John Mueller: [00:00:00] This podcast supports fumigants in improving safety, compliance and solutions. Always follow the federal fumigant label. State and local laws. Licensed fumigants are legally responsible for their applications. And now on to all things fumigation, immigration.

Out here. We don’t just fight pests, we outsmart them. This is all things fumigation, where applied science meets real world grit. I’m John B. Mueller, A by trade, and your guide to the science of fumigation. Done right.

Each month we saddle. Up with the people, the practices, and the precision it takes to keep facilities safe, compliant, and pest [00:01:00] free. Because when you’re in the trenches of pest control, you don’t need magic. You need science and mating a little cowboy spirit, smarter solutions, safer practices, managed costs.

Welcome to all things fumigation.

Welcome to another episode of All Things Fumigation. This is episode number four, and today we’ll be covering fumigation preparation. And anybody that knows me, they know I like quotes. I help focus a little bit. And the quote today that I think about from a preparation standpoint is one from Michael Jordan that said, success comes from hours, weeks.

Months, years spent preparing for it. And I think that’s appropriate from, from a preparation standpoint when approaching fumigation. [00:02:00] We want to thank Science Co as our sponsor for episode four. Science Co is the maker of Eco Fume and Vapor Phos, which is Cylinderized Phosphine. Last episode we covered planning for fumigation and we introduced a a common fumigation process.

Common Fumigation Process Overview

John Mueller: So no matter what type of post-harvest fumigation you’re doing. This common process is really the same. Uh, it’s planning, it’s preparation, it’s setup, application or introduction of gas, it’s analysis or monitoring the fumigation, then ventilation and clearance. And then at the end of that process, we review and hopefully we review from an optic of a continuous improvement process.

And, and this is a successful fumigation process [00:03:00] and, and pretty time tested. So this week we’re looking at, at preparation. Uh, last week, as we mentioned, it was about planning. So planning is more of a macro perspective on setting the fumigation up for success. Preparation starts to get more granular and really.

Identify more specific roles and responsibilities for the partnership that’s leading up to that fumigation event. And, and preparation is not just a voluntary act, not just good management skills. Fumigation preparation and planning is the label. And anything associated with a pesticide label is federal and state law.

And when we think about, you know, approaching the label and how a label functions, we as Fuma all know that these labels are 50, 60 pages along some of the longest pesticide [00:04:00] labels that I know of. And they’re referred to as a, as a product manual within that manual with every fumigant out there. There is a fumigation management plan, and the reason for that is these labels are very broad, they’re general, there’s lots of gray areas, and Fumigants tended to use those gray areas pretty liberally.

Fumigation Management Plan (FMP) Introduction

John Mueller: The, the fumigation management plan came in, in, I think the early two thousands, may have been a little, little sooner than that actually. And the fumigation management plan was really designed. To take those gray spaces of the label and better define the fumigation event that you are you are planning for, that you’re about to do, and really define that fumigation more tightly.

When the f and P first came out, it concerned everyone we know and we’re conditioned that we have to follow the label. We [00:05:00] wanted to comply with this new requirement. We approached this, I think most people that I knew at the time, we approached it very tactically. You know, we have this new form, we need to, to supply that information.

And we really did not look at it as a opportunity, I guess, to focus on. And develop this successful process that we’ve described earlier. So it was, you know, basic information fulfill, you know, only what’s been asked for no more. I think what we’ve learned, at least here of late is that. This FMP, this fumigation management plan, if integrated into a more cultural approach of, of planning and preparation, it actually can be helpful in driving successful fumigations.

FMP Evolution

John Mueller: So let’s break down a few things. Um, with the FMP and its original intent, we’re now moving away from the reactive [00:06:00] state and really more of, of an objective view of the FMP. At first, we didn’t get great information on what the f and p should look like, so we just started loading this document up with what we thought that EPA wanted.

EPA’s 8 FMP Requirements Introduction

John Mueller: EPA actually asked for eight very specific things to be a part of a compliant f and p. Let’s look at eight points. EPA requires us to consider when forming a compliant fumigation management plan. They start the, the statement starts off with the certified applicator is responsible for working with the owners.

And or responsible employees of the site to be fumigated to develop an FMP. The FMP is intended to ensure a safe and effective fumigation. I think in the beginning it was, it was more about. Increasing liability for the applicator, and there were many concerns around this document. It wasn’t that at all.

It was [00:07:00] really helping us in terms of identifying safety issues, mitigating those safety issues, and driving effectiveness. There’s nothing wrong with either one of those two. They’re exactly what we should be doing, and that’s what starts to drive the f and p into what should be a cultural success process for fum Gators.

And it also drives, it starts to drive the site and the fum ator in partnership. And we’ll, we’ll dig a little deeper. EPA continues to go on and identify and say critical components of a fumigation include the product, manual, or label, and the documentation it creates. So the f and p should be done prior to the fumigation in advance during the planning process and the preparation process.

But we also know there are other documentation that is obligatory. That is [00:08:00] associated with a fumigation, so it speaks to that specific information. We know states require pesticide usage, logs, restricted use, chemical usage logs have a little more specific to it, and that’s where documents like that tie into the process.

The f and p must address characterization of the site. And appropriate monitoring and notification requirements. Appropriate monitoring is the comment there. Appropriate monitoring, believe it or not, is not only safety monitoring for the operator, for the applicator, for the bystander, but it’s also efficacy monitoring.

And then notification requirements. There are some specifications that EPA later on in the FMP will specifically ask for. If you find this episode helpful, please [00:09:00] like us or follow us on the platform you’re using. We really appreciate your support. So what we wanna do now is to get into. The eight requirements of an FMP.

Let’s review these in order. 

EPA Requirement #1: Site Suitability Inspection

John Mueller: The first item that EPA is asking for on an FMP is inspect the site to determine its suitability for fumigation. And really that should be priority one. That should be determined at the point of sale or the potential for treating that space. So it’s number one. And, and for decades this has been a requirement of Fumi Gators who, who fumigate, um, bulk vessels.

So ships of grain suitability is number one. Specifically what they’re looking for is for safety and effectiveness. Is this structure that you’re about to treat, this building, this facility you’re going to treat, can it be treated [00:10:00] safely and can it be treated effectively? If the answer to that is no, it’s a no-go, right?

If it’s yes, you better have a good plan and be very prepared to ensure safety and effectiveness.

EPA Requirement #2: Historical Records & Structural Changes

John Mueller: Point number two is when sealing is required. Consult previous records for any changes to the structure, potential leaks, and monitoring of occupied and adjacent buildings. This yet again, has to be done from the optic of safety and effectiveness.

Right? Ceiling is almost always required. It’s starting to get into history here, right? Consult previous records for any changes to the structure, potential leaks and monitoring of occupied and adjacent buildings. They really want us to go back and look at what happened in the past. And really have a process of continuing to improve.

EPA Requirement #3: Documentation & Safety Procedures Review

John Mueller: Number three, consult with company [00:11:00] officials and appropriate employees prior to each fumigation for any existing FMPs, SDSs, applicator manuals, or other relevant safety procedures. Now, again, this gets into history, right? That’s the documentation history of any fumigations that have gone on there. I highlighted appropriate employees here because it reminds me of kind of a, a horror situation I was involved with.

One time we were treating a facility. It had been a, a larger campus. It had been a corporate processing operation. The different parts of the campus had been sold off. The corporate headquarters was detached from processing, it was now owned by someone else, and the warehouse was owned by another company and that was detached.

It was just the processing facility and they had been sold off to another food processor and they had not fumigated for a long time. And there were really no records to speak of. The senior [00:12:00] leadership that had called us in wasn’t really. Heavily engaged like we would like. There wasn’t a good partnership going on.

I felt uneasy that this was a campus before and now it’s viewed as a standalone operational facility. I wasn’t sure. It just had a feel that maybe there was some connections and I, I asked several times if there were any connections between these buildings underground or whatever, and it was, no, no, no.

Finally the maintenance guy that was assigned to us, he was the last person to leave. Right. We didn’t have anything for him, but I ask him, you know. Are there any connections to any of these other nearby buildings? He said, yeah, I’ve worked here for 25 years and there’s a tunnel that goes from processing over to the old corporate office complex.

And I said, well, is it sealed off? I mean, is it, is it open? He said, well, they made an attempt to seal it, but they didn’t do a very good job. So at that point, your heart sinks right. So I asked him to show me the access [00:13:00] to that area, and sure enough, it was not sealed off very well. And what do you do at that point?

It’s a non-starter. It was shut it down and we had the facility completely sealed and there was no way we were gonna release gas in that structure. Knowing you know where it was going to go, right? Sealing in this situation was not an option. Not even creating a clean air chamber and doing a double seal under these circumstances, that was not an option to plan it long term and to get consent.

That might have been a way to do it, and then to intensely monitor it. There was a way to make that safe, but not outta the circumstances. So great example of something put into place to really prevent, you know, in this case, something that could have been catastrophic. 

EPA Requirement #4: Safety Procedures for Workers

John Mueller: Number four is consult company officials in the development of procedures.

Appropriate [00:14:00] safety measures for nearby workers and public personnel who will be in and around the area during fumigation and aeration. Let’s think about the context of what that means. Procedures and appropriate safety measures for nearby workers. You know, in and around if you’re a commodity manager.

What comes to mind is receiving operators at dump pits or receiving stations. How are they positioned? Can they continue to resume their functions during a fumigation if it’s not attached? And I’m thinking of something like a grain bin that is freestanding, not connected, and a safe distance away from the fumigation.

We run into this many times. The issue here is the safe distance could be an educated comfort level and acceptance, but the only way to really be sure is to monitor and verify. So monitoring that area between the treatment [00:15:00] structure. Where an operator is. These are the kinds of things to think about from a food processing operation.

I think about an unattached warehouse. Many times they’ll want the warehouse workers to continue if it’s a safe distance from a processing area, and really that’s up to the license fumigated to determine that. But you also have to verify that during the treatment. That’s the reason these people sometimes get nervous.

You put their minds at ease. They should not be worried about their work environment if there’s not a reason to. It’s our job to verify that they’re safe. We should be communicating to them that as well. Many times we also run into guardhouse, right? Sometimes thinking of like a flower milling operation.

Everybody’s gone. Except the guard or guards are brought in that can be unsettling, right? Why does everybody else get to leave? And, uh, and we have to stay here communicating with those guards, [00:16:00] respecting their role and responsibility. Yeah, even empowering them a little bit with explaining what we’re doing, explaining that we’re gonna be extremely careful and we’re gonna watch out for them and then do that.

Take gas readings, monitor areas between the fumigated structure and the guardhouse, even in the guardhouse. So putting their mind at ease and developing a positive relationship with them. They can help us when we need help in terms of security situations in particular, if we disrespect them. They can be a real impediment to an enjoyable weekend, I’ll promise you.

EPA Requirement #5: Exterior Monitoring Plan

John Mueller: Number five is consult with company officials to develop an appropriate exterior monitoring plan. That will confirm that nearby workers and bystanders are not exposed to levels above the allowable limits during application fumigation and aeration. This plan must also demonstrate that nearby residents [00:17:00] will not be exposed to concentration.

Above the allowable limits. So there’s a little bit of redundancy between four and five here, but there’s redundancy, obviously for a reason. It starts to also open up bystanders and nearby residents. We have to definitely consider that from a suitability standpoint and from a job management standpoint.

And one thing I’ll commonly utilize here is Google Earth. I’ll get an image of the, the facility that we’re treating, and when we do our, our pre-planning and even prep, we’ll pull those images out with a team that’s gonna be doing the work. We’ll look at the proximity of these areas. Um, we’ll make sure that we’re all comfortable with what we see.

And if we’ve got questions, then communication takes place. And, and the other thing that I really encourage is putting eyes on the site. To me that’s really important. Some of you may have salespeople that sell a job and then a operational crew, a few that come in to [00:18:00] execute the job and the way the sales person views proximity of neighbors and the way the.

The impact zone, the fumigators view, it can be different. So there, there needs to be some communication there and some forward planning. 

EPA Requirement #6: Emergency Notification Procedures

John Mueller: Number six is consult with company officials to develop procedures for local authorities to notify nearby residents in the event of an emergency on face value. This is kind of a zinger, right?

Like how do you define the nearby residents? Where do you stop sometimes? And how do you approach them to get their contact information? This is usually easier than it sounds. First of all, you ask the site or the customer, if they have an emergency action plan, an EAP, and many times they do That can then just be part of your FMP.

But that is a very defined point that EPA wants to see. 

EPA Requirement #7: Warning Placards Placement

John Mueller: Number seven is confirm the placement of [00:19:00] warning placards around the fumigation site as described in fumigation manuals. Now, there’s some detail to that, but essentially it’s every opening, every point that a a person can access. If there are ladders to the roof, those doors on the roof or up top will require placarding.

You know, in this case too, it’s very important, I believe, to utilize maps and indicate, you know, the entries that need to be placarded. And, and even number those. If you know that especially large facilities, if you know 15 or 20 or 50 placards need to go out, then you need to be able to get back the same amount.

Um, so you ensure that none were left on leaving a placard on a building is always a bigger deal. Than just missing a placard. I’ve seen fumigations that were wonderfully executed, extremely effective, everything done right, and a placard or two were left on it. [00:20:00] A, looks sloppy. And B, the person that that finds that door.

It has a hazardous communication device on it. It says that it’s dangerous on the inside of that door, and there are likely at that point people in there, and it just starts to crumble the foundation of trust and everything that you’ve spent a lot of time building. It’s a simple step and it needs to be executed with perfect detail.

A pro tip here for everybody is the same people that put the placards out should. Remove the placards. You shouldn’t change that up. They know that path. They may have put those out with a good regimented map, and that same map needs to be used with the number of placards on it, and that same path should be followed.

There can always be narrow alleyways where it’s easy to miss a door or something like that, and it just can’t be done. And one other [00:21:00] consideration or word of caution is you need to know in the state that you’re fumigating in, that you’re licensed in should only licensed persons place or remove placards, and in several states, that is the case.

Think about it. The only way you can remove a placard is if you know it’s safe inside. Well, who determines it’s safe? It’s the licensed Fumi Gator. When those breathing zones are safe, that’s when placards are removed and technically in in many states because placement of placards and removal of placards are an item of a label.

It’s a task required by the license. Fumi Gator. So look that up and make sure that you’re, that you’re on solid ground there. 

EPA Requirement #8: Safety Equipment & Personnel

John Mueller: Number eight. The last one is confirm the required safety equipment is in place and the necessary manpower is available to complete a safe and effective ation. And really what this is saying is only suitable and trained [00:22:00] fum Gators can wear respiratory protection and operate clearance devices.

We can put safety monitors on all employees that are necessary, especially during ventilation. A word of warning clearance devices should only be used by the licensed fumi, and from a respiratory protection standpoint, the only people using SCBAs and gas masks should be those that are properly trained, fit, tested, and certified in the use of those respiratory devices.

Keep that in mind, and that’s really where 0.8 is that the right equipment is in place. To complete the job safely and to protect the applicators. Our other obligation is, is that we’re properly trained and suited for that. If you find this episode helpful and would like more information, go to the fume code.com.

That’s [00:23:00] T-H-E-F-U-M-E-C o.com. Everything that we’ve described. Talks about a lot of collaboration between the site management and the fumigate, whether that’s a four hire fumigation or a DIY fumigation. 

Team Management & Roles

John Mueller: There has to be collaboration between those who are in charge of the site and those who are in charge of the fumigation.

It’s critical for managing safety, and it’s also critical for driving best outcomes. And maximum effectiveness. We talked about how preparation is more ul, so we really want to drive in some more detail on roles and responsibilities of the fumigation team. Let’s dig into this a little bit, because a good fumigation in charge never tries to do everything themselves.

They divide the workload responsibly. [00:24:00] They set expectations and make sure their team is comfortable with the plan. So. Every week we would always meet, you know, at least five days prior to some of our larger fumigations in particular. And I would discuss what we were doing, even if we’d been doing it multiple times a year or year on year for many years.

Site Visit Considerations

John Mueller: We still reviewed the game plan, so to speak. I always felt too a, an important consideration. Is really the size or familiarity of the job. You know, I always ask myself, is this a, a new job for us? Is the service team that we’re gonna assign to that job not familiar with a site, they haven’t done it before?

Or is this like a really big job that really taxes us each year? And if the answer to any of those were yes, we would always consider taking the management team to that job or the fumigation. Execution was going to take place. So the week before, [00:25:00] the month before, it all just depended on what was going on.

And I know that many, many times as a cost, you could always build that cost into the job ahead of time. But the way these jobs started out and. The, the flow was always better when we had prepared minds that that went, went to that job. People that were comfortable and familiar with the surroundings with the site.

It wasn’t the first time they’d seen it if they’d done it before, but it was a really large job. They got to look at it with a fresher pair of eyes. Anybody that’s ever done a really big complex fumigation, you know, we usually walk away swearing that we never want to do it again. And the second time we do it.

It’s surprising how, how smoother it went. It’s about familiarity and getting eyes on the job. I’m just a big fan of that and it really runs right into the culture of an effective FMP in my opinion. [00:26:00] You get to, to test the early components of that FMP and build more detail. If it’s a smaller job, an onsite visit is not realistic.

You know, an organizational call could be done, you know, if you’re gonna go onsite. I think it’s important to meet with the customer or the site management team to discuss those things that those eight points on the f and p get everybody on the same page. If you can’t do it physically on site, then an organizational call I think is very important.

And then, um. Be prepared by listing, you know, roles and responsibilities of the site and the customer. It is critical at that point, and you know, you’re looking for things like what needs to be locked out, are there construction projects going on? We know that many times during these shutdown periods for fumigation, they try to slip in other, other construction projects.

So what’s happening?

Construction & Hazard Coordination

John Mueller: I had one instance one time where they pulled the roof [00:27:00] off one of the areas that we had to fumigate, and because of weather issues they couldn’t get the roof back on. Very unsuitable. Right? So being aware of some of these events. Being prepared is very important. And then just really discussing any other hazards that have come up.

And remember one of those FMP points is what adjustments have been made to that structure since the last time it was treated, and this is perfect timing for that. The other thing that I like to do is identify the maintenance person. They’re usually the person that’s in charge of the management of that specific commodity you’re treating.

Or in a food processing operation. It might be the maintenance guy who’s assigned or maintenance person who’s assigned to the HVAC systems, and those are very, very important people because we need to know where the shutoff switches are. No one in general is gonna turn those fans on for us unless it’s set up remotely.

Many times, and even when some of the fans are set up [00:28:00] for remote activation, we still have some fans that have to be manually activated. Identifying that maintenance person is very important. Meeting them, talking to them, discussing what you need, which is to safely ventilate that gas and quickly if possible, and then walk around with him, mark those switches, and then make sure that person is meeting with you.

On the day of fumigation, really the last person to leave actually. And because what I would do a lot of times is if the last person would leave at five o’clock, I would ask to meet with a maintenance person, let’s say at two or three o’clock, the HVAC person. But before that, I would go around and make sure that there was no strange fans on, that were turned on or nothing running.

Uh, that was of concern. I would many times get with a team and tell them through the hand radios, has [00:29:00] anybody seen anything that’s not off. Then that two hours, let’s say, or three hours before the building is turned, or the structure is turned over to us, we gave that individual time to make sure that everything was turned off, and then that emergency contact number for that individual can be critical.

Another item is, you know, meet with your crew leaders. To map out the workflow, discuss contingent plans. What if it rains in the middle of fumigation? What if there are customers that delay the. Ceiling and, and preparation for the fumigation. You know, heat slowdowns if, if it’s supposed to be a hundred degrees, you know, that weekend, you know, our team is not going to be working at the same pace as if it was 70.

Right. Also if, if it’s extremely cold, it’s just harder to, to get good seals, it’s harder to prep the structure. So how are we gonna account for that? What are we gonna do? What are our [00:30:00] contingent plans? And safety must be integrated into each step. Everything that we’re talking about has to do with, with safety.

We cannot emphasize that enough. 

Timeline Management

John Mueller: And then who creates and manages the timeline of work? It really should be the Fum Gator in charge, but. I always wanted kind of my left and and right hand associate to be mindful of that too. If I got pulled away, if I got injured or something, or I was dealing with, you know, a challenge, we needed someone else there to kind of keep things at pace.

Um, it’s very important because. When we get behind and when we start rushing is when people get hurt. It’s when we miss things that compromise our effectiveness and our efficacy. And it, it does take a, a solid team to make sure that we’re staying on track. And, you know, on that timeline, they can be [00:31:00] extremely complex, right?

You know, when are the lifts, if they’re needed going to be delivered. When are they going to be picked up? We all have pickup horror stories. When is the fumigant gonna be delivered? Is it on time? Is there communication? Are there delays? Are we the next stop? You know, so when is that being delivered? And then when are those empties, partials, and unused fulls being picked back up and shipped outta there?

Customers don’t like them sitting around, you know, after the treatment. So, you know, being efficient on time and having someone assigned. To that can be very important. And then we have to be watching for that all out right when the last person leaves. It’s all us. If there’s fans on, if there are things, if there are conditions of concern that exist.

And now there’s no one around to address things that could compromise safety or effectiveness. We have to be watching for that. That cannot creep up on us. [00:32:00] The clearance and return of the building. Are we on time from a ventilation standpoint? Are we tracking who is responsible for managing that timeline?

And then the other thing in advance from a preparation standpoint that I was always big on is. I didn’t like it when we just kind of popped up and did a safety briefing. Right. Everybody, be careful, you know, you’re on the roof. You know, don’t fall, you’re on ladders, don’t fall. That’s, there’s, there’s generally so much situational considerations.

So many points that, that we need to address. Like we said before, hot cold ice, we’re on the roof. Uh, these, the roof can be 120 degrees in the winter. There can be water on the roof and ice. Same issues with ladders and moving transports and train exchanges and semis and forklift drivers. There are so many issues that we need to really touch base with our team and, and is [00:33:00] our safety briefing, our pre-work safety briefing, is it thoughtful, complete?

Prepared. You know, we talked earlier about, you know, safety hazards and construction and things like that, that all needs to be built in and call outs need to be made. And a pre-planned safety briefing is, is extremely important. And then another thing that’s overlooked as we kind of start to close down a little bit here on this episode, one thing that’s, that I’m big on, and I, I encourage people to build into their, their preparation process is, is onsite training.

Right? As leaders, it’s our job to develop these individuals. They can study for a state. Fumigation tests are designed to to give them information on safety awareness and there’s stewardship training that go over some other helpful safety enhancements and processes, but really. We need to build in some sort of apprentice element.[00:34:00] 

When we’re onsite, we do have an opportunity to think about those associates who are really showing promise and start to expose them to different aspects and different functions within a job. Can they take a small crew and be assigned a, a section of the roof for ceiling or ground level ceiling or something like that and, and be given a little responsibility, you know, if they’re, if they’re to the point of they’re running the seal crew and they’re doing a good job and they need a challenge.

Bring them in to help set up gas applications and monitoring stations, assign deliveries and placement of gas, and there’s all sorts of elements to a fumigation. That you can list in, in the style of post harvest fumigations that you do and really expose these associates to these different elements. And it’s part of, you know, being able to trust and [00:35:00] divide the workload so that you as the fumigation in charge, don’t have to feel like you have to do everything.

I think that’s something that’s missed a lot. 

Emergency Responder Notification & Hospital Emergency Room Preparation

John Mueller: And I really want to encourage one other step is notifying emergency responders. This is not something that should be done five minutes before we’re about to release gas. This is something that should be part of the preparation process and you know, how are you notifying police and fire?

Are you calling them to give ’em the date? Are you sending them SDS and labels that have the note to the physician, which is very important and sometimes difficult to access if there’s an issue. And there is a third element that I think is a very good idea. Not part of the label, but I think, you know, these are our friends we’re working with, these are our friends we’re working for.

And if someone is injured, especially related to a fume, again, that trauma [00:36:00] center, that that emergency room probably does not have a lot of experience with what we’re doing providing. The SDS and note to physician, to the head nurse for the responding emergency room for the facility that we’re working at is a very, very, um.

Useful and important attributes. So find out from the site, uh, what hospital res responds to emergencies that occur at that location. And it’s very simple and every time I’ve ever done this, they are always extremely appreciative and, uh, it could make a very large impact. So we’re gonna wrap up here. 

Mental Preparation & Visualization

John Mueller: The last point I wanna make from a preparation standpoint is really just mental preparation for some of these jobs.

It, it may sound goofy, but I visualize a job if I’m nervous about a complicated job or, or something. Some aspect of [00:37:00] that fumigation troubles me. I. Start to walk through in my head what it looks like when we arrive, who we need to talk to. Are there other people we need to talk to? Where do we go? Where are we gonna pull up and park our vehicles respectfully?

Where are we gonna discharge our gear? I’m big on getting there a half a day early and getting everything set up. You know, some of the stuff that we have is extremely heavy and the last thing you wanna do is show up early in the morning. And stress your crew out by getting things in place and up on roofs and things like that, and now they have to start work and they’re beat.

Get that done the day before. Everybody gets to see the facility, gets familiar with it gets set up. You’re prepared, you’re organized. I think about things like that. I think about how to orient the timeline. If I’m concerned about rain coming, I think about what do I do? You know, I will save interior [00:38:00] tasks for the last step in case there’s a rain delay.

’cause we can seal inside. You can’t seal outside in the rain. So all kinds of things. I will literally go through each step of that fumigation and think about what could go wrong and what I would do if it did. And really it kind of comes from. And I found a quote again from Michael Jordan here that says, I visualize where I wanna be, what kind of player I want to become.

I know exactly where I want to go, and I focus on getting there. And I think if you look at, at successful people, they, they are visualizing as fum gators out in the field. So as I like to end these episodes with a final message. You know, I’ll include preparation, right? Be prepared. Be deeply granularly prepared for these fumigations in advance, be well communicated.

It’s very difficult to over communicate. It’s [00:39:00] very easy to under communicate. We talked about the importance of visualization and visualizing success. We want everybody to be a science cowboy, apply the science and protect your product. We want to. Have a big thanks to our sponsor, science Co. And we also would like to remind you that we want feedback from you on the content of these episodes.

We’d like suggestions for future programming and it’s very helpful to us and we may use some of that feedback in in future episodes. If you like what you’ve heard here today, please follow us, like us on your platforms, and if you’d like more information, visit us@thefumeco.com. Until next time, science Cowboys.