Re: Shop talk for AA

Posted by AA Professional Pest Services on August 21, 2006 at 23:25:00:

In Reply to: Re: Shop talk for AA posted by Artie pco on August 21, 2006 at 22:29:11:

Yep, I'm a Masshole. ;)

The situation in Mass is not as bad as say NY city right now, but I predict its coming. Maybe 2 more years away. The areas I typically work in are sandwiched in between Boston and Providence, RI.

The low income housing units are crawling with Bed Bugs and the companies who have the bids on them don't want to do the work to get rid of them, based on the amounts of $ they get for a service call. Every time someone moves in or out, the infestation spreads and until the bidding process is modified for BB Treatements, its not going to stop. I know the city isn't going to pay me to get rid of all of them! I've literally seen one company's tech place some glue boards around one room in a unit and claim he treated for BB's. I've also been hired privately by some of the residents to "really" treat for them on the side.

I have in-laws in North Hampton, NH and I don't hear much about this up there. But, again, they'll be on their way within the next year or so. It's too close to Boston not to spread.

Charges vary per area and each infested room takes 45 minutes to an hour +. Then you have the adjoining rooms. So, I try to get an idea of what the room is like then charge accordingly. I'm not going to get into price specifics here, but it can be a very lucrative business if you can knock them down quickly and keep them gone. Finding the source is always the hardest part of the deal, and without that, you could be going back to retreat for months and months. I probably only sell %80 of the calls I get because of my pricing, but we both know you get what you pay for!

As far as hitch-hikers go, never brought anything home, a flea made it to my truck once. He didn't last very long. I now spray my pant legs with Premise before I do a flea job. Other than that, BB's are pretty much nocturnal and I don't usually see that many of them when I do a job. They'll always try to get back to their harborage before they do anything else. The ones I do see I make sure I spray really well. Never had a problem after that.

AA Professional Pest Services
www.aaprofessionalpestservices.com

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