Hiring a Professional vs. Doing It Yourself
This is an interesting topic for me. I am a consummate DIY’er. At the same time, I am a professional hitman for food pests. I see it from both sides.
I grew up in a large family of farmers, tradesmen and business owners. All of them did things themselves and taught me a lot. Knowing how to do a lot of things has served me well but sometimes I call in the pros (admittedly, not always before I tried and failed on my own).
My grandpa used to tell me, “boy, hire that work done, you’ll be money ahead.” Nowadays, as a professional, observing how many in the food industry are still attempting to take care of pests at their facilities without intrinsic knowledge, makes me shake my head. Just because you can pass a pesticide applicator’s exam doesn’t make you an expert at pest management.
I understand, now, the lesson my Grandpa was teaching. Sure, you can “figure it out”, but at what cost? How long will you need to make mistakes to learn? What will those lessons cost you in lost product, failed inspections or damaged reputation? What about the cost of treatments that you tried, that made you feel good that you were doing something, but didn’t fix anything?
It’s really sad for me to watch as some folks spend lots of money to combat a growing problem in either a way that is not going to work, or will work, but isn’t the most cost effective strategy. Working on the front lines of the war of nature vs. tree nut facilities is our great pleasure.
If you need help developing your risk-based strategy and mitigation plan, give me a call directly. My cell is 559-513-4317.