At the beginning of every year, it seems I get a lot of questions on what’s going to be “the thing” this year for pest control. It’s really impossible to tell since I don’t control the weather or any of the other factors that will affect pests.
I made some predictions last year, you can see them all here. I said that mosquitoes would be big, training would be a high priority, and bed bug calls would surge. How did I do:
Mosquitoes were up, 53% of companies said there was an increase in revenue from mosquito services. Customer requests were up 55%. There was quite a bit of optimism; 66% of companies expected a rise in calls and revenue. I think I got this one right!
Companies that offered bed bug services increased by 2% according to the 2022 state of the market report. They were also more optimistic – 50% said they expected bed bug calls to increase in the coming year. I’ll count that one as a good prediction.
As for training, I definitely had an increase in calls for training. Many state associations went back in-person with their annual conferences which meant more training. I couldn’t find any hard statistics on changes in need or attendance but I’m still calling this one accurate.
So what’s up for 2023?
Rodents. There are going to be changes to rodenticide labels (we aren’t sure when) that will limit rodenticide usage and make it more difficult when they can be used. That means there will be a shift to trapping which is more time intensive and costly. In low income areas and industries, it will result in a resurgence of rodent populations and all the contamination and disease they carry. It should also mean more folks using electronic monitoring which I am a huge fan of.
Ticks. I’m not sure they will actually be more ticks this year, but if last year was any indication, ticks and the diseases they transmit will be front page news in nearly all of the US. We know that Lyme disease continues to increase and we are seeing additional cases of other tick borne diseases. This may be due to better reporting, but regardless, it will mean more calls for tick treatments.
Training. Call me crazy, I’m going to go with this one again this year. We know that employee retention is really important because hiring new employees is tough and expensive. Owners, managers, and other leaders are going to realize the better trained their people are, the better job they can do. The better they are at their jobs, the fewer callbacks and the more valued they feel in their work.
There you have it, my pest prognostications for the year 2023. Climate change will continue to throw challenges at us with extreme weather and the pests that will take advantage of that. What happens this coming year will be interesting and feel free to call me out for being wrong when we hit 2024! Of course, 360 PFSC is here to help you improve your service with increased resources, better training, and maybe most importantly – taking the “technical stuff” off your plate so you can get back to running your part of the business. Contact us!
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