Apologize to you Grateful Dead fans out there! But it has been an unusual year for weather, which in turn has a direct impact on the professional pest control market.
From coast to coast there has been more snow, rain, flooding, and inclement weather than in the past 10 years. BC, Calgary, Toronto, Winnipeg and the Maritimes have all had their share of it.
No Spring was evident it seemed, and the inclement weather just continues to drag on.
Across the country the initial carpenter ant flush in March and April was non-existent. And so far this summer swarms or colony explosions have been limited. Started off for a week then a cold snap for 10 days took care of that.
Indoor ant populations, such as little black ants and pharaoh exist, but in talking to folks the populations don’t seem as heavy. Even our faithful black ant colony in the Gardex kitchen was sparse.
The first application for spiders was hit and miss, with second applications hopefully starting now with the warmer temps and humidity. Will we get a third?
Wasps and hornets? They drowned with the last downpour.
Surprisingly, there have been a few more reports of termites in the GTA and on the West Coast. With all the wet soil they can move freely about.
Seems we went right from Winter to Summer this year. Turned off the heater one day and the A/C the next. But the rain has kept us with lower than usual treatments.
The big surprise is most customers are holding their own though, counting on contracts to keep income flowing while picking up one-times as they come in.
The key word is “steady” I suppose.
Luckily we all aren’t down further.
Let’s hope for more favorable weather in July, August and September.
We always hope for a long Indian Summer…but that never happens. We’re in Canada remember?