PPC111 | Technical
Woodworm treatments, bed bugs, ULV, and mole traps all feature in this issue of Ask the BPCA technical team.
Do I need to have insurance to be able to guarantee woodworm treatments?
Yes, we recommend that if you are doing structural woodworm treatments, you consider insurance backed guarantees (IBG).
What this means is that if you offer a 5-10 year guarantee, the treatment is protected in the instance a customer wished to claim on the guarantee. As wood boring insect treatments can be expensive, an uninsured claim on a guarantee may cause trouble for you down the line.
When using ULV or smoke generators for insects, do I really need to measure out the area?
Foggers, ultra low volume treatments (ULVs) and aerosols will all have different parameters for usability. The label will state what area size the product will cover and how long you need to administer it for, especially with ULVs.
It is important to work out the room size to best select the appropriate technique and the amount of pesticide required. Not doing this could mean you are in breach of the label requirements and are, therefore, breaking the law.
Additionally, your treatment may not be 100% successful and you could end up doing a call back for a disgruntled customer.
Do I need to conduct daily checks on mole traps?
This is your own judgement, there is no law that says you have to do daily checks but, the key to any trapping regime, be it for rats, mice or moles, is to ensure a humane dispatch.
This means using the most effective and reliable trap on the market, assessed by you, maintaining the trap so that it keeps its strength and reliability, and reassessing trap check intervals. Always record your checks.
Unfortunately not every catch is clean. The work we do is important, but it can be unpleasant. We should always carry out our treatments with a compassionate attitude to the species that we control.
With heat treatment for bed bugs, what is meant by ‘cold spot’ monitoring?
Imagine a three-seater couch: all those nooks and crannies for bed bugs to hide in. These areas are referred to as cold spots.
When you heat the area surrounding that couch, these cold spots need monitoring to ensure that heat reaches them, and reaches the correct temperature for the necessary period of time. It will take longer and there is a risk that if you do not monitor those cold spots, your treatment will be unsuccessful.
Bed bug treatments can be tricky in the best of circumstances, so you don’t want to leave any stone unturned. You can purchase special probes which will help you determine if your heat treatment is reaching the right areas.
BPCA now has a Code of Best Practice for heat treatment, so give it a read!
Can I use BPCA’s Code of Best Practice documents to explain the law to customers? A landlord wants me to spray for fleas with no evidence of pests.
Absolutely, yes. This is a common issue where tenants are often put under pressure to pay for a flea treatment upon leaving a property, even when there is no evidence of infestation.
You can use our Code of Best Practice on Precautionary Treatment of Invertebrates to explain this to the customer asking for an insecticide treatment and you can even send any tenants a copy, and they can show their landlords.
The same applies for any of our codes – they are all available to the public and if you need clarification on any aspect of the law or wish to show a customer what your trade association considers good practice, then please don’t hesitate to use the codes for this.
BPCA’s Codes of Best Practice outline the responsibilities and correct practices that members are expected to adhere to. Our Codes are subject to regular review by the BPCA Servicing Committee or are dictated by changes to legislation.
Read them at bpca.org.uk/codes
Are you a BPCA member with a technical question? Get in touch...
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Source: PPC111