Are you in a cubicle devoid of personal effects, or do you have a massive desk and a window overlooking rolling fields with more family photos, papers and inspiring quotes found on your everyday (or perhaps overseas!) travels that you can shake a stick at? Or does it fall somewhere in between like mine? My desk overlooks Maidenhead railway station, which isn’t too inspiring, although my four year old son would consider it heaven. I can bring in as many photos from home as I choose, and usually have a tall glass of water on hand – just to keep up the health kick – as well as a coffee cup, which immediately cancels out the health benefits of the water.

But why do I ask? Well, Ambius (one of the Rentokil Initial divisions) offers internal and external landscaping and scenting and they have funded scientific research which confirms what we instinctively already knew… When you are allowed to personalise your working space (using plants or images for example, hence linking back to Ambius), you are happier at work and therefore more productive. I was lucky enough to be at some of the kick-off meetings when PRISM first started working for R&D at Felcourt when I first joined the company. I interviewed Craig Knight, the lead researcher for the PhD project, to find out a bit more.

DJ: So Craig, it’s been a while since we last talked, what have you been up to recently?

CK: Well, Craig from PRISM (or “prison” as a lot of people often mishear) is soon to be no more. We will soon be relaunching the company as Identity Realisation (or IDR for short). We have got loads of projects on the go. For example, a major car manufacturer wants to investigate how they can make their connecting portacabins each have their own colleague inspired colour and style whilst retaining some kind of corporate stamp.

DJ: But how did you get into this area of research and get funding from RI, what’s your background?

CK: I previously worked in Office Design for several companies, working my way up as I went. Mike Lothian approved a CASE award (industry sponsorship for a PhD) and we kind of grew from there as the working group PRISM (now IDR).  I took this interest into academia at the University of Exeter.

DJ: Can you see every office being “IDR’d” in the future then?

CK: Well people already personalise their space at home when they own it. When you rent a property you are limited to what you can do, similarly in some office environments. Our research has linked office design to productivity and employee morale.  Similar studies using artwork with older adults in care have shown a causal link between personalized space and well-being.

DJ: Oh yes, I remember you mentioning that. Tell me more…

CK: If you think of the artwork that typically hangs in an old people’s home it tends to be fairly uninspiring stuff.  Yet there is research that suggests that as older people’s eyesight gets worse they enjoy more vivid paintings or an image such as those that Ambius provide as part of their Art offering (See an example below).

DJ: That makes perfect sense, maybe I can give you the details of the nursing home my Granny is at! Where are you based now, still at the University of Exeter?

CK: Yes, I’m an Honorary Research Fellow now and trying to bridge the gap between commerce and academia, still occasionally working with Alex (Professor Alex Haslam). I’m happy working on fully blown international projects and scaled down local consultancy type projects. IDR can now offer quantitative scales which gauge people’s perception about how empowered they feel in their own office space. Employee engagement is critical in terms of productivity, identity and general well-being.

DJ: What one main thing do you feel you have learnt either professionally or personally then following your significant PhD research?

CK: (Chuckles.)  Well professionally, I need to reign back from professing expertise. Offering improvement is far better than expertise. And personally that there is always so much more to learn and understand.

DJ: Just one last nosey question from me, how long was your PhD viva? I have yet to find someone’s that lasted longer than mine (mine was four hours).

CK: Two and half hours, so not too long. The PhD also led to a few papers published in well regarded journals (including Scientific American, Ageing & Society and the Journal of Experimental Psychology) so all that hard work seems worthwhile .

DJ: Well, thanks so much for your time Craig; I know you’re a very busy man giving lectures on this massive and extremely fascinating subject. I think we have barely skimmed the surface, so if anyone wants to hear more from Craig ask him some questions here on the blog and we’ll get the answers for you. We can also do a follow up interview if we have enough interest. Or if you want, tweet or FB us some photos of your office space!

How Personalised is Your Personal Office Space? is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Unseasonably warm winters mean insects that go dormant for the winter stay active. It means insects will breed earlier than usual, supported by accelerated life cycles; also due to warmer temperatures. Ticks, for example, are likely to start the phone ringing sooner than anyone would want due to their resiliency and a biology that supports activity in months most of us relax our tick prevention efforts. (Remember, treat your pets and your home year round for year round protection.) While we cannot control what mother nature does as she drops two-feet of snow in October, or  as you walk the dog in shorts January 14th (it was 68 degrees), you can protect your home and family from pests year round and be prepared for the unexpected twists and turns the weather is going to throw at you.

Mild winters also mean more rodent activity. Rodents that moved into structures in the fall for warmth, while happy with their new surroundings, could mean that rodent populations increase instead of decreasing as they should in colder months. More importantly, populations can quickly surge in the spring bringing ticks, fleas and other parasites that rodents carry along for the ride. Not a good scenario for pets or humans alike.

So if you’re noticing the odd fly or ants sporadically throughout the winter, or if the mouse activity you suspected suddenly ceases to make itself known, brace yourself. Spring’s true measure of pest activity now begins with winter’s puzzling display of climatic oddities.

How Mild Winters Affect Pests is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

On a crisp autumn morning I visited a beautiful white 1930′s mansion in leafy Surrey. The house was set in an enviable location with sweeping views over a lake and parkland. The lawn was strewn prettily with fallen leaves but it was precisely this which had caused the pest problem. However the home owners didn’t know that fallen leaves could cause such irritation.

The stucco mansion was suffering from a severe fly invasion. Flies were swarming around every south facing window in the house, and the top floor (a cool bar with balcony and outdoor Jacuzzi) had turned into a fly fest. The housekeeper said she kept spraying the windows with fly-killer and had filled numerous vacuum-cleaner bags with dead flies, but the flies just kept coming.

The problem was that cluster flies were hatching from their warm blanket of leaves and heading for the huge white building a few hundred yards away. The lure of warmth and food was just too strong. Every day they arrived in their thousands.

The solution to get rid of the flies was to professionally spray the windows and any access points. Raking the leaves and burning them on a bonfire would also help stop the problem.

I will be wearing wellies the next time I take a walk through the park and shuffle through piles of fallen autumn leaves.

Cluster Flies is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Fleas

1) A commonly held belief that fleas die off or are no longer active during the colder months leads to pet owners believing they no longer need to treat their pets. Bad idea.

2) Fleas are a lawn pest. Remember that fleas have been around long before humans invented carpets and central heating. A flea’s natural larvae habitat is in leaf litter, grass and soil. Much like spiders, mice or rats, once it gets cold outside, they take refuge inside our structures. Sadly, since fleas are blood-feeders, this means your pets are more vulnerable than ever; especially if you’ve stopped treating your pets monthly. Treat year round to protect year round. It’s a shame fleas don’t eat dust, I’ve got three stories of hardwood floors that could use some attention!

To understand why fleas are so difficult to control you need to know a little about flea biology. Flea life cycles are maddeningly fast; 10 to 14 days, and tenacious in purpose. It starts with the egg (this one is self-explanatory), larva, pupa and adult flea. Only the adult flea feeds on blood. Ewww…  The larvae feed on organic material they find in the carpet or whatever blood substitute they are living on. However, since larvae MUST feed on some blood, the larvae feed on the dried fecal spots produced by the adult fleas. Insert grossed out reaction here.

Perhaps fleas were the original vampires. While it’s not likely that fleas will earn book rights or generate untold millions in the box office, they are not going away without a fight. I can see the book shelves and the marquee now, ‘iBite: Chronicles of a Flea’.

The larval stage is the Terminator of all the life stages. No matter what you hit them with, they just keep going and going. Fleas can jump a foot off the ground, that’s the equivalent of a human jumping five stories into the air! Fleas can lay dormant for months -new homeowners beware - and suddenly spring into action when you flip the switch to heat your home. Resiliency in a tiny package. Short of breaking through walls and time travel, these teeny tiny critters are bad news. The larval stage is the most difficult to control because the pupae is protected by a tough silk casing which is why many individuals struggle to rid their pets and properties of fleas; sometimes for months at a time, and at considerable expense. 

The single most important factor for getting rid of fleas is preparation. The more prepared your home or business is for treatment, the more successful the treatment will be. This will require vigilance and patience and some elbow grease.

1. Vacuum prior to treatment and for up to two weeks following treatment. This will help to remove fleas and stimulate the pupa into coming out of their protective casing and onto the treated surfaces where they will be killed by the treatment.
2. Clear all floors throughout the house of all small items such as books, clothing, shoes, toys, plants. Anything smaller than the furniture. This includes closet floors. This will allow for a more thorough and much more effective treatment.
3. Treat your pet with appropriately labeled flea treatment.
4. Discard or wash your pet bedding in hot water with heavy detergent.
5. Have the entire structure treated. Treating only the areas where your pet enters is trouble for later on down the road.

Adult fleas can actually survive for six months or more on a single blood meal. That’s not even the bad news. If you factor in the warmer months, add in a warm fall, and forget to treat your pets, fleas could be on your calendar more often than birthdays, holidays and special occasions combined. Come to think of it, maybe keeping up with flea treatments isn’t such a bad idea.

The Curious Lives of Fleas is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

The day started at 8am with an external routine visit for rodent activity. We also had three wasps’ nest treatments booked in for the day, plus some routine visits. First stop was a local school where we found evidence of mice activity. Baits were replenished and a follow up booked-in for next week. After one more routine visit it was time to treat the wasps.

I personally have never seen a wasp nest or treatment so was quite looking forward to the day. Our first stop was a private home in West London. Sam had treated two nests at this property recently, and now a third had been found in the loft. Within seconds of popping his head up into the loft, Sam established that it was too dangerous for us to enter and that the treatment must be done from outside. We got the gear, including a selection of extension poles and identified the entrance point which turned out to be a loose tile on the roof. He sent his nozzle up at least 10 meters, into the entrance point and completed the treatment. He advised the client that the wasps would be dead within two hours and that the powder would remain in the nest, which will ensure any survivors will not return.

The next stop was another private home where we could physically see hundred of wasps flying in and out of the brickwork. It must have been quite a big nest! Again out came the extension poles, in went the treatment, bringing an end to the nest. The client advised that many of her neighbours had had wasp nest treatments done recently, so it was obviously a popular choice of location. We arrived at our final wasp nest treatment for the day and found the problem in the bathroom vent, thank goodness they weren’t able to fit through the gap and enter the client’s home! Sam carried out the treatment from in the bathroom, although we could see them entering from outside, this was the best access point. The client was absolutely relieved to have the problem sorted as she had been too scared to let her grandchildren play outside.

I really enjoyed my day out on the road with Sam, although I didn’t actually see a nest, I got to see three different treatments. I was amazed at how quickly the treatment works, and Sam advised me that he had never once been called back for a retreat – that’s how successful the treatment is. I was asked a couple of times if I was out training to be a technician and this got me thinking what a great job our pest control technicians do.  I for one certainly would struggle with some of the things they have to do; Sam is a highly professional, experienced technician, who is very passionate about this job. What a great experience my day out on the road was!

A day out on the road… is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

So, I spent a day with Rentokil Technician Gary Huxtable as he visited old and new customers, both residential and commercial.

Farmhouse

Our first stop was a gentleman who had recently restored an old farmhouse and upon moving in he’d realised the house was also home to many rodents!

This was Gary’s third visit, a month after his last, and we saw no signs of activity at all. None of the bait in the rat bait boxes in the kitchen or garden had been eaten, neither had the bait blocks under the upstairs floorboards. Gary said that by using rodenticide bait in several key areas, he’d been able to eliminate the customer’s rat problem in just two treatments; today was just a check-up and the customer’s property got a clean bill of health.

Pub

Rentokil Rat Bait Station

Our next stop was a pub which had signed a contract with Rentokil Pest Control only the day before.

Within half an hour of arriving I’d installed six external rat bait boxes myself (I’m quite handy with an electric drill) and Gary had placed the mouse bait boxes in the kitchen and cellar areas.

Gary told me that rats tend to invade a building from outside; venturing inside for food at first, then they move in only if the coast is clear.

Rats also tend to gorge themselves; so the fixed external bait stations, the bait and the holes are all larger, allowing them to chow-down on a suitably lethal dose.

Rentokil commercial rat bait comes in something resembling an ice cube tray, as if the blue rodenticide is poured into a mould and allowed to set.

Rentokil Rodenticide - spooky blue ice cubes!

It’s quite rubbery and alien – not at all appetising from a human point of view!

The rodenticide is blue as a warning that it contains anticoagulant. But it also contains Bitrex©, one of the most bitter substances known to humans, it has an unbearable bitter taste that repels curious children but doesn’t bother rodents in the slightest.

Gary also told me that mice tend to be more invasive than rats. Mice dart around very fast, using their small size to hide indoors. Mice are cautious, nervous eaters, a quick nibble here, a quick nibble there, always dashing around for fear of being picked off.

This means we must use more of the small, portable bait boxes to ensure the mice get the four nibbles of rodenticide required (on average) to kill them.

Mice Bait Box

So, always deploy at least four bait boxes in relatively close proximity, out of the way, underneath or behind furniture and appliances or in quiet corners.

Rentokil commercial rodenticide for these tiny boxes comes as a blue paste in the same gun-style applicator they use for bathroom sealant. I thought Gary was doing some moon-lighting as a plumber when he first got it out of the van!

Restaurant

Our next visit was to a restaurant that had a suspected rat problem, another technician had caught and removed a Mummy rat and three baby rats last week using traps. This is often the only option once the rats have setup home and begun reproducing. Sometimes rats are smart enough to recognise the objects which trapped it’s family; so they avoid traps in the future. This results in us having to deploy other measures, such as stickyboards (fly-paper for rats).

Restaurant staff called Rentokil when they suspected that the Daddy rat still remained in the basement and he’d become confident enough to start exploring upstairs! We found evidence of a nest in a disused part of the basement. The rat nest appeared to be a tangle of ripped material, paper, fluff and various other soft, insulating materials… indispersed with rat poo. Lovely!

A rat hole with rat smear below it.

In the same room we also found ‘Rat Smear‘.

Sounds disgusting doesn’t it – smear is a bad enough word anyway, let alone when it’s coupled with the word rat.

‘Rat Smear‘ is a dirty, often greasy mark around a rat-hole which indicates regular use by one or more rats. It’s a clear sign of activity; the dirt and grease from their bellies and coat rubs off on walls and floors as they scuttle around.

However the hole and smear was at least 6ft above the ground! I was quite surprised that the rats had been climbing 6ft up a tiny water pipe just next to the hole. Hence the phrase “like a rat up a drain-pipe” – they are good climbers!

We deployed some traps baited with peanut butter, the rat-catcher’s secret weapon! Cheese is a myth! We also advised that they fix the leak which allowed rain water to seep into the basement and replace the broken drain cover; rats require a lot of drinking water and can easily crawl through pipes and drains!

Gary planned to return at a later date with some bait stations and to help the customer remove the nest and clean the basement professionally. This is very important because Weil’s Disease can be transmitted to humans via rat urine in water, soil or mud, and that basement was very wet and covered in rat faeces and urine! Grim!

…and finally

I really enjoyed my day out with a Rentokil Technician, our staff’s expertise combined with their enthusiasm inspires a lot of confidence in our customers, who all seem very pleased to see us!

My experience seems pretty typical, many other office workers I’ve spoken to never saw any pests during days-out in the field. This is because Rentokil products and services are fast and effective to rid customers of pest problems. A lot of what we do is preventative and pro-active, we prefer to keep things at bay and manage risk, rather than let ‘problems’ turn into infestations!

My Day Out With Rentokil Pest Control is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Over the past year Rentokil surveyors across the country have been called out to an increasing number of commercial and residential properties to address bed bug infestations. I spent a day with Roger Maskell, one of our longest serving Surveyors who can sniff out a bed bug infestation in a thrice.

I met Roger in our Maidenhead office lobby. Roger opened his diary which was crammed with a long list of appointments. Some appointments were to visit customers who thought they had a pest problem but couldn’t identify what was biting them or making them itch. Others were to visit commercial properties – these customers knew what the problem was but didn’t have the expertise or in the case of pigeon problems – a tall enough ladder to deal with it.

After planning the best route to get round all the customers we hopped into Roger’s nippy little Astra and headed towards the pretty country village of Taplow to visit a customer who called to say he had been bitten to pieces. We knocked on the door of a smart flat. An elderly gentleman answered and we were immediately hit by a distinctive musty smell. “Bed bugs!” Roger whispered.

Every Rentokil surveyor and technician has to complete a rigorous training course in which they learn not just how to treat infestations, but also they are taught to identify evidence of a pest infestation as well as identifying the pests themselves. Our technicians know their bees from wasps, their brown rats from voles and their bed bugs from dust mites. They can find a nest in seconds and identify practically anything. And if they can’t – there’s an entomologist who can.

We walked into the lounge. I looked down. The carpet was moving. I looked closer. It was full of crawling insects.The customer handed me a glass, “I managed to catch a few,” he said. I peered into it. Dead, flat, reddish-brown bed bugs covered the bottom. The gentleman hitched up his trousers to his knees. His legs were covered in bites. His arms were as bad too.

Roger removed the mattress from the bed and turned the wooden frame over. It was covered in dark stains. “Look very closely at the gaps in the wood and you can see the bed bugs. In a severe infestation like this we would have to treat the entire room as they are everywhere. The bed and mattress is so infested it is probably best not to be used.”

Chatting to the customer we were able to establish that the bed bugs had probably been brought back by his grandchildren who had stayed at his house after several months back-packing. Bed bugs can’t fly and are slow crawlers but they are adept at hitch-hiking.

In the car Roger immediately called the office and arranged for a technician to visit and treat the property as a matter of urgency. Neither of us could bear the thought of the man having to bear another night with thousands of bed bugs. I scratched my legs. “When you get back home”, said Roger, “put all your clothes straight into the washing machine onto a hot wash.” I scratched my arms. “Then put everything into the tumble dryer on the hottest setting just to make sure you’ve killed all the bed bugs.”

“But these trousers are dry clean only,” I whined. Roger rolled his eyes. There are lots of things that kill bed bugs. Luckily dry cleaning is one of them.

UK Bed Bug Infestations Rise is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

“If you see a cockroach or rat, we’ve failed,” Glynn said cryptically as I hopped into his red van with Rentokil emblazoned on the side. Dressed in matching uniforms like two capeless crusaders we edged forth into the Maidenhead traffic to fight grime.

Except, it quickly turned out after a couple of visits that there wasn’t a lot of grime to fight.

Effective pest control is about managing the environment and educating people how to not sustain unwanted ‘wildlife’. Most of our business is b2b, and many of our clients are on a service contract. We put systems in place and advise on hygiene issues to ensure that their pub, hotel, factory, office block or restaurant is pest free.

First stop on our Tour-de-Berkshire is a popular chain-restaurant in Marlow. The van was skillfully parallel parked by Glynn and after a discreet nod to the staff we headed straight to the back where the bins are.

Marlow is a charming town full of historic buildings. It’s also near the river. Rats love rivers. They swim, they burrow in the banks and they hoover up the bread crumbs the very well fed ducks and geese leave. Unlike mice, rats need water to survive and can eat up to a third of their body weight in food a day. They are scavengers and will eat anything, even soap, Glynn reveals. Rats are extremely fast breeders with a short gestation period resulting in fifty offspring or more per year. Unless a rat problem is tackled fast, it can quickly get out of control. When Rentokil first accepted the contract the restaurant had a big rat issue, simply down to incorrect storage of rubbish, aggravated by staff and customers leaving behind unwanted food.

Rats can carry Weil’s disease in their urine which may contaminate food preparation surfaces and other kitchen equipment. Restaurants and other businesses handling food can be closed by Environmental Health departments if a rat is detected.

To keep the rats in check and away from the restaurant Glynn had placed a number of bait boxes. He checked all of them and there was no evidence of rodent activity. The rubbish was secured in big dumpsters which was inaccessible to rats. Rats aren’t stupid – if there’s no food they won’t hang around.

Glynn completed an online report on his fancy electrical device, printed out a copy and handed it to the Restaurant Manager. Keeping records of pest control management is important to present to local council health inspectors when they visit. Poor hygiene standards can, in the worst case scenario, lead to closure.

Next stop was a pub in Cookham to treat a wasps nest which had been disturbed by decorators. The wasps were angrily swarming in the attic, stinging the workmen and posed a potential risk to customers. After sighting the nest in his binoculars, Glynn put on his protective gear and hooked up all of his poles to create an extremely long pole of which insecticide would channel through straight into the heart of the nest and bring an end to the flurry of flying beasts. Wasp’s natural food source is spiders and insects but they are also are scavengers with a fondness for the sweet and sticky. Raiding a bin is far easier than catching a fly. Like any pest control management- limit their food source and wasps won’t multiply en-masse.

Final stop for the little red van was a grand old house on a large estate. The house itself has been on contact for years, and has a number of preventative systems in place which has resulted in few call-outs. A historical problem has been moths in a storage cupboard, but a clever light seems to be working well and detracting the moths away from the damaging business of nibbling. All the kitchens were spotlessly clean, all the cockroach and mouse traps discreetly located close to skirting beneath furniture were empty. A report was filled in and given to the manager who carefully filed it way in readiness for the dreaded health inspector. A couple of wasps nests were treated then it was time for head back to HQ.

My standard Rentokil-issue boiler suit and coordinating red and grey fleece didn’t even get the slightest bit dirty. There was no grime to fight. And I didn’t even glimpse a single rodent or cockroach. All of our clients were successfully managing to keep their unwanted visitors away from their paying customers and most definitely out of the sight of the dreaded health inspector.

If you are interested in the food hygiene rating of your local take-away, clubs, pubs and restaurant visit the Score on the Doors website.

You can meet Glynn and take a trip out with him on YouTube.

What Does a Rentokil Technician Do? is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Now what’s so special about this picture of a snake in a patch of ivy, you may ask?

Well, let me give you a little background information.

Our Sales Manager was called out to do a survey of a block of flats in an upmarket area in Cape Town, South Africa. The customer complained about a heavy infestation of rodents. When our Sales Manager arrived at the premises, he was walked around and shown the rodent burrows. While he was doing a thorough site inspection to investigate the extent of the infestation, he encountered this well camouflaged snake. Here in South Africa, they are called “puff adders” and are reknowned for their laziness and the fact that they hold their territory; they don’t move out the way when humans, dogs or anything else crosses their path, what makes it worse is that they are venomous.

This snake was obviously scouting the rodent burrows for a food source (the rats).

This got me thinking (which I do quite often) about Rentokil and the  service we offer as a whole, many times I’ve often wondered if we are classified into essential service or luxury service in the residential market. By this example it has been made clear to me  that we fall into the essential services category.

Get rid of rats, get rid of snakes

Could you imagine the untold emotional damage a parent would have to go through if their young son or daughter was bitten by a snake in their very own yard and as a result lost a limb, because they were not responsible enough to get a rodent problem sorted out and as a result it attracted a snake.

Or the “man of the house” was busy gardening one Saturday afternoon and got bitten on the hand when he bent down to trim the Ivy…which could result in him losing his hand and leaving him unable to work.

This demonstrates why pest control is so essential in protecting your family and home from not just rodents but all the other unwanted guests all the way up the food chain.

Maybe my examples are a bit dramatic…but they are possible… But by now you probably wanting some clarity on what happened to the snake in this particular instance.

As Rentokil we pride ourselves in our professional approach and our Sales Manager knew immediately that “Puff adders” are a protected species here in South Africa, so we called a snake wrangler to come remove the immediate danger, and signed the client up on a rodent protection contract . Now the client has peace of mind that their premises are constantly surveyed by a fully trained professional Rentokil technician.

Pest Control: Our Sales And Service is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Thankfully this is not the prevailing attitude of pest control professionals and indeed most clients are quite the opposite. People are happy to have a true professional come to their homes and provide a service. Trust is something that most folks give freely and as long as their technician appears friendly and knowledgeable they are more than eager to have us out.

Clients are eager to hear about my family. For me I always speak of my wife and kids; how one is flying the country side in his little plane and how my other dons the football helmet every Friday night for his high school football team. Of course we both realize the reason I’m there is to provide a service and the talk always turns to what I found on this trip and how I treated to either correct or prevent a pest control situation.

Of course there are two sides to every coin and all pest technicians have the other type of client as well (like in the example at the beginning). I won’t say that they are grouchy or hate to have a bug service but they want their visits short and to the point with very little talk other than job related. Pest sightings are given in a matter of fact style and even though they pretend to not care what you do with the information they’ll watch you to make sure you’ve covered the the areas where the bugs were spotted.

In both cases, I believe the customer is thankful to have the service. Having done service work in many areas of the country this prevailing attitude of wanting professional service is widespread and whether they want to chat or just get the job done doesn’t alter that expectation. For most companies this arrangement works out fine because they are proud of the work they do. While there are a scant few who fall into other categories they would be the subject of another less flattering article and become the ‘water cooler’ talk for the technicians before they head out on their routes in the morning. Pest control is such a great career and after a few years any good tech has enough stories to tell at a party or family get together. I’ve been at this for over 26 years now and only begun to scratch the surface as I write on my blog. I’m still waiting however for the next time I’m asked to park in the alley way but since where I live now there are no alley’s I’ll just have to sharpen up my 007 driving skills.

Jerry Schappert is a certified pest control operator with over two and a half decades of experience from birds to termites and everything in between. Owner of The Bug Doctor Inc. in Ocala, Florida Jerry also spends much of his time sharing his insight through his blog and comments regularly here on deBugged.

Two Sides To American Pest Control is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog