Set customer expectations with SPP treatment

Joe Barlie, Technical Service Lead,
Bayer

After an initial, thorough treatment for stored product pest (SPP), one of the best things you can do is educate your customers on how to best store goods to prevent re-infestation. Encourage homeowners to store susceptible new products in airtight plastic or glass containers instead of plastic bags, foils or metal containers, as those do not provide a tight enough lid seal to exclude the immature stages of SPP. Additionally, highly suspect commodities such as pet food and bird seed should be stored in insect-proof containers, away from the human food storage areas. Garages are great for that.

Also, consider using pheromone traps to monitor the conditions of infestation after treatment. These traps will lure adult insects, monitor their presence and, when used in quantity, the locations of infestation. It’s important to instruct the customer that complete eradication of the infestation may take as long as six months, however, because SPP pupae may lay dormant for that long after the initial treatment.