I was talking with a new customer the other day and I was about to geek out on cockroaches with them. Then I had to rein myself in. How many times do we see “what’s the best product for…” or “what should I use for…” and any version of that question? If it were that easy, we wouldn’t still have pest issues, they would have all been eliminated and we, the pest professionals, would be out of jobs.
It’s not that there isn’t a “best”. It depends on what all the conditions are. What pest, what type of account, where is it, what are the populations, what are the conducive conditions, WTF is going on there?
This is where geeky-ness comes in. My consult didn’t care about all the science and how cockroaches work. However, to understand what would be best for what he was going through, I had to dig into that a bit. I had to explain some of the cockroach behavior so he could understand not just a product choice but how to use it.
We all know, it’s not the tool, it’s how you use it! It’s easy to say “bait X is best for cockroach control”. If that bait isn’t put in the right location, it is useless. Understanding how cockroaches aggregate and how they act when they forage for food means getting bait to the right place.
As I was reviewing some recent records, I noticed a couple other things that needed just a bit of explanation to have them make sense. The PCO was using bait, and it appeared they were getting it in some generally good spots (kitchen). His question was, understandably, “then why are we STILL having these problems”? We know that cockroaches act a bit like social insects: they tend to aggregate and young individuals will typically not go out and forage. Adults bring back food and nymphs are also coprophagous. This is where I see a lot of bait “failures”. Less than a quarter tube of bait was used. For even a medium infestation in an apartment, that is way too little to fully impact the “colony” of cockroaches.
I also had to explain monitoring. Like a product, you can put a glue board anywhere. We are back to: it’s not the tool, it’s you. Put a glue board in the bedroom and it will show you have no cockroach problem. Because they are all in the kitchen! Put down a glue board and don’t check it for a month or more and it will be covered with cockroaches. That doesn’t tell where they are, what direction they might be coming from, nor how the population may be changing. The PCO was using glue boards, but there was NO data recorded!
I won’t get on my soapbox here except to say DOCUMENT!!!
What’s my point here? There is a balance of providing clients with information and taking care of the problem. There is huge value in asking questions and explaining what they need to know. Not necessarily the full War and Peace novel (like I admittedly want to do many times!) but the general summary. Whether you are the PCO trying to solve the problem or the client trying to resolve it, it’s never as easy as “X is the best”.
Did I solve the cockroach problem? No, it was a thirty minute consult, I’m good, but I’m not that good! I was able to get them some good information and some of the right questions to start asking. This problem had been ongoing, it wasn’t going to be eliminated in thirty minutes. If you want help solving pest problems, I can help. Maybe not in thirty minutes, but more effectively than doing the same thing and expecting different results. I've got the good stuff (science) so contact us.
Urban pest consulting
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