Stephen Vantassel here. Wildlife control consultant giving you another episode of Living the Wildlife, wanted to talk today about dealing with difficult or maybe I should just simply say angry clients, a client that was just simply angry for whatever reason at your service. And the reason why this came up is spending some time with a friend of mine.

Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCP, ACE

Lewistown, MT 59457

WildlifeControlConsultant.com

https://kingsdivinity.academia.edu/StephenMVantassel

402-489-1042 Mtn Time

Helping people responsibly and effectively resolve wildlife conflicts by teaching, writing, research & consultation

The Belief that their home and bodies are infested with a bug From 1902

to 1938, case studies describing “parasitophobias” or “dermatological

hypochondriasis”It was

first methodically described in a case series by Karl-Axel Ekbom in 1938 where

a delusion of parasitic infestations associated with tactile hallucinations as

well as skin manifestations were present in

postmenopausal women

Ekbom KA. The Pre-Senile Delusion of Infestation. History of Psychiatry. 2003;14:232–256. doi: 10.1177/0957154X030142008.

Is it a medical condition it is not an entomological or pest management condition an thus it cannot be treated by a pest control person.

Diseases that have been confused for a

pest bite or infestation

Morgellons Disease

erupting skin fiber condition reemerged in 2002.

The name “Morgellons” comes from a letter written in

1674 by Sir Thomas Browne, an English physician. The letter contains a brief

description of a skin disease in French children:

Hairs which have most amused me have not been in the

face or head, but on the back, and not in men but children, as I long ago

observed in that endemial distemper of little children in Languedock, called

the Morgellons, wherein they critically break out with harsh hairs on their

backs, which takes off the unquiet symptoms of the disease, and delivers them

from coughs and convulsions.

History

of Morgellons disease: from delusion to definition

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5811176/

Is it a phycological or psychiatric

condition

Clinical, Epidemiologic,

Histopathologic and Molecular Features of an Unexplained Dermopathy

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0029908

Delusional Infestation

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2772366/

Delusions

of parasitosis is more common in Caucasians and tend to occur in females 2:1

over males.

Infestation vs bites vs Scabs

Young Man

Young Woman

Entomological knowledge is very

lacking in the general public but its also lacking in the medical profession.

The Importance of having a positive ID

Formication,

creeping and crawling sensations. stinging, biting.

There are

no invisible pests

There are

microscopic pest

Pests that bite

* Mosquitoes* Bedbugs* Ticks * Fleas* Midges no-see-ums

outdoor * Spiders

Mites That Attack

Humans 

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IG/IG08600.pdf

* Bird Mites* Rodent Mites

Scabies Mites

* The human itch

(scabies) mite burrows into the skin, causing intense itching and irritation. * Skin between the

fingers, at the bend of the elbow or knee, and at the shoulder blades are areas

most often affected. * The intense

itching is accompanied by a rash. * Scabies is a

medical problem and is readily diagnosed and treated ...

They wanted to talk today about inspections, about making the most of your inspection. Let’s face it. As I said so many times before, wildlife control is time intensive. It takes a lot of time to do the work. It’s. And time is your most valuable commodity and you can’t make more of it. So you’ve got when you get to the client, you’ve got to try to get as much value out of the client as possible. And you, in fairness, need to be giving that client as much value to them, to him or her as possible so that you’re a mutually beneficial relationship. You’re earning more money, your client is getting more protection, a greater level of service. Think of it. Think of an inspection like when you go to the doctor for your annual physical. It’s a little checkup. So the problem is your clients called you about a particular problem, but you shouldn’t get tunnel vision and just worry about that particular problem. So let’s just say, for example, your client says they have bats or they think they have bats. When you’re doing your inspection for those bats, you need to be obviously looking for whether they confirming or denying whether they have bats, but take the time to see what else they may have. And this is where you want to focus on. Are there any other active issues that they’re struggling with? And this is where people who have both insect experience, pest control and wildlife control have an advantage because they can look for a greater variety.

Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCP, ACE

Lewistown, MT 59457

WildlifeControlConsultant.com

https://kingsdivinity.academia.edu/StephenMVantassel

402-489-1042 Mtn Time

Helping people responsibly and effectively resolve wildlife conflicts by teaching, writing, research & consultation

https://www.facebook.com/7in6Consulting/

Steven Van Tassel here wildlife control consultant bringing you in another episode of Living the Wild Life, he took a couple of weeks off from talking about tree squirrels. So I promised that I would talk about the control of tree squirrels because already talked about some of their biology to get you up to speed on that. Just sort of refresh your memory. Most of you are already quite familiar tree squirrels. Just a little refresher. So I want to talk a little about control techniques. So I’m not going to talk about all of them. But I wanted to highlight a couple of things, particularly for those of you who are looking to get into some wildlife control, maybe to expand your business out, particularly during the slower months that may occur in the winter, although I’m told that some guys there isn’t no slow month. It’s just a matter of, you know, there’s chaos and then managed chaos. So but anyway, if you’re not one of those and you’re looking to do a little work on wildlife control and you haven’t maybe purchased any products, let’s talk about some of those. 

Using baited sets to control tree squirrels

So I’m going to refer primarily to using baited sets to

control tree squirrels because most people would they’re starting off in the

business.  That’s how they begin. They

begin with a baited set,  It said nothing

wrong with that. You know, I think that with the technology we have today, we

you can certainly move faster to positive sets. So for those of you who haven’t

aren’t familiar, again, with those types of sets, I did a podcast earlier on

Nespoli.

It’s just sort of highlight what those three sets are. So you have a baited set. That’s your typical cage trap or box trap with bait that lures the animal into the location. So it’s your baited set. Then you have what’s called a blind set.

The blind says where you are placing the trap along the trail or it directly in front of the hole so that whatever moves in or out of that location is going to get caught, sort of like a two dauber trap. So you place it on the trail, there’s no bait whatsoever. The animals just simply mosey along and it’s Thorold business way and it gets caught. And then the third type of set, which in my opinion is really the holy grail of wildlife control and that is a positive set.

Now, you can’t always use it, so I need to be careful what I

say here. But so but a positive set is you are placing a device over the whole

opening and the only animal you’re catching is what’s coming out of the hole

where a blind set you could catch an animal coming in or going out with a

positive set you’re only catching. I don’t like using this language all the

time, but it gets the point across. The guilty animal, the animal that is

simply involved in living in that house or living in that den would be a positive

set. One way to remember it is you’re positively certain you caught the guilty

animal, because in fairness, that is a concern when you’re dealing with

clients, especially if you’re charging by the visit or you’re charging by the

animal that if you’re putting baited traps up there or even blind sets, the

blinds sets are a little less attractive. You know, sometimes squirrels will

travel a little ways to get there, particularly during mating season.

So if you’ve got a you know, a pregnant, you know, a estrus female and she’s ready to mate. Man, those males are going to come from all over the place.

So, you know, we’re going to be covering 10 characteristics of the work ethic of great pest control field service technicians. And this is based on my own personal things that I’ve observed, that I’ve experienced and that I’ve been talking to people about and figuring out field service technicians are a different job. No matter if you’re HVAC tech, if you’re an I.T. tech, if you’re a pest control tech, if you’re an electrical engineer in the field, if you’re doing cabling and wiring, these are pretty much across the board characteristic because all of these fields have similar and the type of person that can do this job and not everyone can do this type of job.

What is takes to be a Pest Control Field Service Technician

Not everyone is wired. To work unsupervised in the field and

be, work autonomous and have the responsibility that field service technicians

have, I mean, field service technicians pretty much have to have management

experience or management capabilities. They are managing. Think about this. I

mean, the average tech does anywhere between 150 and 300 thousand a year

somewhere. The average is gonna be somewhere around two hundred and fifty three

hundred thousand for a field service technician and revenue that he’s

producing. And that’s the equivalent of most small businesses.

So he’s got to be a manager to be a good field tech

He’s got to have. These attributes are characteristics that

are not technical, the technical part is the training, but this stuff has to be

either learned or be part of their character. In order for them to be

successful.

And when I’m interviewing people, you know, we have a three

step initial phase interview process that we use to determine if the person is

going to have a chance of making it. Ninety nine percent of the people that

apply will never have a chance of making it as of a pest control technician.

They’re coming into this with the view of how hard can it be to spray

something? And, you know, because they they live in an apartment and they see

the guy coming in who’s charging a dollar fifty to three dollars a unit,

spraying the floor in the kitchen, in the bathroom while he still has roaches.

And he’s telling him he has roaches. Yeah, yeah. This will solve it. And he

thinks, well, that must be what being a pest control technician is like. And

they don’t understand that. It requires a lot of personal character.

To be a great pest control technician. It doesn’t matter if

you can kill a roach or not, is can you have the right soft skills? Let’s call

them soft skills, which is what they are.

In order to work in an environment that your ethics. Have to

be above. Reproach in most times because. You’re going to be looked at if

something happens as the guy who caused it because you’re dealing with

chemicals, we don’t realize that you’re handing a mobile chemical factory to

somebody and you’re telling them you got to drive carefully and be responsible.

And it’s about the branding and the image that you represent when you’re out

there and that they are the face of your company. And how they drive and how

they behave and how they talk to people and how they interact, and we covered a

lot of this in the last podcast.

Your first job builds work ethic

So we’re talking about work ethic and the problem that we’re

I

want to talk today about dealing with the media. Now, everyone knows that it is

a major boost to your company when you are asked to do a story or be

interviewed for a story for the media, like a newspaper or television news

story. There is nothing that gives your business a pop like that. So I’m not

trying to be negative about the media here. So I want you to know that I fully

understand how valuable that type of coverage is.

Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCP, ACE

Lewistown, MT 59457

WildlifeControlConsultant.com

https://kingsdivinity.academia.edu/StephenMVantassel

402-489-1042 Mtn Time

Helping people responsibly and effectively resolve wildlife conflicts by teaching, writing, research & consultation

Hey, we’re going to be discussing the top five pest control field service technician skills needed to be successful and the generational challenge that we’re facing now. If if you’re a small solo operator and you’ve been a solo operator for a couple of years now and you find yourself that you either need to hire a part-time technician, a full-time technician, you want to grow, you just simply need help on the route. You’re not looking to turn over the business. You are basically the face of the brand and you’re just needing help to get the work done because you’re basically you’re overworked and you can’t take any days off and maybe you’d like to take a week off. And if you’re in the south, you never get to take a week off. But if you’re in the north, you might get snowed in for a couple of months. And, you know, you’ve got a little vacation time, you know, wherever you’re at. The situation is different for everyone based on their goals and their vision and mission for their company. You might decide you want to be a solo operator for life and all you need really are assistance. And that’s a bit easier to accomplish than having full-blown technicians that you’re going to train, that you’re going to send out. You’re going to start building routes and you’re going to basically start teaching and training pest control technicians. Or maybe you’re looking for just add water technicians where you already hire technicians that come with experience from another company that somebody else has trained.

Hey, we’re going to be discussing the top five pest control

field service technician skills needed to be successful and the generational

challenge that we’re facing now. If if you’re a small solo operator and you’ve

been a solo operator for a couple of years now and you find yourself that you

either need to hire a part time technician, a full time technician, you want to

grow, you just simply need help on the route. You’re not looking to turn over

the business.

You are basically the face of the brand

and you’re just needing help to get the work done because

you’re basically you’re overworked and you can’t take any days off and maybe

you’d like to take a week off. And if you’re in the south, you never get to

take a week off. But if you’re in the north, you might get snowed in for a

couple of months. And, you know, you’ve got a little vacation time, you know, wherever

you’re at. The situation is different for everyone based on their goals and

their vision and mission for their company.

You might decide you want to be a solo operator for life and

all you need really are assistance. And that’s a bit easier to accomplish than

having full blown technicians that you’re going to train, that you’re going to

send out. You’re going to start building routes and you’re going to basically

start teaching and training pest control technicians. Or maybe you’re looking

for just add water technicians where you already hire technicians that come

with experience from another company that somebody else has trained.

Either way, you have challenges. We all have challenges.

There isn’t one system, one way of doing it. One method that’s going to work

for everybody everywhere. Because the problem that you have, especially with

independent operators, solo operators and small companies, is that your needs

are different than eight, you know, 12,

Stephen Vantassel here well if control consultant bringing you another episode of living the wildlife wanted to talk today about spam phone calls yes I’m sure you hate them. They’re just annoying costing you time these are sometimes are machines just dialing your number bothering you are you’re on the latter driving your vehicle thinking that you may have a customer that you need to grab it and lo and behold you you say hello can you hear that pause and then some. Since picking up at the other end or you’re getting some sort of machine operated voice. Just driving you nuts costing you money. Putting your life in danger of driving because we know. Pretty much everybody does it. Well, I can talk about being distracted on the phone over driving now but. It’s still a pain and it’s costing you time and money. How do you stop it? 

Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCP, ACE

Lewistown, MT 59457

WildlifeControlConsultant.com

https://kingsdivinity.academia.edu/StephenMVantassel

402-489-1042 Mtn Time

Helping people responsibly and effectively resolve wildlife conflicts by teaching, writing, research & consultation