The Pest Academy File #3 | Forming a Rodent Abatement Program | A Pest Control Podcast

Today Anthony is joined by Bryce. The two go over forming a proper rodent abatement program, start to finish. They also cover proper trapping methods and how to properly charge a client to assure you do not lose money while dealing with rodents. Want to be on the show or want to share feedback? Contact us at: ascendallent@gmail.com For business inquiries, advertising, and professional questions, please send an email over to ascendallent@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is the pest files. Welcome to the show, everybody. I am your host, Anthony, a business owner and operator out of the state of California of a pest control company. And I'm joined here with Bryce. Hey everyone. So you want to give everyone your credentials, Mr. Bryce?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Yeah, um, I do pest control like Anthony, but I'm more on the technician side. I've been doing it for past five years now. So mostly just commercial residential stuff, and also kind of a rodent guy.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Wow. So wait, it's been five years?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

I think so, yeah. 2020. Oh, coming up on six years.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Coming up on six years. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Time flies, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Yeah, it's almost time to renew that license.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

I know yeah. I just renewed mine uh last year, actually. And the operator license is pretty expensive. I think it's like a hundred plus dollars just to renew it and just money out of your pocket.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yeah, well, it's worth it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, I guess you're right. It only feeds my family, pays my rent, right? Yeah. So today's episode is going to be about uh a rodent abatement program, how to set one up with your company. Maybe if you're a lone wolf, like uh some people out there, sole proprietors, you need a rodent abatement program. There's a lot of money into it, it's a lot of hard work, but you could definitely profit from it. And as you said, you're kind of a rodent guy. You have no shortage of shortage of experience with rodents, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yeah, most of my experience is dealing with the abatement. If you don't know what abatement is, that's rodent exclusion. So, yeah, a lot of experience there.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yep. Yeah, and and so we're we're gonna kind of go over a step-by-step process, how to run a successful rodent abatement program. Uh, for my business, uh, we have a great rodent abatement program. It's very successful. I've worked for companies, and as you know, I'm not gonna name names, but I've worked for companies that essentially did not have good programs at all. In fact, maybe they had about a 50% success rate. So yeah, uh, that's not too cool, especially when you're charging clients anywhere from a hundred to two to uh thousand dollars, two thousand dollars, three thousand dollars for work, and they have rodents again six months later. So, Bryce, what what incorporates what begins a good rodent abatement program? Where do you start?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Um, first thing you want to do, similar to the IPM process, you want to interview your client, figure out what what kinds of things they're hearing or seeing or smelling around their home or property, uh, wherever that may be. Try to get a good idea of what you're dealing with, whether you know you could be hearing something outside of rodents, it could be, you know, a squirrel or a raccoon.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Right. Yeah, I agree. I I believe every program should always, in essence, follow IPM to the route because there's so much valuable information you could get from interviewing a client, right? Uh, an example would be I had I work with the property manager and they give me a work order. They say, Hey, uh, rodents in the attic, clients hearing noises, right? Tenants hearing noises. So I say, okay. Then you go and interview the client and talk to the client, and next thing you know, it's no, it's not. They're hearing just loud noises up there, and it turns out that it is a possum that's up there. So you always have to talk to the client, and even when you talk to the client, you might, especially for rodents, you might not begin the full story, you have to inspect as well. So here's the key begin every rodent abatement program with a grid inspection sheet, just somewhere where you can neatly build a diagram of the home, figure out what's going on around the home, figure out where the rodents are getting into the home at, and it's gonna save you so much time, you're gonna look so professional, and your work's just gonna be easier because now you have everything to resort to. There's some companies out there that they'll just snap pictures of the you know, entry points, things like that, and then they'll just send a big email with all those pictures, and they'll say, Hey, here's all the entryways. That can work, but there's a lot to be desired there. It's not too organized, right? And sometimes you're some pictures you don't even know what you're looking at, right? And you're like, Well, what is this? Is this what part of the house is this?

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah, you want to be organized, give a good understanding to the customer, that way they're confident in your program.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Right. And and do you have much experience with using grid sheets or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yeah, that's uh what I use most often when I'm doing an inspection. I'll draw out a little blueprint of the home, mark off any entry points or findings around the property, and put in my notes somewhere on that sheet as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Right. And for those of you listening, I'm holding a paper. This is actually uh for my business, our grid sheet, and we have just little things like the address to help differentiate for dealing with duplexes. We always write which address is which on each side of the duplex, whether it's left or right. Um, a good grid sheet just needs to be detailed, doesn't need to be overcomplicated, right? Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah, you don't want it uh scribbles and scatters over the place.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

And it's just a mess, and no, no one's gonna know what it is. But I like to put where, you know, I like to when I jot down the home, I'll put the street name, right? So they'll know, okay, cool, that's the street name. Again for duplexes, which a lot of times, you know, especially when you work with property managers, you're gonna run into duplexes to have a run issue. You're gonna differentiate the address, and on top of that, you're gonna go ahead and and you need to separate. So when you do a grid sheet, just don't put X's down saying hole one, hole two, hole three. Differentiate that. Build a a numerical system or an alphabet system. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah, definitely. I know that's kind of hard to explain, but uh yeah, something to differentiate what type of entry points you're finding or what right. Don't just mark things down and expect people to know what that means.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Right, and and it you can build a very simple program. Like let's say you have a grid sheet, and then below the grid sheet you have a big box for notes, right? And you could say A equals attic, B equals roof, C equals siding, right? And and go on from there, and you can differentiate where the holes are, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

A1, B3, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

A1, B1, B2, B3, things like that. So it's going to help you stay professional and stay on top of your inspection because when it comes to rodent abatement, the most crucial part is going to be your inspection. That it's it's that simple. How many times in your business, whether you own a business, your manager, or your technician, a PMP, whatever you are, how many times do you conduct a rodent abatement program? You start the trapping program, you seal the holes, and then for some reason, most clients you guys figure it out, but for some reason, a handful of those clients are calling you back months later, and again and again, and then you do another inspection. Oh, we missed a hole, or oh, there's a new hole added, right? So there's so many times that you missed it, you know. I'll be honest, I've missed holes before, you know. Like, I'll just be honest, like, hey, no one's perfect, but a proper inspection is always needed to get started. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, definitely. That way everything is accounted for. Anything that'll be missed is obviously missed, and anything that is a brand new will be obviously brand new, but yeah, it's definitely important.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yep, and uh we've talked about this personally, uh, never on air, but we can talk about it now. So, one thing uh you would say is that you feel that it's better that the inspector also at least does the exclusion work.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

At least, but yeah, I I see it more as like a one-man job as far as uh rodent abatement goes. I think the same person doing the inspection should also go and do the exclusion work. If if they're not skilled at that, then I mean you can get someone to help you with that.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Well, train, right? Form a proper training program.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

But the customer wants the same person that is knowledgeable on the property to be the same person returning and checking on the traps and making sure the job is finished.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Right. And I I agree with that because there's one more peace of mind, in my opinion, because what happens is some companies they'll have three or four different faces at a property when it comes to rodents. Yeah. Right. Some even more. Because um, for those of you that probably aren't familiar with rodent abatement programs, a lot of times you're about to you're gonna do trapping weekly or maybe even twice a week for at least a month. So someone's gonna be at that home quite a bit. And the reason why is because you want to make sure your traps are armed, make sure you're moving dead rodents before they start making a stench, and making sure that you're on top of the program, seeing if there's an increase in activity, decrease, are your exclusion points where you sealed, are they getting chewed through or messed with, things like that. So um obviously you have to design your program to be profitable, right? So if you're doing twice a week, weekly for a month, you better be paying uh charging a pretty penny because yeah, that that you'll be paying uh losing some money there if you if you're sending uh manpower out there all the time. So let's recap real quick on the beginning of a good road and abatement program. Obviously, we know IPM, right? The interview is where it starts, but even then, your key part is gonna be that inspection. Use a grid sheet. I couple grid sheets with pictures, so it it's it's sort of I know some companies use pictures only, they'll use grid sheets only. There are some companies I've heard about that are very intricate, they have their own systems where it's like a PDF file that they can like you know click on and uh show the pictures of the home, and it's like this virtual diagram. That's awesome. I don't have that technology, you know. So I just use a simple paper and I have it split very um easily so people can see. So on for my business, we split things up where you know it's the identified rodent, the inspector name, the address, the date. Uh, then we go ahead and differentiate between the attic, the roof, the eaves, the foundation. Um, we go ahead notes about the trapping program and the exclusion work. So we kind of give them the pricing, the trapping program. That's another key thing too. Separate your exclusion pricing with your trapping program. They should be complete separate entities. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah, definitely that way. I mean, they can see the difference in pricing and understand why the pricing is that way.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Right. And because the biggest thing too is that you want to make sure you're being profitable because there's times where you'll say, Okay, it's a thousand dollars total, right? And that's and they're like, Well, what does that cover? Oh, well, there's four holes, and then we're gonna do trapping, and your client's gonna be confused, they're gonna say, Well, okay, what about this, or what about that, right? Um, another thing you could add on there too. Uh, I know some companies do already, but you add a labor percentage on there, so that's key. That's a way, and for you business owners and managers out there, that's a way to make your people happier. Just slap an extra 10% on there, goes directly to your worker, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

And um, have you ever been paid labor or anything like that at companies or yeah, I'm familiar with that.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Uh companies I've worked at in the past have paid out labor.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah, cool. And I I think it's cool. I think I think it's just the way, and and what client's gonna say no, right? I I I've I've personally, when I was a manager at a company, uh, I implemented labor and um it was 10%. And then uh for our more seasoned guys, we were trying to increase it to 15%, where we slap we just you do the inspection, you don't even account for labor. You you accommodate for the exclusion pricing, the trapping program. Then on top of that, once you have your grand total, add 10% to it. That's your labor for doing the job. So I feel like people they can implement that, it's just gonna make your team happier. Majority of clients are not gonna say no, they understand there's labor, right? Like, let's think about plumbers. There's labor, mechanics, labor. In fact, mechanics, 90% of your bill is labor. Yeah, so why I'm not saying let's make 90% of the bill for client labor for exclusion work, but it's just another idea to help out clients. So, quick recap. Sorry, we kind of went off on a tangent there, but that's okay. It's a podcast, that's what we're all about here at the pest files. If you guys have listened to Dominant's podcast, you know that maybe we might not be as professional, and that's okay. Uh, we we try our best. Try. And and there was an episode I did at the Pest Academy where it was like at 11 o'clock at night, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, I sound tired. And jeez. Hey, but that's what they sign up for, right? That's what people are gonna listen to. So uh the forming a proper road and abatement program, inspection, inspection, inspection. Build a grid sheet. If you don't know how to, very simple. And if you don't know how to, I'll tell you what. Send me an email. The email will be in the description. I'll just erase my logo off and I'll just send you my grid sheet. It's pretty cool, pretty simple, easy to use. So start there. Grid sheet. Make sure your inspector knows what's going on. Make sure you understand. Check the eave pockets, the foundation, the sightings, things like that. Check the attic. Where are you going to do your trapping program? Attic, sub area, garage. Make sure you're building your pricing around that. Make sure you're developing a proper rodent program. Now, Bryce, from your experience, because you've done a lot of rodent shops, how long does it usually take to get rid of a rodent infestation at your average home?

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah, it varies just because it's it's hard to you know pinpoint what you call average, but uh anywhere from 30 to 60 days, it seems like um is a normal time to get rid of rodents.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Right, right. So one month to two months is is what we're dealing with here. And how many trips usually from let's say your first trip is doing the exclusion work, okay? How many trips after that are you personally confident in a rodent program that you're saying, okay, things should be better? Probably about five on average. Five. So let's let's let that sink in. The first trip we're not even counting is the inspection or just talking to the client, right? Yeah. And the inspection, the grid inspection. Now, that's where you could cut a corner because you could say I could get the work done right now. I got everything on the truck, and that's the benefit of having the same guy doing the inspection do the work, right? Now, obviously, if that's not possible or if there's not enough resource to do that, you're gonna do another trip. Trip number two is gonna be actually going out and starting the exclusion work. Now, some companies are different. Some companies will start the trapping before the exclusion work, some will start the trapping during the exclusion work. You usually don't ever want to do trapping after exclusion work because that's where damage to the client's home can can happen. New holes will be chewed through the drywall or in the attic or in the events, right? What is your opinion on that?

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Um, I feel like it depends on the situation, but it it's good to get the traps installed as soon as the holes are sealed up. Right. No later than that. Yeah, no later. Whether it's earlier, I mean, putting in traps where there's an attic and there's still open access points, I don't see a point in that. So um me personally, I'd rather wait until it's time to seal up the holes, then we'll put the traps in and then come back to monitor then, monitor them later.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Of course. So for those of you listening, um Bryce said between 30 and 60 days, from my experience, it does take around 30 days, maybe 45 days, right? You're going to be doing about four or five to six trips after you seal the holes on average, right? And a couple of those trips are just to be sure. You're popping your head up into the attic real quick, you're you're just checking your exclusion work, checking in with the client. I'm not hearing any noise, they're happy. And you know, a couple of those trips you're just gonna do for peace of mind, right? Yeah, you quick in and out, 10 minutes if that. So now that your rodent program is going to have your grid sheet, you understand the importance of the inspection, you understand the importance of pricing out the exclusion work and the trapping. Now, how long is your trapping program going to be? And are you going to give a warranty to your exclusion work? What are you using to do uh exclusion? Are you using spray foam and steel wool? A lot of companies do. Are you using hardware cloth? Are you gonna actually go and buy door thresholds and vent new vents to install to fit? What would you recommend, Bryce?

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Um like I said, I think it just depends on the situation, but uh all the companies that I'll hear me with.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Sorry, Coyote, let me give you the uh the the perfect situation, okay? Yeah. You own your own business, you have enough resource, you have whatever resource you want. In a perfect world, what would Bryce do in a rodent payment program to guarantee results for his client and to do the best job possible?

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Um I'd definitely get a a wide variety of materials that I could use because some clients are gonna want quick fix, cheap materials that just gets their problem solved, and others are gonna be worried about how that might appear on their home after the job is done. And um yeah, I'd I I like to use spray foam and steel wools when I'm dealing with uh holes in the eaves or holes in more discrete areas that clients aren't too worried about looking at because you know spray wool spray foam can uh uh expand and look ugly on the outside of your house. So it can be an eyesore. Um hardware cloth, it's the stuff that's kind of like the vent uh chicken wire type stuff that we use, drill it in to replace events, that's good to use. But um rodent abatement is more about just quick fix, solve the issue, and yeah, you just want to get the proper materials in order to solve the issue as quick as possible.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Right. So to kind of piggyback off of that, the the biggest thing is you said something quick. What kind of work does the client want? Do they are they on a budget? Do they want the quick band-aid on the home? They're more they're more interested in the trapping program, right? They just want the Run's God, but unfortunately, you need to couple the trapping with an exclusion program. So educating your client. I know a lot of you who do pest control have heard that. How many times does your manager, if you're a route tech, uh, or even the owner, if you're a manager, then I'll tell you, educate your clients, right? Let them know what's going on. You're the professional, you're the licensed person, you know what's going on here. So you have to educate them, right? Definitely. So, with that said, how long? Bryce is saying 30 to 60 days. I'm saying pretty similar. So, probably when you do your pricing, accommodate for 45 days or accommodate for 60 two months. Maybe you can upsell it and then get a monthly or every 60 day, you know, or every 90-day program on top of it, where you're gonna put some bait stations on the outside or something, right? Or you're gonna just come and check the traps and keep them on a trapping program for a year. There's so many ways to spin it, there's so many ways to generate money off of it, and just make sure you're accommodating for that. Do a safety net. No matter what, say, no, we're paying for minimum 60 days, right? I want my technician to be out there, my guy to make sure that the job's getting done. We're gonna make sure when we price it, that's for at least 60 days. If we get it done before then, great. Now we're profiting, right? Now we're we're now we're in the green. So that's the other big step. How long are you gonna do the program for? Some clients you can get on a pest control program, right? For general pest and say, hey, since you know, I'll tell you what, we'll waive our initial fee, we'll get you started, we'll be out here every two months, and on top of that, we'll check your traps and exclusion work. And the other thing is, are you gonna put a warranty on exclusion work? How do you feel about warranties, Bryce?

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Yeah, I think it's a good way to secure the customer and secure the sale. Um, customers feel a lot more confident if they know you're gonna be there after the job is done and uh hold yourself accountable if anything goes wrong. So it's important to include one of those.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Definitely. So warranty, usually I would say about a year, especially if you're using spray foam and steel wool. That stuff. I mean, there's there's places when I worked at companies for a while, like three years later, the steel wool's still there and the spray foam. So it can last, right? But I would say don't go anything over a year, because the last thing you want is for a client to be calling you down the road two, three, four years later saying, Hey, uh, the work's not it's not done anymore. Now, now you're kind of you know backtracking a little bit because now you got to go out and reseal the work. So I would recommend a year, right? Some people charge for warranty, you know. So you could say, hey, you know, for an extra fifty hundred dollars or whatever, you could do percentage. Um This is the warranty price. If you if you want what it is, it's kind of like, you know, if any of this work gets damaged or anything like that, we'll be out and take care of your home. Make sure you're only covering your work though. Cause last thing you want, again, is for another hole to pop up, whether it be from the client or rodent, and there's a new hole and the client says, Well, you gotta come seal it. Well, it's not, it's not on the warranty, right? So that's the key. How long are you gonna have a trapping program? Are you gonna add a warranty? Now let's go into the service acts aspect of it. The actual you're in there in person, you're getting the work done. So what's a typical job for you, Bryce, in terms of getting getting a job done for road abatement, let's say in the attic, right? What what what does it usually look like for those out there?

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Yeah, so I mean, assuming I already inspected the attic, you know, I I've monitored and checked out the whole scene, found any evidence of droppings. I want to put traps nearby those areas that I know that there's activity. Um use a good bait that's gonna attract the rodents. Um, it's always good to try to find out what their food supply is, and if you can use their food supply on the traps, that's that's the best way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Um I agree.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

But if you can't do that, peanut butter always works.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Yeah, peanut butter, chunky, creamy. Peanut butter is always a key remedy. Yeah, a lot of people, especially outside of pest control, think cheese. They're like, I'll put some cheese on the trap. Um hey, it might work. I've I've never used that, I've always used peanut butter, but yeah, I wouldn't cheese gets pretty expensive, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Um, but yeah, inside of the attic, you know, I want to make sure I'm placing a good amount of traps, not too many. You want to spread them out. Um you can you can also start off by leaving the traps not set and apply and leaving some bait on the trap still, but not setting the trap that way you can kind of get some of those rodents comfortable with your trap and and familiar with your bait and before you start setting those traps and catching them.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Now, let's address that real quick so people can understand that. Let's let's dive into that. Um, there's a plenty of names for it. Um, a lot of companies will call it pre-baiting traps. A lot of companies do not do it, they're like, oh, what's the point? But sometimes you're going to run into trap shy rodents that clients probably have been trying to trap, they're throwing poison everywhere. You know, clients aren't going to follow the laws or the proper protocols for rodents. They they want them gone. This is their home. They hear them at night, they want their rodents gone. So they are probably going to abuse traps and poison. And now you have bait shy and trap shy rodents. So, one way to, as what Bryce was saying, get the trust of rodent is to pre-bait your traps, put them up there, they're going to be squeamish, and then they'll eat off your trap and they'll say, Oh, hey, I didn't get snapped. Yep, so I'm still here. And then that's when you come in and you see, okay, cool, these traps are cleaned off. You apply the bait and then you arm them. And what's the percentage of capture once you pre-bait, in your opinion, from your experience?

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Um I'd it's probably a hundred percent just because yeah, you get that rodent familiar. You yourself are now monitoring which area that the rodents are active in, so you know to set that trap, and odds are next time you go check it, it's gonna have a rat in it.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Right. And trap in pairs too. A lot of people do not do that. I always trap in pairs. I'll I'll have some solo traps, but I'll trap in pairs always because sometimes a rat is fast enough to jump the trap, but what if it jumps into your other trap? Now it's officially trapped, right? So I like to trap in pairs. Um, I'll also do some solo traps. Now, another thing a lot of people don't understand is the art of what the snap trap is used for. Um, a lot of people use T-Rex traps, but the most common one is probably the Victor Snap Trap with the yellow plate or the little tin plate. Um, and those work great, you know, if it's it's like the wheel, right? You know, can't really reinvent the wheel. This snap trap works really good. So the biggest thing though is that you're baiting it, you're putting your traps out, but if you're into trap shy rodents, then you're gonna pre-bait it, right? But another thing that Brice said that's key is what food source are they eating? There's so many times where rats were getting into like dog food, and I would say, okay, I would run the dog food under some water, smash it and smear it in there into my reservoir for my uh Victor Snap Trap, and sure enough, you know, caught rats. Another thing was rats were directly eating out of a watermelon on the counter of someone's home. It was like this big mansion, beautiful home in the hills. It was great. And the rats were eat directly eating out of this watermelon. I couldn't believe it, it was amazing. And they were eating out of this pineapple. So, what I do, I use the pineapple watermelon in my traps. What happens? They said two giant rats that night got caught. So use their uh food source and mix that in with pre-baiting, you're gonna get a hundred percent success rate, right? You should at least maximum, obviously, 100%. If not, you're gonna jump your success rate up from 70, 80% to the high 90s. Because we all know there's those nightmare rodents that some people just feel like they can never catch. But that's because you probably didn't start your trapping program right. So if you start off pre-baiting, using the food that they're eating, or you know, peanut butter will work really good all the time, too, because sometimes you can't understand what food they're eating, they're probably just foraging in the attic or nesting, right? And they're using it as like a an a safe house essentially. So that's key. Pre-bait and use the food source. So um now let's let's continue from there, what you're saying. So the service-related type of work that you do um in a home.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yeah, I mean, once you got those traps set in the attic, um you can go ahead and close it up, uh check in with your customer, make sure they they know that when you're gonna come back, and also let your customer know that if they hear anything, smell anything, or have any like suspicion of activity coming from where you set your traps, um, definitely to give you a call so that you can come out as soon as possible and monitor the situation because it's better to get everything done as soon as possible. That way you're the process is moving along quickly.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Right. I agree. So now we're at the stage of your road and abatement program where we're doing our follow-ups. Let's say we've done our grid inspection, we've interviewed our client, we found all the entry points around the home, and we've quoted the client for a 60-day trapping program along with full exclusion work. We've placed our traps in the attic in the sub-area, we've done all of our exclusion work, we're now at trip number two, the first follow-up in the trapping program. Now we're going to arm our traps, right? Sometimes you do half and half. Sometimes you'll do all pre-bated. And so what you're doing is you're giving the rodents that food source, right? Now, a key thing too is the sanitation. How sanitizes the home? Because if there's too much competing food sources, they might never touch your base stations or your traps, right? So when you're doing your follow-ups, keep tabs on that. The sanitation. Obviously, in your interview and your inspection, you're going to figure that out. And we kind of brush past that a little bit. But yeah, sanitation is key for rodents. Luckily, a lot of jobs are pretty simple. It's, you know, rats using a tree branch or a fence line to jump up onto the roof and they're running into an alcove. Pretty simple. Seal the alcove. You either seal them out already, or if they're in there, trap them out. They're going to get hungry, they're going to interact with your trap, especially if you're doing a proper program, you're trapping properly. Um, another thing too is like they're tunneling and insulation. You can put a trap right at the entryway of the tunnel. Yeah, and that's another way to kind of use the art of the trap, right? So some of us will use it more like a lure, but sometimes you just got to put some traps where they're running, right? There's times where inside the home, I'll leave a hole not sealed yet, and I'll just put a wall of glue boards that no matter what, it's gonna get caught. Um, let me tell you guys a story. So I was doing a commercial property, it was um like an outdoor landscaping uh wholesale place, and they had mice bad, very bad. So there was like this hole that they're going from one of their storage rooms to their showroom, and I literally just put about six traps on each side of that hole. Sure enough, I caught about eight mice because they're just using that hole to travel. But what happens is they can't out jump my traps, right? So they're gonna fall right into the traps. So remember, they're traps, they can lure the pest, or you could just put them where they have to interact with them. Put your traps near where droppings are, right? Where the rodent droppings are is where they're gonna conjugate the most. That's where they're spending their most time. Don't put traps away from rodent droppings. Maybe if you've already put enough out, then yeah, then that makes sense. Maybe put one that's not armed somewhere else or arm it. Get creative with your program. As you continue to trap, you're gonna start understanding how the rodents think, how they operate. So, Bryce, walk us through you're doing your weekly check uh trap checks now. What are some things you're looking at or asking the client when you're doing these?

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Um, first thing I want to know from the client is if they have any updates on any activity, uh if they have continued to hear the same activity or if it's stopped. That's a good thing to know on your first checkup. Um, but really there's not too much to expect. You want to just check in that attic and see what's going on. Um check to see if your bait's been eaten, um, whether or not you are set any of the traps, check to see if you caught anything. Um if you haven't set your traps, then that should be the time that you do your first first follow-up after pre-baiting. Should you should be setting the traps by then. Um because you don't want them there too long. If if nothing's being eaten, then just go ahead and set them. Because odds are there's there's rodents up there, or maybe there's not, but yeah, you want to have them set at that point.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Right. Sometimes you can, like I said, seal them out, right? So there's times where and don't feel bad. You quote for a 60-day trap program or a 30-day one, and uh you don't ever catch a rodent, and the client's not hearing anything, and they say, Oh man, what did I pay for? I want to see a dead rodent. How many clients brights do you run into where it's like, well, where's the dead rats?

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Yeah, I can be off-putting because you're you're paying to kill rats, and then you you don't see it happen that can make you make things weird.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Well, and and and some people are good with the uncomfortable situation. They they can talk, or you know, if it's tough for your business or you have a certain clientele, just make sure you couple the the trap program with some bait stations on the outside or something, or some trap stations, because then there you'll definitely, you know, tell them, and then what's what would be funny if there's no activity there or in the attic, or they'll say, Well, what do we pay for? Well, hey, yeah, you were hearing noise, I showed up, and now you're not. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

It's something that's good to explain during the interviewing and inspecting.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

There you go. True. You can you can set them up, right? You can say, Hey, there's a chance we seal them out. So this trapping program is really the best case scenario, yeah. And this trapping program just for safety, you know, because most times than not. I always tell clients like, hey, hey, you're the rare case where we sealed it and yeah, there's nothing. So cool. And and as far as follow-ups, so once you're done with all your follow-ups, let's say you caught two two rats in the attic and the holes remain sealed, and now the client's not hearing any noises. Um, do you set up any more callbacks or follow-ups after that? Maybe you'll call the client back or what what would you recommend for a road abatement program?

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Um, definitely follow through with your fully guaranteed trapping program, whether it's 30 days or 60 days, follow through with what you said. Continue to monitor the attic or the crawl space wherever you put your traps. Um, just to be sure for peace of mind, um, let's say you set up a 30-day trapping program and it's week four and you just caught something. Um, it would definitely be a good idea to schedule some more follow-ups. Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Extend your program.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Unfortunately, that happens, and uh I I think it's just good due diligence to just not charge for any extra follow-ups because we kind of guarantee to get rid of the issue within a certain amount of time, and sometimes it takes longer. We shouldn't be charging too much for that.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Or right, or that's where you bill for two months, you you quote for two months, but you tell them you're gonna be out there for a month. So then now you have that safety net. Yeah. So you can get very creative. Obviously, the client's not gonna know all the inner workings of your your billing or your inspections. So there's just kind of ways to build that safety net so you're not going under because at the end of the day, you have people to feed, you got to feed yourself. The client needs rats gone. How can you make it worth it? So cool. I feel like we addressed everything. So let's do a quick recap for a rodent bait program. So, as I said, whether you're you know a lone wolf, a business owner, a manager, um, what kind of methods are you doing? What kind of system are you running? Are you running something similar to what I run with my company? Are you running anything that is different? Is there anything I'm missing? Should I add anything? As always, let me know. Uh the email will be in the description of wherever you listen to your podcast. Send an email over. And hey, if you want to come on here, have an interview or talk, you're more than welcome. Uh, I would love to talk to all people around the world about pest control. Uh, this is my career. I'm gonna retire here. You know, I love it. So um, a rodent bathing program, in interview inspection, it's the key, right? Use a grid sheet, be organized, take pictures, organize every whole, every you know, entry point, where are the activities for the rodents? Notate things like tree branches or trees that are coming in contact with the roof, cut those back, notate any sanitation issues. Are they letting, you know, uh fruiting trees where the fruit just tumbles over? Is there a chicken coop in a certain area? Is there too much bird feed or are they feeding birds? Just notate everything, figure out what's going on, and you can do it all on your grid sheet, all organized, and it's gonna help you build your quote and build a pricing. Formulate a trapping program, right? Make sure you bill properly for a program, whether it be a month or two months, or maybe you're gonna say a month only, but just in case you build for two months, right? Also separate the pricing, make sure you're charging for exclusion work so the client can clearly see what's going on there, and make sure you're charging for your trapping program so your technician's being paid. Add labor to it, 10-15%. Just slap it on top of there. Most clients are not gonna say no. I I had a program when I was a general manager for a company where we were doing labor. Not once did a client say, Oh no, get rid of the labor and we're we're good to go. Not once. Obviously, uh, it was not the giant most biggest company ever, but give it a try. Get some more money, you're just gonna make people happier, right? And the client 10, you know, they're already paying probably upwards of a thousand to two thousand dollars. 10%'s not gonna break their bank, right? So are you gonna do a warranty on the work, right? Figure that out. Are you gonna charge for the warranty? Is your are you different? Is your warranty, you know, is it built in? Is it you know, charge, or how do you do it at your company, right? Get creative. Then obviously make sure you're doing the proper work, using the proper materials, giving the client the options. Well, do you want a band-aid or do you want us to actually come do some siding? You know, do some full repairs or things like that. You know, if you have the the the power at B and the resources, go all out, right? If the client's willing to pay for it, make some money. And then obviously make sure you're getting the good results, pre-bate your traps if the client's definitely been tinkering with them already. Formulate a good program, trap in pairs, put the traps in the right spots, put them where the droppings are, where you see the C bump, things like that, right? So cool. Anything you would like to say before we head out, Bryce?

SPEAKER_01 38:57

I think we hit the full breakdown on it, but uh yeah, it was a pleasure to be on and look forward to being back again.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

Yeah. Oh, well, we have three mics, so let's get a podcast where you, Donovan, and I all sit and talk about something cool, some pest control. Looking forward to it. All right, cool. As always, thank you, everybody. Thank you for listening, and until next time,