Phoenix is number 6 of the top 10 largest metropolitan areas in the US, and we have our unique pest problems!
But how different are Bedbug and Pest Control in the largest US city – NYC?
We asked Joseph Molluso of Northeastern Exterminating.
Thanks for the opportunity! Here at Northeastern Exterminating we treat all urban pests such as bed bugs, mice, roaches, ants, rats, termites etc. This city never sleeps and when it comes to pests, its a 24/7 gig.
Ever since the bed bug epidemic began most of our work has been bed bugs. The reason is because we are great communicators and the customers realize that so they want to use us. Bed bugs are the type of pest that will travel fairly well if not controlled right away. In NYC what we have against us is that there are many multiple dwelling apartment buildings. If one or two apartments inherit a bed bug infestation and try to improperly self treat, or let the problem go on too long, these problems can spread fast. Because building wide problems are so common on our side of the map we have a protocol we always stand by. The number one rule is before treating we do two things. The first thing is we alert the landlord and let them know that this tenant has bed bugs. We then tell the landlord we need access to all adjoining apartments. The second rule is that we MUST inspect all adjoining apartments to make sure the bed bugs have not gone to or came from any where else. Also what we are finding now is that bed bugs are spreading through attached private homes which becomes a bigger problem. NYC is full of eclectic personalities. In one apartment you may have an individual with OCD who needs to keep clean on an hourly basis. Right next door you can have an elderly hoarder who’s loaded with bed bugs. The eclectic nature of this city works against many PCOs.
Bed bugs have been in the local news but its usually whatever will fit in a 30 second or 1 minute sound clip.
When the news hasn’t featured bed bugs in a while they tend to lean that way when they need an exciting tease for a commercial. True knowledge can sometimes be boring so the news will tend to stretch the truth or give extreme examples as an attention getter. These news stories have done nothing but fear monger the general public into being scared of sitting on the subway and movie theaters. Rather then use this attention to provide knowledge to the general public they use fear and scare tactics for ratings. One of my wishes in the future is to get on the local news here in NYC and dispel many myths that the news has spread throughout the past 10 years or so.
We generally will use chemical treatments as we find in this city its best to use anything with residual action.
We will use steam on fabric and furniture but most of our treatments are chemical based. We do not offer heat treatments but there are a few companies we are happy to recommend if this is a route the customer wants to go. After our initial inspection we always go over the treatment plan with the customer. Very rarely does the customer want to go the route of heat treatments after we speak about the cost. Since we don’t use any pyrethrum based products during bed bug treatments we find that we never run into resistance. We will always use different products on treatment 1 then we use on treatment 2 for this reason.
The biggest issue we have in our area is that residents are indeed trying to treat themselves.
If i didn’t know any better, i would give it a shot too. Its quite an upsetting thing to find out you have bed bugs. Then when you start pricing around the cost to exterminate could be too much for some people. I would say about 50% of our current bed bug success stories have first tried to self treat and failed. They have good intentions but they don’t realize they are making it much more expensive in the long run. Self treatment spreads the problem much more rapidly which equals more treatments and more greenback.
Thank You so much Joseph! Sounds like bed bugs, and pest problems in Phoenix are very similar to those in NYC! Except our main focus is SCORPION CONTROL!
Phoenix areas also have a high percentage of condo’s, townhouses and apartment buildings. These areas pose a higher threat of SCORPION and Bed bug invasions from neighboring properties… Especially when residents have common walls and live in very close proximity to each other.
Heat treatments have been so advertised that everyone wants one till they discover the price, and that Heat Treatments also require chemical application for complete control. Funny, It’s advertised as a NATURAL way to control Bedbugs, but isn’t actually effective without the residual product applications!
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