Answering your Questions Part 2

Q3. What is a General Service?

Most Pest Business recommend an annual treatment of your home. Some call it a CASY some call the annual Spray some call them a general spray or service. I myself like to call it a Full House Treatment. As a rule of thumb consider the price being asked as well. A General Service should cover Cockroaches, Silverfish and (Y) webbing spiders (CASY). Because I like to do a bit more service stuff I include checking for red backs and a bit of advice on pantry storage if there are any signs of stored food pest or rodents. The important thing here is that THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE TERMITES. Termites also should be checked but it’s a myth that it’s a once a year job. If your house has no preventative measure for termite attack the inspection time between checks can be as little as a month. You need to do a proper inspection. Also worth noting that a “Termite Check” is not a Pest Inspection. After the inspection, the inspector will tell you how often you should do your inspection or get some preventative measures carried out. Such as a Termite Barrier or even some plumbing repairs. Failure to do this means that inspections need to be more frequent.

Q4. What’s the difference between a warranty, a guarantee and a service free period?

A warranty is a guarantee of the integrity of a product and of the maker’s responsibility for it. In a sense, the guarantee is the more general term and warranty is the more specific (that is, written and a legal term). So how do we offer a warranty for our services? Well, it can get very confusing and different Pest Companies do things differently. There can be poor product application, the products may fail (old stock, the chemical is stored incorrectly that sort of thing). Other things can be, floor gets mopped or even worse steam mopped and all the chemical is removed. (true story) a lady complained that my treatment didn’t work (Still seeing cockroaches in the kitchen) My boss at the time booked that I respray her kitchen (12-month warranty) I get to the house start my check for cockroach casings and poo and its spotless then I see my hidden gel applications are also gone but wow the kitchen is so clean… so I asked her is this a new kitchen? “Oh yes”, she proudly exclaims(not really covered for that) . Anyway back to my point. My estimates on my own services are that chemicals will still be working for 12 months but starting to diminish in effectiveness I also include a growth regulator in all my internal house sprays that stop the breeding cycles of cockroaches and silverfish. So this is why I only offer that I return for 9 months (Service Period). You should know the treatment has worked within the next month or two to be fair. The newer chemicals do seem to take a little longer to work but they tend to have a better transfer affect which mean total elimination of an infestation. In addition it is recommend to keep control of cockroaches and pest in your house that a 12 month period is sufficient. Treating an infestation is something different altogether and may require a follow up treatment to get under control.