has incorporated the mole control product into all of their marketing efforts. “We inform our customers and prospects about TALPIRID through the Yellow Pages, our TV and print advertising, and our company literature.”
A HUGE POTENTIAL MARKET
“An estimated 50 million single-family homes and five million businesses are located in mole-prone areas in the United States,” says Bell’s Levy. “TALPIRID has finally given those individuals relief from mole damage.”