Pest Control Technician Licensing

My family and I moved to Ewa Beach in Hawaii in July of 2024.  After moving in to our new place, we discovered we had a lot of "roommates" including ants, American cockroaches (known here as B52s), psocids, flies, and more, so I set up an appointment for exterior and interior pest control. 

The first surprise I got was when pest control product started blowing into my house, carried by the tradewinds through the open windows. I look outside, and realized the pest control technician, dressed in short sleeves and slippahs (the local term for flip-flops), had shown up and hadn't bothered to alert me they were here. They had already started the exterior service and were treating the bottom portion of the home where it meets the exterior sidewalk.  

The technician then proceeds to enter my home with the standard B & G sprayer.  

I politely asked, "What is in your sprayer?" 

The technician politely replied, "Termidor".  

I said, "Come again?".  

He said, "Termidor".   

I said, "Please go out to your vehicle and read the label for Termidor as the label is the law.  Anybody and everybody who is in pest control knows this fact. Come back and report your findings."  

He had zero interest in that assignment and politely asked what my concern was. I then said, "You are literally committing many label violations per the Thermidor label" and politely proceeded to list them off.

Needless to say, I decided to skip the interior B & G treatment and just moved forward with some basic baiting which honestly I could have 100% done a better job on my own.   

I wound up filing an official report with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture for many reasons.  Primarily for the concern of being a steward of the environment and the negative long term impact this company is causing.   Secondly, the fact that this was the largest locally owned pest control company on the island. Super scary a company of this magnitude is not doing things by the book. 

I later discovered this technician was applying Termidor nearly 21 times per day almost 6 days per week.  Many homes are also on the beach here and within 25 feet of a water source. 

The worse part of the story is finally here.  I actually know the owner of the company and reached out.  The UTTER and SHOCKING surprise that their only concern was losing the contract.  

The moral of this story is "Knowledge is Power".   If you do not ask, then you will not know.  I employ, empower and encourage anyone reading this to be more knowledgeable on pesticides and the products being used in, near and around your families and properties.   It is our responsibility to protect them, right? 

Even exterior products can leach into the environment and directly back into your water source.  Know before they go. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions.