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Columbus, Ohio — Pest management professionals from around the Midwest gathered last week in Columbus and Chicago to hear from noted rodent expert Bobby Corrigan, who gave an eight-hour presentation about practical rodent biology and how such knowledge can help pest management professionals solve rodent infestations for their clients.
The PCT Rodent Seminar Series was held on Nov. 6 in Chicago and Nov. 8 in Columbus. Atlantic Paste & Glue, Bell Labs and Liphatech were sponsors of the event.
The house mouse is the second most successful mammal on earth behind humans, Corrigan said. And while the pest management industry has a wide array of successful products from which to choose, the key is using those products, including baits and traps, in the correct spots. “Throwing a packet of bait anywhere is an insult to that animal,” Corrigan said.
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To show how quickly mice can reproduce and turn into huge problems for customers, Corrigan said in the past year, in six weeks he personally removed 762 mice in one restaurant; in three weeks he removed 2,260 mice in one supermarket; and in four weeks he removed 5,439 mice in one grocery store distribution center. “Each of these had a pest control company that was servicing these accounts for several years,” he said. “These are not world records. These are not incoming animals. They are residents.”
Corrigan asked the pest professionals in the room if they knew what “L L L B O I I I” stood for. The answer? “Location location location based on inspection inspection inspection.” Here’s why that matters: Even locations that appear to be similar — for example, two houses next door to each other — have huge differences that only can be determined by inspecting the properties thoroughly. “Those two homes have two families and two different sets of food, heat and water,” Corrigan said. “There is nothing ordinary about any of your stops. Nor are any two alike.”
Corrigan said the average range of house mouse under average conditions is 10 to 30 feet. When an infestation begins and there are few mice, the animals forage in the lower end of the range. But as the infestation grows and competition increases, the mice will extend that range to more than 30 feet. “The single most common cause of control failure is because you have underestimated the severity or the scope of the population,” Corrigan said. And when there’s a control failure and another visit to the account is required, “the average callback is $75 to $100 out of your pocket,” Corrigan added.
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Corrigan told pest professionals that their responsibility is to not only service installed equipment but to:
1. Be observant (through training, exercise and experience)
2. Focus their time in the rodent-vulnerable areas
3. Note conducive conditions and forward that information to client
Corrigan said the public’s perspective of rodents as simply nuisance pests needs to change and they need recognize that house mice are disease carriers that also cause significant economic damage. “We should not price mouse work so cheaply. We give it away,” he said. “We don’t put a high price on rodents but we do on bed bugs but bed bugs don’t cause disease.”