Winter may be the slow season for many pests, but it’s one of the most important times of the year for pest control professionals to focus on equipment care. Cold temperatures, moisture, and long stretches of storage can take a toll on sprayers, traps, PPE, and service vehicles. Investing time in winter maintenance not only extends the life of your gear, but ensures you’re fully prepared when spring activity surges. This is going to be a guide to properly maintaining and protecting your equipment throughout the winter months.
Before packing anything away, give each piece of equipment a thorough cleaning. Make sure to flush tanks with clean water and a tank-neutralizing solution. Run the solution through hoses and wands to remove residue and remove filters and clean or replace them. Cold weather can crack hoses, damage seals, and ruin electronics. For compressed air sprayers, store sprayers indoors whenever possible. Leaving them outside during freezing temperatures can be a costly mistake.
Sprayers and application tools can lose calibration over time, especially after off-season storage. Make sure to calibrate your compressed air sprayers, backpack sprayers, power sprayers, and metering devices for optimal performance. Proper calibration ensures accurate application rates, compliance with regulations, and better treatment results.
Winter downtime is the perfect opportunity to handle repairs and upgrades. Check for cracked hoses or brittle seal rings, clogged nozzles, rusted metal traps or tools, worn-out bait station keys, failing respirator cartridges and loose vehicle mounts or storage racks. Replacing these components before spring can help prevent downtime during the start of next peak season.