There are times when your customer will request something because they don’t know if the true answer is janitorial or pest control. In today’s episode, our guest Dara is owner of Ladybugs All Pest Solutions in Rochester, New York. And she is going to help answer some of those questions. Keep in mind that while you’re performing commercial janitorial services, your customers will ask you and your team to do a LOT of things. Some are in your job spec of services and others are not.

How you handle that can determine whether you keep a client; keep an employee; and keep a functioning and profitable business.

Knowing where Janitorial Services End

It may not seem this way many days, but your clients are not trying to wreck your cleaning business. They see you or your front-line cleaner and assume they’ll do whatever they’re told. You and I can recognize That as “disrespectful”. While we agree, we can ALSO agree it’s going to happen.
Sometimes you grant these requests. Other times you do not. How you present those answers is your discretion. But your choice doesn’t alter the truth. And in this case, the TRUTH is that any material applied in a commercial location to kill or treat pests is regulated. And only those licensed to do so are allowed by law.

So, if you’re in janitorial services, clean a space and remove trash and debris. DON’T go after pests in your clients’ locations.

Knowing where Pest Control Begins

As soon as a client asks you to “kill” a bug or rodent with chemicals, they’re crossing that line. Here’s the difference: They can ASK for anything they want. If you DO start spraying or leaving bait for pests, you, your finances and your business are at risk.

Being Connected with other Professionals

Having connections to local business owners in your area is a big deal. I train cleaning company owners to get connected. For you, Pest Management companies are a great referral partner. Find them in your city. Contact me to get the most out of your business relationships.

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

Ray
Joel.

Joel
Yes, Ray?

Ray
We have a guest today.

Joel
We do have a guest.

Ray
This is an episode of Blurred Lines, so please.

Joel
I love this episode. This is where we show where cleaning stops and starts with another company. In this case, it happens to be pest control. And we are meeting with Dara today, owner of Ladybugs All Pest Solutions in Rochester, New York.

Ray
Dara, it’s great to have you here today.

Dara
Why, thank you for having me.

Ray
Dara, you have been in and out of numerous commercial properties, residential properties. You know, your team. I see your trucks all over the road.

Dara
They’re eye catching, aren’t they?

Ray
Are. And we really want to get to the heart of this line between cleaning and pest control. And Joel, you made a great joke about something a customer told you to do earlier.

Joel
I’m always being told by customers, oh, use glass cleaner. Kill the ants with a glass cleaner. Well, I’m smart enough to know that if I were to do that, I have a feeling the government might be coming down on me and breathing for doing something I’m not supposed to be doing. And that is why I turn over those types of situations over to Dara.

Ray
So, Dara, other than okay, kill ants with glass cleaner. Got anything to say about that?

Dara
I mean, so many thoughts. It’s like, where to begin? Right?

Ray
Are they just gonna drown? Is that the idea?

Dara
Maybe, I don’t know. You’d have to ask whoever asked that question. But you know, like, as a professional pest control and pest management and, you know, pest solutions company, our products are so strong. They’re highly regulated by the DEC. So, you have to be licensed in order to purchase, you have to be licensed in order to apply to. And all of that is reported to the dec. So you have to understand what kind of insect you’re treating with type of rodent and pair the two. There’s no one solution for every insect and for every pest.

Ray
Yeah, Joel, I know that you have been in situations because some things are a sanitation issue. I think that’s mostly where the blurry line really starts.

Joel
Absolutely. I just did a walkthrough of a restaurant kitchen recently. A friend of mine took over as a manager of a kitchen. And they took me through the supply closet. And there was all kinds of cans of RaidTM and the, the fly catchers that you undo to hang from the ceiling and things like that. And I told him, you can’t have any of this in the closet. You’re not licensed. You need to talk to a pest control company. Like, well, we’re trying to save money. I said, save Money. All you need is the health department to walk in right now and you will not be saving money. One, they’ll probably close your kitchen down and two, they’re probably going to fine you. So, anything that you spend on a pest control company is actually going to save you money.

Ray
Yeah.

Dara
I’d like to add, they’re also going to be shut down and it becomes public record. All those violations on food, they are publicly available.

Ray
Right. How expensive is that? You know, if you’re as a business owner saying, I will save 30, 40, 50, $100, $100. As opposed to having your business shut down.

Dara
Right.

Ray
When you compare your professional services in pest management, again, there’s that sanitation issue. That’s the line. Where do you find that? This is where I should be called. My team should be called. It stops here. It’s not just somebody didn’t pick up the mushy banana and now we have fruit flies. From that forward, what happens? Where is that starting point to Call Dara?

Dara
Honestly, I think that that starting point is as soon as you open. We take a lot of pride in educating people on that. Prevention is the key. It’s a lot easier to prevent infestations of insects, of pests, of whatever it is you might be experiencing than it is to treat once it’s already there. So, it’s easier to prevent rodents from getting inside rather than when they’re inside and they’ve had hundreds of babies in a month. And you know your food plant is not usable because you didn’t “prevent” two months ago. Got it. The same thing is true with, you know, when you go and have insects, where you have wasps and stinging insects. It’s a lot easier to treat the perimeter of a property before nests have started than it is to come and remove six nests from property.

Ray
Sure.

Dara
So, prevention is really the key. Most establishments that we have the opportunity to educate follow our guidance. Because it’s a very logical, cost-effective process.

Ray
I love the fact you’re talking about “at the start”. Not for nothing in the sign of a true professional, quite frankly.

Dara
At the start, because we can see things from a layout perspective, from an operations perspective. When people are receiving large orders through double doors, through man doors, through docks… If you don’t have a barrier for that into your facility, you’re opening yourself up for problems. So, you know, we can give guidance before you’re even open of what to expect and what our recommendations are.

Ray
That’s fantastic advice.

Joel
The other thing if I might add that, I like that she talks about is education.

Ray
Yeah.

Joel
Which is One of the things that even in my company, not just our employees, but the education of our clients. Because like Dara and her company, my company, or any company in the janitorial or maid service arena, we’re supposed to have more knowledge than our clients. And to educate them so they understand why we have to do things the way that we do them. And why you can’t use RAID or have, you know, glass cleaner or something like that, you know, to kill the ants or whatever. And understanding what it’s. How it’s going to impact them. They’re good at what they do.

Joel
They’re not good at what we do. They may have a general understanding, but their depth of knowledge is not far enough.

Ray
And Joel, in similar fashion, you know, both of your professions handle some potentially very dangerous chemicals. Because you need to, to complete that job.

Joel

Correct. They’re dangerous when used incorrectly.

Dara
Right.

Ray
You are trained to handle them properly.

Joel
100% correct.

Dara
Yeah. And you know, one thing that when we got into this industry almost four years ago now, we took the position, we wanted everyone who was with us to hold multiple licenses. People aren’t operating as an apprentice. Everyone has multiple licenses. Even though it’s not required. We hold our team to the highest standards.

Ray
So Dara, what are some of those licenses? I’m familiar with the standard applicator’s license, but what else?

Dara
There are multiple licenses through the DEC, 7A being the most common And that allows pesticide application. Multiple guys on our team have wildlife and nuisance wildlife. So that enables them to trap and release wildlife. You know, let’s say squirrels are in your attic or a raccoon is in your dumpster or whatever wildlife you might be experiencing. We can trap and relocate. We can do the exclusion work. We have “3A” for lawn and garden. So we do all natural treatments for mosquito and tick. That’s a big deal for safe kids and pets. Do not apply chemicals there. It’s an all-natural solution. So our guys are licensed for that. We have “7F” for food plants and audited accounts. I would say our team is the experts there as well because everyone is trained, educated.

Ray
That is a very well-rounded team. My congratulations.

Dara
We have an amazing crew and a growing crew.

Ray
Dara, Joel’s clients are in and out of commercial locations all day long. Most of them are maid services occasionally. So, they’re serving commercial properties. Commercial customers, sure. What’s a great opportunity for you to serve? I realize it’s again, as a business is opening great time to set a plan. There are a ton of businesses out there that are already operating though.

Dara
Yeah.

Ray
If our listeners are in and hey, I’m running up against this bug this past, this request from a customer and I don’t know how to push back. A critter is involved, whether it has four legs or six or more. They can contact you.

Dara
Absolutely. At Ladybugs All Pest Solutions. We have website, phone number, email, Facebook, whatever is easiest for them. One of our team of experts will be available to help guide them and be able to answer some questions on, you know, is this something that’s hazardous? Is this something that might be like a one off, you know, seeing one bug in a school, you know, probably not an issue. But you know, see a few hundred whole different ball game.

Joel
100,000 elder box beetles.

Dara
Yes!

Ray
It’s the apocalypse.

Dara
Well, you know, people don’t understand, you know, they, they say, oh, ladybugs, they’re so cute. They are so cute. And we’re not talking about like an infestation of one or two ladybugs. But I’ve been in a bakery that had thousands of ladybugs on the windows and you couldn’t see through the daylight, couldn’t get through. The bakery was shut down because they had that problem. They had that infestation.

Ray
Oof. I can only imagine the stories. Dara, thank you. Thank you for being here today. Joel, thank you.

Joel
You’re welcome.