Do you ever see so many bugs attacking you that you can’t help but wonder where they all came from?
Ever meditate, and find you’re distracted by the surround sound of millions of munching bugs…those crunching sounds inside your walls?
Does the huge number of insects in your home overwhelm you, forcing you to give up on performing do-it-yourself pest control techniques?
Sometimes it just makes sense to call in a professional, but before you do that prepare a questionnaire, and use it for interviewing a selection of pest control companies. Arm yourself with these need-to-know morsels about exactly what the technician’s job is, when he handles your pest problems.
The first person you’ll talk to about your personal pest situation is the company salesman. The franchises have sales staff for this, and professional sales persons on that staff. Smaller companies are often one-person operations. The person you talk to wears all the company hats: salesperson, pest technician, clerk, and owner. All these people know pest control, but keep in mind their job is to make money for the company no matter what their capacity.
You’ll create a contract with the company, so be sure that contract includes exactly what service you want performed.
Before you sign the contract understand what the company’s responsibilities are to you according to that contract, and verify that the contract covers any guarantees for the service. Be sure the contract specifies price, what each charge is for, and that the contract leaves no opportunity for price padding later.
Ask about the treatment techniques the company uses. What chemicals does the company use, do the chemicals harm your pets, do they present a health hazard to your kids, how long is the active life of the chemical Common Vegetable Garden Pests once applied? If your problem is mice or rats how does the company eliminate them? If they use poisons what about smell, and how long must you live with it? If they use traps, who removes the bodies?
Learn a little about pest control inspection techniques so you’re familiar with the process the technician performs when he inspects a building. Make sure you’re home, and follow him around, asking any questions about his treatment technique that his activities bring to mind. If he does something that looks wrong ask him why. Don’t leave yourself wondering if he messed up, it’ll come back and haunt you.
Have an idea of various treatments for different pests; some are more effective for specific pests than other types of treatment. If the technician uses the least effective treatment, he isn’t eliminating your pest problem. He’s only hiding it for a time, and setting you up for the need of another visit (and another charge) after the contract runs out.
30-minutes after the technician leaves, check the areas where he did any spraying for dead bodies. Chemicals in professional mixtures only take about 20-minutes Plant Pests And Diseases Identification Pdf to kill bugs. If those insects aren’t dying after 30-minutes, the technician didn’t use the proper mixture. Call the company and let them know.
Cockroaches live in the walls, normally near water sources, and stay away from the light. The most common place to spot roaches is under a sink. If your contract is for roaches, or if you enter into a service agreement with the pest control company, the pest control technician is not doing his job if he does not get on his knees, and inspect under all the sinks in your home. (Typically a service agreement runs 12-months, with about four visits during the year, and includes all of the usual house invading pests.)
Occasionally the numbers of pests in your home are so large that you don’t feel you can handle them, and at other times maybe you don’t want to perform do-it-yourself pest control. Sometimes it makes sense to call the professional pest control company and have a technician take care of your pest problem.
Just fill your pest control arsenal with a few “knowledge” armaments before you talk to them. Just owning knowledge isn’t true power, but using that knowledge sure makes a powerful weapon.
Home