So LONG 2014 and good riddance…blahblah…
Yes it was pretty blah…
I missed those creepy crawly biting stinging infestations swarms…plagues even. No…not Ebola….bugs baby!
What a year this one was…and a slow one for Pest Control Professionals.
It wasn’t terrible as far as business, but never really got that “swamped” feeling from a customers point of view in the amount of calls…which correlates to the extent of the insect population.
And don’t believe it if someone says it was a great year.
The consensus of responses I get when I ask “how was your year overall” basically was summed up as:
“meh” (some text phrase the kids taught me)
The Winter dragged on and on and on…
The Spring lasted for 3 days.
Summer brought 47 days of rain and 1 week over 85 degrees….
Fall fell through…but man we had a gorgeous 4 day stretch in there….remember?
AND back to Winter starting up November 1st with the first snowfall of the year.
Carpenter ant market was down by at least one good application, spiders were limited to non-existent, bees and wasps hit for about 2 weeks.
Even the bed bug business was down. New research has found bed bugs do react to more favorable weather conditions, and are more active in the warm summer months.
So limited pests…limited phone calls.
On the Product side we didn’t see anything major, but did launch Altriset Termiticide from Syngenta with optimal results. The product works well and more than meets expectations. I keep thinking there is a pre-treat termite market to be had out here in the hinterland, but more on that later…
Optigard was also launched by Syngenta, as another offering that had been on the drawing board for a few years but finalized with their acquisition of Dupont. This new bait was super on both carpenter ants and those pesky little pharaoh ants.
Kudos to Syngenta for bringing these to market.
What to expect in 2015? Can only go up from here….(Shania fan)