Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
of profi t for the operator. He simply does
not know how much. This uncertain value
makes him reluctant to pay and at times
may bargain for a lower price than quoted.
The product, a service in this situation,
being invisible often affects the trade.
Because customers are the eventual source
for revenue, the practitioners providing
services have an arduous task to work on
persuasive strategies. As a result, the
effi ciency of pest control service obviously
suffers. A simple trade of removing a pest
for a sum of money ultimately becomes a
complicated transaction. Furthermore, to
make a decision, the homeowner reviews
the company profi le, the profi ciency of the
company, reviews the clientele of the com-
pany and even the smartness and etiquette
of the salesman. Essentially what determines
the nature of transaction is very complex.
The information disparity regarding
pests, between the buyer (such as a home-
owner) and the seller (a pest control
practitioner), has, however, been success-
fully utilized to make pest control services
quite tradable. Practitioners often help
bridge gaps with the information asymmetry
by providing literature, client references
and web reviews about the products to be
used in the service, to gain confi dence. This
is a common practice and manufacturers of
various products update their product pages
with research and fi ndings to help buyers
gather reassuring information so as to help
such transactions. Another way of going
around this information asymmetry and
making the business more tradable is by
offering warranties to gain the buyer's trust.
Pest control companies often provide various
types of service and product warranties.
Such warranties could be in many forms
such as re-treatment without incurring extra
cost in case the pest resurfaces. Practitioners
have even experimented with offers of
damaged property replacement warranties.
deviated from a practice to more product
marketing. Pest management has become an
industry-formalized practice focused on
products and their usage, as described
lucidly by Forschler (2011). Forschler
quoted Rambo (1991) and Peterson
et
al.
(2006) to show that the last Approved
Reference Procedures (ARP) published by
the National Pest Control Association in
1991 had 10 pages devoted to construction
and cultural control, whereas chemical
application covered 131 pages (92%).
However, the latest revision of the Home
and Garden Bulletin, volume 64, shifted to
contain slightly fewer pages on treatment
techniques versus biology and construction
(8 of 26 pages or 31%). Similarly, exhib-
itions, magazines and journals dedicate vast
resources and space to products compared
with those dedicated to knowledge and
practices. This forces pest control prac-
titioners to become more product centric
rather than skill oriented.
The trend towards over-reliance on
product and industry-designed practices
has prevented the development of skills
among practitioners. The application of
chemicals by sprayers remains the most
dominant work in pest control activity. This
act is less skilful and less time consuming.
Sprayers help achieve the easy spread of the
chemical in a large area in less time. In
addition, sprayers cover solid surfaces and
water bodies, help treat cracks and crevices
and even take care of space. The fewer
technical skills required to operate sprayers
and their ease of use in turn promoted
liquid formulations. Overall, controlling
pests has become a simple act, requiring
little or no specialized training and know-
ledge. Forschler (2011) described how
termite management continues operating
under a 50-year-old insecticide-based busi-
ness model that has little relevance to the
academic knowledge base. But consumers
and regulatory agencies remain unaware of
the gulf between knowledge and practice.
Forschler (2011) went on to make an
important note that industry acceptance of a
knowledge-based practice model is
hindered by business practice based on
insecticide treatment.
Trends in Pest Control
The history of organized pest control is
recent and it has seen regular changes.
Current trends indicate that pest control has
Search WWH ::
Custom Search