[Vertebrate Pests] On the right ‘track’

Part of the reason pest species are pests is because under the good conditions typically available to them around or inside buildings (i.e., food, warmth and shelter) pests can reproduce quickly. It is for this reason we as pest professionals are most often called upon to solve pest problems that have grown to a level that is out of reach to the do-it-yourselfer. But, it also means pest populations that are established in situations where the environment is not kept clean, orderly and tight, have the potential to rebound after they are knocked down during service initials and follow-ups. In other words, within many urban environments, persistence is the nature of pest populations.

To offset this persistence, careful pricing of a job, cooperation from the client, and diligence and hard work by the servicing professional are all necessary for long-term success. But this is not all. Effective record keeping is also necessary. In fact, record keeping can be as important as which bait, traps, sprayers or other equipment that are used for a job. Let’s examine why this is the case.

TYPES OF RECORDS. Pest management records can be categorized into two broad categories. Obviously, the first are the records associated with the service and organizational end of the business (client lists, routes, completion records, billing, service time allocated, time spent and so forth). Most companies, from the small to the giant, keep these essential records. The second types of records are less frequently kept but are no less important. These are records that track (i.e., monitor) a client’s infestation level as it progresses over the time of the service. Infestation tracking in our industry ranges from none to sophisticated.

When infestation-tracking records are not kept, the typical scenario is the servicing professional asks the client, "How are things with the mouse problem (or cockroaches, rats, etc.) this visit?" and adjust the service accordingly. In the more sophisticated cases, companies now use electronic means such as personal data managers (PDMs), laptop computers, and/or technology that incorporates bar coding and scanning to enter data collected during the service visit.

But merely collecting data, regardless whether it is with only pad and pencil or by using the fanciest of electronic gadgets, is still not enough. Data are merely a bunch of collected numbers unless they are put to use to make decisions, decisions that can determine the elimination of a pest problem or suppress an infestation to levels acceptable to the situation.

As a consultant who performs pest problem solving services, I repeatedly note that a common thread among many "persistent infestations" is an absence of a "data roadmap" developed along the way to facilitate timely management decisions based on infestation tracking. Such data facilitates stemming off rebounds or quickly halting newly arriving pests. Oftentimes I see that either the pest professional didn’t keep any data or data and trends were kept, but they were not analyzed to see what the data were revealing.

CASE STUDIES. Let’s examine three actual case histories of how pest data can serve as "road maps" for eliminating pest populations quickly. The following data sets (to view the chart, CLICK HERE) are of house mouse infestations tracked on a monthly basis over the course of 18 to 22 months in commercial facilities starting at the first month of service. Each month’s number reflects the numbers of mice captured in all traps combined at the facility. For each of these facilities, important information is being "told" to the servicing professional — providing the professional is paying attention.

In Facility 1 by month 4, the professional felt that "the trend" of the infestation was "declining" and maintained the same course of service for the next several months — even though by months 11, 12 and 13, it was evident the infestation was in fact quite persistent and little "control" was being achieved. Without some type of additional effort (e.g., more traps, better trap placement, more access to hard to reach areas, better sanitation, etc.) populations are cued up to rebound, or even explode. At about month 5, the professional (or a supervisor) should have called a time-out and re-evaluated the type and intensity of service, or whether or not conditions at the account were negating the professional’s work.

In Facility 2, it is clear the mouse problem was quickly corrected and maintained in that manner until a new infestation of mice were delivered into the facility. But certainly, a flag should have gone up at month 17. And at month 18, a re-analysis of the infestation and perhaps a re-visit to implementing the same level of a program that was used during the first few months to knock the population down to where it was by month 5.

Facility 3 illustrates a particularly large infestation that occurred in an office building. Tracking this infestation reveals that although the population was being substantially reduced, the rate of the reduction was too slow (i.e., it took seven months to "turn a corner"). Upon a threat of cancellation from the client, the pest professional doubled the amount of traps and increased the scope of the trap placements. This awakening brought the numbers of mice by month 13 to a threshold tolerable to the office occupants.

TRACKING DATA. In each of these cases, the important point is the tracking of the infestation profiles the status of the infestation. When data is not collected and analyzed, a few months can expire before the professional gets a "wake-up call" to do something. With fast breeding pests, a few months are crucial and often the time it will take for a cancellation, or a series of profit-eating callbacks.

Tracking pest infestations is not only an integral part of any IPM program; it is actually inherent within the principle of IPM. This is especially true if you service commercial facilities such as multifamily housing units, large office complexes, food handling facilities, warehouses, grocery stores, super stores, food plants and other such accounts subject to substantial pest pressures. Actually counting the rodent carcasses in traps (or dead bugs in light zappers or pheromone traps), is not the only means in which tracking data can be collected. For example, bait consumption levels among bait stations (i.e., minor, moderate or heavy feeding) can be used for tracking purposes.

Infestation tracking need not be performed via sophisticated gadgets. An inexpensive spiral bound notebook can be maintained if this works for you. But electronic pest management is here. And over the past three or so years, the technology has improved dramatically. In fact, for viable pest control companies, the use of tracking and trending technology is as eminent now as was incorporating "computers" into our operations 20 years ago (although at that time some pest professionals were heard to say, "computers are not for me").

Paraphrasing from the famous Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, "To truly understand something, you must first be able to measure it." Track the infestations you have been hired to manage. Tracking helps you understand how to maximize your chances of achieving fast and long-term reductions of pest infestations — exactly what the public is hiring you to do.

The author is president of RMC Pest Management Consulting and can be reached at rcorrigan@giemedia.com or 765/939-2829.