Flea Control In The 90s

After last year’s depressed flea season, many PCOs across the country are anxiously awaiting what may be on tap for 1997 and the years ahead. Admittedly, the amount of flea control business has declined in the last several years, but no one can be certain of the reasons why.

In fact, many PCOs hope that 1996 was somewhat of a fluke year, and that future flea business will be stronger. But others say the market has changed for good, and there is nothing to do but adjust. These PCOs have “adjusted,” by finding smarter ways of doing business and cutting their losses in the lackluster area of flea control. The result has been twofold: carving a new flea control segment that has also become a surprisingly strong profit center.

A SERIES OF CHANGES. Raleigh Jenkins, president of ABC Pest Control, Houston, has seen flea control business go through a number of transformations in the past decade and has developed new competitive strategies along the way. Jenkins spoke recently on flea control in the ’90s at PCT’s Dialogue ’97 conference held this April in Atlanta.

“In the ’80s, I think we got our treatment techniques fine-tuned enough to a point where we were all on the same page,” Jenkins said. “We were treating the house and lawn, and were recommending to customers to take their pets to the vet to have them professionally dipped.”

Then the market changed in the early ’90s with the entry of Flea Busters, a.k.a. Rx for Fleas, into the Houston area. The company, which specialized only in flea control work, came in with a new type of control method, using boric acid dust applied to floor coverings. The company also offered a one-year guarantee, in contrast to ABC’s 60-day guarantee.

Furthermore, any veterinarians who referred flea work to Flea Busters were given a monetary incentive.

In response to this new competitor, Jenkins reworked the company’s flea control service and its guarantee. Always a strong proponent of the use of Precor Insect Growth Regulator, Jenkins was able to extend ABC’s guarantee when the label for Precor was increased to seven months. ABC also made other adjustments, such as treating customers’ pets with Petcor Flea Spray, in attempt to “take the vets out of the loop,” Jenkins said.

ABC had to change its strategy yet again in 1995, when the Program oral flea control tablet, from Novartis Animal Health and sold only through licensed veterinarians, came on the market. Since then, Jenkins explains, Program and similar “medicinal” products have become high ticket items for vets. After Program was introduced, ABC experienced a 45% loss in flea business, although much of that decline may be a result of the severe drought in Texas in 1996.

“An insect [veterinarians] didn’t care about in the ’80s is now a major money-maker to them,” said Jenkins. “They are aggressively targeting fleas like they never did before.” One major reason for the product’s success, Jenkins said, is its being sold by veterinarians.

To compete with this new competition, ABC began offering the PreFlea Cat and Dog Collars in 1994. At the time, Jenkins had forged a special arrangement with a major pet goods supplier in order to purchase the collars. Today, PreFlea collars, from Sandoz Agro Inc., are sold to pest control operators through industry suppliers.

The flea collar, Jenkins points out, has some distinct advantages over Program. For many, it is easier to use, as it needs only to be placed on the animal to begin working. The Program tablet, on the other hand, must be administered monthly and should be given after a meal so it is properly digested. Furthermore, fleas have to bite the animal and take a blood meal in order for the IGR to work. When the collar is worn by the pet, the insect growth regulator is present on the oils of the pet’s coat, and fleas on the animal will be exposed to it. The challenge, according to Jenkins, is to communicate to customers that this is no ordinary flea collar.

“It takes some education to get the customer to understand that this is a great product,” said Jenkins. “They need to understand that this flea collar does something totally different than other flea collars, and that it’s as good or better than Program.”

The complete flea program now offered by ABC, which is guaranteed for one year, includes the application of an adulticide and IGR inside and outside the home, along with spraying the pet with Petcor Flea Spray. The customer is also given one PreFlea collar for the pet, along with a bottle of Petcor Spray for use on their pet. ABC also changed its advertising to reflect a more direct message about flea control. “We had to make it clear that we are more economical than making that expensive visit to the vet,” said Jenkins.

FLEA CONTROL IN ADVANCE. Another strategy many PCOs are using to return profitability to the area of flea control work has been to encourage customers to plan ahead for flea control. Several years ago, when Bill Kirchner, president of Cleveland Chemical Pest Control Service, Cleveland, Ohio, found that the Precor IGR seemed to provide customers with extended periods of control, he decided to capitalize on the product’s effectiveness.

“We discovered, with the advent of Precor, that most of our flea problems that had been perennial, were actually occurring every other year,” said Kirchner. To test out his belief that the IGR was providing this new level of control, he performed a treatment in early spring using only Precor IGR in 20 homes which had recurring, annual flea problems.

“The results of those 20 were absolutely fantastic,” Kirchner said. “We didn’t have one flea problem, and these are homes that have had flea problems almost every year.”

Cleveland Chemical then began offering the early spring service to all previous flea customers, as a “pretreatment for fleas,” to be offered only from February through mid-April. Every year, the number of customers buying the service has increased, and today, Cleveland Chemical treats close to 300 homes each spring. The net effect of the service has been positive from all standpoints, Kirchner says.

“What we’ve done is taken our flea market out of the summer when we’re busy with other things, and put it into the spring, when we’re not as busy,” he said. Although Kirch-ner has seen a decline in the amount of flea control work done by Cleveland Chemical in the late summer and early fall, he has seen a definite increase in the flea pretreat work each year. Furthermore, the program has brought new revenue into the company, at a time of year when it’s needed the most: the slow season.

“I’ve moved [flea control service] to a better time of the year and probably do more work than if I had waited,” Kirchner said.

Now when Cleveland Chemical receives calls for flea control, customers are informed up-front about the pretreatment service, which takes about one hour. Kirchner admits the service can be difficult to sell to those customers who haven’t tried it, but those who have received the pretreatment purchase it year after year.

“We have customers now that swear by it,” said Kirchner. “They even call us and ask, ‘When are you coming?’” It’s easier to sell the pretreatment service, he says, by pointing out what customers could face if another flea infestation crops up, and also by explaining their household won’t be disrupted by the service, as it is with flea treatments.

“In February and March they’re not thinking about fleas,” said Kirchner, “so you have to remind them of all the aggravations the flea problems have given them in the past, such as vacating the house, people being bitten, taking the dog out to be treated, all of those things.”

Kirchner has also found it’s helpful to market the pretreatment service in various ways. “We market it to anyone who’s had a flea problem,” Kirchner said. A telephone marketing program is used in February and March to contact all past flea customers within the past five years and schedule appointments. A flyer is sent to all flea customers each year, and a special advertising notice is mailed with all invoices to remind customers of the flea pretreatment service. And the number of customers buying the service is growing: this year Cleveland Chemical treated close to 300 homes.

MARKETING “FLEA PREVENTION.” Roy Richardson, president of Royal Pest Management, Wilmington, Del., has also discovered it is effective and profitable to use Precor IGR in the spring as a “preventative treatment.”

“Since we’ve offered the service, we’ve had extremely few callbacks,” said Richardson. “It’s worked very well.” Like Kirchner, Richardson has developed a marketing plan to use with the preventive service.

“We’ve created a database of everyone we’ve sold flea work to,” said Richardson. “Then, next year in February we send a letter to these people explaining the problem and the solution, and telling them not to wait.” In 1997, Royal treated about 250 homes, up from the 180 homes treated in 1996. And Royal, which has been offering the service for four years, has made the service very attractive to customers by adding a one-year guarantee to the service.

Like Cleveland Chemical, Royal offers the service only in the early spring, from February through mid-April. Only those customers for which Royal has performed flea work in the past are contacted during the marketing efforts, Richardson explained.

“We’re not going for customers we haven’t sold before,” he said. “I’m not sure people would understand the benefits of it unless they’ve gone through a flea treatment.” In fact, when selling the preventative service, Richardson points out to customers the convenient, unobtrusive qualities of the service. Besides the fact that he doesn’t have to use adulticides in or around the house, customers can also schedule the preventative service at a time that’s convenient for them, and so they have time to prepare for it, which may not always be the case with a flea treatment.

Royal begins updating its database of customers right after the holidays. It also stays in contact with customers throughout the year, using a bimonthly newsletter, which also reminds customers of the service. Another segment of Royal’s marketing strategy involves staying in contact with many local veterinarians. Besides keeping him up-to-date on what they’re recommending, it also helps him secure future customers.

“If we provide a flea treatment for a certain customer, whether their dog is on Program or not, we still target them for a preventative treatment the following year,” he said.

Richardson, like many other PCOs, has also noticed a decline in the amount of flea work the company receives, but he believes it’s too early to tell if the decline is due to the use of Program and other veterinarian-administered products.

Furthermore, he points out, the preventive program has serious advantages over the often-disruptive flea treatment. Richardson also admits the preventative service has made an impact on the company’s bottom line. But even more important, he adds, “we’ve created an image with the customer of being proactive, as opposed to just reactive.” And that, he said, is what has helped Royal to earn more business in other areas of pest control. Royal’s customers also receive a bottle of natural pet shampoo, along with pet flea spray, and instructions on how to use them.

PART OF PEST CONTROL. These days, ABC’s Jenkins is contemplating changing his strategy with regard to fleas yet again.

“Now that fleas have become so easily manageable, we’re looking at offering flea control service with every quarterly service we offer,” he said. Jenkins envisions an all-inclusive quarterly pest control service that covers all the major insects that the homeowner will most commonly have problems with, such as fire ants, fleas and other pests. Building flea control services into the regular pest control maintenance offering might help to restore profits and increase sales volume in the flea control area.

Furthermore, Jenkins points out that pest control operators need to realize that flea control will likely never be what it once was, simply because the various products on the market, whether offered by PCO, vets, or the local pet store, are so effective.

“The system, in my opinion, is as sharp as it can be,” said Jenkins. “But flea control in the ’90s is not going to be what it was in the ’80s, and I dare say it’s going to continue tapering down.” The secret, as Jenkins and other PCOs know, comes in preparing for the changes armed with foresight, marketing know-how, and plenty of new ideas.

The author is associate editor of Pest Control Technology.

Sidebar: New Flea Collar Offers Continuous Long-Term Control

In early May, Sandoz Agro, Inc. introduced the PreFlea Continuous Action Flea Collar for long-term control of fleas on cats and dogs. The PreFlea collar combines the insect growth regulator (IGR) Precor with an adulticide to control adult fleas and flea eggs for an entire flea season.

“This product fits in perfectly with the Sandoz philosophy of complete flea control,” said Doug VanGundy, manager of specialty development. “We’re offering solutions to the pest control industry for comprehensive indoor, outdoor and on-animal flea control.”

The collar is designed to be provided directly to homeowners through their professional pest control operator — not through the veterinarian.

To use, the collar is unrolled, stretched for activation, and placed on the pet. Both active ingredients move from the collar through the pet’s coat by hair-to-hair transfer, bonding with individual hair fibers and treating the entire animal from head to tail within hours. The active ingredients bond to the animal’s skin oils and work beneath the hair’s surface where flea eggs are laid. The product’s effectiveness is not affected by sunlight, according to the manufacturer.

The collar has a labeled effectiveness period of seven months, and once on the animal, begins to work immediately. Wetting will not impair its effectiveness.

The PreFlea collar also breaks the life cycle of adult ticks, including the deer tick and the Rocky Mountain wood tick. For more information about the PreFlea Continuous Action Flea Collar, contact your local Sandoz distributor, or call 800/248-7763.