NHT Day 05 01 Rodents
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Well, good morning, everyone, and TGIF.
Hopefully,
all of you can see and hear me now.
So let me send the chat.
I'm gonna put
a put a quick poll on your tablet.
So you should say yes or no options,
can you see me?
And so, let's mark yes if you can.
Hopefully, most of you
that are signed into the session
will be able to see me.
I miss you, too, Stephen.
All right, it looks like
a lot of you, in fact, stormy,
I'm getting more marking, yes,
than I actually am showing total users,
and so there's probably more people
that are just not showing
for some reason in our display.
And so hopefully,
most of us are able to see
and hear the live broadcast,
thank you for your patience by the way.
We were having a bit
of a technical glitch this morning,
hopefully, things will be working fine
from now on.
But then we'll keep an eye
on it as we progress.
If you do have issues,
let us know though.
And hopefully, hopefully, we'll be good.
All right, we're starting
out this morning and again,
TGIF to have to all of you,
we've made it through the week,
and so one more week to go, next week,
but we do have the weekend ahead of us.
We have some broadcasting
we want to take a look at today.
This morning, we're gonna tackle
the important subject of rodents
for the next two hours,
and we'll finish about noon Eastern.
From there,
we'll take an hour break, come back,
and round out the day
with spiders and bed bugs.
Remember, before coming
to this rodents lesson,
you needed to have done
the pre-work video on demand.
So hopefully, we all did that
and are ready to go
with that information.
Also remember, if you have any
other normal technical difficulties,
you can always let us know
or call that 1800-826-2492.
Final things that I'll mention
from a class and maintenance standpoint
is if you're looking ahead
to next week, week three,
Monday is a field day.
So you're not on air next Monday.
You'll be back on air on Tuesday
at 10 o'clock Eastern,
and then we will be finishing up
your classes
either Wednesday for residential
or Friday for commercial,
but we'll get more into that next week.
Once this three-week class ends,
this concludes what we call Phase I.
And so, if there's a one,
you can probably guess
there's going to be a two.
And so Phase II is going to occur
in four or five months
when after you been on your route,
you're gonna be brought back
for one more live rodents lesson
and then a series
of on demand videos for sales.
And the reason we're doing a Phase II
is that there's so much information
now that we're giving you,
if we can pull certain things
out we did, that way you,
that's one less thing
to learn at this instant,
but then you can learn it later on.
The other thing is for many of you
if you're new to pest control,
you may have never dealt
with these pests.
Therefore,
you don't have a lot of questions.
But once you have faced the pest
and struggled with them,
you may begin to wonder
how do you deal with this?
Or what would you do in this instance?
And so that's again
why we're coming back for Phase II.
Your Phase II, I'm gonna chat the date,
and I need all of you to write it down
is August 10 at 8am or 10am Eastern.
And so it doesn't matter
which time block
you attend the 8am Eastern
is probably going to work best
for East Coast and Central Time.
10am Eastern is probably gonna be better
for the mountain and Pacific folks.
You can pick either one,
but it's a one hour live lesson
on rodents.
Before that lesson happens,
you will have a book
sent to your branch.
In there, there is a page.
You're supposed to write down
your questions about rodents,
give it to the branch,
and have them scan and email it to us.
And then the instructor will sit out
here an answer those questions.
But again, your Phase II
is August 10 at 8:00 or 10am Eastern.
We'll remind you again next week
about this but this,
but this is our first opportunity
to bring that up.
Final thing to mention is this afternoon
the bedbug lesson
that's on the schedule.
If you have completely done
the entire bed bug certification,
meaning that entire manual,
all the videos,
all of the quizzes associated with it,
and you have the certificate saying you,
your name is certified,
then you don't have to attend
the bed bug lesson this afternoon.
You still do have to attend spiders
just not bed bugs.
All right.
Are there any questions, comments,
concerns about schedules
or class maintenance
before you roll through rodents?
Joseph in Central New Jersey.
Good morning to you.
Where do you find
all the bed bugs certifications
to do prior to Friday?
Good, so the bed bug
certification information is...
So you'll get more on this,
this afternoon,
if you attend that lesson.
Before coming to that lesson,
you had a video on demand
on tempo to watch on the biology
and habits of bed bugs
and your week one Instructions,
your week one book
should had instructions on that,
so that should have been covered there.
As far as the rest of the certification
instructions go,
the bed bug certification manual
will tell you all about that.
And that's something that should
have been sent with your new hire kit.
If you did not get one
or you cannot find it,
talk to your branch if they have one
or they can help you locate it.
Yeah, but that should have
the blow by blow is to,
where all the instructions are,
what are all the things
you need to be doing.
But most of the information
should be in there.
The quizzes are gonna be
in the learning management system.
Now just like you did
your driving certification things
on that,
the history and culture online
was in that system,
it'll be there too.
But if you go in there
and you don't see bed bugs certification
listed under My Learning Plan,
that's where need to have
your manager load it for you.
And they can go in the course catalog
and load that in your plan.
If they have any questions
or difficulties about that,
have them reach out
to the Learning Center
and someone can help them with it.
All right, so let's get into
then our subject for rodents today.
And since we're running
a little bit behind,
we're getting a late start
to the tech difficulties,
I'm going to cut out
the pre-work review because I just,
we've got so much
new information to cover.
I don't want to spend it necessarily
going through this.
So I'm just gonna breeze
through the answers,
that way you can write them down
and go back and look at it later.
On page two of the participants guide,
rats are cautious,
large eyes and large ears
describe the roof rat.
And then house mice refer
to forge 10 to 30 feet which is A,
if you go to the page three scenario,
scenario one
was going to be the Norway rat,
scenario two
is going to be the roof rat,
and scenario three is the house mouse.
And go ahead and jot those down.
And if you have questions let me know.
But all of that you should have been
able to answer yourself,
if you did the pre-work video.
Let's jump then to page four
and get into the new material for today.
And the new material is going to have
these following objectives.
By the end
you should be able to list the PPE
and tools needed
when providing services for rodents,
describe and identify
four signs of rodent infestation,
we're going to go through
the three principles of rodent control,
and list five ways customers
can partner with you
in controlling rodents.
I also want to mention
that with this live lesson
that of all the modules that we deliver,
this one has the most volume
of information
to get covered and the time we have.
And so I'm gonna move at steady clip,
we're certainly not going to rush,
so don't panic,
we'll take a nice steady pace.
But I would say if you have questions,
feel free to ask them,
if they're pertinent to the topic
we're discussing.
But if it's trivial things
or things that you're
just kind of curious about,
I would hold on to those.
You can certainly email me
or call me outside of class.
If you do have questions about
the points we're raising,
certainly now feel free to ask those.
As always, when we service for rodents,
we're going to do AIM just like we do
with any pets which is Assess,
Implement, Monitor.
I also wanted to mention
that when it comes to rodents,
just like I cover with flies yesterday,
they're more of a commercial pets.
Homes clearly get rodents
but we're talking
maybe a rat or maybe a mouse,
we're not talking
like we do in businesses
like supermarkets or restaurants
where you could have dozens
or hundreds of these things,
and it can be a really
major serious issue.
Likewise in commercial, the flies,
you saw all those extra pieces
of equipment
we have like fly lights,
air curtains, airstrips,
same thing here with rodents.
The last 15 or 20 minutes
of this lesson,
we're gonna show you
some commercial specific strategies
that residential typically
will not touch.
And so, just keep in mind
that there is a big difference
between residential and commercial.
And Charlie,
when I was going way too fast,
the information I was breezing
through is a pre-work review,
again, you should know those answers
from the pre-work if you did it.
And if any of those
you could not answer,
by going back re-watch
that video on demand
if you hadn't watched it.
That will give you all the answers,
and you can get always
email me or call me,
I'm happy to help you outside of class.
Going back then to AIM,
we always begin assessing
by interviewing the customer.
We want to ask them basic questions
to understand what they're experiencing.
And as you can see on page four,
things like what have you seen,
where did you see it,
how many, how long,
you know, have you tried
to treat for yourself.
As it mentions there on page four,
in commercial,
remember you also have
the added resource
of the pest siding law.
And I'm gonna ask a question
in the next hour of this lessons,
let's see if we can all get it right.
People get confused about the difference
between the pest siding log
and the logbook.
The logbook is that binder
in the business
that has all of those items
like the floor level inspection report,
the graph, the scopes and services,
the service tickets,
all of that's in that book.
So remember, logbook.
The pest siding log
is one document in there,
and that's where anyone in the business
like the managers,
the point of contacts,
whoever it is wants to know pest sidings
that happen when you're not present,
they can put it there.
And so from a service standpoint
when I come in,
besides interviewing
the point of contact,
I can also consult that logbook
and look for the pest siding log
in there to see what's been going on.
Once we've done that,
we can set off and inspect.
And rodents, if you don't know,
like to be secretive.
Even the mouse,
which is curious, will want to hide,
and so these things
may be hiding away in confined areas
like crawl spaces, attics,
you know, drop ceilings.
If I put myself into that environment
and there's lots of droppings
around urine mold, I'm at risk.
And so I need to protect myself
and keep myself from catching
some sort of disease
or something of that nature.
What I would like you
to do then is to chat,
what would be one item of PPE
you would need to protect you
from the disease stuff.
And, folks, I know it's in your book,
try not to look and cheat,
just chat off the top of your head
what might you need.
Oh, it looks like
a lot of you got the answers,
respirators and gloves,
and you're absolutely correct.
Respirators and gloves
would be a big one.
Now respirators, folks, remember,
if you did your respirator's
fit test already,
that video we had you do,
dust masks are not
an approved substitute.
Now there are some respirators
that look like a dust mask
but it still has to be rated
to that respirator quality
for it to work.
Otherwise, it will not protect you
from diseases,
from pesticides,
from other harmful things.
Gloves are important
to protect your hands.
If your respirator happens
to be only a half mask,
meaning it only covers
this part of my face,
then in those instances,
you want goggles or a face shield
to protect your eyes.
Now some respirators are full mask
that will go up here
and so in those cases
you would need the goggles for that.
The last item that's there on page five
is a bottle of spray
liquid disinfectant.
And that's not a requirement,
that's just a suggestion.
That's because when the droppings
in the urine dry out,
and then you crawl around
and disturb it,
particles of it blow up into the air,
and that's what helps expose you.
By wetting that down,
you are hopefully minimizing
that from happening.
And then, if it's a disinfectant,
it'll start cleaning it up.
Talk to your branch
about what the options
are for these materials.
I would just encourage you not to use
anything like ammonia or bleach
because they themselves
can be their own health hazard
when in a confined space.
Well, let's talk then a little bit about
what an inspection
would be like as we move on to page six.
We've got a short video we produced,
and we somehow got Bradley Cooper
to do our video,
I don't know how but we did.
And I want you to watch him
inspecting this kitchen cabinet.
Notice, he's got his gloves
on to protect him.
He's not necessarily in a confined space
'cause the kitchen's pretty open,
so he doesn't have to have
the respirator necessarily.
And he's looking around
and so this all seems very basic.
But what I want you to take away
is an inspection
should be three dimensional,
'cause in just a moment,
he's going to look up under the cabinet.
The point like I made
with ants yesterday
is not all pests stay low.
Some pests like ants and rodents
are very good at climbing.
And if all you do is look down low,
you may miss it,
and that means then we have to make sure
we do a three dimensional inspection
when we're going in for these pests.
You know, everybody's got to have
at least one critic there, Adam.
All right, well, let's go ahead
and talk about what we're looking for.
And if you're on page
six as you inspect,
the things you're supposed to look
for are these things.
And again, folks, like yesterday,
these are not questions
you should ask the customer.
If I ask a customer
what's the rodent drinking,
they're probably gonna have no clue.
These are not questions for them,
these are your own questions to answer.
And so we want to know
what they're eating,
what are they drinking,
where are they nesting,
and how are they getting in.
And this should be old hat
to you, folks, 'cause by now,
we've covered the same concept for ants,
for cockroaches, for flies.
To help us understand
what might fit the bill for these,
I have a series of videos
we got from Cornell University.
Now I went on and online
and found these videos
and they were pretty good
I thought at showing
what these sources look like.
And so we're gonna play the videos
one at a time
for food, water, and shelter.
As the video plays, please keep in mind,
I mainly want you
to look at the visuals.
I'm not as interested in what
he verbally tells you in the video
'cause like with some of them
with water,
he'll talk about metabolic water,
that's not stuff
you're expected to learn or know,
and some of it can be a little tricky.
The main point again
is just the visuals.
Let's start them
with what could be food for rodents,
and let's see how many of your hunger
for tater tots
or French fries after this video.
When it comes to acquiring food,
rats and mice
are opportunistic omnivores
and can eat just about any item
that becomes available.
However, the ability to eat
different types of food
does not make rodents careless
in what they choose to eat.
In fact, rodents
develop food preferences
from a very early age
and actually select their food
to maintain a well-balanced diet.
Rodents in residential settings
feed on pet food,
animal droppings, insect,
seeds, and plants,
or any of the prepared, stored
or composted human foods
that are easily accessible.
Now you can see there
that the food sources range
from human food
like the French fries, tater tots,
all the way down to things
we would even contemplate
as food like feces.
And so, yes, animal feces
can even be a food source.
That's just more reason
besides roaches and flies
and ants going after it,
so will rodents.
And so, that's why
it's important for home owners
to keep that picked up out of the yard.
Let's now take a look
and take a stab at the water sources
for rodents.
Requirements for water
differ between rats and mice.
As larger animals,
rats require more water per day
and obtain standing water from puddles,
condensation on pipes,
or foods with the high water content.
Mice on the other hand
can actually survive on metabolic water
or water that is made
from the breakdown of fat molecules
in their food.
This allows mice
to live in relatively dry areas
and feed on things
such as cereals and grains
without drinking water.
Nevertheless,
when standing water is available,
both rats and mice
will utilize this resource.
In rodent management,
it is important to identify
and eliminate standing water.
This can be a real challenge
in commercial settings
where water is used daily
and extensively for cleaning purposes.
Again, you can see
lots of options for water
and notice it could range
from as large puddles,
all the way down
to just simply condensation on a pipe.
Again, the point he brings up
about metabolic water,
it's important to understand
on a higher level,
if you really get into rodent
control and biology, is it.
Now mice particularly can get
enough water from the foodstuffs
and that's why mice
don't always have to room as far
or from their nesting area,
they can nest close to the food.
Rats typically though
will usually need some freestanding
water of some sort
because they are bigger animals.
Lastly, look our final video
in the series for shelter.
Perhaps the most difficult requirement
to address for rodent control
is shelter.
This is because rodents
are capable of building a nest
in any protected, undisturbed site.
Where possible nests are built
near a heat source
such as a hot water heater, in oven,
or even an engine motor.
Nests can be found within
the voids of concrete hollow block,
drains basins,
and even in unchecked
rodent bait stations.
In addition,
rats will create burrows in the soil.
Broken sidewalks
and other structural problems
can result in areas
of high rat infestations.
Eliminating voids or preventing access
to these open spaces
will reduce potential nesting sites
for rodents
and is vital in rodent control efforts.
All right, you can see there again
nesting areas are pretty variable,
and if you watch your pre-work video,
then just keep in mind that,
that it does depend
somewhat on the species,
Norway rats in burrows,
roof rats up high,
house mice typically
in voids and cavities
behind walls and appliances.
But with any habit,
I always like to make a good point,
and this is whether it's rodents
or roaches or ants.
Habits are not hard and fast rules.
That means
that there are always exceptions.
It's like you could make generalizations
about human beings
but you'll have humans
that will do the opposite
of what that generalization might be.
And so same thing with rodents
like with mice typically being curious,
they are examples of cautious mice.
Rats being cautious,
they are examples of curious rats,
and same thing here
with the nesting, yeah,
where Norway rats
typically nest in burrows
but they can do other things.
Roof rats typically are up in attics,
but they can do other things as well.
And so just keep in mind
that it's a good place to start...
But you still need
to look at the situation,
and be open to the possibility.
As with anything in life
being really rigid
in your way of thinking
is not a good thing.
You need to be able to be flexible
and look at that situation.
And the next one on page seven,
there is not a video to show.
So we'll just kind of take a look at it
and go through it here.
We look at it entry points,
cracks and crevices
can be a sufficient opening
but remember it has to be
that minimum of a quarter
or a half an inch,
quarter for a mouse,
half an inch for a rat.
Minimum meaning that it usually needs
something bigger than that,
but the small juveniles
can use the smaller openings
and a larger rat or mouse
will chew those openings
and make them bigger if necessary.
Also know that a lot of times
that rodents will take advantage of gaps
that are existing around the building,
so gaps on your door,
around windows, around utility lines,
if doors are propped open.
They can also go hitchhike
in on shipments and pallets.
And I think this one shocks
people sometimes
because we don't,
we know bugs can get in shipments,
we don't realize,
yeah, rodents can, too.
You know, and so
all of these are possible entryways,
and I would add a final point
that the openings are not always visible
from the exterior,
you know,
they are oftentimes behind things.
And so, if the room can slip
behind something like vinyl siding
or some kind of the structural element,
slipping behind there
and then get into the opening,
they will,
and those openings can be up high,
not just down low.
And so don't always assume
that rodents have to chew
a keyhole-looking thing
like you see in the cartoons
down at ground level.
They can certainly
enter up high as well.
Another thing
I'd like to bring out and discuss
is when I was doing my services,
I noticed that some of my customers
had more pest issues than others
and it didn't have to do necessarily
with the building itself inside.
It seemed like I noticed certain
common themes on the exterior.
And I would encourage you
to be aware of these.
And so on the slide
and in your books page seven.
When you're walking
the exterior of the building
or you're driving up
to the account,
pay attention to see
if the property is next to landfills,
wooded areas, streams, rivers,
waste water plants,
railroad tracks, grain elevators,
or abandoned structures.
The reason being
these things provide
an abundance of resources
for not only rodents
but all kinds of pests.
And since these areas typically
are not treated per say,
you could have a massive population
build up in it.
The best way of putting it is,
let's say, I have a glass
and I start pouring water,
once it reaches capacity
at the top of the glass
and I keep pouring, what happens?
The water runs out the sides.
That same thing
happens in these environments.
The pests or the population
will grow to capacity for that area
but they don't just suddenly stop.
They'll keep breeding
and making more
and that spills over
into your neighboring areas,
that's why that customer
sees more issues.
And a final and very important point...
Let's say
take that glass of water that's full
and shatter it with a hammer.
What happens to the water?
It doesn't just disappear,
it runs everywhere.
The same thing happens
if you go into these environments
and disturb it.
So let's say it's a condemned building
that they're gonna knock down
and rebuild a new one in its place.
Or it's a grassy field
that they've bulldozed
to make a new subdivision.
Well, if that's next to your customer
when that area gets disturbed,
the pest don't just simply die,
they get displaced.
And all of a sudden,
you'll have
an immediate up spike in calls
because they've got to go somewhere
and they're gonna be pushed out
into the properties next to it.
And so just watch for that.
People often ask me,
"Well, what do I do about it?"
I mean, "Can I go next door
and treat that pasture?
Can I go next door
and treat that landfill?"
The answer is no.
In those cases what we would have to do
is work at the property edge
of the customer
to put up things
that maybe intercept the pests,
also work with the customer to do things
at the property edge
to make it less attractive to pests.
And then at the building level,
I need to work really hard to seal up
that building with the customer,
and maybe put out traps
or interception type things
at that building level.
And again,
if you can be mindful of this,
that lets you be more proactive,
and hopefully,
the customer
doesn't get a lot more issues.
In addition to discovering
the food, water, shelter,
and entry points, on the next page,
some other things,
on page nine that we need to hunt for.
What species are we dealing with?
Is it one of the commensal
that you learned
about in the pre-work,
like Norway rat, roof rat, house mouse?
Or is it something else?
Is it bats? Is it squirrels?
Be aware, folks,
that those other animals
that are the other rodents
or other types of things
are often considered wildlife.
And we may or may not be able to do
a whole lot for those
like we do for the commensal rodents.
And in fact, your branch
may not even service wildlife,
and if that's the case,
then we will have to be able to pass
that job along
to someone like
Trutech or Critter Control
in the area to take care of it.
And so, I would encourage you
to make sure
you can distinguish the three commensals
from all of these other animals.
And you need to work
with your branch level
to know what are those other animals
you're likely to see
and how do you tell them apart.
Catherine, why railroad tracks?
I know that one comes up,
a lot of people wonder why?
Well, if you think about it,
the rodents like to nest
particularly Norway rats in areas
where it's conducive for their digging.
And along railroad track areas
all of them go off to the side
that's usually nice and maintained,
it's a perfect digging area.
Oftentimes, these railroad tracks
stuff will fall off of the trains
and so there's possible sources there.
A lot of times they are near streams
or near other areas
would provide resources for the rodents.
And then a lot of times
as well the rodents will hitchhike
and ride along on these trains
or along with the shipments,
and again you could have
situations where,
you know, they're falling off.
And it's a perfect avenue,
a highway they can run down
those tracks back and forth traveling,
and that's why like in metro stations
and other areas,
you often see them doing that.
Some other things that we want
to determine besides the species
is the severity of the infestation.
You know, are we talking one or two
or we talking hundreds?
We also want to understand
the hot spots,
the primary areas where the rodents
are nesting, feeding,
you know, that way, we know
where to target our treatments.
To help us,
as we've already established,
the rodents aren't usually out exposed.
You know, when we come in,
they're gonna hide.
What we're left
with then is their signs.
By the way, if you do see rodents
exposed in plain sight
of you and the customers,
it's not good.
It usually means
they've run out of places to hide
just like with German roaches,
and you're in a pretty large problem.
Well, let's say, it's not that bad,
what we're gonna then look at
on page nine are these four signs.
I freely acknowledge
there are other signs besides these four
but I don't want to talk about
those other signs
because they can be tricky.
Unless you have
some pest control experience
under your belt
and someone's work
with you to distinguish
some of those other signs,
they can be very misleading.
I want you to stick to these four.
Droppings, burrows,
gnaw marks, and rub marks.
Let's think just for a moment,
at the end of the bottom of page nine,
what sorts of things they can tell me.
Pick droppings for instance.
If I look at droppings,
could they tell me
what rodent it is I have?
Can I look at the droppings
and tell whether
it's a new or old infestation?
Can I look at the droppings
and tell something about
the size of the infestation?
Select all the answers
you think are correct.
Looks like a lot of us
are hitting most of the choices here
and it is all of them.
Species we can tell based on the shape
and appearance of the dropping,
and I can tell these droppings apart
from let's say birds or lizards
or bats or squirrels.
And so yes, droppings can help you.
The other thing to mention
would be new or old infestation.
And if the droppings dry
and turning to dust and crumbling,
that's old, versus shiny
and moist is probably fresh.
And if you're really in doubt,
you can kind of take
a little nibble and see
if it tastes fresh or not
if it taste stale.
Please don't, by the way,
that's just a little side joke for you.
And by the way, too,
I do want to add one catch though
to that whole drying out thing.
If you're in a very dry
arid part of the country
and these are droppings, let's say,
in an attic space
or up in a very hot part,
now they won't stay shiny moist
for very long.
And so just know that,
that still can dry out pretty quickly.
And then the size of the infestation,
if I just see
one or two droppings versus
the Mount St. Helens of droppings,
you know, clearly that tells me
a lot more about,
you know, which one of those
has more rodent activity.
And a fourth point
you could even tell is a little bit
about how long they've had the problem.
You know, if I go in
and there's a mixture of new and old
droppings in large numbers,
then that tells me
they've been here long
and have to produce enough droppings
of all that age range,
it is been pretty well established
for a while.
Let's now take a look
at some of those signs.
I have one more Cornell video
to do this,
and it's about three
or four minutes long.
Again, don't pay attention to the things
he talks about
as much as what he shows you.
And he'll have this whole
calculation about burrows,
he'll even say himself
it's not reliable.
So it's not important the message
as much as it is the images.
So let's watch the video.
Rodents are nocturnal animals
with peak levels of activity
just after sundown
and just before sunrise.
They have relatively poor vision,
and therefore,
rely on other senses and signals
to navigate within their environment.
Fortunately, we're able to see
some of these sites
and can use them to identify
which rodent pest we have,
determine their activity patterns,
and estimate their population size.
The first sign of a rodent infestation
is poop.
Rodent droppings are nasty,
but they're also quite informative.
First, the size and shape of droppings
can help you determine
which species of rodent
is present in your home or office.
Pictorial keys are available
from the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention
with the CDC and help to differentiate
between several types of droppings.
For example, droppings with blunt ends
that are larger than 1/3rd of an inch
belong to adult Norway rats,
where a smooth droppings
about a quarter of an inch in length
with at least one pointed
and from the house mouse.
Droppings let by other pest species
can sometimes be confused
with rodent poop.
For instance, cockroach
droppings are about the same size
and shape as a mouse poop.
However, striations
that re present
on the droppings of cockroaches
are used to differentiate the two.
In modern control programs,
the bait that is used can often
change the color of rodent droppings.
In this case, green droppings
indicate that the bait
has been consumed,
and chances are this rodent
is already dead.
In addition to pest identification,
droppings tell us
where rodents have been
and are considered by some experts
to be the road map of rodent activity.
As rodents navigate
from their nest to food source,
they defecate or poop
also leaving tiny droplets of urine
and a second sign called grease marks.
Together, these clues tell other rodents
where to find food or shelter
with commonly used trails
having more droppings
and thicker grease marks.
Following droppings or grease marks
can lead you to where rodents
have entered the building,
where they are nesting,
or potential food and water sources.
Where these marks are absent,
inspections can sometimes reveal
the presence of footprints in the dust.
As we will see in subsequent modules,
trails left by rodents
provide an optimal place
for rodent control devices.
A third sign left by rodent populations
are gnaw marks from chewing.
Rodents may chew on objects
for a number of reasons,
but typically do so to obtain actual
or perceived resources.
It is hypothesized
that rodents chew on wires
because these mimic twigs
which can provide insect food items
or fluids for drinking.
In other instances,
rodents will make
commonly used openings larger
for easier access
to their nest or food source.
Rats in particular can chew tubes thick,
plastic of dumpster lids
to obtain food sources.
This chewing wears down their teeth
which can grow
up to 0.4 millimeters per day.
Like droppings, gnaw marks
can be used to identify your pest.
If marks left by a pair of teeth
are one to two millimeters wide,
you likely have mice.
Whereas pairs of teeth
that are 3.5 to 4 millimeters wide,
they're probably from rats.
In suburban areas or urban parks,
rodents burrows constitute
a fourth indicator of an infestation.
Norway rat burrows
have a typical structure
including the main entrance
and one or two bolt or escape poles.
Burrow openings
that are 1.5 to 3 inches in diameter
with a smooth appearance
are likely to be active.
By stuffing burrows with paper
or collapsing the opening,
you can confirm that a burrow is active
by rechecking the next day.
Hopefully, you enjoyed there seeing
a lot of the signs of rodent activity
and help you realize
what they look like.
I think the droppings
and some of the signs
we may be familiar with already,
but the one I think
that's really a little tricky
until you've seen them in the flesh
are those grease marks and rub marks.
And I don't think people
always know to look for them.
But I have personally found
them extremely informative,
especially for finding entry points
of rodents into the building,
as well as a good spot
to put out our traps
that we're gonna look at
in the next hour.
And so just keep in mind,
these are all good signs to rely on.
The urine glowing
in the black light thing
that people always like to bring up
is not a reliable one
that I want to use now.
Now that's because
other human produce things
in these environments can also fluoresce
with the black light,
and then also other
ammonia-based cleaners
and other things will glow too.
And so I really want you to shy
away from those for now,
stick to these four.
I think you'll be a lot
more successful with them.
Let's ask a quick review question
and then I'll open up the floor
to any questions for me
about anything
from the first hour of this lesson.
Tell me burrows are typically
the sign of who,
Norway rat, house mouse, or roof rat?
Correct answer seems to be,
we agreed Norway, and it is indeed.
All right, folks,
are there any questions
about this first hour?
If not, we'll get ready
to take a seven-minute break
and then we'll come back
and dial through rodent control.
Well, it looks like
no questions are rolling in,
hopefully, we're good.
Take that short break
like always with these two-hour lessons.
We'll put up
the seven-minute countdown clock.
You don't have to back out
or log out of the session,
just get up stretch your legs,
cup of coffee,
bathroom, whatever you need,
and then when the seven minutes is up,
we'll be back live,
and we'll finish this lesson.
So see you in seven.
You may have heard the expression
like people don't give a rat's behind,
well, here the cats giving you one.
And clearly this is a type
of rodent control,
not one we are going to use,
it would be considered
biological though.
Welcome back as we continue on
with our second part
of a rodent discussion
looking at how do we manage
or how do we control these rodents.
And again, just as a reminder,
the differences between
residential and commercial
can be quite huge here
and that a home may not a lot of times
have a rodent problem,
you know, your ants
and occasional invaders and spiders
and those types of things, I think,
are far more common in residential
than they would be with rodents.
Versus commercial on the other hand
rodents can be a major
ongoing continuous pests
and you will spend a lot of time
in commercial servicing for them.
Regardless though,
whether it's a home or business,
there are some basics
that we can cover here
now in the first half an hour
of this rodent control strategy
that works.
And so, if you're with me on page 12,
let's go through them.
Principle one is always
with our IPM control solutions
is to work with customers to reduce
food, water, and shelter.
To show you kind of what I mean,
here we have another quick video clip
with Bradley Cooper
and I think Anjelica Houston,
and he's pointing out to her
that she had this woodpile
stacked up against her home
but that's not good for rodents
'cause certainly the rodents
could mess down in that,
and that brings them right up
against her house.
Therefore, he could make that
then as a possible
cultural recommendation.
I would like you to call in,
besides removing a woodpile,
what are some other things
customers could do
whether it's a home or business
inside or out
to reduce food, water, and shelter.
And so to that point,
you know, stay away
from exclusion for the moment
but food, water, and shelter.
Call in.
Bret's calling in over.
Make sure that trashcans
are kept clean
and away from the house.
Sometimes, people keep trashcans
right next door to the house
which provides both food and harborage.
Yep, so definitely trashcans
and the equivalent
for that in commercial
will be the dumpster.
Let's go to Joseph
in Central New Jersey.
Make sure
there's no debris underneath...
Excessive debris
because then they attract harboring,
harborging you know, and rodents to come
and harbor underneath.
Right, good.
So keep up all that debris,
let's go to Greg in Greensboro.
Just clean up after they eat
or anything like that,
make sure you remove
the water and food bowls
and stuff like that from outside,
trying to keep it tidy.
Yes, so with pet food and water,
you know, keep that under control,
and we'll take one last caller,
Michele in Columbus.
I would say if you have a compost bin,
make sure it's not up close
to your house.
Yep, so compost
'cause there could be
food sources in that.
There's lots of things, folks,
inside and out.
I think as a general rule
of them sanitation's
important inside and outside
of a building.
You know, keeping food
and things cleaned up
in sealed container,
spills picked up and cleaned up.
As far as moisture goes inside
leaky pipes, plumbing issues,
roof leaks, on the outside sprinkler,
spigot, garden hoses,
gutters, downspouts,
containers containing water,
and as far as shelter, beside woodpiles,
stacks of cement blocks, rocks,
inside could be boxes,
unused items stored in attics
or warehouses,
all of these things
are just attracting the rodents in.
So recommending customers reduce it.
The second principle then on page 13
would be to keep the rodents out
with exclusion.
And then when we think about exclusion,
there are things customers can do like
simply keeping windows and doors closed,
pruning back vegetation
to keep them from touching the building.
And if they have
other structural problems
like gaps around the building
or things that they need to be repaired,
excuse me, fix any of those
major structural issues.
Now normally,
we discuss the idea of corking.
But for rodents,
that's probably not going to be
all that feasible.
'Cause if you think about it, a crack,
a rodent can't fit through a crack,
and so we're looking at things
a quarter or half an inch bigger,
you know, you're not gonna kind
of fill that all up with cork
and expect it to keep the rodent out.
You know, they can go through
that like a hot knife through butter.
Instead, we have a couple of tools
that I want to teach you about.
And if we go here to my Elmo,
I have on it the products Stuf-Fit
and excluder.
So Stuf-Fit's the one here
the copper looking one
and excluder is the grey looking one.
These are the two products
we want you to do use
for rodent exclusion.
And it needs to be one or the other.
I know some of these things like
this one particularly looks like
this SOS Pot Scrubber pad,
you scrub your grill or pots and pans.
These two things
are designed specifically
to keep out rodents.
Those other items
though they may look similar are not.
And so, you are not to use
those other items,
it needs to be one
or the other of these two.
The concept or science
behind the why with them...
Is despite the fact
that the rodents teeth are very durable,
their gums are not.
And so if we go here
and look at, let's say,
they picked this Stuf-Fit.
What you do is you'd unravel
some of this, cut off a section,
and then fold it over
like there's kind of get
several layers of it going
and then you're gonna cram
this in around a plumbing penetration
or some opening.
When that rodent goes up to chew on it,
let's say this pointer
is a rodent's tooth,
and the actual rodent teeth are bigger.
So it'd be even easier for that,
look what happens.
Goes through it.
Their teeth wouldn't be impacted
but it would ride up to the gum level
and as they chew on it,
it'll cut their gums.
It's like
you taking a piece of razor wire
in trying to floss your teeth with it.
Please do not tell the customer
though that the rodent
will bleed to death
because of this.
That is not what happens with this.
That's someone that's confused
these with an entirely different tool
that we'll talk about
at the very end of the lesson.
And so, this is just simply
a discomforting thing,
they wouldn't want to chew on it.
Few other points to mention,
when you use these,
this material Stuf-Fit
is not itchy to my skin.
I can really give it a good go in
there with my hands
and it doesn't bother them.
I would not do
that same movement with it.
The excluder is very prickly.
And if you're installing
this like you'll need to,
you'll need to wear
some kind of leather utility gloves
to protect your hands,
the regular latex gloves
or nitro gloves will not do it.
Additional points with this material,
don't just lay this over the opening
'cause if you just lay
it over the opening,
the rodent will just push it
out of the way.
Also what they can do
is if you tightly secured
over the opening like a single sheet,
they'll make enough links in it
to make a hole they could spread
and then still get through.
So you're gonna have to have layers,
and in situations
where it's a larger rodent,
they may be able to still pull it loose,
you may need to use
some type of adhesive to secure it.
And so like for instance
here in this picture,
you see this plumbing penetration
where they've crammed
that Stuf-Fit product in there.
If we were dealing with large rats,
we may even need to put some adhesive.
Please talk to your branch about
though what adhesives you should use.
Be careful not to use anything
that's on its own a concern
for flammability reasons
because we are putting this in areas
that may be hot
and it could be a fire hazard.
Are there any questions
about Stuf-Fit or excluder?
Anthony in Glandorf.
Oh, looks like we lost Anthony.
The reason by the way
why those other materials
as SOS Pot Scrubber Pads
are not advised
for exclusion of rodents.
If you've ever used one got it
wet to the suds and clean things up,
there's all that foam in it
and detergent.
And so there's an issue.
Secondly, after you've used them,
if you come back let's say
several days later, pick it up,
underneath there's this rust stain
and the thing
just falls apart in your hands.
That's again
because those cleaning tools
are not designed to last.
They're designed to be used
and then thrown away.
They won't hold up,
and so with using them for rodents,
they won't hold up,
and they'll stain the surface
you put them on
and guess who has to fix it
and it ain't the customer.
Now that we've done principles
one and two,
let's move to principle three.
And that's where we're gonna
get into actually catching
the rodent, getting rid of it.
And this is the treatment side.
And again this is for residential
and commercial both.
When we discuss trapping,
the first one we're gonna look at
is going to be on page 14,
and that's glue boards.
Hopefully, all of you at this point
in your field day training
have seen glue boards
and have seen them in action.
Now for instance,
the first point to mention
is there's lots of choices
that come in all kinds
of different styles,
but they all work
under this basic principle...
And the science behind the why...
That the rodent dies of hypothermia.
And so, as they run along,
they get caught in the glue board,
can't keep moving and freeze to death.
And so, when we talk about this,
people often like to think
they are or tell customers
that they starve to death
or the die afraid,
that's not typically it.
If you get into physics
as well as animal physiology,
there's a concept known
as surface area to volume ratio.
And so the way this works is, let's say,
you take a bowling ball and a marble.
Put them in boiling water,
raise the entire temperature
of that object
to the standard level.
So whatever it is,
you set it out and then monitor
which one of those two
cools down the fastest.
If you had to guess
which one do you think it would be,
the marble or the bowling ball?
So you can put B or M.
So write either one in your chat,
which do you think cools faster,
the bowling ball or the marble?
Okay, most of you're saying the marble
and the reason the marble
is when you look at the bowling ball,
the volume is so much greater
compared to the covering
that it's able to hold on
to that heat longer.
Versus the marble has relative
to the volume more covering
it radiates heat more quickly
and it's gonna cool down faster.
The same thing applies to animals.
When you have a little tiny animal,
it's gonna lose heat more quickly
than a great big one.
And so like for instance elephants
are large animals,
can just stand very still not
moving a whole lot
for long periods of time.
Versus something
like a chipmunk or a mouse
has to constantly fidgeting,
running around
feeding itself to keep
that fuel that engine going.
And that's why when they sleep at night,
they will pack that that nest area
with insulating material
to keep that body warm.
And so, stuck on a glue board,
they're not able to do that.
And so, just keep in mind
that's usually what kills them now.
To that point, some customers
will come right out and say,
"I don't like glue boards
because it doesn't kill
them immediately."
And I'm not going to get into a debate
with the customer
about what's humane and what's not,
that's entirely a personal preference.
So if they say no glue boards,
they mean no glue boards
and we won't use them.
The other points
to mention with the glue boards
is we're typically only ever
going to use them...
Inside.
If we ever go outside,
we have to containerize it.
Can someone call in tell me why?
All right, let's go to Donald in Eureka.
Donald, what will be the issue here?
- Hello.
- Got you.
Yeah, I guess it's being exposed
to the elements,
it's gonna make them ineffective.
All right, so the elements, the dirt,
the leaves the debris
will crowd them up.
And the other issues
if you look on the materials,
on bottom of page 14...
It is that, non-targets.
So if I'm putting out a glue board,
just laying it on the ground outside
who knows what'll get caught.
Birds, pets and these are not
an approved babysitting device.
And so these would not be a good idea.
If you do containerize them,
we're gonna look at this rodent
bait station here in a little bit,
when we get to commercial,
but these are not good for glue boards.
That's because we use
these for other tools and commercial.
If the rodent comes in here
and realize
there's something sticky and bad,
they'll associate the whole thing
with something bad
and so that's not something we want.
So talk to your branch
about what to use instead.
I will tell you,
in my own personal experience,
is glue boards even containerized,
don't hold up very well in the elements,
and so I don't like them outside
but that's a personal thing.
If I ever used them,
it was always on the inside.
Next thing to mention
and, folks, I can tell you,
I can spend an hour
on glue boards alone,
and an hour and snap traps alone,
and still not hit at all.
Some I'm gonna try to go through
at a basic level,
some of the key points
but you really need to,
and I can't emphasize enough,
work with your CFT on the job.
'Cause a lot of these things
are better learn hands on
and have them show you
how to place them, how to orient them,
all those considerations.
Couple of points to mention
is when handling traps, if I smoke,
if I handle other things
that have very toxic
or chemically smelling things,
and then touch the glue board,
that will make it repellent
to the rodent.
And the whole point
is you want them on it.
Now people like to say,
"Well, it smells like human."
Our whole environment stinks of us
and so that's not the real issue.
The real issue
is the smell of the cigarette,
the smell of the pesticide,
the smell of something else,
it's kind of foreign chemical
smelling to them.
Now, we place them.
Now we want to put them out
with the right size
and so size does matter.
You know, if I'm trying to catch
a little teeny house mouse
with this, that's a bit overkill.
Versus I'm trying to use
a little thin strip line
for a Norway rat,
that's just going to give it
a bikini wax
and so you need to pick the right size
of glue board for the job.
Likewise, when you put them out,
I don't just go out there
and throw it on the floor any away.
I've got to position
it in a certain way.
And so here on the slide
is what we would consider
to be correct placement.
The idea is you want to increase
the distance
the rodent has to go past it
to get free.
So if you can picture in your mind
a rodent running along that baseboard
and at the last second it may jump,
you wanted to have to vault
really long distance to escape.
And to help make sure
they can't do that,
that's why we turn the long edge
against the surface.
So like if this is the baseboard,
that's the edge
that goes against it, not this.
Likewise, you notice in the picture
we had two glue boards
end on end, please make note,
glue boards and snap traps
are always placed
in sets of twos and threes,
never alone.
The idea is if I lay just one,
that rodent may get past it.
And so you always need to have
them in sets of twos and threes,
and that's a common mistake
that's made in the field,
and we have customers that go to cancel
because we didn't catch the rodent,
manager goes in to see why not,
and find that's what we were doing.
And so please,
these are not that expensive,
we should be able to use
enough to do the job.
That's why this next slide
would all be considered incorrect
or either individuals.
They're not touching the surface,
it's the shortage.
The other one I want to just note
is the one on the top right.
Don't put glue boards
typically in a corner.
Rodents are not bumper cars,
nobody requires them,
nobody puts the rodent in a corner
so to speak,
and so they can cut corners
and often will.
And if that's where you put it,
they'll just go right past it.
I know someone brought up
so wildlife, yep, good point, Tom,
over there.
All right, let's go ahead then
and talk a little bit more
about glue boards.
The other things to mention rats
are afraid of new things
in their environment
and that includes this.
I've seen hidden cameras
in situations where the rodent
will come up, sniff at it,
and run away because it's new.
And then, they'll come back eventually,
they'll sniff and maybe touch their nose
or their vibrissae
on it a little bit and then run away.
And they'll come back again
and they'll start pushing at it
with their paw and then they run away.
And you can see
where they'll go back and forth,
back and forth
until they realize
nothing bad is gonna happen to them.
And if that doesn't happen,
then they'll go across it.
Well, to help that then,
you may not want to expose the glue
like with these you peel them apart,
these you peel the thing back.
You may want to not expose the glue
for seven to ten days.
That helps them touch it,
not have a bad experience,
they'll walk on it,
and get their smell on it,
and then you expose the glue.
And that helps increase your chances
of potentially catching them.
And, Charlie, we'll talk about
your question here in just a moment.
Some additional points with glue boards,
particularly the ones
that have the paper backing,
be careful at putting those in wet areas
because the cardboard will disintegrate
and you'll end up
with the glue stuck to the floor
which is a nightmare for you to clean.
Also be careful with temperatures,
extreme heat will liquefy the glue
and it won't work,
and extreme cold
would calls it to harden.
On page 16, we can also put things
to lure the rodents
in to the glue board.
They can come in the form of food based,
and they can come in nesting,
and they can come in
commercial grade rodent attractants.
Food base can include everything from,
you know, bit of starburst candy
to a little bit of oatmeal,
to dried fruit chips.
Never use though anything
that's oily or greasy
because how you get something stuck
on the glue board free,
use grease and oil.
And if that's what I'm putting on
to attract them.
It will seep
under the surface of the glue,
make it slick and it won't even work.
Also do not use peanut butter.
Humans have allergies to peanuts
and there is a potential risk
the company's concerned about
with using peanut butter then
with that being a liability.
And so we choose as a company
not to use peanut butter,
also on a glue board,
it's oil and greasy anyway.
Nesting material
could be a little bit of string,
a little bit of yarn.
And as far as commercial grade
rodent attractants,
there is Provoke and Pro-Pest Lure
which are manufactured
with the purpose of attracting rodents.
All of those are options,
I would say, folks,
don't look for one thing
to use on all accounts.
When I go into a rodent account,
I look to see what are they nibbling,
what are the chewing in,
what are they gathering.
And let that lead me to the then
or the type of stuff
that I can possibly put on those traps.
And, Christopher, we'll talk about
tin cats in just a moment as well.
Final points with glue boards
even inside
we may need to containerized them
and we have these cardboard boxes
that you can use to protect them
from dust and debris,
also it helps in hiding the dead rodent
and helps it be easier
for you to dispose off.
Our Tech Services Department
doesn't want me to make sure
to warn you though
these are not to be contained with bait.
If we do catch a rodent
and the customer calls us, yes,
we will normally come collect it.
No, we will not throw it away
at the customer's house or business.
No one wants to lift the lid and see
sitting there with fly maggots all in it
and it being very disgusting.
Like wise, don't run
if you catch one of the customers say,
"Look, what I caught, here it is."
No, they don't want to see it,
be discreet.
And another point,
if you do have a rodent
still alive on the glue board...
Talk to your branch
about how to euthanize it.
Please be discreet.
Don't step on it
in front of the customer
or don't make
some gory nasty mess out of it.
Talk to your branch,
and I don't want people getting into
the chat on how to do it,
just talk to your branch,
they can work with you.
All right, let's go ahead then
and move to our last trap
and then we'll finish this lesson
with talking about
the commercial side of it.
The last trap to discuss
are snap traps or Jordan traps.
And here's two old tiny ones,
the old wooden ones,
like with glue boards,
they come in sizes.
This is for mouse, this is for rat.
There are other shapes
and styles, like for this is rat,
this is mouse of these other forms,
check with your branch,
see which ones they stock.
They all work but each one can have
its unique way of arming it.
For instance, these,
it takes a little practice
and cause you got to bend the bar back,
get the little catch
in the right slot...
And then once you get it armed,
there you go.
Versus these,
you just kind of push and it locks.
Regardless which style
never put your fingers
in front of the spring or in front,
anywhere where the trigger is present
because that can happen.
And this may just sting a little,
this will can possibly
break your finger.
And so you got to be careful
to always when you arm hold it
from behind,
never anywhere near
the business end.
These work differently
than a glue board.
These the idea is this comes down
and cracks them on the back
of the neck and kills them.
And so this is often a more quick death
and because that customers
who don't like glue boards
will be okay with this.
When we use these,
there's lots I can say about them,
like glue boards, we encourage you
to put them along pathways,
the rodents are frequently traveling
because the science
is we know that's their habit.
They like to travel a repeated pathway.
We can put them then along that area.
And by the way, when you put these out,
lock with glue boards,
you can put them out unarmed with rats
to help them get over the fear...
And lock with,
you know, lock with glue boards with it
so that they get caught.
The other things is you can put
attractive material
like you can with glue boards.
Again, no peanut butter,
you can use food, nesting,
Pro-Pest Lure.
Like with glue boards,
these always need to be set out
in sets of twos and threes,
but this time, instead of long wise,
we want to trigger facing the edge.
And, folks, you can put
some a half an inch or an inch
or so between the traps,
don't think they have to be
budded against each other,
but you do want the trigger
facing the edge.
So that's why these pictures here
will be considered incorrect placement
because they are facing the wrong way,
there singly, there in a corner.
Other points to mention about traps
and particularly those plastic ones
that may have a slot
in the base of them,
you can not only
just put them on the floor,
you can put them up high
as well, like on plumbing.
And in a businesses where rodents
often will use these utility lines
to travel around,
it can be very advantageous
to get up there and put them.
Now will say though
they have to be fully secured.
The last thing you would want
is one of these to slip off
and land on someone's head.
You can use jawed
or snap traps outside,
it is okay to put them in a station.
Just know that the style
of station matters
to the style of trap.
For instance, these don't fit.
This fits perfectly.
And so, the model station
will pair oftentimes
on specific versions of these traps.
If you do catch a rodent,
the traps are somewhat reusable
if there's like gut hanging off of it,
then certainly that's not reusable.
Wood by the way is less reusable
than the plastic
because once
it gets soaked up with gore,
you'll have flies and others things
attracted to it versus
these can be potentially hosed.
Like wise, with the snap traps
and as well as the glue boards,
don't touch them again with bare hands.
Again, we'll come collect dead rodents,
we won't throw them
at the count,
the only time we do not collect
dead rodents
with a glue board or a snap trap...
Is if it dies in an inaccessible area.
So if it kind of crawls off
and drops down into a wall void
or gets under some commercial piece
of equipment that can't get moved,
then we will have to explain
to the customer
there could be an odor for several days,
few weeks even,
three or four weeks even,
depending on the size of the rodent
and the environment
and finishes decomposing.
Any quick questions then for me
about snap traps or glue boards?
All right.
Let's finish this time
we have remaining looking at
rodent control in commercial settings.
And if you go to page 24,
as I already told you
at the beginning of the lesson,
there is a difference.
Just like there was with flies,
it's typically more of a commercial pest
than residential.
In addition, I have a disclaimer here
for those of you that service home.
Even if you service businesses, too,
you are not, when you go home,
allowed according to company policy
to use rodenticides,
the rodent baits that kill the rodents.
We have a company policy against it.
The only way you're ever allowed
to do that
is if you get special permission
from the branch.
The reason, folks, we have this
is because we
as well as a lot of wildlife
as well as a lot of pets are mammals.
The rodent baits work on mammals,
and that means there is a potential
of non-target concern.
That's why we as a company
choose not to do it.
And if you come to us
from another company like I did,
you know, you may have been
allowed there to do it,
here you are not.
And even if your field days or your CFT,
your technicians are showing
you bating at a home,
they're not supposed to.
The only time
you're ever allowed to do it
is if you basically say,
"This stuff isn't going to do it."
Meaning
I can't get the job done with this,
and that shouldn't really happen
at all in my opinion.
And if it does, then you need to go
to your manager and say,
"Here's the deal.
Here's what's, the reasoning
why I think I need it."
And your manager will have
to weigh all of that out, the risk,
the benefits.
And if they agree
they can get permission for you
but it's only at that account.
It doesn't mean that now
I can just do it wherever I want,
it's only that account.
And it's only
for as long as there is rodent activity.
Meaning as soon as the problems
are resolved,
the bait comes back.
And so if you take over a route
and you go to these homes
and you see bait stations plopped
out there with bait in it
and it's our stations
and it's our technicians putting it out,
you better go back
to your manager column and say,
"Did we have permission?"
If no, that stuff comes back right away.
And so it's not supposed to be done
in residential.
In fact, this lesson
I'm not going to teach residential
how to do it
because it's done even differently.
We even have special stations
a lot of times that we'll use,
that I'm not going to show you
and so residential,
just kind of leave that part behind.
Before we get more
into commercial though,
I would like on page 24
to ask a question.
I warned you,
I was gonna bring it up,
so let's see who is paying attention.
What are the documents
found in the log book?
So I've riddled off a bunch of them.
You should have also learned
this in your reporting
and documentation video for commercial,
call in someone
and give me some documents
that are in that log book.
Dash in your answers.
Copies of the DC sheets.
So maybe we can have
some regulatory things in there.
Let's go to Christopher in Raleigh.
You could have a map of the facility,
you could have,
like you said, the licenses,
the chemicals that you're using,
the inspection report.
Great, so all of the above
and so scopes and service
would be another one.
As you mentioned, here
is the floor level inspection report,
the graph, service tickets,
all of these things
including the pest siding log
will be in there, too, great.
Remember, folks,
if you service commercial accounts,
you always want to consult
that log book,
look at all those documents
because a scope will tell you
what you have to do,
the floor level will tell you
what issues they've had,
the graph will tell you
where things are placed
and how things are laid out.
Service tickets tell you
what was done most recently,
pest siding log,
what issues they've been experiencing,
you need to go through all of that first
before you do anything at the account
because then you know what's going on,
what you needed to look at.
Once we've done that,
let's get into then
the control strategies
that are specific to commercial.
And so the traps, the glue boards
all that applies to commercial.
From an exclusion standpoint,
we have door sweeps in commercial,
and this one specifically for rodents.
If you put those brush-looking ones
on the door,
we've seen that rats
can just like go along the line
and just sheer off the brush
and still get in.
That's why
we have this particular door sweep,
which in here
aligning this whole thing is excluder.
Now these door sweeps cost
more than your regular door sweep.
But for a customer
that's having a rat problem,
now getting in this could be
a really good option
to keep not only rats out
but also keep
out of their general pests.
We also have additional trapping tools
in the form of what we call multi-catch,
multi meaning
it catches multiple rodents.
And these are primarily for mice,
it's not really normally for rats.
And the main one that I want to focus on
is the Tin Cat.
Folks,
there are others besides the Tin Cats,
there's Corner Cats,
there's or Catchalls.
Because of time constraints,
this is the one I'm gonna look at,
and it's also probably
the more common one
you'll see out there in the field.
Tin Cats
are these sort of rectangular boxes
with a hole on either end.
And then what you'd do
is you would put this edge
along the baseboard
or whatever it is in the building.
And as the mouse
runs down the baseboard,
it's gonna run into the tunnel.
And if you have
Superman's X-ray visions,
there's a little ramp
that kind of goes up at an angle.
There's another one that goes up
at an angle this side.
You crack open the Tin Cat,
inside, there's this gap.
So what happens
is it's gonna walk up that ramp,
step off in here, and in front of it,
there's another ramp
that if it tries to push on it,
it lifts that up.
And if it tries the back pedal
on the one it's already standing on,
it'll kind of pull it and raise it up,
kind of like those finger puzzles
that when you pull it tightens.
So the mouse is forced into this crawl.
Typically, with Tin Cats,
you would always have...
This type of glue board placed in here,
so that the mouse will be caught
and will be killed.
Some accounts like I've said
won't let you use glue boards
and that applies then to this as well.
If you put glue boards in here,
remember,
you're going to want to take
and document on the edge
your initials and the date
that it was put out,
that way you can keep track of it.
And you're going to put it in here
and there's a little thing here,
little tab right here
that the glue board edge slips under.
And, folks, you want to slide it
under that little catch
because if not,
something bumps the Tin Cat,
it can fly up,
and the glue board stuck to the lid,
and this is not a lot of fun
to kind of the pry
that sticky mess off,
and now it's all gunked up
and it's pretty much ruin the Tin Cat.
And so you want to make sure
you get that on to that tab.
Once you get it under here
and you push it down in there,
make sure you've got
your barcode scanner for your scanner.
And some areas
will also have a little peel label,
you'll put on the underside of the lid
with your initial
that you've serviced it.
Also you'll number them sequentially,
so the first one is number one,
the next one is number two,
three, four, you get the idea.
Lastly, in some areas, not all areas,
some areas will also require
you use a punch card.
And so you have to have
a hole puncher to punch,
and you'll kind of slide
that in on one of the sides here.
You'll close it.
Now it's ready to go.
And you're gonna put it
against the edge.
Also we will put placards,
this is the outdoor ones,
the inside for Tin Cat's
a little bit smaller
but it'll look similar.
We can stick these on the wall
that says down here
is where that trap is
and you could write the trap number
and that it's a trap.
Now some customers don't like
visible indications of pest control,
and so when you look at that scope
if they've not permitted this,
then you won't have them.
But some places will allow us.
And so you'll go along,
setting out these Tin Cats,
and by the end,
your scope will tell you
how many and how far apart,
you'll end up with something
that looks like this.
When it comes time to service them,
you're gonna come back,
and by the way, too,
when you put these out,
the graph of the building,
if you put in Tin Cat
number one in this spot,
you need to write
on the graph correspondingly
where that one was.
That way, like if you take
over an account for someone,
you can pull out that graph, look at it
and go to where those Tin Cat should be.
Or if let's say an inspector
or someone else
had to come in behind you,
they could find the devices.
When you come back,
you're gonna need to have a paint brush
or a little hand-held swish broom,
dust and clean it up,
so it looks clean and professional.
If there is no glue board in here,
you're gonna want to make sure
you look inside and make sure
there's no mice live.
And if they are,
your branch is gonna have to help you
to know what to do with them.
And then you're gonna open it.
For me, I always open traps
like this away from me.
In case something is in it and it jumps,
this kind of protects me,
I don't have that alien's
facehugger moment
like in the horror movie.
You are gonna look inside of here
and say, "Okay, what's going on?
What if I caught?"
You know, if you caught something
and by the way something means rodent,
roach, spider,
cricket, millipede, anything...
You're going to have
to pay attention to that.
You will have to change your glue board
if you catch anything.
Put a fresh one in and initial it.
Now if you didn't catch anything
and the glue board still looks good,
it's not dusted
and covered up with anything,
you can still leave it.
But I would say again,
if you catch anything,
it has to be replaced.
The reason is if I don't replace it,
how do I know with if that bug
that's on here
was from last time or 20 times ago?
And so I have to keep an eye on it
and so replace these every time
if there's something caught.
You'll scan your barcode,
put in what your findings were,
initial that you serviced it.
If you got your punch card, punch it.
Close your lid, on to the next one.
Now, Brits asks,
"Do you ask the customer
if glue boards are allowed?
Or how do you address that question?"
Brit, that would normally be handled
when the job was sold
by the account manager
and so they would go through
with the customer,
what the treatment
control strategies are,
what the types of devices are.
And then and if the customer
at that point would come right out
and say usually if they have
that sort of preference.
And if the,
and they would be disclosed
in the scope that would be putting out
X number of glue boards
and that's when the customer would say
to the account manager,
"No, I don't want them."
Now if a customer comes to you later on
after the fact,
after we've already started
the service and says,
"I've changed my mind,
I don't want glue boards,
" then you need
to let your manager know,
we need to make sure
that it get reflected
in the scope to service update,
and then we would take them back.
But it wouldn't normally be something
that you would have
to open up as a specialist,
unless the customer brings it up.
All right, final points about Tin Cats.
When we put these out,
we hope they stay exactly
like we placed them.
And unfortunately,
sometimes the employees get bored
and they'll hockey with these,
with the switch brooms
or other things happen to them,
forklifts back over them,
someone picks one up
and throws in a trash can,
and so they disappear or move.
Whenever that happens,
we want to discourage the customer
from letting that go on.
If it does get moved,
they need to call us
so we can come back
and put it back in place.
If it get destroyed or disappears,
your account managers
when you sell the job or building
to the scope of service it charge.
Because these things are not nearly
as inexpensive as these.
And so to replace
one of these would not be cheap,
and so that's why we want to make sure
that if it's getting destroyed
by the customer,
there's a charge for it.
And you, specialist,
then would have to build them back
if that's happening.
If that's a recurring problem,
we also can upgrade
with these metal plates,
Tin Cat covers.
And the idea is you can sell
them this, it's weighted,
so it helps that from
not getting knocked around
and it's just kind of slides in here
and protects it.
But again, this would be an upcharge.
Jeremy, I can never give prices,
I wish I could.
It is so variable across the company
that if I gave you a number
that applies to here in Atlanta,
it wouldn't necessarily
apply to your area,
and I wouldn't want to mislead you.
All right, so that's Tin Cats.
Let's finish the lesson
then with rodenticides.
And, folks,
I'm gonna go quickly through this.
I acknowledge that.
The point is this is something
you really need to practice on the job
if you're going to do it.
I just want to give you
the basic groundwork here
of what a bait station is
and what's going on with it.
But you need to see this on the job.
When we talk about baits, on page 27,
not all baits kill the rodent.
We do have nontoxic baits
like Detex is just one example.
The reason we would use these
would be if I have an account
that does not have current activity,
so there's no rodents
in the business right now.
I could put these in
because there's no pesticide,
so it's better for the environment.
And all I need is one in each station.
I don't need to fill it up like I would
if I was actually trying
to kill the rodents.
What you do then
is leave that one block,
come back and check it.
And if it's been chewed on,
then I can switch to the toxins.
But if not or it's molded
and just gone bad,
that's one block that has to be
replaced versus replacing lots.
When it comes to the toxic ones,
like I had mentioned earlier,
in residential,
we do not use these
unless branch permission is granted.
And again, I'm not even going
to teach you how to do it
because I don't think you need to be
doing it in the first place.
With the baits that we primarily use,
there are others,
but as you see on page 29,
the typical style is what we call
Single-Feed Anticoagulant.
Single-feed meaning,
the rodent just has to eat
enough of it once,
and anticoagulant meaning
it kills it by causing it to bleed
to death internally.
With an anticoagulant,
the manufacturer says it could take on
average three to five days
to kill the rodent.
Please, please,
do not tell the customer
that it will die outside.
You have no control over it.
In three to five days,
you don't know
where that rodent is gonna go.
It can go in and out multiple times,
and eventually,
it just dies wherever it dies.
And so if you've set the expectation
that it gets thirsty and dies outside,
and then it dies inside,
they're gonna be pretty mad at us.
And so that's why we never promise that.
You know, we don't know
where it's gonna go.
And if they ask that question,
that's the answer.
We can't control where it dies,
it could die
in the next three or five days.
It's how long it takes the baits
that usually overcome.
As always, it's a pesticide,
and like Jim told you the label
is the law that extends to this.
And again
because of the mammalian concern,
we've got to be careful with it.
And by the way,
I didn't make the point with snap traps
and glue boards,
I know we talked about
outside containerizing them.
Inside, be careful not to put them
where someone's gonna
step on a snap trap
or glue board or a pet or a person.
I mean I know that should be obvious
but I just have to make sure I say it.
When it comes to the baits,
we typically only use them at commercial
on the outside.
We don't normally bring
the bait inside the building,
it's on the exterior.
And the reason is we don't want
to bring the bait inside
where there's a potential,
you know, that it could be relocated
in a non-target expose,
we stick it to the outside.
And we typically only use it
in what we call
a tamper resistant bait station,
meaning it locks somehow
that someone couldn't
just flip the lid open.
Tamper resistant
is different than tamper proof.
Meaning that if I take a crowbar
or sledge hammer
or I've got a big great dane,
you know, eventually
you can't get into these things.
But hopefully, it's not just something
you flip the lid.
And by the way if the stations
they seem ever breaks on one side
so that it isn't secured anymore,
then that station has to be replaced.
That's not an option,
you can't sit a brick on it,
you can't just lock the front end
and the back end
just slopping around in the breeze.
You know, you've got to replace it,
it's got to be locked.
Let's quickly go through
how to set up a station
and then have a service one.
First of all, when you get the station,
there's lots of choices and style,
check with your branch
which ones they stock.
We do have ones
that come pre-anchored,
but if not,
it has to be anchored somehow
because these are lightweight
and get moved around.
And so you'll have to go
with your branch
to find out for your branch
how they want you to do that.
But it somehow has to be secured.
Number two, like with the Tin Cats,
you're going to number them
sequentially,
and like with the Tin Cats,
you're going to put them
on the graph of the building
where it's found.
Like with Tin Cats,
we have those placards that I showed you
that we can put on the exterior
but only if the customer
will approve it.
Once you get it ready,
you're gonna open the station
and look inside.
Now the different models
will have a different layout
on the interior
but either way,
you'll have little pegs and rods.
If you have the option to do up and down
vertical or horizontal,
we usually prefer the vertical
because horizontal, the rodent
can chew on it like its ear of corn,
and if it flips with gravity,
it may break off.
The whole point
of the rodent eating it in here,
it's to keep it in here.
Rodents have a nasty habit
of taking food back to their nest.
And in those instances
if they take it back inside,
that's a risk.
That's why we want it to stay in here.
Once you get the pegs put in there,
then you load the bait on it.
That punch card I showed you
will put the punch card in it,
and you put it in the bait holding area.
That means the spot
where we stick the bait.
And so you'd punch it like over here.
And some models will even have
a little card holder
to further hold this into place.
You'll probably have a barcode usually
already on the underside of the lid.
If not, you'll need to put one under it.
Once you've got the bait loaded,
the card is in place.
You close it, lock it with your key,
and then you go on
and push it against the wall or the edge
like in a dumpster corral
or whatever it is,
so this is a parallel to the surface.
So that's the initial setup.
When I come back to service them, again,
you need your paintbrush
or a little broom
to swish and clean it up,
so it looks professional.
Again, when you approach the station,
we need to have safety.
You want to...
Tap on it.
Unfortunately, lizards and snakes
and cockroaches
and even rodents
will potentially hide in here.
And the last thing you want to do
is to have that scary experience
of flipping it open
and it jumps out at you.
Likewise when touching stations,
watch where I stick my hands.
Black windows are notorious
for webbing in low lying protected areas
like in these spots.
And you don't want to stick
your fingers in there and get bitten.
You're going to unlock
the station and open it.
You're going to have
your little broom with you again,
you want to,
want to swish out the inside,
get out the leaves in the dirt
and whatever it's in there.
If there's shavings of bait,
where the rodents have chewed,
don't sweep that on
to the bare ground and leave it,
it's still a pesticide.
And so you're going to need
a bucket or container
to sweep those bait shavings into
to take back and dispose off
according to the label.
And the same thing goes for molded
or partially in bait
that you're disposing off.
Check the bait
if it needs to be replaced,
meaning it's mostly eaten or it's molded
or if there's something wrong with it,
replace it.
You're gonna punch your punch card
and put that back in its slot,
scan the barcode,
put in your findings, secure the lid,
and away you go to the next device.
So, folks,
that's the bait station concept
at a real high level.
Again, I can't stress enough working
with your CFTs and field trainers
on the job to look at these.
If you're servicing commercial,
I'm sure you've seen
these stations already.
The points that I think people
often make a mistake with bait stations
is they don't make sure
that it's constantly secured.
Again, if this thing's flapping
and not and broken,
it needs to be replaced.
The other thing
we don't always do is keep them clean.
They need to be kept clean
or else it's very unprofessional.
And if you don't open these
on the regular basis
like the scope says,
if you skip a them and leave them
like that for a long time,
you can even have rats nesting in it.
And you want to have another company
sell that job out from a new,
you leave a rat nest in here
and someone open it,
there's not a stitch of bait in there
and there's a rat nest in it.
That's pretty much
telling that customer,
"We don't care about your pest control
'cause we are not doing our job."
And so please make sure
that you keep these in condition.
All right, folks,
again I could spend hours talking
about this information
but we're to the point where I think
we've reached the diminishing return.
And so I'm gonna stop the session.
Are there any quick questions
about the material I've covered?
If not, we'll get ready to break.
All right, what we're gonna do
is we're gonna stop the session.
Remember, you're gonna
have an hour break,
come back at 1 o'clock
Eastern for spiders.
Jim will be back to cover that lesson.
And then he'll finish the day
with the bed bug lesson.
By the way, if you look at
your schedules for next week,
you'll notice we've got blocks of time
for bed bug certification.
I'm gonna warn you now
that's not required,
you have between now
and that phase two date
I gave you this morning to get it done.
We just felt like
if you're in the branch already,
and you got time,
you're better off doing it now
than waiting,
but just know for next week
that that's just a suggestion.
Jody has asked,
"Should you date glue boards?"
Absolutely,
and I touched on that with the Tin Cat,
you should always date and initial them.
That helps you keep track
of how long it's been there.
And again, if you ever catch
anything on a glue board,
it always needs to be changed.
But if not,
if it's still in good condition,
it's not dusty,
you can continue to leave it out.
But you would want initial
that you had service it.
So if there's someone comes behind,
it doesn't show an old date.
I've been in my place to be with you
for the rodent lesson.
Thank you for your patience
with our technical difficulty
we have this morning.
Again, Jim we'll look
for you this afternoon.
I personally will probably see
you next week
as we continue on
with our training next week.
Until then, I hope you have a great day,
and I hope you have a great weekend.