PHOTO: GORDZAM/ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS/GETTY IMAGES
Pest management professionals (PMPs) who offer mosquito control services share their advice.
▶ Eliminate standing water, where mosquitoes breed.
▶ Thin out vegetation and reduce shaded areas.
— Chad Betts, Manager, Betts Pest Control, Wichita, Kan.
▶ Charge accordingly. Trust in your service, and stand behind it 100 percent.
▶ Set customer expectations up front. A PMP’s primary job should be habitat reduction. Customer service should be the top priority.
— Yoel Gutierrez, Owner, Mosquito Joe of Miami, Miami, Fla.
▶ Inspect, inspect, inspect, and locate as many potential breeding areas as possible.
▶ Adding mosquito control services to general pest control plans is a huge opportunity. You already have earned your customer’s trust, and adding the ability to infiltrate the war against mosquitoes adds value.
— Jason Garney, CEO, Attention Pest Solutions, Ballston Spa, N.Y.
▶ Be diligent when it comes to wind and weather conditions. Consult your areas’ BeeCheck and DriftWatch mapping tools for any nearby bee hives or sensitive plants that may have pollinators.
— Doug Foster, President, Burt’s Termite & Pest Control, Columbus, Ind.
▶ Cancel appointments if rain is in the forecast. Most customers do not understand the chemistry of the products PMPs use, and feel they wasted their money if it rains a couple of hours after a treatment.
▶ Stay safe. Wear chemical-approved gloves and safety goggles when mixing and agitating your mosquito control solution.
▶ Adjust the calibration of the flow rate for different targets throughout your mosquito control application. There is no set “run and gun” for every application; too much costs money and wastes product, and too little is a rip-off and gives insufficient treatment.
— Joseph Pfaff, President and CEO, Joey’s Elite Pest Control, Harvest, Ala.
▶ Keep up with regulatory challenges for mosquito control by joining your local and state pest control industry associations, as well as the National Pest Management Association. They will help keep you up-to-date on all the proposed bills and any new bills that have passed.
— Tom Drapeau, President, Freedom Pest Control, Merrimac, Mass.
About the Author
Diane Sofranec is the senior editor for PMP magazine. She can be reached at dsofranec@northcoastmedia.net or 216-706-3793.
And, for the standing water that can’t be removed, such as in driveway drains (drywells), use Dunks to prevent mosquito breeding.
Look over your customers fence to see what’s going on beyond it. Maybe a neighbor’s covered pool with stagnat water atop it. Toss Dunks there too.
Thanks for sharing your insights, Charlie! PMPs should get written permission from the neighbors before doing anything on a non-customer’s property, though — and hopefully in the process, turn them into customers, too! — The Eds.