Do Mosquito Misting Systems Work

Do Mosquito Misting Systems Work

John Onofrey: Gotcha. Well, we’ve had great success with your systems, here in the Houston area. And you know, it seems like the question everybody wants to know when they’re searching online is, do mosquito misting systems work?

Tom Burgess: Yeah. That’s a really great question, ’cause I think when I first got into the business, you know when I first saw these systems. And people were telling me about them, I was like, “You guys, we’re in Houston, Texas and there’s a ton of mosquitoes, so there’s no way that can really work”. But if you think about what the concept is and what these things do, we basically installed a network of nozzles around your backyard, and sometimes in the front area. And we’re spraying a very diluted Permethrin, or pyrethrum product, which is a very simple insecticide.

Tom Burgess: But the product’s very diluted and we’re spraying it three or four times a day, every day. And by doing that, we’re creating this barrier, creating this zone, that really keeps the mosquitoes out. The product will kill mosquitoes, if it gets on them it kills them, but also Permethrin and pyrethrums have a residual effect with flying insects, it disorients them, it irritates them, and they don’t like it. So if they’re flying over from the neighbor’s yard, and they sense the residual of the chemicals, they’re going to go the other direction.

Tom Burgess: So if you think about that from the aspect of what the system is, we’re just spraying a very diluted insecticide three or four times a day, every day. And it keeps the mosquitoes and flying insects out of the yard.

John Onofrey: Right. I mean, that’s awesome. And I know you had mentioned you touched on entryways. So that’s kind of where these mosquitoes have a tendency to gather around for some reason.

Tom Burgess: Yeah.

John Onofrey: Doorways.

Tom Burgess: Well mosquitoes are very … it’s a very small insect unless you’re in Alaska like I was saying earlier. But a very small insect, and so what they’re going to do is, they’re looking for harborage areas, they’re looking for someplace where they can hide, where they can get out of the wind, they can get out of the heat. That’s going to be in your plants, up in your landscaping, but it’s also a lot on our covered patios. I know like at my house at the front door, I’ve got kind of a cove entrance where … and I was out there on Saturday doing some yard work, and I walked up in there, and there’s mosquitoes hiding up in there.

Tom Burgess: So they tend to like to hide in our landscaping, but they also tend to hide up under our patios, up around the doors, because those are usually covered areas where they can get out of the wind.

John Onofrey: Well, cool. You know, outdoor living spaces are kind of a big deal here in the summertime in Houston, right? People have pools, and they have these covered patios like you’re talking about, your system has this great feature where you have a wireless remote.

Tom Burgess: Correct.

John Onofrey: And you can essentially just activate the system if you’re going to have a party, and kind of blow those mosquitoes out, right?

Tom Burgess: Yeah, exactly. You drive a really good point, and I’d like to expand on that a little bit. It seems like more and more, our backyards are becoming like the biggest room in our house. It’s like, that’s where we created our entertainment areas, people are doing these outdoor kitchens, they’re building really nice swimming pools, we’re putting TVs outside so we can watch the ball game outside with our friends. That’s becoming really an area where we like to hang out. And not just having parties, but maybe we got the neighbors over and we’re sitting out, instead of watching the game.

Tom Burgess: The system’s designed, obviously to, like I said, spray three or four times a day, and automatically it should be handling the population the way it needs to. But when we put more people in the yard and we’re exhaling carbon dioxide more, it’s going to attract more mosquitoes. So it’s got a remote control, if we see there’s some bugs flying around or maybe something’s going on, we can hit that remote, add an extra spray. Also, we’re having a big party tonight, we’re going to have a bunch of people in the yard and we don’t want the system spraying on our guests, we can turn the system off by the remote, and then turn it back on the next day.

Tom Burgess: So it gives … it’s an added convenience, although if the system is set up properly and maintained properly, we don’t really need to use that remote too much.

Mosquito Misting Systems Work to Eliminate Flies in Horse Barns

John Onofrey: Right. You know, we’ve installed your systems in areas like that, in outdoor living spaces, of course it’s a big deal in the Houston area. But also, we’ve installed these systems in barn areas for horses and try to control these horse flies and things like that. Talk a little bit about that subject.

Tom Burgess: Yeah, a lot of people don’t realize these systems are actually designed over 50 years ago, to use in barns. People who were, you know, just for your average animals, you had two or three horses and you had a nice little barn set up, you wanted to keep the biting flies off of ’em, you put these systems in. And then obviously, there’s people who have more expensive horses and a little bit more money, so they really wanted to keep their barns cleaner and insect free. So they were designed specifically for that, the chemicals were a little bit stronger 50 years ago, they used a little bit different products.

Tom Burgess: And so residentially, when we started putting systems in, in the early 2000’s, we changed the chemicals up a little bit. We also went to a nicer looking nozzle, so it’s not as big and ugly on the house. Also, with the chemicals are a little less harsh and not mixed with oil like they used to be, so they don’t really smell bad, or stain, or anything. But the barns were the original use and still. We do a ton of systems in barns, matter of fact, a lot of the high school Ag programs put our systems in their Ag barns. And they’re actually using green products now in them, because they’re spraying around the kids and they don’t want any kind of incidents with the high schoolers. But they’re using repellents that are keeping the flies out of the barns.

John Onofrey: Well that kind of brings us a bit of another subject, you know, wide open spaces. We’ve installed some system on some acreage, where people, you know, they want to cover a wide area and you guys have the systems that are able to accommodate that. Because your tanks come in all kinds of sizes.

Tom Burgess: Yeah, that’s right. I mean, if you have a yard, you know, in the suburban Houston area, it’s probably a 30 or 40 nozzle system, so it’s a pretty simple install. But we’ve done everything from the barns, we’ve done some stuff out on ranches where they’re doing deer breeding, so we might do a four or five acre deer breeding facility. So we use a bigger tank, a bigger pump, a bigger motor.

Tom Burgess: It’s totally expandable, the systems are … we can increase the capacity of ’em fairly easy. But like I said, the average install, your average residential install is going to be a 55 gallon drum with our standard pump and motor on it. With that system right there, you could do up to 100 nozzles. So you could do a pretty big house just with that. But we got all kind of capabilities, we can expand it, or you know, do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Do Tankless Mosquito Misting Systems Work Well

John Onofrey: Right. So obviously, you guys are a big name in mosquito misting systems in this area, and along the Gulf Coast. And you have some competitors out there, there are people out there that offer tankless mosquito misting systems.

Tom Burgess: Sure.

John Onofrey: And we don’t deal in those, but I thought I’d just bring up the subject, maybe you can clue us in. What are the advantages, or disadvantages of one mosquito misting system over the other?

Tom Burgess: Yeah. I think that’s a great question, John. The tankless mosquito misting system that’s been designed by a couple of our competitors, to me it’s kind of a gimmicky thing. It’s an injection type system where you’ve got your concentrated chemical there, you’ve got a water line plumbed in from probably your hose bib in the back yard. And you’re relying on hopefully, nobody going and turning that water off. But if the water’s coming in, it’s taking the chemical injecting ’em in line and spraying it on the go. There’s all kind of service problems with those systems, there’s all kind of error codes you get. If somebody goes over and basically bumps the system and upsets it, it’s going to get an error code.

Tom Burgess: So the systems that we do, we like to keep them simple. You know, that 55 gallon drum that’s in the backyard, people looked at that and they think, “Wow, there’s a big drum of chemical in my backyard”, but realistically, we take a half gallon of concentrate, we mix it with 54 gallons of water. And even in that half gallon of concentrate, there’s about 13 ounces of active ingredients. So like I mentioned in the beginning, this is a very diluted product that we’re spraying three or four times a day. We know that mixture in that 55 gallon tank is good, as opposed to a tankless injection system. I don’t know if it’s working today, I don’t know if it’s working tomorrow, and it becomes a service headache for most of our dealers who ever installed one, or had to service any of them, to constantly having to be called out.

Tom Burgess: And so, if the system’s not working properly, obviously the installer’s going to be upset. But more importantly, the homeowner’s going to be upset, because it’s not doing what you paid for it to do.

John Onofrey: Right. So hey Chris, you’re on the line, you’re kind of quiet. But I know that you and your guys are out there in the field, you’re out there refilling tanks, you’re helping to clean nozzles, you’re talking to these customers. What’s been your experience out in the field with Coastal Mister products?

Chris Millward: They work great. We actually track retreats and test issues for customers all the time. And the people that have mosquito misting systems have a low retreat count, it even cuts down on tree roaches and other pests in the area, as well as spiders. Spiders are hunters, they like to capture the insects and to where they usually add under the eves and other places too. So all around, it just reduces all the pest population. I have no complaints, I wish all my customers had one.

John Onofrey: Right, we know how that is. When we don’t have to run out there and do a re-treatment on a property, obviously it saves us money, but it saves aggravation to the customer because then they’re not seeing pests. So Chris, we talked about this before, you’re absolutely right. Our customers that have misting systems, are probably our quietest and best customers because they’re satisfied. And that’s a testament to what you guys are doing over there Tom, at Coastal Mister.

Mosquito Misting Systems Work for Other Insect Pests

Tom Burgess: Yeah, and I think Chris brought up a great point. You know, our biggest focus is mosquitoes, but because we are spraying a general insecticide with the pyrethrums and the Permethrins, we’re cutting down on other populations too. Spiders, great example, I mean you know, when we’re coming into a season where we’re going to start seeing more spiders, just because the insect population is going to be jumping up, and if we adjust our spray times we can take care of that. You know, the tree roaches and just fleas in the yard, ticks in the yard, we’re not drenching the yard obviously, with our nozzles, but we are going to cut down on a lot of those other insects. And that makes for a happier customer. They’re seeing less insects in their yard.

John Onofrey: Right. I mean, insects are those types of creatures that they’re always looking for harborage. And if we make that harborage uncomfortable, they don’t want to be there. So they vacate.

Tom Burgess: They go to the neighbors.

John Onofrey: Right, right. Great concept. Well you know Tom, we don’t make a lot of money on your systems, I don’t know, we might have to have a discussion on that. That’s for another day, because you know, at BUGCO^® Pest Control, we sell your systems essentially at cost to our customers. That’s because we want them to be able to get into these systems, and show them how effective these systems are. And we offer the full gambit with our systems of general pest control, and we’re going to maintain the systems so it’s always operating for one fair price, every three months, generally speaking.

John Onofrey: That’s one of the ways we compete in the market is … you know, it’s just a pass through really. So in the Houston area, you’re not going to get a more cost effective solution for your mosquito misting needs, than what we offer at BUGCO^® Pest Control.

Tom Burgess: That’s awesome. I hear great things about you guys and that’s great customer service, I think.

John Onofrey: Well Tom, listen, I want to thank you for joining us today, also want to thank you for all the great things that you’ve done for us. Teaching us about your mosquito misting system, showing us how to maintain ’em, showing us the benefits of ’em. We’ve been with you guys now for more years than I can probably count, and it’s been well worth the experience.

Tom Burgess: Yeah, I think it’s been a great partnership. We enjoy working with you guys, with you guys coming into the shop and talking to ’em and talking about the situations with the experience in the field gives us a lot of great information too, so we really do value this relationship.

John Onofrey: Awesome. Thanks Tom.

Chris Millward: All right, thanks Tom.

John Onofrey: You guys take over there at Coastal Mister, we’ll talk to you soon.

Tom Burgess: All right, sounds good guys. All right, bye bye.

Chris Millward: Bye Tom.

Tom Burgess: Bye.

Call BUGCO^® Pest Control for Your Mosquito Misting System

Our Coastal Mister mosquito misting systems work well and work reliably to keep your yard and outdoor living areas free of mosquitoes and other harmful pests.  Call us at 281-240-2157 for a free installation quote or send us an email using the contact form.  You won’t regret your decision to rely on BUGCO^® Pest Control.