Learn how to maximize your time in the field with these tips for reducing mosquito callbacks. Callbacks and retreatments for your mosquito service can be costly, time-consuming, and usually result in unhappy customers or the service being cancelled. Here are a few tips to help you avoid them.
Top 14 Tips for Reducing Mosquito Callbacks
- The number one reason for callbacks, in my experience, is improper or a lack of inspections on each visit.
- Do the proper math on the treatment area and apply the correct amount of product.
- Use the highest label rate allowed for the first treatment of the season.
- Use the proper application technique to get maximum penetration and product on underside of vegetation and other resting places (under decks, sheds, etc.).
- Vegetation grows quickly in summer. Be sure to target NEW vegetation on each service.
- Rotate chemicals with different modes of action to avoid resistance.
- Many times the breeding sites are on adjacent properties. If you suspect this:
- Offer a free inspection to the neighbors.
- Incorporate traps in your service to intercept egg-laying females coming onto your customers’ property.
- Ask your customer to speak with the neighbors about your service.
- Keep vegetation trimmed to impact CAPT Stan’s Big Four where mosquitoes hang out: shade, moisture, cool, out of wind.
- Set/manage customer expectations. We aren’t very good at this as an industry. If you advertise ‘eradication’ or ‘no more mosquitoes’, you will have callbacks. I prefer the phrase ‘nuisance reduction’.
- Recommend floor fans and use of repellents in between services (CDC has a great website on the latter - Insect Repellents Help Prevent Malaria and Other Diseases Spread by Mosquitoes (cdc.gov)
- Verify with customers where in the yard they are being bitten and what time of day. This will provide clues as to what species you are dealing with.
- Check for cryptic breeding sites such as plant drainage saucers, piles of leaves, corrugated attachments for downspouts, clogged gutters, etc.
- Change outdoor lighting scheme to sodium vapor. Many species of mosquitoes are highly attracted to ‘regular’ light.
- If a problem persists, try and get the mosquitoes identified. This can be done by your Chief Science Officer (if you have one), technical specialist, a local mosquito abatement district, or an entomologist at a local university.