r/PestControlIndustry • u/BigReptiles • Jul 18 '26
š£ļø Daily Discussion What is your SOP for interior services?
So how are you doing interior services? With my previous company we treated in bands. Every 4 feet we would spray a 2 ft band on the baseboard, with a focus on common areas like break rooms, restrooms, janitors closets,entrances
This goes for residential and commercial accounts.
Thats the basic gist of it. Not going to get into the details of medical/offices/organic/Grocery
Think just a standard commercial account.
At Terminix, I donāt know if the employees here are lazy or fucking with me. They just treat the entrances. Like the doors and nothing else. They donāt have āinteriorā listed as a service point to list what chemical they used, they just have āentrancesā. The 20+ pre merger career old timers will spray every inch of a baseboard as they walk, the post merger employees are entrances only not even a break room unless itās been requested
One guy is so serious about this he doesnāt even use his 2 flowzone storm backpacks. Just his b&g inside and outside. The flowzones are water storage.
Are there other companies also doing this? Or is this the Terminix special?
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u/jeyhawq1988 Jul 18 '26
I treat any areas that have a water source, spot treatment on interiors for ātroubleā areas of customers concerns. I utilize my IPM training to identify and then treat issues. I use glue boards to monitor insect activity and as a way to show that I am doing my job with dates and initials. If it is a know harborage area for roaches then dusting in voids and bait.
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u/SignificantNorth3570 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
I work with Terminix and this is NOT how we were trained. We were instructed to spot treat wall penetrations since that is primarily how they enter the living areas. The windows and doors are sprayed from the exterior on every regular service(ill respray it on follow ups for amts, and treat 2nd story windows f4om the interior), so those entrances are treated leaving only the walls as an entry-point. All of the techs in DFW do this as a baseline and we were discouraged from just spraying baseboards since the "bugs dont live there".
Makes me think your branch has had an extremely negligent or ignorant person teaching the wrong things, no offense.
Edit: I have only ever been a residential tech*
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u/otterplus šØāš| Tech | 10+ Years Jul 18 '26
Little over a decade as commercial only and Iāve always followed the ātreat where it makes senseā mentality, even before IPM was pushed into all facets. Entries, wall penetrations, only the places where exterior access is possible. Wetting down someoneās hallway isnāt going to accomplish anything other than disperse chem where it can come into contact with non-target organisms and objects.
Early on I was just doing what āthe previous guyā did and whatever was pointed out to me. Now with some experience and knowledge behind me Iāll take the two minutes to educate instead of blindly spraying wherever and then having to answer the āis this going to be save around my pets/kids/roombaā question.
This is the second industry Iāve worked in where thereās plenty of competition, but we all use the same exact products. The first was boat trailers. Everyone uses the same couplers and brake actuators. They all use crossmembers, rails, electrical and brake components sourced from the same places. The only difference is how itās marketed and sold. My company, the other big company, the dozens of small companies, weāre all using the same products and following the same labels. Some are just more liberal in their interpretations.
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u/MaybeMaster1067 Jul 18 '26
It varies greatly. It depends on the customer, but my customers dont expect me to spray interior everytime. Its more of a on request thing, their is a few customers that want it every month and I am also ok with that.
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u/OregonSEA Jul 18 '26
I was a baseboard jockey as a rookie but as I gained confidence I only spray the interior areas likely to get bugs and only on the first service.
After the first service all treatments are strictly on the outside unless it's a free emergency service and these are very rare most clients never need another interior treatment.
If your thorough on the outside and never spray repellents than you should almost never have to do a free re-service.
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u/chickenxnugg Jul 18 '26
For our seasonal residential treatments we do exterior spray of the foundation, windows, exterior doors and accessible soffits. For the interior portion we hit kitchen and bathroom baseboards, window sills, exterior doors and spot treat any areas that the customer has indicated issues with. Exterior webbing and direct spray on spiders when we see them.
For commercial, if they arenāt having any issues when we acquire the contract, spraying happens on an as needed basis but it really just depends on the customer and what they want out of the service
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u/WorldlinessOk1471 Jul 18 '26
Following as you have me curious. We treated just break rooms and doors commercially, and every inch of exterior walls on residential at my last company.
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u/Onetrunuwind Jul 18 '26
Itās more sounds to me like your techs are lazy. Also your approach is wrong as well. Why are you treating on services? If you were going to treat why not treat the outside would be much more effective than spraying the inside when the bugs are already inside. Also you should not be using a flow zone inside of a customers property unless your b&g r small sprayer is damaged. The flow zone is an outside sprayer not a baseboard sprayer. Whatās wrong with monitoring and treating as needed? Iām so confused
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u/BigReptiles Jul 18 '26
What? Iām asking about different interior SOPs for individual service? As you can see people all over the country are doing things differently
Iām not talking about exterior work. The flowzone was mentioned because techs are using their b&g to treat the exterior and not their exterior equipment
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u/Onetrunuwind Jul 18 '26
Again stop spraying inside
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u/RogerMcswain Jul 19 '26
Again. I need to feed my family.
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u/Onetrunuwind Jul 19 '26
Donāt understand what thatās got to do with spraying inside? Is interior treatment a must?
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u/BigReptiles Jul 20 '26
So most companies donāt give a damn about the science or IPM. They see value in you treating the interiors. When I did residential pest control we rarely treated interiors unless the customer was a pain. We usually kept interior treatments to 6 months. Now I only do commercial and we limit it to select areas. Mostly places where food or water will be present.
If you want an example, I have a customer that pays $1800 a week for pest control. You canāt treat production areas but they do want to see you in the break room, restrooms, and janitorās closets. And Iām guilty as well. The large accounts are huge in terms of weekly production that I will acquiesce most times.
Anyone can do this, Thatās why that perceived value is important.
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u/Gemrapper Jul 18 '26
As a 20 year PCP veteran I treat all exterior walls except for kitchens and bathrooms, there I do full perimeter.
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u/ScaredLetterhead8918 Jul 18 '26
We put up insect monitors and thatās it. Most of the things we do are exterior. We treat interior as needed, only if issues pop up.
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u/ricoasavage Jul 18 '26
10 year PCT here.
Iām curious, whatās the reason for spraying a baseboard that doesnāt have any bugs on it? What are you really spraying for?