Oldie but goodie
Tried and true

You worked so well
What happened to you

You were $900 bucks when you were pristene
Now covered in dust, my grand foam machine

Cracked and brittle you no longer reach all
Gone are the days of my 3 foot Whitmire straw

No longer in stock you use to sit by my puffer
I do miss the exact little doses of my Niban snuffer

What about you who wouldn’t clog if I tried
Replaced by a log jam but still called Tri Die

And where is the residual and was any knockdown faster
Than my painted on friend the ultimate Killmaster

Old techniques too under foot are trod
Does anyone ever even attempt the old long rod

Replaced revamped and targeted tools
Give way to the DIY and other such fools

No care or skill or once respected expertise
Are found in todays tools no not like all these

Who cares if it’s sweet eating or complex biology
For a mere $20 bucks and a hosing I’m told I’ll be bug free

I don’t need an expert I don’t need seasoned vet
This sites got the answer with my hard earned money I’ll bet

This can is shiny this concoction is new
Just a few more dollars but I’m not calling you

So new and improved will always march on
Experience and knowledge are these things gone

Since bugs don’t care if you have the latest sprays or bait
And clients want dead bugs and for this they can’t wait

New tools will come and go as the old disappears
But nothing will erase clients phobias disapointments and fears

So bring on the modern and latest miracle sprits
You can’t delete the old technician to where your new can of fogger still sits

The Oriental roach is also known as the waterbug partly because it is most often associated with damp and moist places. This bug is one of the larger peridomestic roaches and is most often found in lower lying areas of the home such as basements or crawl spaces. Homes with high humidity, chronic leaks, sump pumps, thick vegetation or leaf debris around the exterior are most prone.

Often times the Oriental roach is under estimated as serious pest but it can present a real challenge and be very persistent. This scavenger feeds on just about any kind of filth and is especially fond of garbage and scraps. Food contamination is always of concern as this roach passes germs or pathogens it picks picks up in its unsanitary conditions and then comes in contact with food or food contacting surfaces.

Oriental roaches can go for about month without eating but only 2 weeks without water. Not as prolific as other roaches the Oriental female produces about 200 offspring and once becoming an adult, may live from 5 to 26 weeks. Capsules, called oothecas are carried by the female for a short time and then dropped in a secure place and near a food supply. These ootheca contain an average of 16 eggs which take about 60 days to hatch on average. Nymphs, molt 7 to 10 times and the time between birth and a mature roach can take 24 to 130 weeks. The cycle of this roach is somewhat centered around seasons and peak activity is late spring and summer which is not the case with other home infesting roaches.

How They Travel

This roach is seldom found in walls, does not fly and is somewhat slow and clumsy. This roach can be transported in bulk truck loads of dirt or mulch. Warehouses that have this roach present will often ship goods in boxes where this roach has crawled inside to hide or in search for food.

How Best To Identify Oriental Roaches

The oriental roach is about an inch in length, very dark brown to black in color and shiny in appearance. Females are larger

Nymph

Treatment And Elimination

Addressing any moisture problems is the first step in this roaches control. Removing leaf debris, vegetation, turning and/or reducing mulch to keep the area dry will aid greatly. Garbage cans should be in good repair and eliminating spilled scraps, elevating exterior pet dishes will help reduce this roach.

Chemical treatment can work very well but keep in mind your products will be placed in areas of moisture so re-treatment may be needed. Baits such as Niban FG are excellent for this roach and can be used around sump pumps, under sinks, under book cases, in a/c and utility areas and other places indoors. Outside you can simply sprinkle the bait around the home on the grassy or landscaped areas and the roach will find it. To speed things up put some under splash blocks of gutters, under planters etc. and a bit heavier in mulch or leaf debris. This bait is somewhat water proof and readily accepted by the roach but if you can keep it drier it will last longer. Remember; Pets like it too so be sure to put it in areas where your animals and children cannot reach. Please read the label.

Female with ootheca (egg case)

For the life of me I’ll never understand why bug companies are in lawn care. Not the insect part – that part I get, but something about loading up your rig in the morning to go off and fight pythium blight just doesn’t seem to fit the mold of a pest control professional. How can it be pest control if there are no crawl space battles with rats & mice? No complex ant strategy that involves a walk on the roof or a full fledged inspection that would rival any great detectives in history? No, just a poor tech loaded up with fertilizer & having 20 to 25 fast paced yard sprays (in one day) with a rig that spews out 9 gpm and a wind that ALWAYS seems to be blowing in your face. Add to that homeowner who’s still in his pajamas chasing you down to play a game of 20 questions and guess where I found a yellow blade of grass. You drag 300 feet of hose, have a gun that shoots 1/2 a pattern and a manager back at the office who’s threatening to make you work Saturday if you don’t sell some accounts. Yea, something to me just doesn’t quite fit the pest control definition in this scenario. If you ask me, lawn care has a darker side, an evil undertow that’s not so obvious to the casual onlooker. But for those of you in it, you know it’s grip and the life it squeezes from you.

Temptation Can Make You Pay Dearly

The WDO (wood destroying insect real estate inspection) is the industries #1 source of litigation but lawn treatments have got to be a close 2nd. In fact, I’d say that if it weren’t for the fact that MANY bug companies have standing accounts with sod companies and trailers loaded and standing by – lawn spraying might just surpass the WDO. It doesn’t matter if it’s the homeowner who sprayed Round -Up in between visits or that the sprinkler system was hit by lightning 6 weeks ago and the grass dried up. It’s all the lawn techs fault and who can prove any different?

It’s a popular (and one that does work btw) strategy to use lawn spraying as a tool to get other services. People like bundling services- paying one company, making one call. So flyers hit the mailboxes and the fierce competition drives the price down to mere pennies per thousand square feet and promises of a green Utopia abound. On average, lawn treatments cost 20% in chemical

Uhhhh- Ok

Envy Is A Deadly Sin

There’s something about man and a green and healthy lawn. It’s as if that’s his birth right and anything but a lush deep green is offensive to his good nature. Well, there is one thing worse, if his neighbors yard is greener than his.
Of course if you want to find the source of all your lawn troubles you go back to the beginning right? It is written plain as day in the first book of the bible which for many- is the “label for living.” This verse occurs right after the great downfall of man and it’s just erie to me what was mentioned first as a consequence for the actions of Adam & Eve.

Gen 3: 17b & 18: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Thorns and thistles, (weeds) weren’t in the original garden and the ground definitely was not cursed. Now not only was it vexed, but it was gonna take work to maintain it.

Gen 3:23
 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
And it’s been HARD WORK ever since.

Undeniable Proof

Well, maybe this is all a little far fetched for you and you’re just a bit skeptical. That’s Ok, I understand. I too was at that point once in my career where the dream of providing lush, green lawns was a calling I couldn’t ignore. Visions of happy families enjoying thick green turf all brought about by my magic spray wand filled my head and so I too, went the way of lawn care treatments.
It’s only after years of dealing with the lost souls that I believe I now have solid, undeniable proof that lawn treatments are the devils tool. Besides clients who;

wander around their lawns with flashlights and magnifying glasses, who call at 10 pm and talk for over an hour, who call to complain while they’re on vacation, (just happened this week) who win lawn of the month but still complain, who want a detailed chemical analysis of why 3 blades of grass were found yellowing in the southwest corner, who can’t believe their dog could pee in such a perfect circle, who just know the Johnson’s across the street fertilize 15 times a year, who want to help using Round Up while you’re gone, who hire TWO lawn companies and hope neither finds out about the other, (this also happened

666? C'mon Do we need any more proof?

just this month) who schedule your ‘free complaint’ service while you’re there doing the regular visit.

…….. Besides all that, what more proof do you need than the worlds most popular fertilizer blend?

I rarely ask for anyones help when it comes to pest control service. It’s not that I have all the answers or am so smart. (just this week I had a customer call me anything but No, I just enjoy the thrill of figuring out mysteries and putting the pieces together to solve what seemed impossible. But after 30 years (almost), of this great career I must admit, I have a growing problem that I have never gotten the handle on no matter how hard I’ve tried or how many times I’ve seen it come up.

So here I am today, asking for your assistance. I don’t know if this predicament affects other pest professionals out there but I suspect it does. It’s not an epidemic problem by any means but enough where I see it come up sometimes as much as 2 or 3 times per week. For years I ignored it but each episode means lost time and money. So even if you’ve not run into this dilemma yourself, perhaps you can look at it from another angle or a new prospective and help me out.

It’s Not What You Say

You see the vicious cycle I find myself in doesn’t involve service so much as it does my communication. Many people just aren’t grasping, for whatever reason, the instructions I give after each and every service. Like I’ve said, I’ve been at this for a long time so my message has changed a little here and there but it’s been essentially the same for 3 decades. If anything it’s been honed down to the most ‘blatant & oversimplified’ set of directives but still seems so ineffectual. Honestly, I’m not sure if sometimes people are just ignoring me or it’s some sort of secret plot just to bypass what I’ve said to get what they want. So I’m constantly amazed at the different things my customers think they hear and I’m now at my wits end on how to combat it.

It’s What They Hear

I say – “It’ll run anywhere from 5 to 600”
They hear – “You said 500, can you do less?”

I say – “We’re booked til Tuesday”
They hear – “Someone will be out this afternoon”

I say – “You have to search your pantry for the box of food with weevils in it”
They hear – “you’re gonna empty the whole closet for me & put things back”

I say – “An occasional bug has got to be expected but call me if it gets out of hand”
They hear – ‘You said to call you if I saw ANY bugs, are you coming out today?”

I say – “Fleas are an extra charge”
They hear – “You said your service kills any bug why should I pay more?”

I say – “We’ll be there between 10 & 12”
They hear – It’s 12 noon & you’re late – or- it’s only 10 am, you’re not due til 12”

I say – “All new customers or homes have to have a clean out svc. at an additional fee”
They hear – “You’ve treated this house for 7 years why do you need to charge more for my new home?”

I say – “Everybody needs to stay out of the home for an hour after my flea job”
They hear – “Let the dogs in, Jerry just finished spraying”

I say – “I do termite work as well as pest control”
They hear – “I didn’t know you did termite so I called XYZ and boy that job was expensive”

So unless I’m speaking Swahili, I don’t see the problem. But if you can tell me how to get my point across in any better way, unlike my customers –

I’m all ears.

In the pest control world there are three things near and dear to my heart. # 1. A tech who takes pride in his/her work and just exudes professionalism – #2. A clean and organized truck (kind of a rarity . #3. And most of all, the single operator, an owner who beyond all hope and against the odds, strides forward and makes their mark. Someone who in reality was just a technician but now faces that huge entrepreneurial mountain laden with the bruised bodies and broken bones of those who went before them and for whatever reason, tumbled down and never reached the summit.

I guess the reason is because I know so many who have blazed this trail before and for the most part, encouraged me, pointed the way around obstacles and as much as they could, cheered me on to make it where they now stood. Sure there were others who were cut throat and did what they could to see me fail, there are still many like that today. Yet, some of the biggest disappointments in my career came from those whose trust and loyalty was something I was told I could always rely on. Family and friends hurt the most but the industry itself can be a cold and unforgiving machine that seems to do little for the struggling mover and shaker.

Character Is Easy When You’re On Top

When the darkest clouds gobble up the horizon for days, weeks, months and even years at a time, a single operator is chiseled down to just one thing. Character. As noble as this sounds and as much as we would desire to be viewed in this light. It is a lonely reward and one the banks and creditors won’t count for much. Even your staunchest cheerleaders draw the line at this point and surprisingly their sage advice seems ineffectual as you dangle in the winds of uncertainty. I think the saying goes;

“Adversity Does Not Build Character, It Reveals It.”

I’d expand that just a bit for the single pest control operator just starting out,

“Character Is Planted In The Grand In Ideals Of The Mind, Forged With No Witnesses, Painstakingly Strengthened With Resolve; Manifested Briefly In Times Of Travail, Momentarily Commended By Others But Quickly Forgotten When The Battle Seems Finished, When It Appears It Was Never Needed And Was Easy To Attain.”

It’s All About The Megatrons

Now no one has ever said that the worlds largest pest control companies are “The Backbone of the industry”. I’ve never heard this uttered even just once. Yet it seems, at least to me that this segment of our trade is the most touted and catered to, bar none. Is it big news when one of these behemoths sells a pest control contract to an entire country? Indeed! How about when one giant shark swallows another and now jumps from $50 million to over $100 million in annual revenue? There is no doubt. Also of note is that so many of us minnows in this big pond got our feet wet at the expense of the larger firms around the world. We honed our skills while watching as the giants grew with ease. For most of us, this is where the flame of owning a company was sparked. We dreamt of the days when our little trucks would dot the cities landscape while we coordinated it all from our own office filled with bulging filing cabinets. But we had no idea of the non stop effort it would take to even match the production of one such truck and now with a pinch of envy we read the exploits of the megatron firms. In ‘how to’ business books or trade magazines that say they are meant for us we struggle to find our relevance. Suddenly nothing seems tailored for the single operator. Advice on how to handle a million dollar budget or how best to utilize your HR department. Of course every single operator needs to know which truck is best for his/her fleet right? Perhaps we are the backbone of this industry, but apparently that’s not the part that sells any soap and so alone, we forge forward.

Behind Before You Even Start

Statistics give you, the new company in town very little hope. The industry would like to offer you more but you’re not where their bread is buttered. Starting your own pest control company today is much like a sprinter who enters a marathon and is starting in the back of the crowd.

There are salesman galore who start their own pest companies. Many, like shooting stars blaze across the city sky and bumpkins like myself wonder just how they go so fast. Some do very well, others fall with a mighty crash. Mom & pops spring up all the time and with the power of two- great things sometimes happen and family fortunes are changed. Too often, mom has to go back to work to make ends meet and pop struggles barely keeping afloat let alone his pride in tact. That hot shot tech who has all the answers, solving even the toughest pest invasions suddenly finds himself at a loss with his mailbox, infested with bills.

This is the time when questions surface, doubts arise and fears take hold. This is the moment when you realize you may be the only one you can count on, or can you? This is that heartbeat, that split second of time when only you have the answer.

If a single operator falls in the woods- will you get up and let them hear you roar!

The majority of pest control customers want very little to do with helping your service. Of course this a bit of a generalization but I don’t think this statement is that far off from the truth. There is however, a very small percentage of my clients that do absolutely anything I recommend and are very proactive with their service. It’s these folks who you just wish you could bottle and replicate. Unfortunately there are so very few of them and all you can do is admire their effort and dream of the day you sign more of this type of client on.

I found one such homeowner or should I say he found me? On my Ask The Bug Doctor tab he sent me a simple question about bugs in appliances and a picture of his refrigerator that all of us exterminators have seen 100 times. What was amazing however, after I sent him a simple reply he wrote back and described the herculean efforts he took to rid himself of german roaches in his appliances and kitchen. Like I said, if I could, I’d bottle this guy but for now- I simply APPLAUD him and urge anyone else who has a roach infestation and is reading this article. Do what Matthew did and you’ll get the results you desire. Great job Matthew!

Hello Bug Doctor,

Thanks for the quick reply!  Nice to talk to someone that “get’s it”.  Hands down one of the worst experiences of my life.

I got the keys to my new home on December 8th and didn’t move in until February 18th.  I guess I did a pretty good job in a short period of time, but man did I go “all-in” and I’m still not done with the aftermath.  I decided i wasn’t moving in until the bugs were gone and was paying both my mortgage and rent at the same time, so I had to move fast. Luckily I am single so it made things a bit easier.  To get rid of the bugs I went into what I called “Total Annihilation Mode”.  Basically rolled up my sleeves, did tons of research, got some help and went to war:

• Professional Exterminator (treated 3 times inside, twice in the attic – pretty much had to force him to do the attic space)
• Shrink wrapped  and removed all appliances after the house was treated by the exterminator.
• Had all cabinetry and bathroom vanities removed (which was terrible because it was all new, circa 2009)
• Removed 8 vents for the central A/C system, 53 switch plates, 8 fire alarms, 23 lighting fixtures and recessed lighting covers
• Had A/C system professionally cleaned
• Treated all openings with boric acid, including around the entire floor/baseboards and all of the above mentioned holes (switch plates, lighting fixtures etc..).
• Deep Cleaning of entire house
• Caulked bottoms of baseboard.  Covered the caulk job with 1/4″ bayshoe (actually saw a tiny spider on the floor the other day, try to scurry to the bayshoe and couldn’t even get all the way under it to hide).
• Cleaned all switch plates, lighting covers, and vents with a combination of bleach and a citrus de-greaser.  I cleaned it all, not just the pieces with roach poo.
• Had the house professionally painted, with all walls sanded, and all cracks caulked.
• Purchased styrofoam gaskets for all the switch plates that supposedly help keep critters out and also save on energy costs.
• Professional Exterminator company comes back every month now for an exterior treatment at $40 a visit. Might switch to bi-monthly soon.

So a little background on the house: I literally got my keys as the previous owners are driving away and walked into a freshly bug-bombed new house that I had no idea was plagued with roaches until after it was too late.  The previous night I had done my final walk-through, simply to check that the appliances were still there since we were doing a side deal ($2200 for all four appliances).  The electricity was off in the house at that point and I didn’t bring a flashlight.  It was a grueling process to purchase this house and bugs were the last thing on my mind.  I had visited the house about 5-7 times prior over the course of 8 months, had two inspectors and my real estate agent with me at different times and NOBODY noticed a thing (or at least said something about it). 

The best part? The previous home owner was…..a professional cleaning lady by trade.  She was apparently doing such a good job cleaning prior to each visit that no-one had a clue.  However if knew what I now have learned from your site, I would’ve been able to spot it from a mile away.  I spoke to a neighbor last week who told me the previous home owner used to collect recyclables and pile them up outside the kitchen window.  I’m crossing my fingers that that’s how they got in and that they’re not coming from the apartment next door.

As you requested… attached are some pics for you to use.  I even got you one with a bug trapped in the LED screen =).  I will send them across a few emails so you can get the scope of what I dealt with, and hopefully beat.  I am still not ready to put back my kitchen and haven’t had food or water in the kitchen since I got the place.  I am now just getting back to the appliances. I have a company that quoted me about $500-600 to clean all the mechanical parts of the appliances but I still will need to clean everything else. Not very excited to do this, but I’m completely tapped for cash now after doing all of the above.  The one major downside to everything is I will have to live without a kitchen for a very long time now to get to the point of having enough $$ to pay for one.

Above all, thanks for all the help from your site!

Matthew

If you want to make me mad it’s really not that hard but you have to be pretty patient. The list of things you can try is pretty long but generally just being an ignoramus when common sense is right there in your reach and I’ll be getting mad sooner or later. But if you’d like to make me FURIOUS, that’s a bit easier. In fact, just do one of three things and I start turning green, frothing at the mouth and, well, you get the picture.

Now I won’t tell you the first two things, (gotta keep you on your toes ya know lol) but I will clue you in on #3. Very simply, if you take advantage of a senior citizen just to sell a pest control job, my blood pressure starts going up. If that’s not enough, you mis-identify (on purpose) a pest that preys on their fears and then thats when steam starts coming out of my ears. Then, if you want my eyes to pop out of my head, well,…… read on

Recently one of MY customers was sold a bill of goods by an unscrupulous sales weasel/tech. He was there checking their termite

Not sure what he used-but he's a terrible aim

Either Zorro was here or this guy could care less about what he's doing

Now cancellations are a fact of life but I knew something wasn’t right so a few days later I stopped by just to see what happened. Let me tell you, canceled service was NOT the words I would use for what happened. As she relayed the story to me I traced over every step of what the man saw and then went outside to see where the guy treated.(he didn’t have to treat inside

Yep, that's worth $400 bucks!

She told me he said there were so many ants in the yard that he just knew it had to be bad inside too so he had to check. She pointed to the pantry where he said the ants were worst but all I found were a few flour beetles. Then she happily showed me his fancy brochure and iron clad contract that listed ants as the target pest. The contract totaled over $400.00. $95.00 of

That ought to keep the ants out

Truthfully, this kind of thing happens from time to time and sometimes, it’s just business & I get beat. This time however, it was obvious the guy was preying on an elderly woman and he even went so far as to say many unflattering things about my company not the least of which was that my inside treatments were old fashioned and unsafe. I guess from the pictures one might say the same about his & be thankful he never did come inside. In the end, I dialed the number of the offending company and cancelled

Would you put this on your resume?

Is it just me or are there others out there who hate to negotiate for goods or services? Maybe I’m the extreme because I don’t even like using coupons or gift certificates. To be honest I guess I feel like they somehow aren’t real money when I’m using them and if I’m buying them, I feel like their worth is less than what I’m spending. Shoot I don’t even like returning something to a store even if it broke 10 minutes after first using it. I do return things don’t get me wrong, but I still don’t enjoy the back and forth because it’s all about a deal that went wrong and for me that’s an uncomfortable place to go.

So when it comes haggling, bartering or trading I’m usually just not up to the task. I know this means I’ve missed some really great deals out there but it hardly seems worth it most times when I’ve got to beat you up just to get a deal. That said, I have actually used all 3 tactics from time to time and come away with some pretty good results. BUT, I’ve also gotten burned and unfortunately that happens far more to me than getting the good deal.

Haggling

To me, if I tell you my termite job is $900.00 and for some reason you balk, then I say, Ok, just today I’ll do the work for $700. Then wasn’t I a bit over priced in the first place? Was I just trying to get you for that extra $200? Now I know this is a solid and accepted sales tactic (to a point-I mean every customer wants to feel like they got a bargain) so I’m not calling everybody out on their price fluctuations. But for me, I feel like I shoot from the hip and give my price right out front and if you take it, great, if not that’s fine too. I do know that when the tables are turned and suddenly someone tells me that they’ll knock off 2, 3 or $400 dollars- I get a little suspicious and usually don’t take the deal. Now some folks live for the hard bargains and on rare occasions I will do the back and forth. I might throw in a 1/2 priced pest control service, lower my bid or give into a demand but I feel like the process is exhausting and like I’m at odds with this person in a negative way. But, somehow when all is said and done, they’re as happy as can be & I have work. So perhaps it’s a win win.
Do you like haggling?

Bartering

One barter I remember specifically was a client of mine had a 55 gallon drum of Dursban 4E that I wanted. He wanted my service as well and so we got to comparing the worth’s of what each was offering and negotiating a deal. In the end I gave him 1 years free service which worth about $300.00. On paper, I thought I did pretty good but in reality, the drum either sat in the sun and heat to long or something because it really wasn’t very effective. I guess I could have complained and took it back but I guess I’ll have to refer to paragraph one of this article as my defense. That said, I have bartered and made out Ok but I’m more of the opinion that if you just give me the money for my service, I’ll go out and buy my own Dursban.
Have you bartered?

Trading

I guess trading and bartering are really the same thing and haggling goes hand in hand with both. But when I think of trading, I think of trading service for service and not a product or thing. I did trade some carpet cleaning once for a termite job and man was that a disaster. Oh the carpet turned out great and the guy lived up to his word alright. It’s just that in doing the termite job I drilled into a pipe and old faithful was put to shame that day. That was the most expensive carpet cleaning I ever had.

Then there was the time my lovely wife tried her hand (literally) at trading services once. She was getting her nails done and got to talking- Well imagine that! Women Talking? Nooooooo. Well she did and lo and behold the manicurist and her thought it was a good idea to trade her fingernail painting for a little roach job. So imagine my surprise when I walked into a kitchen infested with german roaches and a smiling cosmetic technician just waiting for me. Me & the Mrs. had a talk… Out of the 3, haggling, bartering or trading, I’d say trading services has been the worst failures for me. Even when things went Ok, I still had a nagging feeling that deal wasn’t fair. That the service values didn’t match and I got the short end of the stick most times.
Does trading your service work out fairly?

I realize that for some these approaches work out great and maybe even better than cash in some cases. I know many people in the industry that THRIVE on haggling and the art of the deal. One of the most successful salesman I ever knew always said, “My job doesn’t start until they say NO.” I’ve just never found any real joy in it nor any abundance of success. I’d love to hear of any of your triumphs and more importantly if you have any keys or pointers that could help make me a better negotiator. Hey I can’t really pay you anything but I can send you a pint or two of some Dursban, what’d ya say?

We’ve all watched the scene play out, a ship wrecked man in tattered clothes who comes upon a bottle in the sand. Thinking it’s water perhaps or something else, he picks it up, uncorks it and SHAZAAM! Out pops a genie who is so happy to be released that he or she grants the guy 3 wishes.

Now over the years there have been movies made about this kind of thing, songs, cartoons, jokes, books and even a hit TV series with a smoking hot Barbara Eden who got into all kinds of trouble trying to please her master. The theme was always the same, the genie was locked away in their bottle as some sort of punishment and thousands of years go by until someone accidently stumbles across it. Now the genie is happy to get out alright but in 98% of the stories, (I Dream Of Genie & Aladdin being the exception) they only grant three wishes. I always wondered why. In any case, the wisher had to be careful because the wishes didn’t always turn out like they thought and, the wishes were final once wished.

So I got to thinking, what if there was a pest control genie and you found him in his bottle while crawling up under a house? Of course we wouldn’t be so lucky to have Barbara Eden as our genie. More likely it would be old Otto Orkin who was banished into a chlordane bottle or Dr. Frishman tripped head long into a jug of Talstar and it was you who let them out. Of course they’d be happy to be out of their bottles but maybe a little cranky so don’t get cocky and expect too much. ( you probably just woke them from their nap)

A Bit On The Frugal Side

Unfortunately for us, pest controls always been a bit light on the paycheck side of things so I imagine our genie would be no

We tease because we love!

With only three wishes, what exactly would you wish for?

Well I’m sure the answer is different for all of us but it’d be interesting to hear. But just like in the movies, you have to wish right here and now, no take backs and you only get three. Make em count.

I absolutely hate the idea that homeowners can and do buy their own termite control products. Now I don’t mean those cheesy little red plastic spikes you pound in the ground- (I hate those too but that’s a whole other story) No, I’m speaking of professional products like Termidor, Premise, Taurus, Bifen IT, you name it and it’s available to ANY DIY who wants it. Not so much at your local Lowes or Home Depot (for now), but you can buy these and so much more on the world wide web. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no license, no training, tax free and no questions asked.

Now I don’t see this changing anytime soon and even our state inspectors admit that there is no practical way in which they can police this, sooooooo. I’ll just think back to the many times I was told “You’re to expensive, I’m gonna do it myself”, only to watch the client pay double (or more) for the same products, struggle with improper tools and STILL have termite troubles.

Now, not that I’m gloating- YES I AM- but if I wasn’t gloating and I wanted to be helpful, I might just list some of the top reasons why you should let a a professional do your subterranean termite work. And, I might even throw in a celebrity spokesperson demonstrating the woes the do it yourself termite treatment might get you into. Now if you know what each of these reasons indicate and why they’re important AND how to treat accordingly, then perhaps you can do your own service. If not, please call your local pest pro, he/she knows what each of these mean and why they are important.

#- A large part of a successful termite treatment is knowing a termites habits. Did you know that termites tend to follow solid surfaces they come across? Does that include tree roots, the back patio slab? How does this affect your treatment? A pro knows.

#- Your home is 220 linear feet and we’ll assume it’s a monolithic slab. How much Termidor mix will you need to treat all the way around? A pro knows.

#- True or False. 1/2 of the products on the Lowes shelf for interior spray says it kills termites. = True; So why isn’t everybody buying that sprits “Rid A Critter’ bottle? A pro knows.

#- Do you own a hammer drill? Slab and basement homes often have patio slabs, dirt filled porches and such that need to have the soil beneath them treated. How are you going to get your spray under the cement? A pro knows.

#- A recent study in North Carolina found that there was an average of 23 termite colonies per acre there. The average colony, when mature (2 to 3 years old), is 60,000 strong. Do you really have what it takes to to fend off the other 22 termite nests if you’re lucky enough to rid yourself of the first? How can you be sure? A pro knows.

#- I have termite proof mulch, why do the termites still get in my beds next to the house? A pro knows.

#- I have a brick home, why do I need termite control? A pro knows.

#- My house was treated 15 years ago when it was built, why should I spend the money to have it treated again? A pro knows.

With all this in mind, Please call your local termite professional today. It could make ALL the difference in The world!