Some of the best advice you’ll ever get from pest control guru’s is to always inspect first, treat second. Sage advice at least on paper. Over the years I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read this, been told about it or even been reprimanded for not doing a good enough inspection. (once) It’s such an important part of being a pest control professional and I agree. (to a point) The reasons I’ve always been taught to inspect first were;
*To identify the pest
*To determine if it’s a chronic, sporadic or potential problem
*To map out a strategy of how to deal with it
*Find areas of sanitation needs
*To get more info from client (if present) in order to better understand the issue and set out reasonable expectations based on what you find
*To make your treatment more effective
Now, ALL of these are good and they make for an impressive ‘to do’ list in the industry hand books and trade magazines and even in the company policy manual. The articles are first rate, well written, hard to argue with and from some of the most respected names you can imagine. The ‘inspection first’ seems to be the answer for any situation and everything is pretty cut and dry, black and white. Find this do that, see that expect this. A + B = C. I’d say for the most part, we as an industry accept this standard as normal operating procedure, but is it practical in the real world of a busy tech? Is there a time when we all have to do treatspections?
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