What the Heck Is IPM and How Come My Customers Don’t Know Either
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I ask what the heck is IPM at all my training classes and to all my potential clients and I never really get a clear answer.
It seems like every call I get from a prospect sound something like this “I need you to come and spray for…” this is usually followed by have you been to my website and let me explain what we do.
David Morgan DMo in Arizona
Pro Pest Control Sydney Austrailia @propestcontrols
Tech Tip
How to convert a plastic sprayer to a Crack and crevice device for free see the member section for this
Book
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter Liz Wiseman , Greg McKeown
Mergers & Acquisitions
American Pest acquires GreenStar The Mariland based American Pest, part of Anticimex Group acquired GreenStar Termite & Pest Control out of Manassas, Va.
http://www.mypmp.net/2016/12/12/american-pest-acquires-greenstar/
Main Topic
WTH Is IPM Anyway and How Come My Customers Have No Clue
IPM is The Standard In
Public Schools
Government Buildings
LEED Buildings
Hospitals
High End Hotels
Airports
And yet most people have never heard of it. By most people that include pest management professionals.
The problem with IPM is that it has Principals That work but they mean different thins to different people.
To the Farmer it means one thing, Crop Rotation, Inspections, Monitoring
To the nursary It means another, sanitation practices sterilizing trays,
To Lawn and Ornamemntal another cultural practices mower height frequency, watering
In General Household pest yet another simple thie cleaning. Air BandB
And I have no clue what it would be in Termite World. I guess monitoring stations.
The problem with Implementing IPM strategies is that IPM requires three things.
Training
Inspect
Identify
Develop A Control Protocol
Monitoring
Cooperation
Your Client is A Collaborator
Proper Sanitation
Cooperation to most people pest control is one sided, I hired you to control my pests. If it requires me to do something different than what I’m doing ill hire somebody more competent.
Unless the customer can understand that pest control is really their responsibility and their problem.
The restaurant employee that dosent close the dumpster and leaves the door open.
The business owner that dosent understand the chain of custody and brings in products.
The hotel cleaning crew that cant identify a bedbug and doesn’t see her job as pest control.
The building manager that wont seal holes because that’s why we have rodent stations. And we don’t have the personnel.
The landscaper that installs the wrong plant in the wrong place. Cant you add fertilizer to make it look better.
Most customers and even some technicians have no clue on what it really takes to control a pest much less prevent it.
Bait, Pills, Powders, Sprays, Stations ive used everything and nothing works. What are you going to do?
I have to figure out how bad have they screwd this up to figure out how to fix it.
Powders, baits, Sprays and stations. Just the right ones in the right places.
Exclusion is too expensive, chemical is cheaper than labor.
Inspections and Monitoring are a waste of time if you are going to spray anyway.
Insect Biology is for Entomologists habits and lifecycles are useless.
Chemical Rotation is IPM
Reducing Chemical Exposure is another way of saying we will apply less chemical to screw the customer. The products are safe already if applied according to label directions.
IPM is more expensive, in the short term it is in the long run fewer recurring problems, what is the price of Chronic Toxicity.
IPM is impractical.
IPM requires more training, more products, more commitment and more time. Things human nature resists.
Why isn’t IPM being promoted to the main stream.
If IPM is so great and so effective why are non of the big guys talking about it, and why don’t the little guys promote it.
I’ts not conducive to rapid growth and its not scalable as long as chemical is cheaper than labor IPM will not be that norm.
Second, its not job security as long as they have some pests they will need me there on a regular basis. We accuse the medical profession of not really wanting to find cures because that will put the drug companies out of business. Isn’t that the same hypocrisy.
Is your monthly spray service really controlling the problem or just keeping it at a minimum so no one complains.
Are you repelling and moving pests around or are you really getting control.
If you stopped spraying today how long before you have a nightmare on your hands.
Do you know the life cycle of the pest you are treating will that egg incubate and hatch before you come back in that case did you fail to follow up or did you have a callback.
I guess I see it differently because of personal beliefs, I sell the customer a solution that lasts if they feel they only need a one time service to solve that problem we solve it and help prevent it from happening again, if the customer wants ongoing peace of mind we will be there on a regular basis to assure them we are working as hard as possible so they are not inconvenienced with a nusence problem. At the end of the day we went above and beyond for every customer.
We can treat symptoms of find cures the choice is yours and the customer.
Our customers will never solve all there pest problems on their own nor do they want to and what they want at the end of the day is knowing they don’t have bugs and if they do we are there for them to solve it quickly so they can have peace of mind.
It requires highly trained techs that are willing do more than just spray and pray.
People that are handy to make minor repairs, who are willing do things like clean, vacuum, steam, foam, seal
People who are not stuck in 1960 Hoping for the Day DDT is reintroduced.
People Who wants IPM?
Those that do not want chemicals in the home so in comes green and snake oil salespersons.
Fifra 25b exempt products are awesome but like anything they are limited by themselves and tend to be used exclusively as a replacement for synthetics and IPM.
The goal of IPM is to get control with the least impact to the environment.
The things you touch
The air you breath
The water you drink
The food you eat
The ground you walk
The wildlife it impacts
So if you can solve the problem by
Trimming the bushes away from the wall or prune a branch remove a palm frond
Seal A hole
Clean a pipe
Use a glue board
Set a trap
De clutter
If you have to use a chemical can it one with a lower impact or more effective like a bait vs a spray.
As a professional you should thoroughly equipped in both knowledge, tools and prodcuts like a doctor to write the best prescription, protocol or procedure that will cure the patient with the least trauma, potential side effects and minimally invasive procedure.
You are in a skilled trade you are not a jack of all trades master of non. Get into IPM
