Rockwell Labs offers new solution for fly management

Dr. Cisse Spragins, CEO of Rockwell Labs, shares more about new EcoVia Fly Killer, a botanical pesticide that targets all fly life stages. Dr. Spragins, Pest Management Professional Hall of Famer (Class of 2018), explains the various application options with EcoVia Fly Killer, including the ability to dilute it with water and spray it, as well as being able to apply it directly into a drain.

Transcription

Hi, I’m Cisse Spragins with Rockwell Labs, and I wanted to talk about one of our newest products. Small flies and fly control and commercial facilities has been a problem for a long time. It’s been, really the last 20 years. It’s been a significant issue. And Eco Via Fly Killer is a significant new advancement in fly control. It’s a different type of product than anything else that’s out there, and this is a 25(b) exempt product. It’s a botanical pesticide, and what you get from botanicals is fast kill and strong repellency. Those are the advantages of botanical pesticides.

So Eco Via Fly Killer, it’s a thickened formula, so you can actually apply it directly into a drain. It’s the price point is quite low, so you’re not going to go broke doing that, using it direct into a drain. And you can also dilute it with water and spray it. And we tested this on all life stages, both small flies and large flies. So we have house flies and blow flies, and then we have fruit flies, ford flies and drain flies, and it will kill the eggs and the larvae and the adults. If the adults are sprayed directly, but primarily what you get is repellency for adult fliesaway from those attractive breeding site areas. And then we tested that specifically as well. So this product also kills over causing bacteria. So it has the added benefit of having some some cleaning disinfecting type properties in addition to fly control. So it’s perfect for those types of applications.

One of the big advantages of an exempt product, of a 25(b) exempt product is when you’re using it in a commercial kitchen or outdoors, around the dumpster, you don’t have to you have a lot fewer label restrictions. So it’s not just crack and crevice application. You can apply it in a lot of areas where you really need to apply it, where the gunk is, where the flies are breeding, and then, similarly, outdoors, when you if you use a lot of synthetic pesticides, they’re restricted that you can’t spray it on like the side of a dumpster or on a pad, because you have impervious surface restrictions. But an exempt product, this does not have those restrictions because these products break down in the environment, and so they don’t they’re less restrictive in terms of application, so that enables you to spray it in areas, really where you need to spray it, basically for both large fly control and also small fly control in those commercial facilities.

It’s a good value. Again, you can dilute it 50/50 with water to spray it. If you do that, it will also foam to a degree. It will foam even better if you add some of our Outlast pro foaming agent, but you’ll get a respectable foam just with the product itself.

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Sacramento CA

Learn more about Envu’s dust solution for indoor pest control

Matt Remmen, senior technical services manager at Envu, shares more about Temprid Dust, the company’s latest innovation to eliminate bed bugs, cockroaches, ants and other indoor pests. The formulation contains two active ingredients, including beta-cyfluthrin (pyrethroid) and the all-new flupyradifurone (butenolide), both of which have a unique mode of action.

Transcription

Hi I’m Matt Remmen from Envu, I’m the senior technical services manager and I wanted to talk to you today about Temprid Dust. Temprid Dust is our newest launch into the pest management industry Temprid Dust has two modes of action uh with a very light silica air gel carrier to penetrate those hard-to-reach areas. It’s labeled for ants spiders and a lot of those other hard to control pests. Currently it’s labeled for indoor usage but we have a submission in for outdoor uses as soon as possible. If you were comfortable with some of the dust solutions you had before in terms of flowing into cracks and crevices you’ll be very comfortable with Temprid Dust. This is the one pound container and this is the 4 ounce container. On the one pounder and the 4 ouncer you can pull the tops of it open like this and then unscrew it to put inside your service container. It’s a new innovation it’s a very fast acting uh and it’s a fun dust to play with, so I think you’ll be very happy with Temprid Dust.

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Sacramento CA

Brownyard Group: PCOpro Insurance Program

IMAGE: BROWNYARD GROUP

Experience matters. For more than 30 years, Brownyard Group’s PCOpro Insurance Program has been the cornerstone in pest control insurance, safeguarding pest control operators (PCOs), wildlife control professionals, and related businesses. Brownyard Group has mastered pest control insurance: Its commitment to understanding the unique challenges faced by professionals in the pest management industry has solidified its position as a leading insurer.

PCOpro offers specialized coverages that go beyond traditional insurance offerings. From General & Professional Liability to Commercial Excess Liability, Workers’ Compensation and more, Brownyard has you covered. Through its partnership with an A+ rated carrier, the program offers high-quality insurance coverages with competitive rates.

With decades of expertise, PCOpro is designed to address the unique risks encountered by today’s pest and wildlife control professionals by offering comprehensive coverage to protect their businesses.Through PCOpro, licensed insurance agents and brokers have access to coverage solutions specifically tailored to the pest and wildlife control industries. Through its partnership with an A+ rated carrier, the program offers high-quality insurance coverages with competitive premiums.

PCOpro works exclusively through licensed insurance agents and brokers. For a no-obligation quote, call 888-609-4378 or email info@brownyard.com.

About Brownyard Group

Based in Bay Shore, N.Y., Brownyard Group was founded by Bill Brownyard in 1950 for the security guard industry. Brownyard Group, in continuous operation for 70 years, is considered to be the longest-running family-owned program administrator for agents and brokers serving the security, pest control and wildlife, investigative, alarm services, salon and spa, cosmetics, landscaping services, cemetery and library industries. It has been offering professional pest control liability coverage since 1988, and wildlife control liability coverage since 2008.

PCOPro.com/quote

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Sacramento CA

New and emerging pest species PMPs should be looking out for

Illustration: Antonio-BanderAS / iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images

Once again, the respondents to Pest Management Professional’s 2025 State of the Industry survey have spoken: The top profitable pest categories continue to be ants, rodents, cockroaches and wood-destroying organisms (WDO) — with the last two in reverse order from last year’s results. Species within each category, however, continue to change slightly based on location and service clientele.

Ants: Diverse Species, Diverse Challenges

Greg Bausch

Once again, carpenter ants (Camponotus spp.) lead the ant category — and rank No. 2 among WDO — thanks to their potential for structural damage and the complexity of their control. While the other four top species mirror those of last year, regional differences play a significant role in some lesser-known ant species.

For example, Greg Bausch, ACE, reports Southern California’s most common ant is still the Argentine species (Linepithema humile).

“I would say dark rover ants are also becoming more prevalent here, because I am getting them coming in for identification a little more often,” notes Bausch, VP of Gardena, Calif.-based American City Pest & Termite, of Brachymyrmex patagonicus.

Lane Zimmerman, operations manager of Minnetonka, Minn.-based Rainbow Pest Experts, ranks his market’s Top 5 species as carpenter ants, pavement ants (Tetramorium caespitum), field ants (Formica spp.), acrobat ants (Crematogaster spp.) and odorous house ants (Tapinoma sessile).

Alex McCurter

Overall, notes Alex McCurter, lead technician for Mantis Pest Solutions in Lee’s Summit, Mo., milder winters across the nation in recent years is seemingly beginning to affect many insect populations, particularly hymenopterans like ants, wasps and bees. He’s seen in uptick in both ant activity and stinging insects.

“My theory is that for the past several years, winters have been practically nonexistent. But this past winter had a couple of good hard freezes. Some insects survive winter better than others, and hymenopterans are particularly hardy,” he explains. “Because a lot of competing species saw a significantly larger natural die-off over those cold spells, ants, wasps and bees were able to proliferate. Again, it’s only a theory, but it’s what makes the most sense to me.”

Rodents: Public Health Threats

Lane Zimmerman

Rodents remain a significant concern for many respondents, with house mice (Mus musculus) and Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) leading the pack of top revenue generators. These adaptable creatures continue to thrive in urban environments, posing health risks and causing property damage. Roof rats (R. rattus), deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) and moles (Talpidae) round out the Top 5.

Zimmerman, however, notes voles are in his Top 5. “Voles cause heavy damage to lawns when there is snow cover,” he explains, noting that pest management professionals (PMPs) might not be as familiar with their biology and behavior as they are with other rodent species. “During the winter, one of their only food sources is the seed from lawns — so they create burrows in people’s yard and cause damage.”

Cockroaches: Persistent Urban Pests

German cockroaches (Blattella germanica) maintain their long-reigning position as the most revenue-generating cockroach species, followed by American (Periplaneta americana), Oriental (Blatta orientalis), smoky brown (P. fuliginosa) and brown-banded (Supella longipalpa) cockroaches. These pests continue to be a significant concern, particularly in multi-unit housing and food service establishments.

Zimmerman has encountered a couple cases of Asian cockroaches (Blattella asahinai) in southern Minnesota in recent years. This species physically resembles its German cousins, except that it is attracted to light. When Asian cockroaches enter structures, they land on lamp shades, light-colored walls and even TVs. They rarely establish nests indoors, however, and experts advise looking to outdoor sources such as leaf litter and thick grass to cut them off at the source.

WDO: Structural Threats

Natasha Wright

Thanks to their distribution over much of the country, Eastern subterranean termites (Reticulitermes flavipes) again lead the category of termites and wood-destroying insects, followed by carpenter ants, carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.), drywood termites (Kalotermitidae) and Formosan termites (Coptotermes formosanus).

Natasha Wright, BCE, technical director of Braman Termite & Pest Eliminating in Agawam, Mass., reports an increase in the New England market for both deathwatch beetles (Xestobium rufovillosum) and true powderpost beetles (Lyctus spp., or lyctids). Of the latter, she says, calls are mostly coming from affluent customers. The same clientele is calling for webbing clothes moths (Tineola bisselliella), as well.

“Both pests seem more common among the clients who can afford more wool and real wood than the average person,” she points out.

Wright recounts how a residential customer had new hardwood floors installed eight years before. A year in, the customer blamed her young child for marring the floors.

“It wasn’t until our visit that she came to realize that it was not him, it was lyctids — and the damage was spreading,” Wright says. “I wonder if she has apologized to her son yet for all the accusations!”

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Sacramento CA

Customer and employee retention strategies for PMPs

Getty Images: Nuthawut Somsuk / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Customer and employee retention challenges have created countless detours for pest control companies, according to Pest Management Professional’s (PMP’s) 2025 State of the Industry survey.

Pest control isn’t the only industry struggling to keep workers and patrons happy. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, service companies have been getting creative to help tackle the issue. In the pest control industry, these efforts appear to be working.

Customer satisfaction strategies

Anthony Sorrentino, ACE

When it comes to customer retention, 96 percent of those asked expect to retain more than 75 percent of their customers, the 2025 PMP State of the Industry survey shows.

Anthony Sorrentino, ACE, director of business development for Pest Pros of Michigan in Portage, Mich., developed a strategy that allows his company to carefully adjust pricing to avoid losing customers.

“Consider offering tiered service packages, where clients can choose from different levels of pest control services based on their needs and budgets,” he suggests. “Offering long-term contracts with fixed pricing also can help stabilize revenue despite inflationary pressures.”

Sorrentino acknowledges it’s usually more cost-effective to retain existing customers than it is acquire new ones. “Providing excellent customer service, adding value through regular communication, and offering specialized services such as inspections or preventive maintenance can help differentiate your business,” he explains. “This way, customers see value in your services despite price increases.”

Monitoring the number of customer cancellations is critical because too many can significantly affect a company’s bottom line.

Sarah Thomas-Clark

“That’s why it’s important to closely monitor cancellation rates and identify any patterns or issues causing them,” says Sarah Thomas-Clark, VP of Thomas Pest Services in Schenectady, N.Y. “By addressing these issues, providing excellent customer service, and practicing taking cancellation phone calls to present other options, we have been able to reduce the number of cancellations and retain customers.”

Finding ways to improve the customer experience also helps. Thomas-Clark recommends taking a hard look at the ease of doing business with your company, the quality of your services, and the overall customer experience.

“By consistently delivering a positive and seamless experience, we can build strong relationships with our customers and encourage them to continue using our business and refer us to their friends and family,” she adds.

Hiring solutions

Bill Haynes

The 2025 State of the Industry survey also shows 94 percent of those asked expect to retain more than 75 percent of employees. But not every worker is a keeper.

Don’t hesitate to part ways with employees who are not working out, says Bill Haynes, CEO of Haynes Exterminating in Buford, Ga. “You must have resolve. Acceptance of mediocrity is a culture killer,” he asserts. “Always look for talent, but creating a good work environment will help you recruit better talent.”

Michael Broder, president of BHB Pest Elimination in Wallington, N.J. and a PMP Editorial Advisory Board member and online columnist, suggests hiring someone with character as opposed to pest control experience. “You can teach a reliable, conscientious person pest control much easier than you can make them a hard worker,” he says.

Michael Broder

Creating a positive and supportive work environment is paramount, Sorrentino says, because rock star employees thrive in an environment where they feel valued, supported and engaged. “Focus on building a strong company culture that emphasizes teamwork, growth opportunities, and recognition for achievements,” he adds. “Offering clear communication channels, mentoring programs, and regular feedback can help employees feel connected and invested in the company’s success.”

Pest control companies that make an investment in their employees tend to have happy workers who are willing to stick around.

“Talented employees are drawn to organizations where they can grow and develop their skills,” Sorrentino says, and suggests making an investment in ongoing training, certification programs and leadership development opportunities.

“Employees who see a clear path for advancement are more likely to stay long-term, especially when they feel their employer is investing in their future,” he adds. “By fostering a supportive culture, offering competitive compensation and promoting growth opportunities, you can attract and retain high-performing employees who are dedicated to your company’s success.”

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from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/2024/11/19/customer-and-employee-retention-strategies-for-pmps/
Sacramento CA

ServiceTitan files for IPO

On Nov. 18, ServiceTitan, the Los Angeles, Calif.-based software platform behind FieldRoutes and other service industry programs, filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its Class A common stock. At press time, the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not been determined. The offering is subject to market conditions.

ServiceTitan intends to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “TTAN.”

Per a ServiceTitan press release, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Morgan Stanley will act as lead book-running managers for the proposed offering. Wells Fargo Securities and Citigroup will act as additional book-running managers. KeyBanc Capital Markets, Truist Securities, Canaccord Genuity, Needham & Company, Piper Sandler, Stifel and William Blair will act as passive bookrunners. First Citizens Capital Securities, Academy Securities and Loop Capital Markets will act as co-managers.

At press time, a registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective.

About ServiceTitan

Based in Los Angeles, Calif., ServiceTitan was founded by Ara Mahdessian Mahdessian and Vahe Kuzoyan in 2012 as a software management solution for their fathers, who both worked in the trades. The company’s end-to-end solution, an integrated, cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, is designed to give contractors the tools they need to run and grow their business, manage their back office, and provide a stellar customer experience. ServiceTitan is backed by world-class investors including Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, ICONIQ Growth, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Thoma Bravo, Tiger Global Management, TPG, and T. Rowe Price.

ServiceTitan continues to serve residential and commercial contractors focused on heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), plumbing, electrical, and other trade verticals. It also continues to expand its customer base in the green industry, which it defines as the pest control, lawn care, landscaping, and janitorial sectors. ServiceTitan serves more than 11,800 businesses in North America.

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from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/2024/11/18/servicetitan-files-for-ipo/
Sacramento CA

Why it’s crucial to recognize the signs of potential wildlife infestations

Chris White

Pest Control Insulation

Wildlife infestations in attics can pose significant risks to both property and health. As professionals, it is crucial to recognize the signs of potential wildlife infestations in attics early.

Five key questions to ask your clients can help:

1. How loud is the noise? The intensity of the noise can provide essential clues regarding the type of animal present. For instance, scratching or scurrying sounds may indicate rodents, while flapping noises could suggest birds. Assess whether the sounds are consistent or sporadic, as this can help determine the severity of the infestation.

2. When did the noise occur? Timing is critical in identifying wildlife activity. Nocturnal animals, such as raccoons and opossums, are typically active at night, whereas squirrels and some birds may be heard during the day. Documenting the timing of the noises can help pinpoint potential entry points and the species involved.

3. What kind of sound did you hear? Different animals produce distinct sounds. Observing the noise characteristics — scratching, thumping, chirping, vocalizations, etc. — can assist in identifying the species. This information is vital for determining the appropriate removal methods and preventive measures.

4. What entry points have you seen? Inspect both the attic exterior and interior. Look for gaps, holes or damaged areas near vents, chimneys or eaves. Identifying these entry points not only aids in understanding how animals are gaining access, but also informs future exclusion efforts.

5. Have you noticed any animal droppings? The presence of droppings is a definitive sign of wildlife in the attic. Different species leave distinct droppings, which can aid identification. Additionally, the droppings’ size, shape and location can provide insights into the duration of the infestation and the types of food sources available.

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Sacramento CA