Greg try to upsell them a green-ant eradication program.
Product called Amdro from your local ag supplies for about $90 but it will make you at least 5 to 10 times that in return as you only need a small amount around each nest.
Well done Joanne!
The best thing about the wet season is going to look at new jobs then if I get them, I go through my jobs list and get rid of the PITA's or the 5h!t jobs and replace them with better ones, or put the price up on the afore mentioned jobs and listen to them whinge and complain then tell them to get someone else, or just not turn up and let the grass get waist high to the nasty b@$t@rd$ and tight so and so's who don't pay. (I don't do this to my good customers but). I might be getting a big regular job soon so if I do I'll cull about 5 crappy jobs. That's the best thing about the wet season by far. Us lawnies can get our own back sometimes.
Everybody is entitled to MY opinion
lol, gcs, the BEST time to drop a pita is just BEFORE you have to mow, then they have to get someone QUICK and the new guy can see the property in the state they let it get into.
love the scabs who make you go 6 weeks even tho you rang them up every week from the 2nd week trying to get an appointment,
then i say, nope top dollar, or go somewhere else,. i been ringing YOU for 4 weeks, and NOW you want me to rush over and do it for the regular fee?
aint happening
Cheers
Bluey
Adelaide Home & Garden Solutions
http://www.ahgs.com.au
"Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when everyone is watching."
I've been able to buy it direct from the supplier in Brisbane so it works out way better than what you could buy from bunnings etc.
Lawns need to be mowed a couple of days prior to application to help find as many nests as possible; and yep charge for mow then charge for ant treatment separately.
This is where you need the customer's help as they will likely know where the problem areas are in the lawn, ie where they most often are when getting bitten.
You only need a small sprinkle covering about 50cm diameter around each nest.
The ants actually pick up the granules and take them back into the nest where the insecticide does it's job.
Even if you see an ant but haven't found a nest put down a few granules and the ant/s will grab it and head straight back to the nest, showing you where it is.
The pest company who first did this here at my place are who I've based my price on. $99 for a visit which covers about 4 or 5 nest sites in the yard. Any more and the price goes up accordingly. Get the customer to keep an eye on things and if they see any more ants (there won't be many) I go back and put down a few more granules for free.
Seems to work for quite long periods of time. I have a few green-ants just starting to re-appear in my yard after about 2 years.
I've got a topic here in teh forum somewhere with a bit more info. If you just search 'AMDRO' pretty sure it will be there somewhere.
PaulG,
Thanks for the info. I'll be giving it a go.
Simmo
green ants in the tropics are a totally different ant to the green ant in SE QLD paul. dont ask me their species cos i wouldnt have a clue. not sure if granules would work
the tropical version are the ones with the citrus tasting nectar /sap /gunk on the back of them. they make nest from sapping together leaves in trees not in the ground. personally i used to think that they used to use some form of ant sonar to comunicate befor biting " is someone in the arm pit, whos covering the back of the neck, anyone made it to the groin yet? ok in position bite!"
when i was tree lopping i found the only thing you could was cut the nests off and remove it from your work area ( quickly) to keep numbers down. and they are crankier when it rains. only thing that kills them is cyclones and the big termites.and the mulcher. oh and occasionally ive known paperwasps to take over a green ant nest so take care.
we used to have a understanding that if someone on the crew run funnily around the corner ,passibly with hands inside clothing dont follow, they need to extract a green ant. if they sprint past you instead, follow, the wasps are coming.
and who ever came up with the theory that paperwasps wont sting if you stand still! pah! i recommend not trying that
I was wondering about that. Up there it's the green-tree ant. Here it is the green-head ant. When Greg mentioned them being in the garden I thought it might have been the green-head ants.