Priority Service – Wasps and Yellowjackets

Review paperwork, both on your phone and on your service route log at the beginning of your day
and before you travel to the service location. Confirm the service to be performed and pay attention to COW notifications, client’s concerns, or any other special remarks.

1. Park with the flow of traffic on the street. Do not block driveways when possible.
2. Review the Order Instructions and Location Instructions. Review your route log for hand-written notes.
3. Confirm the street address to make sure you are serving the correct building(s).
4. Time into this account via mobile or on the paperwork.
5. Bring your flashlight, boot covers with you to the door. Ring the doorbell or knock; step back to give personal space.
6. Greet them, introduce yourself, and identify that you are with Good Earth Pest Company.
7. Ask the customer what their issues are with the wasps and have them show you where they are having the issue. Customers will often try to stir up the nest thinking that we must be blind, or not believe them unless a million wasps are trying to murder you. Dissuade them from this. Have them point you to the right area and tell you where they are.
8. Inspect the areas to determine what kind of pest you are dealing with. You will always want to confirm the id of the wasp to be sure that you aren’t dealing with a beneficial insect or pollinator. You don’t want to treat honeybees and bumblebees because they are important pollinators. Solitary wasps like mud daubers and
   grass-carrying wasps, and golden diggers can be intimidating and a nuisance because of their nest-making habits but are generally harmless and are also pollinators.
9. If the customer's issue is a non-pest species of wasp explain to them that they are beneficial and that they will do no real damage. Explain that they can just knock down the nest next season after the new wasps hatch and disperse.
10. Sometimes the Client will call because there is a certain area or tree or bush that has a large amount of wasp activity around it but on inspection, there isn’t any nest. These insects are foraging. Most often the plant or tree is infested with aphids that are drinking the sap of the tree and excreting a sugary liquid called “honeydew” as waste. This will attract insects of all kinds. In these instances, we would refer them to a company that does agricultural and ornamental applications.
11. If the client's issue is European paper wasps in the eves or otherwise on a structure, you can simply treat the nests with Demand and then knock them down with your web mop. For a faster knockdown, you can add Exciter to your demand backpack. While you are treating the nests you can also treat the rest of the structure to prevent any more wasps from establishing nests
12. With yellowjackets and hornets, there is usually just one or a small handful of nests. If these nests are on a structure or in the ground within one foot of a structure they can be easily treated with Termidor. Just apply it to the entrance of the nest and wherever the wasps are crawling. If there is a cloud of them you can also spray that, maximizing the amount of product entering the nest. The transfer effect of the material should eliminate the nest in a couple of days. (Termidor can only be applied two times per calendar year at any account. This can vary with the dilution at which it's mixed. Read the label for details.)
13. Hornets and Yellowjackets in the environment around the structure aren’t covered by the Termidor label so must be dealt with differently. For ground nests and areal nests alike double rate demand with exciter added will give a great knockdown while also leaving a lasting residual. Repellant treatments must be very thorough. Use your bee suits and make sure you soak all parts of the nest. With ground nests, you ideally would put the wand down into the nest to make sure that the material gets to the main chamber.
14. There are also aerosol materials like Wasp Freeze II for small jobs. They kill wasps on contact and spray 20’ or so. However, they don’t leave a residual so once the area is dry it no longer affects the wasps. Its mainly used on small areal nests or very young ground nests.
15. When done, return to your truck and put all equipment and materials away and make them safe to travel.
16. Go and talk with the customer and inform them of all of your findings, what you did, and if they need to do anything like avoiding the nest area or watching it for activity.
17. Enter all required information on the 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). Your service record should tell a complete story of what you observed and accomplished while onsite. Remember: Clients have access to your notes so they should always be professional and appropriate.
18. If you had a positive interaction with the client, send them a review invite using Podium (see PS.150 Sending review invitation using Podium mobile).
19. Check off the account on your service route log and review the notes for your next stop.