Educate customers to eliminate standing water

Dr. Stan Cope, VP, Technical Products and Services, Catchmaster, and Past President, American Mosquito Control Association

You are inspecting a customer’s yard for mosquito breeding and conducive conditions when you come across an old bucket, full of water and teeming with mosquito larvae. What do you tell the customer to do about it? Be careful here, as the correct answer might surprise you.

The standard recommendation would be to dump out the water and turn the bucket over, right?

Not so fast! Most buckets have a small, roughly half-inch lip on the underside which, when the bucket is turned over, will still collect more than enough water to breed mosquitoes. Many other common items in your customers’ yards have lips as well when flipped over — kiddie pools, wheelbarrows and recycling containers, just to name a few.

It is not enough to simply empty the water and turn over these types of items; you may make the situation worse. Educate your customer that when not in use, these items should be stored in a manner so they will collect no water.

Practice this alternative type of “lip service,” and you will keep your customers satisfied.