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I had the system in my Florida house. They would come, inject the fluid into the outlet and were done in ten minutes.
I remember reading an article online about one of there systems clogging and making the occupants of the home very ill. The family did not know the system was screwed up, they all got progressively sicker over time. After medical tests determined it was a type of pesticide, they eventually found it was the inwall system. Apparently, the people injecting the stuff did not know there was a leak and ended up putting too much into the system. I'll try to dig up the info..
However, it would seem to me that they would know exactly how much a given house would need. I don't know the amounts, but if you service a house every month and it takes, say two gallons and one month your pumping six gallons, wouldn't you think there is a problem?
The only way that family got sick from the tubes in the wall system is if they cut open their sheet rock and licked the studs inside the wall. Each house gets between 2 - 20 ounces of insecticide each treatment. At no time has there ever been "gallons" used during the treatment of the walls. It is a liquid, not a gas, so the family was not harmed by that system.
Just couldn't help myself Sophia! I despise erroneous information!
Bugguy - if you hate erroneous information then you should stop posting so much of it. First off, insects do get in to and dwell in wall voids. If you have so much experience (you say 26 years) then you should have at least heard of wall void treatments. If insects didn't get in to wall voids then why as an industry do we have wall void treatments? The insects can live in the walls while using the cracks and crevices around baseboards, doorjams, and windows for entry. Second, a full yard treatment require a turf and ornamental pest control license. Whole yards should not be treated with regular structural pest control products. If you never have had a problem after doing thousands of them consider yourself lucky. Third, spiders are difficult to eliminate. A spider's body does not drag or touch the ground so he/she does not pick up or absord the insecticide residual. A spider also does not groom itself like insects do so therefore they also will not ingest insecticides. There are also not any baits available for spiders since spiders eat other insects (fresh insects, not dead for months insects). Fourth, if ants are so easy for you then why are they the number one enemy of all pest control operators? Do you have a magic wand that you are not sharing with the rest of the industry? Some ant calls can be resolved in one treatment, but let's go to a house infested with odorous house ants or argentine ants and see how your one treatment does. I'd put up $1000 to say you could not rid an infestation of odorous house or argentine ants in one treatment. Heck, I'd even give you two treatments to try. Look, it's obvious you are a little fish in a big pond and on here trying to sell these people telling them about 26 years of experience and just hoping someone takes the bait and I get that. But telling people that you are capable of doing what is simply impossible only makes you look bad and actually hurts our industry as a whole. Customers are already suspicous of service companies making false claims and they are concerned about being ripped off. The pest control industry has come a long way to overcome that stigma, but your post is doing nothing but keeping that reputation alive and well. Telling people how long you have done it and how good you are is meaningless. Being upfront with reasonable expectations, being prompt, and educating the customer is what is most important these days. I could go on and on about my years of experience or where I got my entomology degree from but that doesn't mean a thing. What makes me so successful is setting proper expectations, not getting people hopes up for me to wave a magic wand.
Hometeam does not charge twice what other companies do. In fact, Hometeam has rates between $65 and $125 depending on the size of your home. One time services are available. All pest control companies require a contract. In order to apply pesticides legally you have to have a signed agreement. Period.
Apparently you work for Hometeam. What you may not be aware of is that when anyone calls them, they're told that Hometeam will NOT do a one-time service (contract or no contract) and will only do annual contracts. If you're not aware of this, you may want to speak with your telephone sales department.
Heard the same about Centex... Happens all the time to pest companies.. Also, tubes systems do nothing for spiders and contrary to popular belief, you can choose any company you wish to service the system.
LOL. I am a customer of Bugguy's. I mentioned your post to him. He said for you to call him. He will take your bet and raise you $1000. (Incidentally, he is no longer on here to defend his statements.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlotte Pest Pro
Bugguy - if you hate erroneous information then you should stop posting so much of it. First off, insects do get in to and dwell in wall voids. If you have so much experience (you say 26 years) then you should have at least heard of wall void treatments. If insects didn't get in to wall voids then why as an industry do we have wall void treatments? The insects can live in the walls while using the cracks and crevices around baseboards, doorjams, and windows for entry. Second, a full yard treatment require a turf and ornamental pest control license. Whole yards should not be treated with regular structural pest control products. If you never have had a problem after doing thousands of them consider yourself lucky. Third, spiders are difficult to eliminate. A spider's body does not drag or touch the ground so he/she does not pick up or absord the insecticide residual. A spider also does not groom itself like insects do so therefore they also will not ingest insecticides. There are also not any baits available for spiders since spiders eat other insects (fresh insects, not dead for months insects). Fourth, if ants are so easy for you then why are they the number one enemy of all pest control operators? Do you have a magic wand that you are not sharing with the rest of the industry? Some ant calls can be resolved in one treatment, but let's go to a house infested with odorous house ants or argentine ants and see how your one treatment does. I'd put up $1000 to say you could not rid an infestation of odorous house or argentine ants in one treatment. Heck, I'd even give you two treatments to try. Look, it's obvious you are a little fish in a big pond and on here trying to sell these people telling them about 26 years of experience and just hoping someone takes the bait and I get that. But telling people that you are capable of doing what is simply impossible only makes you look bad and actually hurts our industry as a whole. Customers are already suspicous of service companies making false claims and they are concerned about being ripped off. The pest control industry has come a long way to overcome that stigma, but your post is doing nothing but keeping that reputation alive and well. Telling people how long you have done it and how good you are is meaningless. Being upfront with reasonable expectations, being prompt, and educating the customer is what is most important these days. I could go on and on about my years of experience or where I got my entomology degree from but that doesn't mean a thing. What makes me so successful is setting proper expectations, not getting people hopes up for me to wave a magic wand.
I live in a community with the Taexx system. The Home Team seems to charge almost twice what compettiors charge. Our board would like to switch and many homeowners are enamored with the in the wall sysyem. I have not heard anything good about it, except from Home Team people. How do I get a real opinion on the system? I have been told it is a selling tool for new homes, a scam and that the tubes clog up after a year or more of use. How do I get an honest opinion?
Last edited by joeMikeL; 05-21-2013 at 08:59 AM..
Reason: misspelled
I live in a community with the Taexx system. The Home Team seems to charge almost twice what compettiors charge. Our board would like to switch and many homeowners are enamored with the in the wall sysyem. I have not heard anything good about it, except from Home Team people. How do I get a real opinion on the system? I have been told it is a selling tool for new homes, a scam and that the tubes clog up after a year or more of use. How do I get an honest opinion?
Your board wants to switch? I'm guessing you mean your HOA board? If yes, is it in your CC&R's that all the homeowners must use the same pest control company?
My subdivision has the Traexx system as well & Hometeam was the builder's recommendation for pest control, not required. Not every resident here uses Hometeam. As for me personally, I used to use Hometeam & then stopped. It's been over a year now & I'm just about ready to start service up with them again. I can honestly say I see more bugs now that we've been treating around the house ourselves than we have in the past when using Hometeam.
Since you are a recent poster this might help ... I bought a Centex house with Taexx in the SC low country last May (2012). Moved here from Tucson where we had a regular spray treatment including scorpions that really didn't work vs the scorpions. When we got here we signed on with Home Team Defense right away. There was a short lag between the prior owners contract and us coming, and I was killing "Palmetto Bugs" (roaches) daily - say 1-3. Since Home Team over the last year virtually NO roaches or other problem pests. I think a couple roaches just prior to the next treatment. A few spiders - to be expected. Some ants they come and treat very effectively the same day I call or next day. But virtually pest free. I am very happy. The prior owners used the system with Home Team for six years. Apparently there is no clogging. I am *very* sensitive to chemicals (no artificial fragrances in soaps, hair products etc) so was a bit worried, but I don't have any kind of reaction to or awareness of of this product in the walls - other than no roaches and scarce spiders/ants, easily managed. That's in a freaking swamp. Today I've been checking other services for lower prices and after researching this I'm not budging. One wanted a boatload of money of front, to drill through our garage floor yada yada, I went to Top Ten Reviews and looked at prices. In fact I'm paying less including the termite control than the top rated companies. But, if I didn't live in the (manicured) swamp and instead was somewhere without a big pest problem I might try a standard service? Don't listen to *any* sales person. It's pretty obvious they all have an angle and your head will just spin around. Listen to homeowners' experiences.
I bought a new home in 2008 upstate SC area which had the Taexx system built-in the walls. I was jazzed about that idea from the start and immediately started service when I moved in Sep 2008. It worked really well. I didn't really need to spray inside at all. I had them do the pipes and a perimeter spray every quarter for years and never had much of a problem with bugs. When they got in they died pretty fast. Never had a single roach during service. Then in Aug 2010 I started noticing some weird congestion and nasal drainage. It continued to get worse. I had recently gotten a kitten so I thought maybe I had become allergic to cats over time even though I had lived with them before prior to this house with no problem. I got the kitten May 2010 and got rid of it May 2011 cuz I thought the cat was making me sick. Dusted, steam-vacced the carpets, washed a bunch of stuff after the cat left and still no change. I only noticed an improvement when I was out of the house. Whenever I went to work or left the house for an extended period of time I would improve. Whenever I left the windows open & had the air circulate for a while it would improve. It was the house. I had a baby and brought her home from the hospital that fall. I had 1 treatment after that in Feb 2012 and decided to stop treatment. It's been a year & a half since I stopped treatment and I have noticed a slight improvement. My nasal drainage started out really thick & crusty and there was a lot. It would crust up inside my nose & feel like a scab mostly in my left nostril and was dark green in color. Now there is a lot less of it, but my left nostril is runny all the time and does crust up after a while still and it becomes like glue. It has made my nasal passage kind of raw over time and has never completely gone away. My baby developed similar nasal drainage only hers was softer and gray. I have had to clean out her nose every day or so because it builds up and has been getting harder over time. Also, other side-effects seem to be chapped lips and some excessive eye mucus. I have had chapped lips before but never like this. My lips started chapping in Nov 2009 and they have not cleared up since. I tried all sorts of chapsticks & lip balms but nothing really works except getting away from the house for a day or two. My baby has the same chapped lips. I have taken her out of town a few times for a couple of days and we both start to clear up. The nasal drainage starts clearing up, the chapped lips go away, and there is this tightness in my nasal passages that just releases. I can feel it. I just feel so much better all over. Then when we come back to the house, I can smell a stale paint-like smell. I have been a stay-at-home mom also since she was born so we both spend more time in the house than if I were back at work. I have never been allergic to anything in my life except for Poison Ivy. I called HomeTeam several times about it, but they didn't seem to want to go there. They have no interest in helping their customers find out that they are allergic to their product. I thought maybe they would send somebody out to perform some sort of test or something but no. I spoke to several different people there including a supervisor and got nowhere. It was like talking to a brick wall. This was before I cancelled service. You would think that their #1 concern would be to ensure that customers are not getting sick. I thought they would bend over backwards to accommodate me maybe by vacuuming out the pipes or doing some sort of indoor air quality test, etc. but no. Nothing. They are obviously in the business of making money and someone like me might have a lawsuit on their hands so they dropped me like a hot potato. The last thing they want to do is prove that their own product is actually bad. It seems that the stuff takes years to completely dissipate. I have narrowed it down to the house and cannot confirm for sure that it is the Taexx, but that's got to be it. Unless Eastwood Homes used some sort of toxic construction materials or built my house on top of a pile of toxic waste but that is unlikely. I sit in the middle of a subdivision with houses all around me and I'm sure the HOA would have had this issue come up if there were some sort of land issue. Since I cannot fix it, I have resolved to just move. It is a last resort, and this house is really cute, but the house is making me sick. My main concern is my baby and it's just not worth the risk. Maybe it's just us and the next tenant will not be allergic. I have googled it several times over the last few years and just cannot find anyone with a similar experience. There were a few references by people who had read or heard about someone getting sick, but I could never find those posts myself. Either they don't exist or Hometeam is paying to have any negative posts removed.
I kind of hate to dig up a nearly year-old thrrad , but I stumbled upon this while searching for something else.
I also have the Taexx system in my walls and I use Home Team. My experience with them has been excellent thus far. We signed on with them in October for a new house. We opted to pay upfront for the year and had mosquito treatment included. We have seen no bugs inside unless we leave the door open and they fly in (I found myself vacuuming flying insects off of the ceiling one night because I left the door open for a bit). Our tech comes out and removes any spider webs from the side of the house and fills the tubes and sprays the perimeter. For what we paid, I'm very happy. Even more so since my job has caused me to bring home bugs in the past (property management).
Unfortunately AngelGirl76 only stopped in to do a quick hit and run on Taexx/Home Team. The first thing that popped into my mind was not pesticide. It was mold. Being home all the time, and then a sudden improvement when she leaves for a few days makes perfect sense. Perhaps she should have called a mold expert rather than jump immediately to the conclusion that the pest control company was the problem.
This was not meant as a personal attack on AngelGirl. I just felt it necessary to provide a possible option so a goo d company doesn't get a bad rep based on partial or in correct information. If it turns out that Home Team sucks in the long run, I'll come back k and propey blast them. Until then, I'm happy.
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I think I'm allergic to TAEXX
