Purpose
To provide guidance and to establish procedures for Pest Technicians as they perform an initial service for clients of Good Earth Pest Company.
Safety and Health
Read and understand the current label of each pesticide or material being applied, paying special attention to label restrictions, and required personal protective equipment (PPE).
Materials and Equipment
- Backpack sprayer
- Web mop pole
- Any other material that you may need
Procedure
- Park onsite and confirm the street address to make sure that you are servicing the correct building(s).
- Clock in and review all documents (field sheet, tech notes, and service agreement) from the bid. Also, make sure to review the Location Notes and Order Instructions pertaining to today’s service.
- Grab all necessary equipment needed to enter the home. Flashlight, boot covers, and any materials that you may need.
- 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.
- Web mop
Using your web mop pole, circle the whole house brushing off any spider webs and old wasp/hornet nests. Pay special attention to lights, entryways, and high peaks of the eves. Also, make sure you get the backside of the facia where it is hard to see. If the house is especially tall, use the larger extension pole stored on top of your truck. Be sure to take mental note of any areas of particularly high pest activity. You will take this into account when servicing and you may also want to put it in your notes at the end of the service. - Non-repellant perimeter treatment
Using your backpack sprayer apply a perimeter treatment around the footprint of the home. This is the foundation and an area extending out from it on the surrounding ground. Consult your label for these parameters. In the summer you can use Termidor to include carpenter ant elimination (PS-184), and for colder months use Advion WDG. Make sure to include all connected items like posts, fences, and overhead wires. The goal is to complete a perimeter application in which pests must cross the material to access the structure. This provides a “clearing out” effect for any ants that may be trafficking into the structure without locking them in. - Repellant treatment (Be extremely cautious in using repellant materials if the client has ANT activity)
Using your repellant backpack, you can now work your way around the house applying a repellant to the areas where other pests can harbor. You may treat around in the eves, behind downspouts, and around windows and lights. This will provide protection from spiders and wasps as well as other seasonal insects. Pay special attention to the areas that had shown particularly high activity when you were web mopping. You can also treat in front of doors to discourage crawling insects from entering. - Granular treatment (Optional)
If you are in an area that is known for high small ant activity, or the client mentions that they have had them in the past, it's not a bad idea to be proactive and apply a granular bait such as Niban around the house. It can be applied to most non-paved areas like planters, grass, gravel, and bushy areas. This will help crash the exterior population of ants and many other pests and decrease pest pressure on the house overall. - Return to your vehicle when done and secure all equipment and make it is safe to travel.
- 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. 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.
- 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). You are the first tech to be servicing at this account, be sure that you update the location instructions with any pertinent information that other techs should know. Remember: Clients have access to your notes so they should always be professional and appropriate.
- 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).
- Check off the account on your service route log.
Created
December 9, 2021
Revised
July 19, 2022
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