Pest Management Professional, September 2017

Brought to you By cabinet Treat door hinges and the backs of loose wall plates 2Install rubber plate backers on all electrical outlets so as to seal the opening Check out the electrical outlet insulators in your local hardware store they are inexpensive 3Place one monitor close to the bath trap if possible WHATS IN THE CLOSET 1Open the hall closet which typically houses the heating ventilation and air conditioning HVAC system as well as the water heater These closets usually are dimly lit or not lit at all so carry a good flashlight with you 2Focus on sanitation and exclusion Use your vacuum to get the dirt out and then caulk screen or stuff the holes around the walls and wall penetrations If warranted treat closet corners and inside door hinges 3Place one monitor in the hall closet REMAINING ROOM ROUNDUP Finally go through the rest of the residence and carefully pay attention to and treat the following areas as warranted and allowed on the label Loose wallpaper use your paint scraper to check Bookshelves Seat cushions and loose upholstery on any recliners Decorative objects Underneath beds Live plants Electrical switches and outlets Its been my experience to be very careful inspecting under sofas They are a prime harborage for brown recluse and black widow spiders and on occasion even snakes WHATS NEXT After you finish your inspection and treatment you can perform any exclusion work you noticed needed to be done provided the property owners are paying you for it If they are not make very specific notes with photos for the buildings maintenance staff to follow through on the necessary repairs Very minor exclusion work pays great dividends and really impresses the owners and or management company Combine the work youve completed so far with sanitation the single most important control and prevention task that exists and the one on which you must keep notes Sanitation is critical to preventing and eliminating any cockroach infestation Keep photos of any issues you find and send them with a list that shows their relationship to your infestation findings A note that an apartment has a heavy cockroach infestation is one thing but when coupled with a photo showing extremely poor sanitation the management can then start eviction proceedings and send that occupant away PRICE FOR PROFIT To succeed with cockroach accounts in multi family housing apartment complexes you must negotiate a fair price for the amount of work you need to do and the amount of work the buildings management needs to do This should be common practice but somehow or other I keep running into pest management firms that perform monthly apartment services for less than a dollar per unit per month To perform an annual service on this type of account successfully you need between 15 to 25 minutes per unit In other words one technician can handle about 24 units per day Take the production value you need per day per technician and divide it by 24 that is your annual per unit charge for cockroaches only If the buildings management company wants you to cover other pests you need to charge for them PMP KUNST is a 2010 PMP Hall of Famer and consultant with Fischer Environmental Services Mandeville La Contact him at rlk@ fischerenv com Photo istock com Erikkarits mypmp net Pest Management Professional September 2017 CM11