[Manufacturer Spotlight] Accessing the Inaccessible

By their nature pests avoid the spotlight and prefer to lurk in the shadows inside homes and businesses. These areas are often inaccessible to pest management technicians or require the technician to have the flexibility and agility of an Olympic gymnast to reach them and deliver a treatment.

When Technicide founder Jim Harper was working in his family’s pest control company in Southern California he quickly discovered the difficulty and strain involved with servicing hard-to-reach areas of accounts and decided to do something about it.

In 1988, Harper started Technicide with the goal to develop application equipment that would improve technician performance and ultimately increase customer satisfaction. “The goal at Technicide has always been to develop application equipment and tools to make inaccessible areas of an account accessible to technicians,” says Harper. “We want to improve treatment efficiency and effectiveness, and at the same time reduce stress and strain on the technician.”

Harper points to a dairy facility his family’s company — Harper Pest Control — was servicing and the day he filled in for a technician as a turning point. The account has 52 rodent bait stations and Harper quickly realized that the service visit would not be a quick in and out.

“I was up and down every 10 feet and thought, ‘What if this was the first account of the day for the technician, he or she would be spent and that could impact their effectiveness the rest of the day,’” says Harper. “There would be a natural temptation to skip a station or two and I thought there had to be a better way to service these stations.”

That led Harper to develop the Techni-Baiter rodent bait station. The Techni-baiter station allows technicians to clean and replace bait while standing up, by using a pole that threads into a key to unlock the station. Technicians can perform a routine service in 16 seconds without constantly kneeling or bending, eliminating physical fatigue. “Time is a commodity you can’t buy or sell and the Techni-Baiter station allows technicians to perform the bait station service quicker and move on to another account, perform add-on services or do additional consultation on sanitation with clients,” says Harper.

The station is designed to also accommodate snap traps if service protocols and the facility require a non-bait approach.

With three airtight compartments technicians can store multiple months of bait inside without worrying about insects or the elements degrading the bait quality. It is designed for use in both residential and commercial accounts.
 

Getting Within Reach.

When it comes to making gel bait applications in homes and commercial accounts for ants or cockroaches, a technician’s arm never seems to be long enough. Pest harborage areas are often found under equipment in commercial kitchens or on top of cabinets or high shelves, typically out of reach of a technician’s bait gun.

The Tech-Reach Bait Pro gives technicians an extra 24 inches of range to access hard-to-reach areas where pests live without having to carry a ladder around the account. The development of the product came about as a result of Harper’s experience servicing restaurant and commercial kitchens where large fixed equipment creates voids where pests thrive on moisture and food particles.

“Owners can be assured their technicians will be able to access and service hard-to-reach areas in an account where pest activity is present,” says Harper.

Bed bugs present PMPs another challenge when it comes to getting the correct amount of product to the correct location. In the August 2014 PCT feature “Silica Gel: A Better Bed Bug Desiccant,” Dr. Michael Potter and Dr. Kenneth Haynes, University of Kentucky, reported, “Based on what we observed, it seems likely that propagation and spread of infestations could be reduced by applying an ultralight deposit of silica gel around the perimeter (baseboard areas) of living units.”

Spurred by these findings, Technicide developed a pair of add-on tools for its Exacticide applicator that uses Rockwell Labs’ CimeXa dust. The carpet applicator injects the dust — which university research showed delivered a 100 percent mortality rate within 24-hours of application — deep into carpet fibers where bed bugs live. The companion paint brush applicator can be used to treat the edges of mattresses, furniture and draperies with an even coat of dust.

“Bed bugs will migrate across carpets to reach beds and furniture in search of a blood meal,” says Harper. “By using the carpet applicator and paint brush technicians can deliver treatments directly to bed bug hot spot areas.”

Harper says these tools allows PMPs to market preventive service programs to clients that are highly sensitive to bed bug infestations including hospitality, healthcare and educational accounts.

What do the professionals in the field have to say about the performance of the latest Technicide tools? Brad Heath of Reliable Exterminators in Lafayette, Ind., says the Tech-Reach Bait Pro allows him to make more precise applications in targeted areas and eliminate waste.

“It reaches where you need it to go, is easier to use and allows you to be more efficient with your time,” says Heath. “It pays for itself in what you save in time and materials.”

Heath also uses the bed bug dust application tools, including the Exacticide, and says they give him the ability to deliver a bed bug treatment in less time but with improved coverage. “One machine allows you to treat cracks and crevices, carpets, and mattresses and furniture,” says Heath. “In addition to the equipment’s versatility the dust delivers an effective, long-residual product to treat for bed bugs.”

About the author: Jeff Fenner is a partner of B Communications, an integrated communications/marketing firm. Email him at jfenner@giemedia.com.