Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

Pest Control Technology Magazine gave the owner of Bulwark a quick interview about what makes Bulwark Exterminating’s company so different.  Here is what they reported:

Bulwark Exterminating, Mesa, Ariz.
At 10 years old, Bulwark Exterminating
is built differently than most firms. More
than half of employees’ compensation is
determined through statistical analyzes,
said President Adam Seever. They typically
make 30 percent more than the industry
average, according to Seever, due to
higher productivity and the company only
promotes from within, giving them “lots of
reasons to stick around.” Employees must
feel financially and emotionally respected
or they can’t respect your customers, explained
Seever. The company has 250
employees at 11 offices in seven states,
including five programmers to manage its proprietary software.
http://pct.texterity.com/pct/201001/?pg=41&pm=2&u1=friend#pg41

Why by the numbers?

Many companies look to accountants to manage by the numbers, these companies often fail. But  Bulwark’s numbers are not found on a typical accountants balance sheet.  Bulwark tracks all kinds of numbers that most never think to track. And with 10 years of tracking Bulwark can see trends.  So Bulwark takes these numbers, puts a real monetary value on the impact of these numbers and then reworks the system. For example, how much more productivity could a company gain if customer call backs drop by down by 10%?  That value is calculated, monetized and then redistributed to those individuals within the company that make it happen.  The bottom line is the company runs more efficiently, more productively, and those individual’s that make it happen are rewarded for their efforts.

What’s beautiful about this system is that everyone wins.  “Yeah, Right… that’s just too cliche.” True, it is hard to believe in systems that promise to benefit everyone. But back to customer call backs… If the tech does the job correctly and takes a little more time upfront, to save time on the back end, (time=$$$) then the client, the tech, and the company all benefit.  The tech gets a bonus for having a lower call back number.  The customer is happier that the problem is being solved and that they don’t have to call us back.  The company saves time, which equates to dollars. Plus, the tech, the customer, Bulwark’s office staff, Bulwark’s managers, and the rest of the tech’s team are all happier.  Not a bad system… if it works. Don’t worry works. Proven by the same numbers that we meticulously track.

And it’s truly numbers that everyone can hit.  Many theorize that you should just play your team with your All-Star performers.  “Manage your producers and showcase them.” The most common analogy following this line of thought is that professional sports teams rely on only their superstars to make it happen. Well, pest control is far from a fantasy football team, and frankly, Bulwark has always believed that everyone on the team should play.  So Bulwark doesn’t develop a matrix to benefit a few top performers. The owner will focus on what is going to make the biggest impact on all of Bulwark’s players.  It’s a win-win-win-win-win… get the point?

Find ways to incentivize performance. And better yet, find ways to improve so everyone wins!

Pest-Control-Stories General Pest Control, In the News In the News, pest control news, proprietary software

thos003 General Pest Control bug control, exterminator, pest control

Pest Control Forecasting

What you can take away from the pest control trends is that from Febuary to March pest control will likely increase by 50% and that the Texas pest control season peaks in June 2010. So business should be picking up now and should increase until mid summer, June. Ant control shows no forecastable trend, but should follow closely to pest control with a June 2010 peak.

But does the forecast mean pest control companies will survive the economy? Last year’s economic downturn caused many pest control operators to close up shop. Despite the fact the the google trends only showed a 2% decrease in interest from June 2008 to June 2009. So people may be searching for pest control 2010, but that doesn’t mean that people will be buying pest control.

Reading the Trends

It’s hard to argue that pest control is a seasonal business. Further, it’s hard to argue that what people are searching for is “pest control”. The trends above are specific to the Texas region and it is interesting to see the metros within Texas that get the most searchs by keyword. Exterminators are less likely to find successful traffic campaigns by ignoring these trends. Further, trying to jump in at the heat of the race without doing your off season excercise is futile. Through trial and error sites launched and dedicated to “ant control in Austin” proved to capture very little traffic. Sites launced for “pest control in Austin” beat out scorpions, ants, spiders, and roaches combined. Needless to say, “scorpion control” is less than trendy.

Back to the drawing board. Thanks for the regional pest control insights provided by google trends.

Stay tuned for more information from your online bug channel.

Pest-Control-Stories General Pest Control, scorpion control austin scorpion control, Houston Ant Control, pest control in Austin, pest control trends

I’ve always liked the sounds that a cricket makes. It’s soothing and reminds me of the countless nights I have spent outside just staring at the sky and wondering what life is all about. It is kind of like a soundtrack for my mind. Others appreciate the noise as well, but they prefer to be outside of their home rather than inside. I was called to a home late in the evening, nearly after sunset. Timing was crucial for me because this lady had a pretty uncommon problem in Georgia, crickets breeding in the walls. Her eyes were bloodshot from having been up all night and you could tell she was irritated. She walked me to the master bedroom and stuck her head against the wall and held up a finger … nothing. No sound, no chirping, not anything. There was a bit of humor in it because it was like man vs. wild, all the little creatures stop making noise when they detect a threat. She was about to give up when the chirping restarted – it was pretty amazing because each chirp had its own unique location along the wall, almost like an echo. One would chirp in the middle and two others on either side of that cricket would begin to chirp. Sometimes, if they timed it right, they chirped simultaneously. I decided the best option would be to flush out the wall voids with an in-wall treatment and re-spray the exterior. I also did a yard spray to stop any crickets around the home from getting closer. I’m not a doctor but was able to provide a cure for insomnia.

Luke F

Pest-Control-Stories General Pest Control

Many people think that a bed bug is invisible to the naked eye and prior to my experience as a field technician, I didn’t even know they existed. Bed bugs can be very small, a little less than the size of a paper clipping in a hole-puncher. I was told I had to service a home with bed-bugs about 2 days in advance and this gave me some time to do some reading

Bedbugs are bloodsucking parasites. They are typically found around the seams in a mattress and can go as long as a year without feeding. They hide in cracks and crevices and are attracted to the heat we give off when we sleep – before they pierce the skin, they deliver an anti-septic which provides mild pain relief so you don’t wake up and feel a pinch. After getting their fill, the bed bugs will return to a crack or crevice in the room and hide until the next time it gets hungry.

When I arrived at the woman’s home she showed me her arms – curiously, her and her children were the only ones with bites even though the husband slept in the same room. He didn’t have a single bite – the woman was devastated and preparing to burn her entire house down. She wanted to throw away every ounce of furniture and every mattress in the house. I couldn’t blame her; you can’t even relax in your own home without fear of being bitten by parasites while you sleep. The point of this story is simply this, to draw out the extent of the infestation. I also wanted to share with you all of the areas I found bed bugs in:

Bed frame, mattress, box-spring, pillow, behind wall electrical plates, inside a TV remote battery cover, children’s toy cars, alarm clock, and an Xbox 360 just to name a few items. 

The Craziest place I found them was in the screws that held most of her bedroom furniture together. Behind a shelf, a cardboard backing was attached to the shelf frame for support and aesthetic purposes. When we move the shelf I observed 5 tiny bedbugs in one of the screw holes and a few even fell out onto the floor.  

Bed bugs are no joke. Throwing your stuff away will not get rid of them and short of burning your house down (kidding), not much can be done treatment wise to guarantee elimination.   This is because they can go long intervals without a food source, lying dormant in walls and hiding in luggage cases long after any product has expired. But they CAN be eliminated. There are a few chemical and non-chemical treatment programs that can help.

How do you stop yourself from getting bedbugs? Use your eyes. It is believed that most people bring them home from hotels, where they will crawl into your clothes and luggage.

You can avoid getting bedbugs by checking the bed when you get into the hotel room – lift up the sheets under the mattress starting at the end with the pillows. Are there brownish / reddish stains along the seams of the mattress? If so, this is an indicator of bed bugs. After a blood meal they can be observed making deposits of fecal matter around the host and room. Good luck!

Luke F

Pest-Control-Stories General Pest Control

My name is Svea Owens and I work for the Phoenix AZ branch of Bulwark Exterminating. Over the past several months, we have been using our website as a way for our customers to share with others about the jobs our technicians do for them. The first few weeks of using this website, we had a couple of customers call in saying they couldn’t figure out how to leave reviews. As the calls came in the other girls in our office would transfer these people to me and I would get on the website and walk them through step by step on how to do it. One customer in particular was very appreciative of this. She called in wanting to leave a review for one of our technicians, Jason. She said he always does an outstanding job and she really wanted him to get the recognition he deserves. I got onto the website with her and walked her through it and by the end she was so thankful. She told me that she wasn’t very computer savvy and that I explained everything very well and made it very easy for her to follow. She was happy that she was finally able to give Jason the gratification she felt he deserved. I also let her know I would relay her comments of Jason’s performance to my service manager as well.

Svea

Pest-Control-Stories General Pest Control customer service

Doing pest control you see the best and worst of people’s homes. As a technician for our East Atlanta branch, I would often find myself walking through a series of webs in both crawlspaces and unfinished basements, even some garages that were just totally covered. For whatever reason, these areas tend to be hotspots for spider activity; my guess is because they are usually poorly sealed and cool or moist. A young woman had called in regarding a mouse in her basement and it was no surprise to find a maze of boxes and cobwebs littering the unfinished floor. She took me to the corner where she suspected the mouse had hidden and I began to examine the area… there was a chewed up bag of some bird seed and a couple shreds of what almost looked like press board. And who can forget the line of droppings delineating the inner wall. The woman had been raised in another country and described to me a level of fear associated with certain animals per culture. She was relatively calm, but she also carried an anxious undertone as well.  We followed the droppings along the wall and went around a corner and to the basement door. To my surprise, sitting by the door was fat long snake, at least 3 feet in length and a ½ an inch in diameter. I almost fainted because the lady had let out such a blood curdling scream. It’s a good thing that snakes don’t have ears, I am positive it would have attacked her. She grabbed my shoulders, as if to use me as some sort of shield, which I thought was kind of funny. I have an affinity for reptiles and this little guy just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time … the trail of droppings had disappeared about 3 feet from the snake and its my guess he had a fat little meal prior to our encounter. Animal control is not really our cup of tea (beyond rats and mice), but I was able to find a stick and pick up the snake gently removing it from the basement. The lady said her basement door is never open but I am not so sure how the snake could have gotten in. To this day I do not have that answer. Why do you think basements are so high in pest activity?

Luke F

Pest-Control-Stories General Pest Control

My name is Svea Owens and I work for the Phoenix branch of Bulwark Exterminating. Over the past several months, we have been using the 602pest.com website as a way for our customers to share with others about the jobs our technicians do for them. The first few weeks of using this website, we had a couple of customers call in saying they couldn’t figure out how to leave reviews. As the calls came in the other girls in our office would transfer these people to me and I would get on the website and walk them through step by step on how to do it. One customer in particular was very appreciative of this. She called in wanting to leave a review for one of our technicians, Jason. She said he always does an outstanding job and she really wanted him to get the recognition he deserves. I got onto the website with her and walked her through it and by the end she was so thankful. She told me that she wasn’t very computer savvy and that I explained everything very well and made it very easy for her to follow. She was happy that she was finally able to give Jason the gratification she felt he deserved. I also let her know I would relay her comments of Jason’s performance to my service manager as well.

Svea

Pest-Control-Stories General Pest Control

I spoke with a current customer that was concerned about something in her walls, she just couldn’t figure out what it was, she is an elderly lady and was a little scared. She just kept asking me what it could be. I told her I didn’t know, but I would be glad to send out a technician to see, maybe it was rats or mice. I tried to find something as early as possible for this poor little lady was terrified, so I scheduled a service for her for the next day. Later on that same day, this customer calls me back….she starts out saying “I’m so embarrassed”, I hate to call you, but I won’t be needing the service after all.  I asked her why, she said it was her grandson’s toy in the closet making the noise. Her daughter was the one to find it, so we just laughed together and I told her not to worry and I would cancel the appointment. She was pleased that we would have come out so quickly to take care of the problem, and was very happy that it wasn’t an animal or rodent of some kind.

Jill B

JillB General Pest Control

Last April is a month one of our customers will never forget.  While in her laundry room, she noticed an odd, gray bug clinging to the wall.  She showed it to her husband and neither of them knew exactly what it was, so into the garbage disposal it went.  Afterwards, she went out of town leaving her dogs and husband at home for about ten days.  When she returned, she found another odd bug in the laundry room.  At this time she also found ticks crawling on the walls, floors and embedded in her poor little pups!  She immediately called the vet and picked up some very expensive tick guard.  She went to the local pet store and bought even more expensive sprays and foggers to try to stop these horrible little creatures from their massive invasion. After that, she had to take all of her dogs to the groomer and have them shaved so she could check them for any more ticks, for the problem was still not gone.

Her tick problem was just getting worse so her neighbor, vet and groomer suggested she seek professional intervention.  Heeding the neighbor’s advice, she called Bulwark and spoke to Chris Benham.  I made a special trip to their home the very next day to take care of the problem for I could hear and feel the frustration and overall panic in her voice.  The technicians and I went to their home several more times treating the yard, inside the home and even provided them with some tick spray for our dogs!  We answered their calls and their questions in a caring professional manner.  It took about two months, but they are happy to report they are tick free!  Bulwark sprays their home once a month and they continue to be pest free.  Living in the desert of Phoenix is beautiful but leaves everyone more susceptible to many critters, large and small.  The small ones are oftentimes the most irritating and destructive.  Mrs said, “Thank goodness for the professional team of Bulwark and their ability to take care of all our pest problems.  I will always recommend Bulwark and Chris Benham to anyone who does not want a pest problem!”

Chris B

Pest-Control-Stories General Pest Control