New Solution

Editor’s Note: In April, Lawn & Landscape and Chipco Professional Products sponsored a two-day roundtable meeting in Orlando, Fla., featuring a dozen lawn care companies that discussed insect control challenges. Fire ants stood out as a key concern for this group, so much of the conversation focused on Chipco’s new fire ant product, Chipco TopChoice. Here are some of the highlights:

When a homeowner has fire ants in their yard, you can bet they know about it. These pesky pests don’t take much time to create those trademark mounds that protect their colony and result in an unsightly lawn. No one likes having fire ants around, especially when you consider the pain they can inflict with their bites. But lawn care operators (LCOs) find themselves dealing with a Sisyphus-type task when attempting to control fire ants.

Just as this Greek god was doomed to spend eternity pushing a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down upon reaching the top, LCOs continue chasing ant colonies across properties, constantly destroying the habitat but rarely eradicating the problem.

So, as new ant control products become available, LCOs and their customers remain skeptical of the results they can expect. New products seem to be delivering unprecedented control, however, they create new educational issues for LCOs to address.

“They’re used to seeing us treating and then having ants again next month,” related Ray Schad, branch manager, McCall Services, Orlando, Fla. “But we’ve treated in January with a complete broadcast treatment and we’re showing that real fire ant control is possible.”

The need for education stems from two differences between new products and their predecessors: immediacy of control and cost. “The customer has to be educated that TopChoice won’t work overnight like a small, spot treatment will,” Schad pointed out. “This takes three to six weeks to work.”

“Homeowners’ expectations for fire ant control are tough to manage because they vary,” added Jeff Michel, training and technical director, Massey’s GreenUp, Maitland, Fla. “The only way you can approach this market is to sell the fire ant service separate from your other services, or else you’ll price yourself right out of the market on the basic work.”

Price will inevitably pose a concern for customers because these new products cost more to apply, especially for a blanket application. “We don’t know what the price is that people will ultimately pay for these treatments,” acknowledged Gary Hill, regional manager – commercial sales, TruGreen LandCare, Orlando, Fla. “Property managers are slower to warm to the additional cost of a separate fire ant treatment. They feel that a six-application program should include fire ant treatment, so you have to get to the right person to sell this.”

The reality that few LCOs have ever charged specifically for fire ant control further complicates the situation. “Typically, we’re baiting and treating as we’re on the spot and not charging extra,” explained Kathy DuBel, technical service manager, Environmental Care Inc., Orlando, Fla. “And we’re just chasing the ants around the property. The customers are so used to dealing with this as a problem that now, when we go back and try to charge them for this work, they’re not happy.”

Another critical part of conversations with customers has to be what the LCO promises to deliver. Historically, LCOs have refused to guarantee fire ant control because they recognized this as a losing battle. Now they are increasingly comfortable with stronger terminology.

“We treat a lot of playgrounds and athletic fields where kids are every day, and that creates a liability issue for us,” noted Hill. “But we do say ‘strong management’ instead of ‘elimination.’”

“I don’t talk about elimination, but I do talk about total control,” explained Al Hoffer, president, Al Hoffer’s Pest Protection, Coral Springs, Fla. “We want to give the customer the idea that this is a whole different approach – not the same old bait treatment.”

“If we can separate elimination from management as the next step, then you’ve taken education to the consumers and employees who sell to them, and there’s a big difference between elimination and management,” added Hill. “I want to say I’ll eliminate on fields and manage in peripheral areas because we still see some problems in areas like along curbs where the barrier is broken by a stick edger.”

Obviously, new products often create a new question for every old one they answer. But the idea of true fire ant control excites many LCOs, regardless of the challenges, and Bryan Cooksey, president of McCall Services, is optimistic. “If fire ant control is difficult for you, then this can be a real opportunity because other folks will think it’s too difficult to even try,” he pointed out.

The author is Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached via email at bwest@lawnandlandscape.com.