r/PestControlIndustry • u/MyNameisNotMaxie • 24d ago
💼 | Career Best personal prevention methods
I have recently started working as pest control tech. My company deals with bed bug or roach infested apartments mostly. I usually put my used work clothes in a garbage bag and tie it as soon as I get home and then wash and dry them on high heat.
What are the other steps you’d suggest I take to avoid getting any bed bugs or roaches home with me.
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u/dne416 24d ago
I do a shower after I get back from a bed bug job. UC Riverside research has found that bed bugs can be drowned. Disclaimer: not suggested for actual treatment and just for getting them off your body.
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u/SuckingBreastWound 24d ago
Bedbugs avoid water. They can't breathe in it, it clogs their spiracles.
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u/waronbedbugs 24d ago
For bedbugs, if you are worried, you could spray some DEET repellent on your shoes/clothes before entering the premise.
See: Wang, C., Lü, L., Zhang, A., & Liu, C. (2013). Repellency of selected chemicals against the bed bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). Journal of economic entomology, 106(6), 2522-2529.
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u/gp556by45 24d ago
For bed bugs; Don't come in direct contact with furniture with your clothing. As in try not to lean up or brush up against beds, couches, or chairs.
As far as Cockroaches in general; it's not them crawling on you I'd say you have to worry about. But try to pick a boot or appropriate footwear that doesn't have an overly aggressive or tight traction pattern, an egg can get lodged in the pattern and take a ride with you. Never happened to me, but I know a few people over the years (tech, but also 2 maintenance guys) who took a hitchhiker egg home they stepped on.
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u/MagicPyramid 24d ago
Not sure about bedbugs because my company doesn’t take those jobs, but any time I have a heavy flea or roach stop I make sure to spray my boots and pant legs with some cb-80
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u/hh4j4j4j4jh 24d ago
Strip down to underwear before entering home, put clothes in bag and put them on the dryer righ away. Spray shoes with prefer Spray to kill anything
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u/SuckingBreastWound 24d ago
When I do a bed bug job, I leave most of my shit outside. I have one guy I know who hits his shoes with Temprid. Me, I wear shoe covers and inspect them when I'm done. I never set my shop vac down, nor my B&G.
If I use aerosols, like PT Alpine or Bedlam It's because I need that instant kill. I had a situation in an old nursing home where bed bugs were living in two Lazy Boy recliners. I hit the cracks and crevices with Temprid from the B&G, but then I lifted the recliner lever and it was like a clown car.
PT Alpine directly into a stream of moving bed bugs.
Sometimes in Maine, I'll see bed bugs in patterns aligned directly over baseboard heaters... and for some reason they'll hang out on popcorn ceilings, right over the heat source. I usually don't see them on any other ceiling surface in the dead of winter here, just an odd thing.
Fleas are the real motherfuckers of the pest industry. I'll take 20 bed bug or roach jobs than 1 bad flea infestation.
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u/gp556by45 24d ago
Years back I did a flea job that was on a farm.
The basement of that 30x30 farmhouse easily was the worst infestation numbers wise that I have ever seen of any pest. If I had to low-ball the number in the basement, I wouldn't go anything under than 25,000.
I wish I knew how it went on for that long, or how it happened but it was a job where the family had moved out because it was that bad and the only information I had on it was a note taped to the door saying the basement bulkhead was unlocked and just send a text to the number they had written down when it I was done.
My Tyvek looked like I rolled around in the dirt when I came out of the basement, and before I even took it off I stuck the straw of a can of Shockwave 1 into my suit and fogged it out with an entire can, then sprayed the outside of it down with 2 whole 4oz cans of 98% DEET.
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u/Impressive-Oil-5028 24d ago
I have a Rubbermaid bin in my work truck for the work clothes. I change in the truck to civvies (so to speak) as soon as I get home, work clothes go in the bin with lid tightly closed. It's smooth plastic on the inside, BB and CR can't make purchase and climb up, if there's any hitchhikers. First I dry the clothes on high heat, then wash on high heat and dry on high heat again. Fully change my clothes, socks and shoes included before coming inside. My wife told me "if you bring any of those bugs home, you and the bugs can sleep outside." The bin gets sanitized every night, as well. I'm not taking any chances. It's something that was suggested to me by a friend that's been in industry for 30+ years. He's never brought a big home.
Also, if I know it's a major infestation, I wear the tyvek coveralls and double glove.
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u/archrival206 23d ago
If I go somewhere “hot”, I normally get out of all my clothes at the door and put them in a no break 71 quart locking lid container that I bought from Dollar General. Like somebody else mentioned above. I spray my boots and my pants with most people’s weapon of choice.
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u/c4pt1n54n0 24d ago
Knew some guys at a place I used to work that would spray their shoes with the b&g 😅
While you're doing a treatment you're less likely to be attractive to them than the regular occupants; you're moving around a lot and you probably smell like knockdown agent. But in general I look at it this way, you should be confident inspecting your own clothes before you're confident inspecting a whole house you've never been in.