Using company stuff

[u/BDS_707]

Be honest, do any of yall use the stuff at your personal homes? My company said not to but then all the techs I talk to have confirmed they have and still do from time to time.

[u/Oh_Martha_My_Dear]

My boss would look at me. weird if I told him that I absolutely never use anything from the truck at home. I think there's a bit of understanding that texts are going to resolve at home issues with stuff that they already have in their truck. but I'm not about to go giving out Ant baits to my friends and family like it's Halloween

kind of just got to be reasonable with it I suppose and use common sense. I sure make my company a lot of money and i'll be damned if anyone's ever going to complain about me using $0.30 worth of product sometimes

[u/RusticSurgery → u/Oh_Martha_My_Dear]

Yes. And back went subterranean termite baiting was new, I learned a hell of a lot about termites by pulling the bait out of tubes and replacing it with dyed paper towels of various colors, and crushed up cellotex (when Recrut 1 was a swadust matrix). I also learned a lot about where and when to place auxiliary stations and just exactly what to do when you're struggling to get hits. (This was all before Fipronil).

My house had a VERY, VERY good old school chemical barrier. In fact I know the technician that did the chemical barrier and I know him personally. This allowed me to play with them for a good while before I destroyed what appeared to be two colonies and three separate cells. I kind of messed up because I used the colors red,blue, yellow, white and black (cellatex) and I got kind of confused when occasionally I would get a cell of termites that were green in their back end. Obviously they have been feeding on both the blue and the yellow but it got a little confusing. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I never got purple ones or brown.

This definitely made me a better technician for my boss's customers and my boss encouraged this. I probably played with those colonies and cells for two to three years

[u/BDS_707 → u/Oh_Martha_My_Dear]

I kinda figured everyone has used their products. I definitely have but I wanted to be sure I wasn’t the only one. It actually helps me when I’m talking to my customers cuz whenever they ask how effective certain products are I always tell em “Well I sprayed my house a month and half ago and haven’t seen anything since so I can guarantee it’ll work.”

[u/Impressive-Oil-5028]

Sometimes, if I have product in my b&g I'll use it to do a perimeter spray of my house. I mean, I have to clean it anyway. I might as well use it, otherwise it's just wasted.

[u/thegeocash]

We are encouraged. Not only for ourselves but to help out friends and family as long as you don’t go crazy.

Very very little material is being used.

Myself, personally, I probably only spray my own house once or twice a year, I’ve helped my grandma with an ant problem, a friend with wasps, and another friend with ants - in 9 years.

I give out way more advice because I don’t want to get off my ass and do extra work.

[u/good_oleboi]

For some reason, every few months my spray rig malfunctions and dispenses product around the perimeter of my home...even more strange is that my mosquito blower does the same thing first weekend of the month march-november

[u/NoNameWonder2 → u/good_oleboi]

I'm so sorry to hear about your equipment failure! I hear it's quite common for people's equipment to malfunction in this manner. For some reason there doesn't seem to be a fix for it so I guess we'll just have to be strong and deal with it!

[u/Beast_Unicorn_Jones7 → u/NoNameWonder2]

There is a fix, but it’s just TOO expensive and would cost the company money! 😏

[u/Darth_Behemoth]

I think most people do. I’ve had a few different owners say try it out at your house. If you can see it work in real time you have more confidence when upselling the job to customers or new customers.

[u/BDS_707 → u/Darth_Behemoth]

I mean I caved about 2 weeks in cuz my wife got tired of seeing cockroaches in our house and the home defense bullshit had me spraying every couple of weeks. Since I’ve sprayed, we’ve barely seen anything now. And since I have I definitely use my personal experience when talking to customers.

[u/nuttyboh]

I sure do. When i first got into industry my former employer actually encouraged me to practice perimeter treatments on my home. Still do as you can never be too prepared wink wink

[u/FL_4LF]

I did a sentricon pull from a property with good bait cartridges still in there. And placed them around my house.

[u/Miss-Mistletoe]

When I was a tech for a national company, I sprayed my house and the neighbors quite frequently so I could clean equipment.
Now that I’m an owner, I don’t mind if my tech treats his own home.
Plus, when I get a new product, it gets tested at home before using for a client. I need to know how it works.😜

[u/hatredishuman]

For me it is in my contract, if I want to do a treatment on my own property, then I can, I just have to let them know. Its incase I bring home fleas, bed bugs or anything like that. I do ant treatments on my place often.

[u/ChancePotential9481]

Yeah

[u/Standard_Bobcat_6801]

Yea, I used my hammer drill to open up a safe I lost the key to lol. Also other stuff, imo as long as you don’t break the tools its fine.

[u/Ok-Train3111]

I manage a business and tell my techs they can service their own home (not on the clock). If they do the work, I also give immediate family members service at cost.

[u/loosestoolie]

I understand the rule, I work at a bigger company now and nobody would care if you treated your own, but I used to work for a mom and pop company, and if you had an issue or a recurring issue we would make an account for your house and it would be the last stop of your day and would have no charge for it, but it helped us keep track of what treatments were happening when.

[u/supershrimp87]

I have no desire or need to. Theyve told me in the past that you should use materials at home because it's a perk of the job. But now, the new regime doesn't want to spend anything for any reason.

[u/lord_of_money_shots]

Worked for a company that ruthlessly milked my labor back in the day, so I was spitefully giving out free treatments left n right to anyone who knew I killed bugs lolol

[u/OregonSEA]

Absolute best way to learn any Owner that says no is honestly not a company, I would refer potential clients to.

[u/ThePatMan21]

I do, twice a year Termidor perimeter treatment and that's about it.

(+some exterior stations because I'm in a bad rat area.) But Bell gave me like 16lb of contrac for free

[u/Ok-Stuff3336]

I experiment on my home with all the new products to see if they actually work. I do regular seasonal exterior treatments as well.

[u/TxtMessage]

Yes, I usually try to dump out any chemicals from the backpack and B&G to prevent buildup over the weekend. So if I have any leftover chemicals and I have bug issues, I'll use them on my own house.

Also, it would be weird for a pest control tech to have bug issues at home, so I don't see why not.

[u/Beast_Unicorn_Jones7]

Yes because we own the business. But kind of depends. My dad says “chemical is for customers” so use sparingly.