WEB EXCLUSIVE: Ethical Treatment of Bees

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May 22, 2010

By: Gerry Weitz

Avoiding kills may not help your immediate bottom line, but it will help your customer relationships

Gerry WeitzLong ago, as a teenager and professed vegetarian, I moved to Israel, where I worked as a farm laborer. Jobs were assigned, no questions asked. Stuffing ten chickens at a time into cages necessitated the growth of callousness. I quickly abandoned my sympathies for livestock, knowing they were going to die and I would be one link in the chain of production slaughter.

That need for callousness translated well when I entered pest control. Being first to inspect won many contracts. Rapid response required callousness toward pests, even beneficial bees. My primary goal was to learn how to solve immediate problems people encountered with bees. Killing bees was inevitable. I took pride in my understanding of how and where they hide, as well as how best to eliminate them with maximum safety to people and pets nearby.

I learned many essential lessons that first year in business. But having learned how to use our tools to kill safely, I began to re-think if, when and how to use that license. Customer questions about how we handled bees caused me to think twice about bee eradication. I became agitated by customer service reps when they chided prospective customers who asked about our sensitivity to bees.

Now, “We eliminate bees only when we believe they pose a reasonable threat to people and pets,” and we honor that commitment. Our guideline, “thirty feet up, fifty feet out,” defines a right angle triangle from the structure, diagramming our bee treatment zone. Some discretion is permitted, such as if the bees are near a crosswalk.

Avoiding kills may not help your immediate bottom line, but it will help your customer relationships, ease your conscience and help you re-think how pest control professionals can better balance their license to kill with a responsibility to save essential elements of nature.

You can reach Weitz through his blog at heartspm.wordpress.com.

 

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