PestBossPro Blog — Quarterly Plans & Recurring Service

Rodent Bait-Station Programs: Recurring Service for Stations and Monitoring

Rodent work splits into two halves. The first half is the problem: mice in the garage, rats in the attic, droppings in the pantry. The second half is keeping them from coming back, and for a lot of homes and most businesses that means bait stations around the outside of the building, checked on a schedule. That second half is recurring service, and it should run like it.

Programs Beyond General Pest

Mosquito programs and their prepayments are covered in Prepaying a Mosquito Package Plan: How Program Prepayments Work. Rodent programs run on the same recurring engine, with their own schedule and their own details.

In PestBossPro, a rodent bait-station program is its own service on the address, with its own days between visits. It comes due separately from a quarterly general pest plan and shows up on the same Waiting List, so a technician can check the stations and do the quarterly treatment on the same stop when both are due.

Choosing the Check Schedule

How often stations get checked depends on the account and the pressure:

• Monthly, 30 days. Common for restaurants, food storage, warehouses and other commercial accounts, and for homes with active problems.
• Bi-monthly, 60 days. A middle ground for homes with steady but moderate pressure.
• Quarterly, 90 days. For lower-pressure homes, often checked at the same visit as general pest.

Whatever schedule you pick, the clock starts each time the technician completes a check, and the account comes due again once those days pass. If stations show heavy activity, shorten the schedule. If they stay quiet for a long stretch, lengthen it. Both are just a change to the service on the address.

Keep the Station Map in the Notes

The most common rodent-program problem is a technician who cannot find all the stations. The one behind the air conditioner gets checked. The one behind the woodpile gets forgotten. Put the station layout in the address notes so it shows on the technician's phone every visit:

• “6 stations: 2 along back fence, 1 each side of garage, 1 behind AC unit, 1 by trash cans.”
• “Station 4 is behind the shed, under the overhang.”
• “Restaurant: stations along the dumpster pad and by the back door. Do not block the grease bin.”

Before-and-after photos from the tech app are useful for station placement too. A photo of each station location on the first visit helps the next technician find them.

Recording What Was Done

Each check should leave a note: how many stations were checked, which ones showed activity, which were replaced or rebaited, and any signs of entry around the building. Past notes show on the technician's phone, so the next visit starts with what the last one found.

When bait or another tracked product is used, the technician records what was applied at completion. The chemical application record keeps the product, active ingredient, EPA reg. no. if entered, amount used, site treated, target pest and the technician's name and license number. Many states require records like these, so check your state's lead agency rules and follow the label for every product.

Pricing a Bait-Station Program

Rodent programs are usually priced by the number of stations and the check schedule. A simple example, using illustrative prices:

• Station installation: one-time charge per station.
• Monthly check: $45 for up to four stations, plus a set amount per extra station.
• Quarterly check added to a general pest plan: a smaller add-on per visit.

Set each piece up in your service list so estimates and invoices come out the same way every time. For commercial accounts with several locations, monthly account billing sends one statement each month covering every location.

Selling Rodent Programs

Fall is the natural season for rodent programs, when mice and rats look for warm places to spend the winter. Offer stations to quarterly customers who mention noises in the attic or droppings in the garage, and to any customer who called for a one-time rodent job. The one-time job solves this winter's problem. The program helps keep next winter's from starting.

Exclusion work, sealing the gaps rodents use to get in, often pairs well with a station program. Quote it from your service list as a one-time job and put the station checks on as recurring service. Seasonal offers like this are covered in Seasonal Add-Ons for Quarterly Pest Customers.

Programs That Run Themselves

A rodent program is easy money when the checks happen on time and every station gets looked at. Put the schedule and the station layout on the address and the program runs itself. For how rodent programs fit with quarterly, mosquito and termite work, see the recurring pest control software overview.