How important is identification of pests for your technicians? Maybe not as important as selling a job and doing the treatment!  

...a true story that happened in Florida

 

[ Pesticide Poisoning and Kids ] * [ Symptoms of Pesticide Poisoning ]
[ MEMORIAL TO VICTIMS ]

To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
          Senior Research Scientist
          State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation - Integrated Pest Management

Dear Lyndon, I thought you might like to read an interesting article that appeared in THE CPCO ADVANTAGE - MARCH, 2000.  It is being sent to you without further comment.

How important is identification of pests for your technicians? Maybe not as important as selling a job and doing the treatment!  The common attitude is that the pesticide will kill the pest, and it doesn't matter what kind of pest is killed.  That may be true most of the time, but let me tell you a Christmas Story. It is a true story that happened in Florida, I am sorry to say.  I have changed the names and made up a few facts for this tabloid, but the core of the story is true.

In the beginning of December, Mrs. Smith bought a Fraser Fir Christmas tree at Home Depot.. the worker at Home depot wrapped the tree and tied it to the roof of her car.  She carefully drove it home through the holiday traffic.  When she got home, her poor husband with a little help from their 3 year-old girl, 5 year-old boy, and a pitiful American shortail cat, named Fang, had to unload the tree, stick it in a tree stand, and haul it into the living room.  Once there, the family went through the ritual of stinging the lights, putting on strings of popcorn, hanging decorations and finally putting the angel on the top.

They thought the tree was beautiful for about 3 days.  On the 4th day, bugs started crawling out of the tree.  They were tiny, dark-brown to black, and covered the ornaments and ended up sitting on the angel's head.   They crawled across the floor, behind the sofa, and up the wall.  They found some on the 3 year-old girl and on Fang, the cat.  The boy was not bothered because he ate them.  Mrs. Smith was horrified.  She said,  "I never really thought about it.  I was sure when the trees are sold by Home Depot that they are free of all that."  Not wanting to know anything about pests and pest control, she called a pest control company to solve her problem.

The pest control technician arrived later in the day to solve the problem.. She showed the technician the small black bugs.  He looked at them knowingly, studied them carefully in his hand. But he did not have a magnifying lens. From his vast knowledge of such things, he finally proclaimed,  "These bugs are ticks!  They can bite your children!  They can bite Fang, your cat!  They can transmit Lyme disease!  They can cause paralysis!  I can solve your problem right away if you hire me to do the job!  Of course the technician had no idea what the bug was, but he knew the tick story was a good one.  And by the look in the lady's eyes, he knew he had a sale.

Mrs. Smith completely lost it!  The technician had told her not only did she have bugs all over the living room, but that her children and Fang were in danger of being attacked by the bugs and dying of disease.  The technician said that they needed to leave for about 4 hours while he fogged the place.  So Mrs. Smith loaded her kids and Fang into the car, waited while the technician fogged, and locked the door of the house when he was done fogging.

Where do you think she went next?  She took Fang to the vet and left him there to be dipped.  She then took her two kids to the pediatrician to see if they had any tick bites and were in danger of getting Lyme disease.  The vet did not see any ticks on Fang, but he dipped the cat anyway.  The sad looking animal came out of the solution soaking and drenched, salivating because of the high concentration of organophosphate that was affecting control of its nervous system.  The vet was pleased that the cat barely survived the treatment knowing that if Fang just about died, the ticks must certainly be dead.  The pediatrician couldn't find any ticks or bites on the children. After Mrs. Smith was sure her kids were safe, her cat was still alive and her house protected, she was mad.  Who do you think she took it out on?  The answer:  Home Depot.  The manager knew it was going to be a bad day when he saw Mrs. Smith tear in through the front door dragging her two children behind.  The manager agreed to pay the pest control bill, the vet bill, and the pediatrician's bill.  But Mrs. Smith was still mad and called the newspaper.  The writer wrote a front page story about the dangerous Christmas trees at Home Depot.

Mrs. Smith also called the Cooperative Extension Service and gave them some of the bugs. They were identified as aphids - Cinera aphids!!!  Cinera aphids are found in the Carolinas and lay their eggs on the trunks of trees.  they don't bite people or cats.  They don't transmit Lyme disease, and they don't cause paralysis.  However, even though the technician was wrong with his identification, he was still able to kill the insects.  I guess that was good business for the pest control company.

About the problem,  Home depot said, "We want our customers to be happy, and we'll do right by them."  As a result, Home Depot destroyed 1,500 Christmas trees, and the grower in North Carolina was required to pay a $50,000 fine to Home Depot.  North Carolina Department of Agriculture is concerned that tree growers will increase their use of pesticides to control an insect that isn't even a pest in trees, and homeowners next year will end up buying trees with excessive amounts of pesticide residues.  Right now the North Carolina people believe that Florida PCOs are incompetent and are responsible for the whole incident.  In fact, certain people may believe that the pest control company should be liable for the 1,500 trees and the $50,000 fine because the technician mis-identified the pest.

The Florida pest control industry needs to appreciate the importance of quality technical staff or pest identification.  Right now the University of Florida has the best reputation in the world for training qualified people to identify and control urban pest problems. Unfortunately, many of these students are being hired by firms in other states because those companies place more value on technical training and are willing to pay more for the best. It is frustrating to train highly competent people who want to work in the pest control industry and see them depart Florida for other states, especially when we have people who cannot tell an aphid from a tick.

What do I think?  I think the pest control technician actually did the homeowner a favor. Fang should have been dunked in pesticides long ago.  Actually Fang was probably in better shape when it was staggering around in a chemical induced stupor than many people who drank too much for New Years and the New Millennium.  By the way, do cats suffer from insecticide hangovers?

Well Lyndon, after retyping this article, I have had time to rethink my original "no comment" stance and will add several thoughts, First, I would have simply vacuumed up the "bugs" or sprayed them with soapy water.  Second, it is not funny to me that any State "Official" thinks it is good buSINness to "rip-off" and/or to POISON the public and/or their pets in order to make a sale!  What do you think?

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