NHT Day 07 01 Fleas

Well, good morning, my PMPs. And welcome to our module on flea control. I'm still Jim Harron and you're still not. But we're going to go talk about fleas anyway. Now Louis, you want me to go over the schedule today. Let me explain what's going to happen. We are talking about fleas and we'll take our 10-minute break and we'll come back and talk about occasional invaders at noon. Then we're going to from 12 till 1 Eastern Time. Then we're going to take a two hour break because we have a termite module coming in there, fantastic. Oh, good heavens. I have a termite module. But we will be back here at 3 o'clock Eastern Time to talk about stored product pests. So fleas this morning, occasional invaders starting at noon, then we are back at 3 o'clock talking about stored product pest. So that is our fun filled and exciting day that we have today. Yay! Us, so there. Stormy is in here, come back, come on out here stormy. This is stormy see they're delayed, there backwards. That one should be. Yeah, she's in, Stormy make's some magic happen not too many people get to see stormy but that that was stormy. Okay. Let me deal with Adam real quick. Hold on. Adam has a problem. Okay. So not all classes get to see Stormy, I hope you realize how lucky you are because that just doesn't happen, thank you, Stormy. She can, you know, does magic, she waves that chickens over things and the equipment just gets healed, it's amazing. So... Okay. So now hopefully by now all of you have done your pre-work which includes a review of, don't become their food supply, which is important. So we're going to be reviewing that, we are gonna spending, a lot of time on don't become their food supply 'cause that is all important. Okay, so I have a question for you, but I don't want you to chat in quite yet. But I want you to think about this don't chat and yet. So what is a vector? We say fleas are vectors. Now stormy can we go over the document camera one second? So fleas are vectors, but is it like my, one of my all time favorite movies, Airplane. We have Clearance, Clarence. Roger, Roger. What's our vector Victor? Is it that kind of vector we're talking about? Or is it some other kind of vector? So go ahead and tell me what is a vector? So chat that in, what the heck is a vector? What our vector Victor? If you have never seen the movie Airplane, do yourself a favor and watch it some time. Okay. Animal that transmits disease something that transmit disease from one living thing to another, we are organisms. Okay. Organisms that carries it, host and passes on the disease, carries a disease. Disease passer. Okay, so we have a lot of things about disease and carrying disease and transmitting disease. So I will use my official voice to read you the official definition. A vector is an organism that carries disease causing microorganisms from one host to another. So that's, that's it. So how does a flea do this? Now I want you to think of flea's mouth parts, as it's like tube. So you have this tube in the flea's mouth parts, okay. As this very simplistic terms, okay. Flea has a tube for a mouth part and inside this tube are two straws, okay. Two straws. One sucks up the blood. So it sticks its mouth parts in you and sucks up your blood. Now your blood tends to clot. That's what it does, you spring a leak in you your blood clots and plug up the leak in you, okay. Well, if the flea were to stick its mouth parts in, the blood would tend to clot around that thing there, that mouth part, and the flea would be unable to pull its mouth parts out because of the clotted blood. I can't get my mouth parts out, okay. So what the flea does and other organisms like this is they have that second straw in there that's pumping down any coagulant and some other things that prevent the blood from clotting. So when the fleas finish its feeding it's able to pull its mouth parts out. So one is sucking up the blood, the other is pumping down this stuff, okay. So that's how a flea is able to remove its mouth parts. But when it's pumping down this other stuff this salivary, you know, stuff that's how it's able to transmit disease. So they can transmit typhus and cat scratch fever and Bubonic or black plague. Remember, if your money Python fan like me, remember the opening of the Holy Grail, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yeah, you know, they show to cart with dead people on and somebody banging a pot. Bang! Bring out you're dead. Bring out you're dead, you know, they bang the pot. Well, I'm serious and don't call me, Shirley. Okay. Glad we have one in here. Okay so this was a disease that wiped out, you know, like 25% of Europe during the Dark Ages. So it was a lot of people that died from this because they didn't know it was being transmitted by fleas. Now fleas also can carry parasites such as tapeworms and dogs and cats can get the tape worms from eating the fleas. So let's think about this a little bit more what else can fleas do? What other damages do they cause? So go ahead and chat in... And chat in and tell me what fleas can do? It's only a flesh wound. If you have an answer, send it to me. Heartworm in pets. That's some, a little bit more mosquito related there but they cause a rash. Tapeworms, now they do carry tapeworms, Jonathan, that maybe what you're thinking. Flea dirt, social stigma, they spread disease it can get you sick. Tapeworms, Tapeworms, vet bills, yeah. So when you think about these things the nuisances, fill sleep deprivation. So, oops, so sorry about that, so you know, when they affect the pet, no one wants to see their pet, you know, constantly scratching at their skin and pulling their fur out. They get those hot spots, you know, the way they're constantly licking and grooming themselves because it itches so bad. When somebody itches, you know, you get a flea bite and you itch. Your body is reacting to that foreign substance that the flea has put in you. That little bit of salivary secretion, you know, that the stuff that they're pumping down. You know, that's what your bodies reacting you and pets do the same thing, their bodies react to a foreign substance. So that's... No one wants to see little fluffy and Fido scratching and itching. It's very annoying, when we see our pets' miserable because of fleas. And, you know, they can bite and irritate our skin as well. So we're not immune to that and they're just a general nuisance and, you know, of some of you chatted in about social stigma, oh, fleas, "They have fleas, Muffy, we don't want to get to see them, they have fleas." So okay. I opened a can of worms. Okay, Ivan, log out and then log back in again that should correct the situation for you. Okay So we have to remember that fleas are not normally a part of our regular service or perhaps Stormy can help Ivan in Raleigh. So we have to remember that, you know, they have they're not part of the usual services that we're involved with. So this is something unique and unusual that we have to do. So it's not part of the routine services. So let's look at our learning objectives. We want to identify critical inspection areas for flea control and outline a basic fleas service. We have to set the customer expectation and then finally as always, we review the service with the customer. The who, what, when, where, and why. What you saw? What you did? What the customer needs to go forward? And what the customer can expect as a result of the treatment? Now we go back to the document camera just one second, Miss Stormy. Okay. So in case you've ever wondered what plague is, this is Bubonic plague and was reported in Michigan. So this is the, you know, what causes plague. It's a bacteria colored in purple. So that's what it looks like. This was found in Michigan last year, last fall. Usually, we have a few cases of plague each year in this country mainly out West but this one was a little bit out of that usual element, it was up North. So they can, so there were four cases, 14 cases reported in 2015, as of September. So they do occasionally, plague does still occur in this country. But fortunately, no it's not treatable. We don't have carts rolling around with bring out you dead and throw the dead body on the cart. Okay, So let's look at a couple of review questions. Which could be a source of fleas? Could it be a rat? A cat? A squirrel? Or a dog? Sounds like I'm reading a child's book. Thank you, Bryan. Looking at our results, most of you think it's a little bit of everything and that is absolutely correct. So any of these could be a source of a flea infestation. So it can be any of these animals could be the source and we're going to chat more about that in just a little bit. Which of the following statements about fleas are true? They have wings and can fly long distances. Only the adults feed on blood. Eggs don't attach to the host or they're about half inch to three quarters of an inch long covered in spines. Well, most of you think that it is B and C and that would be correct. It is B and C. Now they do not have wings and they're not able to fly. I guess it would make sense if they don't have wings they can't fly. So they can hop, they're really good at jumping but they do not have the ability to fly. And on day, I don't know about you but I don't want something that's about three quarters of an inch long covered in spines on my body sucking up my blood that would just be like really, really creepy and gross. So now the adults are the only ones that feed on blood, okay. And the eggs do not attach to the host. So these are not something that stay on the body, stay on the animal. So they lay the eggs and the eggs don't attach, but they fall off and that that's helpful for the flea in developmental stuff. So what happens is that these little eggs, they're laid and then they fall off. Now that's important because what happens is that animals are creatures of habit. They tend to travel in the same areas. You know, you've probably seen a dog where a path out in the grass, you know, in a yard or something like that because they just keep walking back in the same areas, creatures of habit. Well, that's helpful for the flea because of the eggs fall off on the ground that means that in all probability that animal is coming back that way at some point in time. So in a couple of days to about a week, the eggs hatch out into these small, little, worm-like creatures. Now these little worm-like creatures are sensitive to light, they're easy to dry out so they don't like sunny things. So they're going to see crack and crevices to grow where they're going to develop on organic material, flea dirt. So they're going to eat stuff. Now if you've ever done any home renovation, you know, so they like to go to cracks and crevices. You haven't done any home renovation and pulled off a baseboard that's been in place for a while. Well, I don't care how clean you are. It has some nasty gunk behind a baseboard. Where's a flea going to go? What does a flea feed on? Larva, yeah. Organic debris. Sounds like a perfect environment. We'll get into that a little bit later on in the control. So basically these larva hatch out. Now following up on that question what we just talked about, which are life stages of the flea? Adult. Egg. Nymph. Larva. And Pupa, which is a cocoon. Hopefully, that answered your question, Jeremiah, I saw a picture of it. You know, there's some things like that Charles, those big evaluation, you know, comparable in size. Okay, what we just talked about some of that. So it is egg, larva, pupa and adult. There is no nymphal stage here. There is no nymphal stage. So what happens is that the adult comes along, lays an egg, the egg hatches out into the larva, as we just talked about. And then it develops into a pupa. And here's a pictorial representation of that. So the egg is laid, hatches out in a couple weeks, a larva develops. Now when the larva gets ready to pupae. Now this pupa is sort of this change of form stage where it goes from a little worm like creature into the adult flea which we know and despise. So inside this pupa, they call it a resting stage but there's a lot of stuff going on in there where it converts from that larva into an adult. So there's a lot of chemistry going on, a lot of changes form going on in there. But that when the larva changes into the pupa, it tends to cover itself with bits of dirt and debris that might be found in the area. Now this pupal case is not really going to be exposed to our products and materials that we put out since the pupa is in this protected environment. And this becomes important in our control and we're going to chat about that a little bit later on. So we know also that the larva feed on organic debris and the adults feed on blood. So that means that we're looking at different control strategies in a different mindset for controlling the larva and the pupa. Now I want to follow up on that question with this one. How long can adult flea wait in a cocoon for an animal host? Is it days months or years. Okay, so most of you are saying months and that is absolutely correct. Now this is very much a protective mechanism for the flea. So usually, what will trigger them coming out of the pupal stage is movement, so some vibration or something like that or maybe they sense heat or carbon dioxide. Like from us or warm blooded animal. So this is protective mechanism for the flea. Now if the flea were just to emerge it would be hopping around and it would run out of energy if there was no animal present. So it waits until there is a food source available, a warm blooded animal to come along and eat it. So what this means is a couple of things. So for instance, if a home is sold and is vacant for a while. Well, if there were a couple of fleas in there that means when the new people move in they can be inundated with fleas all of a sudden. And also people tend to go on vacations, you know, for a week or two. Well, if there was a low level flea population in there removed, the homeowners take little fluffy and Fido out and there's nobody there for a while so all the fleas that were there are little hungry, all the larva turning into pupa and pupa turning into adults. So they're merging in when the homeowners come home. So, you know, most people get home from vacation, not all. But many people get home from vacations on, like, the weekend, Saturday or Sunday. So the fleas that were there are hungry. The one's that have changed into adult stage are hungry. So what happens is that the people come home bring the animals in and all of a sudden everyone's covered up with fleas. Again, it's like oh thank goodness you're here, I'm hungry, let's eat. So what that means for us is that the call center is going to get a lot of calls on Saturday and Sundays and the branch office is going to get the call as soon as people come home on, soon as we open up on Monday. So in summer, lot of good flea starts on Monday's because people have come home from vacations. All of a sudden, we got a flea problem. You got to do something about it. Okay. So how do we know if we have signs of fleas? Well, obviously, if you see them they're there. That's sort of basic. But bites on humans and pets, now like we talked about last Friday when we're talking about bedbugs you're not medical doctors, I don't suspect too many of you a veterinarians either. We should not be diagnosing bites on humans or pets. So no, no, no, we don't do that. Also, do you see fleas on the on pet also the signs of flea dropping? Okay. Gregory, I'm going to give you a very scientific term "It depends." It depends on the condition that it is subjected to. How much activity has the temperature and other conditions, so I can't give you a definitive timeframe on that because it depends. How's that? How is that for being very scientific? It depends. It really it is, it depends on the conditions that that flea is subjected to. Okay, so we keep talking about this flea dirt stuff. So what exactly is flea dirt? Well, flea dirt, it sort of looks like flex of pepper. So here we have some animal fur and you see those little black spots in there. So what is flea dirt? I want you to think of a flea biting you. So it sucking in a bunch of blood, okay. It's pumping out stuff out the back and to, that's flea dirt. It's the digested blood. So it's their fecal material. So it's sucking up blood in one end and pumping out flea dirt at the other stop. Which is organic material, which flea larva love to feed on, and they don't eat true blood, but they'll eat digest blood in the form of flea dirt, okay. So when you think of flea control... When you think of flea control, we have to start thinking in 3D. Now this is true of a lot of our pests. You know, little of Fido there is probably going to be on the floor or a dog bed or maybe on a low level piece of furniture. Little Fluffy, the cat there, Fluffy gets all over the place, cats like to get into high places. So communication with the customer is important because we have to understand where the animals hang out. So where does little Fluffy the cat like to hang out in the area? You know, in the home environment. We're also going to talk about something called hard surfaces and soft surfaces. We generally are not going to treat hard surfaces, but we're going to treat soft surfaces, such as carpets and draperies. Hard surfaces, like tiled floor or sealed hardwood floor, not going to really be that effective. Jonathan spiders could feed on a flea or two but they're not going to be an effective control. So with cats, you have to start thinking of looking up. You know, you have to start thinking in 3D. We as people, tend to want to look for eye level down. That's normally what we see. You get tired and you fall asleep what happens? Your head drops, it's easy to drop your head. You just, you drop. When you go to sleep, your head doesn't go up. Almost should, you know, like leaning back but normally your head is just going to drop down. Okay, So we normally it's easier for us to look here down. But with fleas, particularly in structures with cats, we have to start thinking in that 3D. Again, this is true of a lot of our pest, so stop thinking just from eye level down and start looking up. What are the conditions up there as well because there are some things up there which might favor the development of varying pest, so as a rule, okay, as a rule... Think in 3D. Gregory, you can get the same flea on dogs and cats. So it doesn't really matter there's a cat flea and a dog flea, guess what they'll feed on both. And they'll feed on you too. Okay. So when you think about other pests that could be sources of flea infestation. It's not just our dogs and cats. We have to start thinking about various wildlife critters that could be out there. So... Any of these and don't forget our comments to rodents. So it's possums, deer, skunks, squirrels, don't forget about mice and rats as well. They can be sources of the fleas. Now at some point in time you may have a customer, who comes up to you and says, "Why, oh why, do I have fleas? I don't have a dog or cat. I don't, I don't have a dog or cat, why do I have fleas?" Well, what happened is because of these animals, in their environment outside, okay, there are fleas in the environment. So what happened is that they were walking through their yard or park or something like that and fleas hopped on them and they unknowingly bought them inside the home. Well, it all takes is one pregnant female flea and before you know it you have an infestation going even without a dog or cat in the home. So be aware that, that can occur as well. It's not always tied to just having a pet. So thinking about flea control on the inside... Is that a compliment, Gregory, I'm not trying to take that one. So where would you look for fleas indoors? It could be dog beds and pet cages and carpets and rugs. Those are the soft things that we were talking about before, the soft surfaces. And furniture, we're going to chat about furniture in just a bit. Now again, I want to emphasize you are not to inspect, not to inspect... Dogs themselves, they have to go to the vet. But, you know, we need to start thinking about some other areas indoors as well. Those of the common ones but where are you gonna look? If rodents are the source of infestation, well it could be in areas such as attics or drop ceilings, it could be in basements. Don't forget about garages, garages are very important and here's why many people... Garages or carports. Many people, depending on their construction of their home may use their garage as an entrance way. So that's usually, the garage leads to like a kitchen area or some something similar to that. So a lot of people may come and go into their home via a garage which means also that the dog or cat may go in and out that door too. Maybe the dog is fed in the garage. Those can be sources of infestation as well. And things such as storage rooms and such. So... Now when you start thinking about outside areas when you start thinking about outside, we have to start looking at areas such as around dog runs. So again, the dog has a creature of habit, they like certain areas, so where does a dog wear out, you know, if you've ever seen, you know, a yard with a dog in it, you know, right along the fence line that dog will just wear that grass out. So dog houses under porches. If the, you know, in a hot area, hot time of the year. Sometimes the dogs if they can get under a porch or a deck, they'll construct a little, you know, they'll scrape the soil down a little area where they'll just bed down during the day, during the hot part of the day. So under porches and decks can be in areas well. In crawl spaces, and burrow holes, some dogs can get in crawl space across spaces aren't sealed. Some may have rodent infestations in crawl spaces, so all of these things. So you want to know how to do some inspection tips, don't you? Well, the easiest one is to put on a pair of white socks. And you pull the socks over your pants legs. If you don't and there is fleas there, fleas will crawl up your leg inside your pants and... Again, voice of experience, it's not a pleasant feeling, okay. Now you can also place a white handkerchief on the floor with a lamp over it. I've heard that all my life, I've never done it, just put on a pair of white socks and walk around if there's fleas there, you're going to know it, okay. These are recording. Yeah, but that can occur, Troy, in hardwood floors but I'm going to chat about hardwood floors in just a couple of minutes. Okay. So the easiest thing to do put a pair of white socks on and pull your socks over your pants legs so the fleas can't get up. Now I want to emphasize this, pay very close attention. Our products and materials are not designed for you. You are never to spray yourself with any of our products or materials. No, no, no, don't do it. You would be a violent former regulator here that would be a violation of label directions. No, don't do that. The other thing is well, how do I get them off? Well, if it's just one or two fleas you go. And, you know, flick them off, okay. If you get a few more on, you know, how to get it, here's a good Jim's helpful little hint on flea control. Get one of those rolling lint brushes, you know, the ones that have the adhesive tape on them. You just roll him over your clothes to pick up animal hair lint and things like that. Well, if there's any fleas on you guess what you roll it over the fleas are going to get stuck on that sticky stuff and there you can just peel them off and throw it away. So that's way. Don't, don't, don't treat yourself with a product or material. Now as I mentioned before fleas are a specialty service it's not something that's normally covered under our routine services. And we always talk about our pest management procedures being a partnership between the customer and ourselves. But in flea control, this is one of the areas that is really, really, so important for customer dissipation and preparation. So in your participants guide, you should have a "Don't become their food source." Okay. Don't become the food source. So I want to go over this, I want to spend some time on this document. So Miss Stormy, can we go to the document camera please? Oh, thank you, very much. So here is the document "Don't Become Their Food Supply." So I'm going to spend several minutes on this. I want to go over this because its so, so important. Now let me zoom in a little bit here on some of this stuff, okay. So the customer, this is information for the customer, okay. You want to have the customer remove all toys, decorative items, pets, pillow or pet food, water bowls. Get everything up off the floor and under beds as well. Now this means if you have a customer who has one 150 pair of shoes like Stormy does. She's got shoes stacked in her closet, she got stacked shoes stacked under her bed, she's got a 150 to 200, what was the latest count, Stormy, about 200 pair? About 200? Something like that anyway, she's giving me dirty looks in there, I'm telling her secrets, okay. So everything has to go off the floor because we're gonna have to treat on there. Well, my dog or cat never gets under the bed. Guess what happens during the summer? You have thunderstorms. When you have thunderstorms in many parts of the country, animals get afraid of that, they flea to use somebody's earlier joke, they're going to hide in closets and under beds places that they normally don't get to during a thunderstorm a lot of pets will do that. So everything off the floor and under the bed too. Then you have to remove or cover fish tanks and turn off air pumps. Remember the Mr. Chen scenario. Remember the Mr. Chen scenario... Where we talked about killing that Amazonian Cocktail. We talked about a lot of our products and materials are toxic to birds and fish. Well, fish are very susceptible to our products so we have to cover the tanks and turn off the air supply. Pumps can be reactivated once the treatment is dried and the building has ventilated out. So birds get them out of there. Then you want to thoroughly vacuum your carpet by doing so, you're going to pick up a lot of the fleas and the eggs and larva. And pay particular attention to areas where pets play or rest or, you know, just hang out. Now then you want to take the vacuum cleaner outside, remove the vacuum cleaner bag and throw it wrap it up in a plastic bag and throw it away. If you don't, that connective sorcery infestation, what's inside a vacuum cleaner bag? Organic debris and lots of it, it is like all you can eat buffet for a flea larva, okay. So remove the bag and clean it up. Now this is an interesting statement, research has shown that vacuum effectively removes the fleas, okay and it also aids in the penetration of our treatment into the carpet area because it tends to stand the fibers on end after you vacuum or carpet it tends to raise the fibers up. So you remove the vacuum cleaner bag, wrap it up in a plastic bag and throw it away. But I know what you're thinking, "Jim, a lot of my customers have canister vacuums now." Because in my mind that's the way you're sounding right now. No, kidding. So you do the same thing. Take the vacuum cleaner outside dump the contents of that canister into a plastic bag, wrap, seal it up and throw it away. Then you have to either wash the pet bedding or replace the pet bedding, okay. This is not something we do, we are not spraying pet bedding. It has to be taken care of by the customer. So they wash it or throw it away. So if you have pets recommend that they take them to a vet and get it treated or perhaps, they can use it some topical flea product from a pet supply store. Now that's not a tropical flea product, just one letter makes it much more inviting topical versus tropical, two different words, one letter difference, okay. So make sure that it's done the same day that you're doing the treatment. Now, oops, I can't, I'm going to show that right here, okay, right down there. So wash all pet bedding and then treat the pet. Now you also have to show you that you, the service specialist or the sales inspector where the space pet spends most of the time? So where does the pet hang out? So where is this pet going to hang out? We need to concentrate our treatments on those areas. Now pets and people have to be out of the house during the treatment. And they should not re-enter for a minimum of four hours or until the surfaces have dried, okay. Now chat in and tell me, why you think they should not re-enter for a minimum of four hours? Or until all treated surfaces have dried? Chat that in, why do you think we use that language? Why do you think we use that language for a minimum of four hours or until all surfaces have dried? Fumes, fumes, definitely, there are some risk issues, okay. Okay, okay, so you're all focusing on safety, okay, you all focusing on safety. But there's another reason here. I want you to think of a nice breezy summers day, low humidity if, you know, that's in your part of the country in summer and you open the windows and the air is dry and things are going to dry pretty quick, verses a damp day, you know, sort of cool out damp. Things are going to dry a little slower. So we say a minimum of four hours but if it takes a little bit longer, it might take a little bit longer and ultimately we are wanting to make sure that everything is dry before we allow children or pets or basically humans and animals back in there. So they should not be on a damp or wet surfaces. So minimum of four hours or until everything is dried again. Things can dry differently, different parts of the country, different climatic conditions even, you know, in just in one area. If there is an odor in there, open the windows and ventilate it. Now I am going to focus in on this one, item number four. This is so, so important to set those customer expectations. It says, due to the nature of flea's life cycle, it's normal to see some fleas for up to two to three weeks after treatment. That's because folks because they're inside that protective cocoon. Inside the protective cocoon. They're not going to be exposed to our products and materials when they're inside that environment. So the flea larva that have changed into the pupa that protected environment they are not exposed to our products of materials which means they're going to continue to emerge from that pupa stage, into the adult stage because our product can't get to them. Now these fleas will be eliminated by the residual action of our product and material. If however, you continue to see fleas after about two and a half to three weeks by all means give us a call and we'll come back out. But if we do not set these customer expectations, the customer thinks that all the fleas are going to be dead by the time we leave the driveway and we know due to the biology again, it gets into that science stuff. We know that the fleas are not going to be all dead. So we have to tell the customer and assure the customer that it's going to take some time. So make sure that the customer is well aware that it is normal to see fleas for a period of time after application. We do not get product specific here but one of the things that we have to do is treat with a residual that depends on your branch in your area of the country that you're in. And use and IGR. We chatted about IGRs when we were dealing with, you know, Freddy and his bling. So I don't bother chatting, got to tell you. Remember, we talked about this that IGRs break the life cycle of fleas by not allowing them to mature, about causing them to become sterile and unable to reproduce. So this is important to understand that the fleas, the life cycle of them is going to be broken by the IGR. So it's always important to make sure that we're using an IGR as part of our service for flea control. Okay. Now I've mentioned a little while ago about these soft surfaces and hard surfaces. So which are areas that you think we would normally want to treat? Carpet, hardwood floors, dog beds, and bottom of draperies. So which are areas we would normally want to treat? Robin, it's advisable that they vacuum on a regular basis. They vacuum on a regular basis. If you look at item three on that don't become their food supply. So they can continue vacuuming on a regular basis. Okay, so this one always generates a little discussion here. So carpet and bottom of draperies are the correct answers, okay. Now we do not treat pet bedding or the tops of cushions because we don't want pets to come in direct contact with our product. Remember, we're not using poisons, we're not using chemicals we're using products or materials. So we don't want to treat dog beds, that's customers responsibility to replace that and then regularly launder it and vacuum it out, 'cause we don't treat pet bedding, we don't treat surfaces that someone's regularly going to sleep on for flea control, okay. So now the hard surfaces and soft surfaces. Let me chat about that for a minute because so the correct answer would be carpet and draperies. Now these hard surfaces such as hardwood floors and when you say hardwood floors that covers a multitude of issues. Is it a sealed hardwood floor is a nice laminate that, you know is sealed. Not many cracks and crevices or is it a very rough hardwood floor where there's a lot of cracks and crevices in it that can be a different thing. But with hardwood floors particularly with a good finish on them. If you apply a thin film of a liquid like it might come from a compressed air sprayer. Hardwood floors can get very, very slippery so be very careful about that particularly if you ever have to apply it on stairs like carpet on stairs, be careful on hardwood floors and stairs and no applying a product or material because they become very slippery. The other downside to that is that some of our products and materials can leave a visible residue on there. So be aware of that, we don't like treating hardwood floors. So be careful about that because they become slippery. If you're treating a hardwood floor where it has like a stair runner on it, a carpet runner on the stairs, you know, it's partial on you can have to treat that carpeted area but be careful about the overhang where the wood hangs out on the end, okay. So it's the carpet the middle, the wood on the end. Those can become very slippery if you get some product material on there, be careful about... Leaving visible residue. If you're gonna to treat it, you might want to treat an area that's not, you know, behind something or under something just to make sure it's not going to do that. Okay, so be careful about that folks. Now when we think about an outdoor treatment we want to apply product and material where any area where the animal runs plays or lies or hangs out. So also don't forget about things such as crawl spaces because they can get in those areas as well. Okay, don't worry about that. So kennels, garages, dog runs, along those fence lines that I've mentioned a couple of times, crawl spaces, under decks, under, you know, again where's that animal gonna hang out? Where's the animal gonna get out of the sun? Okay. Now, one of the other things that we need to be aware of... Is that in some depending on the state that you're in... State physical location not mental. Depending on where you're located, let's do it that way. Depending on where you're located, you may have to have a special license to treat in the yard. Talk to your branch or service manager about that. Some states will require special licensing or treatment of yards. So be aware of that as well. Normally, you can treat right around the structure but if you have to go out in the yard, that may require an ornamental and turf license or something similar in your state. Because we don't want our customers to come in contact with the product, the material, okay. So remember, it's important to set the customer expectations folks, remind them that they may see flea activity for several days or even a couple of weeks but we will come back if it's necessary. Continuing vacuuming and treating the pet as per, you know, vacuuming on a regular basis and treating the pet as per the directions of the vet or the product that they are using. So if there is a problem, we will come back, okay. Yeah, Troy, if I had time, I'd tell you this incredible story about when I was really young, I was a home treated for termites and they had a few cats in there. This elderly couple, elderly couple that was in this home had a dirt basement in there underneath, it almost down there treating the termites these cats got down there. I walked in there, I was absolutely covered up with fleas. They didn't notice it, they knew they had a few fleas but I was eaten up. Some people can be bit so much they become desensitized to it. Their bodies stop reacting to it. But if I don't have time to tell you that story, Troy, so I can't do that. So remember folks and we are about out of time there is an activity in there go over that with your service manager, your CFT about the Baker family, okay. Remember, at the end of the service, we review with the customer what you saw? What you did? What the customer needs to do going forward and what the customer can expect as a result of the treatment. So this is one of those that is absolutely imperative that we have proper communication with the customer. If we don't have proper communication with the customer, we're going to have some serious problems because they're going to expect that all the fleas to be gone by the time we leave the driveway. So set those customer expectations folks, it is vitally important to do that. Okay, Omar, you're the one that didn't want me to sing. Now I'm confused. Okay. Now there is some self-study work for you as we finish up this module. Discuss with your branch manager, what you're going to do if the customer is not prepared for you to be there? They had, Stormy has gotten her 150 pair of shoes off the floor. Talk about what surfaces you can and cannot treat. Double check on the licensing requirements for outdoor flea treatments. And what are you going to do if wildlife is a source of flea infestation? So we have some things that you have to go over with your branch and service manager. Okay, folks, we are going to take our 9-minute break, when we come back at the top of the hour we're going to change our direction and talk about occasional invaders. Things that get into the structure occasionally. Hence a very clever name occasional invaders. We'll see you at the top of the hour.