According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, accidents resulting from fall protection and ladders are among the most frequently cited violations of workplace safety standards.

Linda Midyett, vice president and loss control director for PestSure, says the pest control industry is no stranger to the risks presented by falls and ladder usage.

“Pest control professionals deploy ladders and fall protection every day to perform services for customers,” said Midyett. “With an increase in the demand for bird management services and the need to access attics, crawlspaces and roofs of both commercial and residential structures, technicians are spending more time on ladders and lifts.”

As a result, Midyett encourages company owners and managers to schedule regular ladder safety and fall protection training for their employees. She also encourages pest control professionals to take the time to carefully consider the following variables before stepping on a ladder to perform a service: 

• The length of time the job will require.
• The materials and tools required.
• The worksite setup.

“If the job requires extended hours working from a ladder, carrying excessive loads while climbing a ladder, and overreaching while on the ladder, consider the options of using a scaffold or an aerial lift,” said Midyett.

Selecting the correct ladder for the job at hand and following proper set up and usage practices is essential to safe ladder usage.

Reducing the severity of claims resulting from automobile accidents and on-the-job injuries is always top of mind for pest management professionals as they navigate their businesses through waters that are more litigious than ever.

To assist pest control business owners and managers identify practices that can reduce the severity and cost of claims, and promote an enhanced culture of safety, PestSure welcomed more than 100 of its insureds to Park City, Utah, October 25-26 for the captive’s annual Safety and Loss Prevention Conference.

“Having more than 100 industry professionals invest in two days of intense learning and networking on safety and loss prevention tells you that PestSure member companies are serious about reducing risks for their companies, employees and customers,” says Todd Burke, COO of PestSure. “There is no other event like this in the pest control industry and it reinforces our commitment to provide our insureds with the tools they need to create proactive safety cultures in their organizations.”

The two-day event featured presentations that positively influence the way pest management professionals train and educate employees on best practices to reduce risk while protecting consumers, and their homes and businesses from destructive and health-threatening pests. In addition to risk reduction strategies, attendees identified methods for reducing costs and inefficiencies associated with not developing and continuously promoting good safety practices.

Featured sessions at the Safety and Loss Prevention Conference included:

Pest control professionals can control many job hazards with the proper selection and use of personal protective equipment (PPE), but not all hazards can be eliminated or mitigated solely by using PPE.  

Some of the hazards technicians and inspectors face on the job are only identified and controlled by a game-time decision. What do we mean by game-time decision? A decision about something that is unknown until the moment the decision is made.

Whether it is done performing a bird exclusion job on a roof or a rodent clean out in a crawlspace, these game-time decisions are typically within the control of technicians. And they rely heavily on the knowledge obtained through on the job training and classroom education to identify and eliminate or mitigate these hazards.

Hazard Identification Tips

Successfully identifying and mitigating job site hazards, requires pest control professionals to take the time to assess the situation and make decisions based on their training, experience and the conditions on the ground.

Drivers struck and killed an estimated 7,485 people on foot in 2021 – the most pedestrian deaths in a single year in four decades and an average of 20 deaths every day, according to data collected by the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Hitting a pedestrian is most drivers’ worst nightmare. The potential for serious injuries when a car strikes a person can be very high, and the driver suffers even when they did their very best. Your best defense to avoid a pedestrian collision is to focus 100% on your drive avoiding all distractions.

Since pest control service personnel are continually pulling in and out of driveways and entrances to commercial properties, it is vital that they are keenly aware of walkers, joggers and bike riders.

Five Tips to Avoid A Pedestrian Collision

What can pest control professionals do guard against a collision with a pedestrian? PestSure offers the following tips that can be incorporated into a company’s driver safety programs.

The structural pest control industry is no stranger to sub-contractors. From termite pre-treatments and fumigations to lawn care and construction repairs, PMPs rely on subcontractors to fill in the service gaps and allow them to provide more services to clients.

Working with subcontractors is not without risk, however, and many pest management professionals are not fully aware of the perils as it relates to insurance.

Kristina Phillips, CIC, CRM, vice president and director of client services for PestSure at

Alliant Specialty, says pest management professionals need to carefully review the details in their subcontractor agreements and contracts, and make sure they are indemnified.

“PMPs must ensure the subcontractor can comply with all the requirements included in the contract,” says Phillips. “If something goes wrong and there is a claim, the pest management professional is ultimately responsible. Many PMPs don’t realize that and assume the subcontractor will take care of it.”

More than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year in the United States, and more than 800,000 receive medical attention for dog bites, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Any dog breed – no matter how cute and friendly, no matter the size – can bite. That puts pest control service technicians, inspectors and sales personnel, at risk as they visit customers’ homes, apartments and businesses to deliver essential services.

Dog bites range from minor nips to full attacks. Regardless of the severity, the potential exists for infection, scarring, healing complications, and recovery time that interferes with an employee’s work and personal schedule.

Preventing Dog Bites

Dog bites are an all-too-common injury, but they are preventable. The key to prevention is communication and planning. This injury should be extremely infrequent if technicians take every opportunity to ensure their personal safety before arriving at an account.

Have you experienced an aggressive driving experience, or unintentionally been an aggressive driver yourself? It’s far more common than you may think, and the consequences of aggressive driving behaviors including tailgating and abrupt turns - can be devastating.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 66 percent of traffic fatalities are caused by aggressive driving.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has reported that nearly 80 percent all drivers affirmed that they had experienced extreme anger, aggression, or road rage while driving. And roughly 78 percent of drivers admit to engaging in aggressive behavior themselves.

What Is Aggressive Driving?

Aggressive driving behaviors include tailgating, intentional quick stops, abrupt lane changes, offensive hand gestures, failing to yield the right-of-way, inappropriate high beam use, speeding to overcome a vehicle and cutting another driver off. This blog will focus on the avoidance of aggressive driving as both the source and the recipient.

It may not be the dog days of summer yet, but you would never know it. The climate outlook for the month of July, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, is that temperatures will be well above average across much of the country, spanning the Mountain West to the East Coast.

For service technicians, summer not only means dealing with increased pest pressure and full routes but dealing with the heat found in crawlspaces and attics. Knowing the signs of heat-related illnesses and training employees on ways to reduce their exposure to excessive heat can head off problems.

Heat Related Illnesses

Problems develop when the body’s cooling mechanisms do not work properly. For example, when the air temperature exceeds body temperature, the body cannot easily cool itself. If the air is humid, sweat also does not evaporate quickly. Sweat also does not evaporate from a person wearing protective gear making heat-related illness a concern in any weather, anywhere.

Heat-related illness takes several forms. Heat rash occurs when sweat ducts become clogged. Heat cramps are painful muscle spasms caused by the loss of electrolytes from heavy sweating. If you develop these conditions, immediately get out of the heat so you can rest.

As a driver or passenger in a vehicle that is involved in the violence of a crash, you are protected by layers of metal, airbags, seatbelts, and headrests. Imagine how much more likely you are to sustain serious injuries if you are involved in a crash with a motor vehicle as a pedestrian or bicyclist?

Employees at pest control companies operating in densely populated urban areas are used to avoiding food delivery people or messengers on bikes zipping along city streets. Combine that with more cities adding dedicated bike lanes for commuters and recreation enthusiasts, and the odds of an unwanted encounter between service vehicle and pedestrian and bicyclist increase.

When we accept the responsibility of operating a vehicle, we also accept responsibility for pedestrian and bicyclist safety when we share the road. As drivers, we should always keep in mind that a pedestrian or bicyclist could be in our vicinity and here are a few areas that require special precautions.

School Zones

Although it’s more common to encounter children walking to school in urban areas than rural, the concentration of pedestrian traffic is always high around schools. This zone has a reduced speed limit and increased fine amount for traffic citations to encourage drivers to slow down and be hyper aware of their surroundings.

Did you know there are more than 2,000 ladder-related injuries every day across the United States and that most ladder falls happen between 6 and 10 ft. off the ground?

Pest management professionals frequently climb ladders to perform inspections and services for a variety of pest issues from termites and occasional invaders to birds and nuisance wildlife.

Knowing how to safely use a ladder is necessary for technicians and providing regular and detailed ladder safety training is a responsibility of company owners and managers.

Planning for Ladder Safety

When a service call requires working on a ladder or at any elevation, there are variables that must be considered. These include the length of time the job will require; the materials and tools required to complete the job, and the worksite setup.

One in four vehicle crashes involve distracted driving, according to statistics compiled by the National Safety Council (NSC). Additional research from the NSC revealed that the top distracted driving behaviors included texting or talking on the phone, eating, drinking, and smoking.

The pest management industry sends thousands of technicians, inspectors and sales representatives out in a wide array of service vehicles every day to service customers. With every turn, stop or backing out of a driveway, there is a risk for an accident to occur. Therefore, it is vital for companies to develop and follow protocols for safe driving practices. 

Distracted driving accidents claim roughly 3,500 lives annually – an average of eight each day – and PestSure, a leader in driver safety training for pest management professionals, is committed to assisting companies create a safe driving culture.

“Statistics show that drivers using hands-free or handheld devices can fail to see 50 percent of their surroundings, and that can lead to a higher probability of a distracted driving crash,” said Linda Midyett, vice president and loss control director for PestSure. “Creating a plan for and providing regular training on driving safety best practices is critical to keeping employees, customers and the public safe and reducing claims.”

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month and staying focused behind the wheel is essential to becoming a safe driver. Midyett offers the following five tips to reduce distracted driving accidents:

1.         Direct your attention to driving – nothing else.

2.         Stow and silence phones and electronic devices.

3.         Focus on positive driving behaviors.

4.         Prepare your vehicle settings before you depart.

5.         Give yourself enough time between appointments.

“We want to see employees safely return to their families each night,” added Midyett. “Becoming a more aware driver starts with having a plan and following that plan with consistent training and reinforcement.”