Jun 25, 2012 – Sticking to What You Know
QUESTION:
I have an residential account where I only spray the inside every third month using CY-Kick CS. My client went to his doctor, who diagnosed him as having some kind of "bug bite". The doctor asked if he had pest control service and how often we spray? He told the doctor that we spray each month on the outside, but only every three months on the inside, and the doctor's reply was that "we are only spraying the inside every three months to cut back due to the economy"! My Question to you is this. How long does the chemical (CY-Kick CS) last on the inside of a home when left undisturbed and why is it that this Doctor thinks he is a Pest Management Professional?
ANSWER:
Well, this is an interesting question, and we will see who I can antagonize THIS time. I would say, first of all, that the doctor was out of line with that comment, if he did indeed say such a thing. If so then it suggests that the doctor believes that a pesticide treatment should be done every month on the inside of any residence, and of course this is not only silly but completely unwarranted. We, as professionals, should apply toxic substances only when there is a reason to do so, and we long ago moved away from monthly "preventive" treatments inside people's homes. If you have not verified the presence of a specific pest within the home it would be improper for you to spray pesticide there in the hope that the chemical might intercept some unknown future arthropod pest.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
I have an residential account where I only spray the inside every third month using CY-Kick CS. My client went to his doctor, who diagnosed him as having some kind of "bug bite". The doctor asked if he had pest control service and how often we spray? He told the doctor that we spray each month on the outside, but only every three months on the inside, and the doctor's reply was that "we are only spraying the inside every three months to cut back due to the economy"! My Question to you is this. How long does the chemical (CY-Kick CS) last on the inside of a home when left undisturbed and why is it that this Doctor thinks he is a Pest Management Professional?
ANSWER:
Well, this is an interesting question, and we will see who I can antagonize THIS time. I would say, first of all, that the doctor was out of line with that comment, if he did indeed say such a thing. If so then it suggests that the doctor believes that a pesticide treatment should be done every month on the inside of any residence, and of course this is not only silly but completely unwarranted. We, as professionals, should apply toxic substances only when there is a reason to do so, and we long ago moved away from monthly "preventive" treatments inside people's homes. If you have not verified the presence of a specific pest within the home it would be improper for you to spray pesticide there in the hope that the chemical might intercept some unknown future arthropod pest.
We will leave it at that with respect to the doctor's negative comment. I don't know that he believes he is a PMP, but only that he felt some need to criticize our industry and our practices. Perhaps more important might be the doctor's belief that he can look at some red or itchy bump or rash on a person's skin and determine that it is a "bug bite". Our industry's experts and university consultants consistently advise US that it is impossible to look at a bump and from that bump only to decide what caused it. In California we see this serious misdiagnosis constantly with respect to the medical professionals telling people that they were bitten by Brown Recluse Spiders. Since these spiders do not occur in California it seems highly unlikely that the hundreds of diagnoses by doctors were accurate, but they continue to be made.
Since we cannot control what medical professionals will tell their customers (I prefer the word "customer" over the word "patient") we can only stick to what we can control, and that is our own practices. You know very well that spraying inside a home every month is an unnecessary use of toxic substances, so instead you do an inspection each month and then treat only when there is something that needs to be treated. A micro-encapsulated material like Cy-Kick will probably leave an effective residual for a few weeks, depending on where it is applied. This should be more than adequate to eliminate that pest that you found to be present. It is NOT our goal to maintain an uninterrupted layer of pesticide on every surface in the home. This would not be a healthy situation and our industry no longer wants that to happen.
Avoid getting into any bickering match with the doctor, as he is not likely to change his mind for you. Instead, present the facts to your customer so that your customer understands why you do your applications in the manner that you do, that you are required to stay within the legal constraints imposed by our regulatory agencies and the product labels, and that it is the health and well being of the customer that dictate when and how you choose to apply your products.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
