The first time I sprayed your BITHOR I found so many dead clover mites but then a few days later they were back. I sprayed again and more died but they came back again? Why is this happening? And shouldn’t they keep dying when they touch the chemical? I see them walking on where i’m spraying.
What you’re experiencing is perfectly normal. There are a few reasons for this but here is the “short” list.
- Our sprays work as a “contact kill” when first applied but once they dry, it will take 2-3 days for their residual to kill affected pests which enter the treated area. This means in 1-2 days after you treat, new ones entering will die but not faster than new ones can enter and so you need to spray again to get ahead of the surge
- If you are able to reach their nests with products like FS MP AEROSOL or PEST-XEMPT DUST, you can in theory eliminate them immediately. But if you’re only surface spraying with something like BITHOR? They will most certainly keep coming. Now whether they’re coming from the wall void, from under a cement slab, your homes siding or the ground around the home is important too so any if not all of these areas will probably need treatments if you want to end the invasions.
- Not enough followup applications are being made. In general, when one is treating for small pests like SPRINGTAILS or CLOVER MITES, they should plan on treating 2-3 times a week for 1-2 weeks and then once a week for 2-4 weeks and if they have hit nest sites, they can expect little activity after just 1-2 months. During this time it would be “normal” to go through 3-5 cans of Aerosol, 1-2 jugs of Granules and 16-32 oz of Liquid Concentrate outside the home (exterior). Inside the home, 1-2 gallons a few times a week could be needed but again, if you’re finding nests with the aerosol or dust, surface spraying won’t be as critical. Helpful for sure but not critical for solving issues like the aerosol or dust.
- Not enough time has elapsed since you started treating. This is usually very common with new customers. They get product, treat 1-2 and expect things to be controlled. Most pests – especially small ones like clover mites or springtails – take years to get established. And once they’re deeply embedded in wall voids, around windows and under a homes siding, it will take a few months of ongoing aggressive applications to knock them down.
- Not enough product is being used for prevention. This is what happens when we hear from customers who ordered 1-2 years. True, they got the right products to start BUT once they got things under control, they failed to stay the course. They maybe were okay for 3-6 months but at some point, the targeted pest will come back. Failure to do preventive applications means you will see them again.
In summary, the products we recommend will always include 2 products for outside and two products for inside. The granules outside will need to be applied once a month but the spray could be needed several times a week as explained above. Failure to follow this program means you’ll be vulnerable to new infestations over and over.
And on the inside, the Aerosol and Dust are the problem solvers with the Bithor on surfaces a tool that cleans up the ones you missed with the crack and crevice treatments.
That said, if you meet the requirements and follow the schedule of using enough product applied where it matters, YOU CAN DEFEAT THEM! But you need to have reasonable expectations. Every home can be kept pest free but how fast that happens will depend on how thorough you are when treating. Surface spraying for small pests will rarely end the problem; getting to the “source” of any pest problem is usually the key to success and ending the issue in 1-2 months.
Lastly, keeping a pest free environment will almost always mean ongoing, regular treatments after the initial clean out. This last phase is different in that the initial work is almost always more intense requiring more chemical and more time. But once you get control of the current problem, keeping them away in the future will be a lot easier when following our preventive treatment schedule.
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