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Q. I am dealing with a German roach issue in an apartment complex broken into buildings. The maintenance people seem to think it’s okay to leave whole panels out under kitchen and bathroom sinks for access to the plumbing. One building has at least 12 units with roaches. I’ve tried everything from baiting, dusting, baiting and dusting, to recently hitting all of the penetrations with a knockdown product, an IGR and again baiting and dusting. What do you recommend?
-- Kenton, IN
A. I think you may be throwing too much product at the problem and not thinking of the nature of German cockroaches. They like to live in pockets close to moisture and heat and then they spread out from these areas as the population increases. The key to managing them is to find all of these pockets and to treat them directly. Applying non-repellent products is best because the cockroaches will stay put and you can return to monitor the areas and track
Q. I’ve had a problem with a couple of bed bug jobs. I will have my customers prep their home and then schedule treatments at two-week intervals. Afterwards, the homeowner will go a month with no bites or sightings. Then, out of the blue, they will call about finding a dying bed bug. I think it was there the whole time and just taking time to die. Do you know how or why this happens?
— Mike, OH
A. One reason could be that a bed bug harborage was overlooked during treatment. Even if you’ve done your best, that’s just the nature of bed bugs. It’s not unusual to have a challenging job where it takes multiple visits to find that last bed bug hold out. Another possibility is that bed bugs continue to be introduced into the home. Unfortunately, customers may not have any insight as to how they got bed bugs in the first place. It may be a recurring visitor to their home or, if this is an apartment, a neighboring infestation. The longer a customer
Looking for a smarter way to collect — and correct — product requests across your team? Today’s Better Business Tip will help you save time and reduce errors every time you restock your inventory.
Click the video below to see how you can use team Quick Lists to share shopping lists and approve orders for your entire team.
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We’re continually adding to our library of Better Business Tips videos with more ways to streamline your business. Stay tuned for more videos coming soon.
Q. Rodents are not going into a bait station and consuming bait. They go around and over it. How can I control activity?
— Armando, CA
A. If we’re talking about rats and a newly placed bait station, it might be a matter of patience until they’re ready to go inside. Or, it may be size - some rats are too big for low profile bait stations. Does your program consist of anything besides this one or other bait stations? The rats might better accept food baits on snap traps. If we’re talking about mice, then wind-up multiple catch traps are another option in place of bait stations. Glue trays can also be placed in mouse runways. There are a number of options beyond rodenticides. What to choose depends on which rodent and what else is happening in the environment.
Q. What products and steps are needed to treat multiple cats in a bed bug infested home? The customer has two dogs and eight cats living indoors with them. Hours after I heated and sprayed the home, the homeowners called complaining about seeing multiple live bugs. The only variable in this home is the large number of cats. I tend to have problems with cat owners in general, especially if their cats runs the neighborhood.
-- David, OH
A. It shouldn’t be unexpected to see a few live bed bugs after a treatment. How many are reasonable is debatable, but the point behind multiple treatments is that bed bugs are hard to find and this situation is possible. The pets are probably not the sole reason for this. While bed bugs will feed on pets, it’s not in their nature to stay on pets like ticks and fleas. Bed bugs will return to their harborages after a blood meal whether the host is a human or a pet. In this way, you’d want to focus
Q. Can a crack and crevice treatment be performed with a microencapsulated product in an office while people are working?
-- George, CA
A. The answer mostly depends on the product label. Product labels normally have restrictions against applications in occupied patient rooms or classrooms. They may have an additional restriction against applications when occupants are in the immediate area or room being treated. So you should choose a product that doesn’t have this additional restriction. However, I don’t recommend spraying a liquid product in front of office employees. If possible, baits are a better option or schedule the treatment around work hours. From my experience, it’s common for at least one employee to claim that they began to feel sick after a treatment. Whether or not the claim is true is not for a PMP to decide. It’s just best to avoid this situation as much as you can.
At Veseris, everyone’s a customer service representative in addition to their formal job title. But, we do have some people who devote themselves entirely to making our customers’ lives easier, and Joanna Harris-Goveia is one of them.
As a Customer Service Manager, Joanna oversees representatives in eight Veseris ProCenters in the northeast region. “I work with my Customer Service Reps to ensure our customers are getting the very best service in the industry, leading them to become a customer for life,” she says.
Every great customer service professional has stories about going the extra mile for a customer, and Joanna’s is no different. “I had a customer call in a panic at 4:45pm, he had forgotten to order products needed for a big job the next day and, since UPS had already picked up for the day, he was going to have to reschedule the job. I offered to personally deliver the package to the UPS drop point at the nearby Philadelphia
At Veseris, we take pride in providing customers with the most current industry news and knowledge - within local communities and nationwide.
Here's an overview of this fall's biggest trends as reported by Veseris sales manager across the country.