Who is the Threat in Your Home? The Pest or The Pest Control Technician?

At Left: Single block bait station stuffed to breaking point with (6) blocks of bait. Why? to save time and money. Simple. Its easier to employ a gross overuse of product than to target applications to specific areas. Service was completed by an industry certified field trainer working for one of the big national pest control companies. Scary.

You’ve got pest issues right? Right. Okay, so the natural response is to quickly search google, pick one of the top three major companies and your good right? Wrong.

Recently the industry has seen an influx of new, inexperienced technicians representing those same big, national companies. However, with the increase in customer traffic these companies have done very little to combat the natural quality assurance issues that arise when technicians first enter the field. Inequalities that are reflected within your home and business. Most concerning is the overuse of pesticide and rodenticide products due to a lack of target experience. Recently inspecting one of the major competitor accounts theBugGuys.ca came across some very gross misuse of application techniques that led to further investigation revealing consistent such misuse of products throughout the acct (an example is available via attached pictures).Account representatives in this facility had no idea the lacking diligence being employed at their business and requested further inspection where pesticide residual was found on glassware under the bar, bar lines, salt and pepper shakers on tables and even more disturbing- was found at the service stations on cutlery. Most likely the result of a hastily applied flying insect spot treatment. However, the client who contacted us advised the application was applied without him knowing, and precautionary measures where not supplied. Now, in all fairness we live in a country where pesticides lack the residual threat that they do in other countries. Remaining though is the concern over diligence, time spent providing safe application practices and the need to provide staff on site with safety information. All of this pales in comparison though to the fact that this application was provided by the competitor branch trainer and the most recent follow-up service provided by the branch manager. Two individuals charged with maintaining the safest pest control practices available and both expected to provide example for junior techs to follow- which is a frightening consideration.Realistically the threat to the public and their safety is well maintained by our local health unit and ministry regulations. However, these institutions rely on professional companies to act and represent themselves in a responsible way. When the companies charged with such an important task fail to provide such- it is up to the client to differentiate. So ask yourself. How long has this issue existed? How serious are the repercussions of not fixing it? How serious was the technicians when approaching your issues? How long did he spend investigating and treating the issue? Answering these questions your self provides personal qualification of the individual your expecting to provide results. Remember when selecting a pest control company for your home or your business- experience will dictate value- not google ranking, not yellow pages listings and no matter how reputable the name companies still hire individuals who make the same poor choices as anyone else. When talking applications of poison though, you may want to pick a professional who has already made, suffered the consequence and learned from their mistakes.

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