Pest Control Industry Nonsense

We need to change how we control pests in the pest control industry. While everything that is done is usually legal, it is hazardous to human health and environmentally disruptive. Most of what the professionals do is for show, to make it look like they are doing something and so the customer thinks they are getting their money’s worth.

Regular schedule spraying

When I worked for one of the biggest companies in the country, we had meetings where we were told that we had to convince customers they needed monthly spraying. We had to tell them that the chemical broke down in 30 days and had to be reapplied. I asked my manager why we would have to say that since it wasn’t true. He told me that we had to pay our monthly bills and the only way we could do that is to have monthly accounts. These days, some companies do monthly service, others do b-monthly or quarterly and some companies give their customers the choice of which they want. The problem with this isn’t the scheduled visits. If the customer wants this kind of service, it is fine, but thee is no need whatsoever to routinely spray pesticides inside or outside a house on a regular basis. That is not pest control, it is pesticide pollution. A company should totally inspect a home, inside and out, in the attic, crawlspace or basement if they are present and look for conditions conducive to pests. Treat only in areas where infestations are found, not generically all around a home or along the baseboards in a home. That is nothing but pest control gimmickry.

Baseboard spraying

Baseboard spraying is a gimmick to make the pest technician kill time in a customers home so they think they are getting their money’s worth. When I asked my supervisor when I started in the business why we sprayed baseboards, that is what he told me. Start at the front door and follow the baseboard to the right around the whole inside of the house and when you get back to the front door you are done. There is nothing legitimate about this kind of pest service.

Outside perimeter spraying

Spraying around the perimeter of a home is another gimmick that some companies prefer. They power spray pesticides along the foundation, sometimes up a couple of feet on the wall and a couple of feet away from the foundation. This method will kill a lot of insects and other arthropods, but the majority of them are not pests. It will kill praying mantids, ladybugs and even bees that may land on some of the plants in the area that were sprayed. It may kill a couple of cockroaches, but most of the insects killed are not pests and may be beneficial. Also, birds may eat the dead bugs and have their immune system compromised where they can’t feed or breed properly and will die earlier than normal. The pesticide industry will say it doesn’t kill birds and that may be true that they don’t die in the short term, but it eventually destroys them. Plus any pets that may get into a recently sprayed area can pick up the pesticides and ingest it when they lick themselves. Outdoor pest spraying is nothing more than a company putting on a show. It is the epitome of pesticide pollution.

Termite work

This is very important. If you have had your house treated for termites by a company that used either Termidor SC or Premise, there is a good chance the job was done improperly, and in violation of the label which is illegal. If you can, try and find the graph of the house the termite company made.

What many companies do is measure your home and then determine the cost of the job based on the linear footage. They will use 4 gallons of termiticide per 10 linear feet and give you an estimate based on that. However, what they are not doing is measuring the depth of the footer of your foundation. According to the label, they have to use 4 gallons of termiticide per 10 linear feet, per foot of depth. If you home is 250 linear feet, they would use 100 gallons of termiticide at 4 gallons per 10 linear feet. However if your footer is 2 feet deep, they should have used 8 gallons per 10 linear feet or about 200 gallons total. This is what the label requires and the label is the law.

When they make a graph of your house, they have to put the linear footage on the graph. They should also put the depth of the footer on the graph so they can determine how much termiticide they should use. In some homes, the depth of the footer could be different around different parts of the home, so they should measure each side of your house. Many companies are not doing this. Basically they are putting less termiticide around your home than is required to keep termites out. When they treat around the perimeter of the house, they need to dig a trench at least 6 inches deep, where possible. Then they insert a ground rod into the soil to get the termiticide down to the footer and they should pump enough termiticide into the area as required on the label. The ground rod holes should be no further than 12 inches apart. When they drill in patios or other concrete areas around your home, they should insert a four foot ground rod into the hole so they are sure the termiticide will get down to the footer.

Basically look at the graph of any termite work you had done and make sure the depth of the footer is on the graph. If that information is not on the graph, you can do several things. First, you can call the company and ask them why they didn’t treat your home properly and ask them to retreat it using the proper amount of termiticide, at their cost. Or you can just ask for your money back and hire another company to retreat your home properly.

If you are planning on having a termite treatment done in the future, please insist to the company that you want the treatment done according to the label and you want the footer of your home measured so the proper amount of termiticide necessary to treat it can be determined. If you are a realtor and are selling a home where termites have been found, make sure you get it done properly. If not and a buyer finds out it was treated using substandard methods as I described, there could probably be legal issues you don’t need.