By Jamie Brown
On December first, Modern Pest Services held its seasonal training seminar in Portland, ME, with over 120 employees in attendance, including service and sales professionals, administrative staff, contact center representatives, and members of management. Along with Spring training, the Fall training meeting ensures that Modern employees remain well-informed and up-to-date on new information in the pest control field. This season, we were joined by two guest speakers from top pest control companies.
Guest Speaker: Sheila Haddad, Bell Labs
The first guest was Sheila Haddad from Bell Labs. Bell Labs manufactures the highest quality rodenticides and other rodent control products available to the pest control and agricultural industries. Sheila’s presentation included a lot of very useful information about rodent control, habits, and ways to avoid infestations, including some tips below:
- A good source of food for a rodent is garbage. Make sure to keep dumpsters closed. All garbage should be kept in rodent-proof cans and brought curbside for pickup.
- Sources of harborage (shelter) can include sheds, crawl spaces, porches, steps and garages.
- If you find a hole and want to make sure mice cannot enter, a great tool to use is a number two pencil. If a number two pencil can fit in the hole, a mouse can get through it.
- Mice can multiply and mature quickly. Six mice can become 50-60 in 90 days. Twenty-eight mice can become up to 2,000 in eight month’s time.
Guest speaker: Shawn Mullin, Bayer CropScience
The second guest speaker was Shawn Mullin from Bayer CropScience. Shawn’s presentation included information about the habits and control of bed bugs. These pesky blood feeders have become a pressing issue in many homes and have been a topic of many news stories recently. He also covered a lot of great information that all clients should be aware of, including the facts and tips below:
- Bed bugs are some of the hardest pests to control; in fact, a survey indicates that they’re harder to control than ants, cockroaches and termites.
- Bed bugs are primarily nocturnal and prefer tight places when not feeding.
- Female bed bugs have a round abdomen and the males’ abdomen is more oval shaped.
- Female bed bugs are impregnated for life and can lay 10-50 eggs at a time. One pregnant female can lay 31,700 eggs in 6 months!
- Bed bugs will travel from apartment to apartment through wires in the walls to find a blood meal.
- Bed bug bites are painless and about 40% of people have no reaction to them.
- Bed bugs can survive a year and a half without a blood meal.
Wildlife and Bed Bug Training
The training seminar also included a presentation about rodent identification given by Wildlife team members Mike Gaumont and Dick Vautrinot. Ed Foley, one of Modern’s new training specialists, reviewed the company’s bed bug program which will be growing soon with the addition of a canine inspection dog this winter.
Regular training and certification are an integral part of Modern’s commitment to its employees and we’re dedicated to staying informed with as much industry information as possible to provide the best service to our clients.