Initial or 1x Service – Cockroaches (Oriental)

1. Park onsite and confirm the street address to make sure that you are servicing the correct building(s).
2. Clock in and review all documents (field sheet, tech notes, and service agreement) from the bid.
3. Grab all necessary equipment needed to enter the home. Flashlight, boot covers, and any materials that you may need.
4. Greet the client, introduce yourself, and address any concerns/immediate problems that they may have first. Once that is done, continue through the following steps to complete their exterior service.
5. Identify Problem Areas
   The first step in controlling Oriental Cockroaches is to identify the problem areas. This can be done by reading all the notes taken by the office, through inspection, and by communicating with the customer.
6. Perform Interior Treatment (extreme infestations only)
   With your knowledge of the location of the infestation and their habits, you can place stickies in the areas where they are most likely to collect roaches that have already entered. In extreme cases, dusts or baits can be applied in cracks and crevices, as well as a liquid application to the baseboards using Advion WDG or equivalent. These treatments require the structure to be evacuated and to remain empty until the treatment has dried (typically 3-4 hours).
7. Perform Exterior Treatment
   1. With your backpack sprayer using Advion WDG, perform a broad perimeter treatment applying to as much area the label and the circumstances allow. Pay special attention to areas below and around low-standing plants and vegetations, is where Oriental Cockroaches will harbor. Also, be sure to service any cracks or crevices in concrete slabs or walkways adjacent to the structure.
   2. Switching backpacks to your repellant (Demand), perform spot and crack and crevice treatments on doors, vents, and any other entrance points at the foundation level. If this is an initial service, and the client is starting ongoing service, also use this time to treat the eves, lights, and other upper harborage areas for protection against other pests (i.e. spiders) covered by their program. If the client also has active Carpenter Ants or heavy Small Ants, then repellants should not be used on the initial service.
   3. If circumstances allow, using the spreader, apply a granular bait (such as Niban), to all non-paved surfaces within label allowed range of the structure. These can include grass, dirt, bark, gravel, ivy/vegetation, etc. this gives added defense as well as entices the roaches to move across treated areas. Granular baits should not be used around chickens or other domesticated fowl.
   4. If this is an initial treatment for a client continuing onto a regular service program, make sure to web mop the exterior of the building. This can also be done for one-time services if you want to go the extra mile.

Note: For clients entering a regular service program during the spring or summer (when Carpenter Ants are active), this service should be combined with a perimeter Termidor treatment (see PS-184). This streamlines their service schedule by eliminating an additional visit.

8. Return to your vehicle when done and secure all equipment and make it is safe to travel.
9. Reconvene with the client and report all your findings, including the measures you took to address them. Also, make sure to set expectations for the improvement in activity that they can anticipate. Educate them on any I.P.M. that they can do to help the service be even more effective. Weather stripping, leaf removal, and keeping vegetation trimmed away from the structure go a long way in gaining control of the pest. If the client is not home and you need to communicate with them, please call or send them a text. Make sure to leave a door hanger so the client can confirm that you were onsite.
10. Enter all required information on material applied into PestPac Mobile. Also, enter notes on the service provided today as well as any client concerns, observations you made, or necessary environmental changes (see PS.102 Entering material information and notes into PestPac Mobile). You are the first tech to be servicing at this account, be sure that you update the location instructions with any pertinent information that the regular tech should know. Remember: Clients have access to your notes so they should always be professional and appropriate.
11. If it was a particularly pleasant interaction be sure to send a review invite via the Podium app (see PS.150 Sending a review invite using Podium Mobile).
12. Check off the account on your service route log.