Pest

Control

Residents play a crucial role in your pest control strategy. In large apartment buildings, the sheer number of units, resident turnover, multiple common areas and garbage rooms can make regular pest infestations feel almost inevitable. But it doesn’t have to be.

In order to keep pests out of your properties, you need to ensure that your residents become your allies in achieving and maintaining a pest-free environment. The good news is that just about every resident will tell you that they want to live in a pest-free home.

So what can you do to get your residents on board?

1. Make sure they know that building management is committed to a pest-free environment.

This seems straightforward, but in fact many residents assume that ‘management’ doesn’t care about the living conditions of the property. Make a positive pest-free message part of your lease agreements or welcome packages, encourage your building managers to communicate the message that management does care and that they are investing in pest control measures, and consider including pest-control signage in your common areas. You might be surprised at how much your residents will appreciate your efforts.

2. Encourage your building managers to speak openly and positively about your pest prevention efforts. Some property managers avoid talking about pest control because they think it’s embarrassing – but a ‘secret’ approach either makes residents think you’re not doing anything, or that it’s such a big problem that you’ve had to call in a top-secret special operations team to fix it. Being transparent about your efforts gives everyone more confidence.

3. Provide your residents with information about common pests.

Many people don’t know what a German cockroach looks like, so if they see one in their kitchen they might just assume it’s a random bug that flew in and not say anything to their building manager – until that one cockroach has turned into a huge infestation. Putting posters in common areas or handing out educational materials to residents will give them the knowledge they need to report pest issues.

4. Don’t shame tenants who report signs of pests.

Pests can invade even the cleanest, tidiest, most well-maintained homes. A person who reports signs of bed bugs shouldn’t be made to feel bad – maybe those bed bugs hitched a ride from the 5-star hotel the resident stayed in a couple of weeks ago or from the local movie theatre. More importantly, if residents know that they’re going to be shamed or scolded for reporting a pest issue, they’ll stop reporting pest problems. This means they won’t get identified until the pests have spread, at which point they are much more difficult and expensive to control. simon.leith@homepropestcontrol.ca

5. Encourage residents to cooperate with pest management professionals. It is not possible to control pests without resident cooperation and proper preparation for treatments. Often times, residents will refuse the pest management professionals entry into their homes. It’s also necessary to educate residents on not self-treating with domestic products as these will counteract the products used by the pest management professionals, spread issues to surrounding units and lead to pest resistance.

Even the largest multi-unit residential buildings can get to a pest-free status – as long as everyone involved has the information and knowledge they need.

Simon Leith is the President of Homepro Pest Control, which specializes in servicing multi-unit residential buildings across Ontario.