If you’ve a trouble with unwelcome bugs in your home, and you’ve exhausted all the self-help remedies you know, you might be considering hiring a commercial pest management company to deal with the problem. Hiring a professional may be accurately the right solution for you; but you need to do your homework.
First, how do you locate a pest control company? Checking the yellow pages of your local phone book could be a good start; doing a keyword search on the Internet for your area could also work, and you’ve the added benefit of seeing what information the pest control company provides, on itself and on pest control commonly. Ask friends and coworkers for recommendations
After you’ve created a list of pest control companies, and before you call these businesses, start by asking your friends and colleagues if they have worked with any pest control companies. Have any of them used these pest control companies? What was their experience? Did the pest control service in question solve their pest infestation issues? Were there any problems dealing with the pest control service? Any problems in the home after the pest control service performed their services? When looking for a pest control service provider, it is important that you consider lots of factors. So before you call today, make sure that you check almost everything about the company.
Once you have narrowed down your list to several potential pest management companies, call them on the phone, and ask some more questions: does the pest management provider offer a free home evaluation and estimate of costs? Does it give you advice on what you can do to deal with the problem yourself? Is the pest management provider willing to answer questions readily?
Specific questions to ask: what kinds of chemicals are used? (If possible, have them provide written information on the chemicals.) What sorts of side effects or potential dangers do these chemicals have on family members, adults and children, and on pets? Do your family and household pets need to vacate the premises during the pest control treatment
Make certain you ask whether the pest control company offers non-toxic, natural pest control. The pest control company generally should be willing to at least discuss the options; if its representative just dismisses the notion of non-toxic pest control without intelligently discussing the pros and cons of the natural remedies available, but just wants to get into your house and spray, beware!
With written information (or your own notes) in hand, do your own research on any chemicals which will be used – their effectiveness, their possible side effects, their potential toxicity. (The Internet is a excellent place to start for this.) If you have family members with serious health issues, particularly asthma or other respiratory ailments, make certain you know what the potential effect of sprayed compounds could have on them.
In conclusion, if you’ve any questions about the pest control service’s reliability, and you cannot find anyone you know and whose judgment you trust to vouch for them, contact your local or state BBB.org or Consumer Fraud Division, to find out whether there have been any complaints lodged against them.
Once you’ve hired a pest control provider, be sure you know who is going to be showing up at your home and when. Make sure they have proper I.D., and ask if you can be there to supervise the process or if you need to leave, and for how long. And while you’ve got access to the professional treating your home, ask what you can do to avoid pest control problems in the future, especially those involving destructive carpenter ants and termites. The guy (or gal) who really does the work in all likelihood has insights into the subject that the office staff does not have.
