Texas Roll Call

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by Weekend cut easymoney

sorry, I was just relaying a story--but apreciate the help...what is a 'private license'?

A private pesticide applicator is someone who uses or supervises the use of restricted-use or state-limited-use pesticides or regulated herbicides to produce an agricultural commodity on:

Personally owned property;
Rented property;
Property owned by his or her employer;
Property under his or her general control; or
The property of another person if applied without compensation, other than the trading of personal services between producers of agricultural commodities.
An agricultural commodity is a plant or animal grown for sale, lease, barter, feed or human consumption and animals raised for farm or ranch work. No license is required to apply general-use pesticides to produce agricultural commodities.

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by PlantscapeSolutions

My three Natchez Crape Myrtles have been fine since they were planted back around 2000. Never had enough aphids to cause even a trace of honey dew. But for some reason that July batch of cooler weather and rain cause so much growth that I got my first ever problem with honey dew. The crap was getting all over my truck.

I guess there was such a volume of nutrients being pushed up to feed the new growth that the aphids were able to tap into it and multiple like a mini China syndrome.

I had Gye with Excel Pest and lawn come by and comp me a spray since I throw a lot of lawn weed spray work his way. I do not have a spray rig and for 18' tall Crepe Myrtles it's a must.

Look for fire ant's the run Aphids like cattle.

[PlantscapeSolutions]

Originally Posted by Duekster

Look for fire ant's the run Aphids like cattle.

Hmm? I can tell you certain types of ants will protect aphids because they like the honey dew. Personally I'm rooting for the lady bugs to kick some aphid butt. I wish lady bugs could ramp up their population as quickly as the aphids can.

[Hope Landscaping]

Originally Posted by PlantscapeSolutions

This last batch of cards bombed. The months that worked best were March, April, and May.

Sorry to hear that.. At least your keeping your name out there. I have a batch coming to me and trying to decide when to send them out. I might wait a month or so to capture the fall work.
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[PlantscapeSolutions]

Originally Posted by Hope Landscaping

Sorry to hear that.. At least your keeping your name out there. I have a batch coming to me and trying to decide when to send them out. I might wait a month or so to capture the fall work.
Posted via Mobile Device

For your next batch you should check out cactusmailing.com. Using my list I got from infosource.com the cost with postage was around 33 cents. The minimum is 5000. Don't ever use the list any direct mail place gives you by default because it will be flawed. Spend extra money for a better list. My list of 5000 homes that were built in 1990 or newer in the $600K to over a million range cost me $450 and they told me I could use it as long as I wanted even though the fine print said otherwise.

[Hope Landscaping]

Originally Posted by PlantscapeSolutions

For your next batch you should check out cactusmailing.com. Using my list I got from infosource.com the cost with postage was around 33 cents. The minimum is 5000. Don't ever use the list any direct mail place gives you by default because it will be flawed. Spend extra money for a better list. My list of 5000 homes that were built in 1990 or newer in the $600K to over a million range cost me $450 and they told me I could use it as long as I wanted even though the fine print said otherwise.

I used The Logo Co. for my logo, business cards and post cards. This will be my fisrt wave of post cards.
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[PlantscapeSolutions]

Originally Posted by Hope Landscaping

I used The Logo Co. for my logo, business cards and post cards. This will be my fisrt wave of post cards.
Posted via Mobile Device

Check out Cactus and have them send you a sample. The printing quality looks incredible, the paper stock used by default is 14 point (heavier then others), and best yet you get the best of everything for less then what others charge a lesser quality product.

Adeas who advertises on this site was about a dime higher to do the same thing. I had used Printmailpro.com in Austin in the past who was reasonable but Cactus had better quality and price.

The most important thing is to buy a better list from infousa.com (infogroup.com company) then the cheap list you will get by default from any of the mailing companies. The mailing companies user cheap lesser quality lists by default to keep their price per piece as low and competitive as possible. But you will end up getting screwed because your end up sending mail to all kinds of people who are not in your target market.

You'll end up with mail going to 100K - 200K homes with no budget, town homes, and even some apartments. You will be wasting all kinds of money and not even realize it until after you've wasted a few grand. Get a copy of your mailing list and sample a bunch of the address's using Google to see where your mail is going. This is how I realized my default mailing list sucked.

[Hope Landscaping]

Originally Posted by PlantscapeSolutions

Check out Cactus and have them send you a sample. The printing quality looks incredible, the paper stock used by default is 14 point (heavier then others), and best yet you get the best of everything for lesps then what others charge a lesser quality product.

Adeas who advertises on this site was about a dime higher to do the same thing. I had used Printmailpro.com in Austin in the past who was reasonable but Cactus had better quality and price.

The most important thing is to buy a better list from infousa.com (infogroup.com company) then the cheap list you will get by default from any of the mailing companies. The mailing companies user cheap lesser quality lists by default to keep their price per piece as low and competitive as possible. But you will end up getting screwed because your end up sending mail to all kinds of people who are not in your target market.

You'll end up with mail going to 100K - 200K homes with no budget, town homes, and even some apartments. You will be wasting all kinds of money and not even realize it until after you've wasted a few grand. Get a copy of your mailing list and sample a bunch of the address's using Google to see where your mail is going. This is how I realized my default mailing list sucked.

Good stuff to know. I'll look into that today.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Weekend cut easymoney]

Originally Posted by Duekster

A private pesticide applicator is someone who uses or supervises the use of restricted-use or state-limited-use pesticides or regulated herbicides to produce an agricultural commodity on:

Personally owned property;
Rented property;
Property owned by his or her employer;
Property under his or her general control; or
The property of another person if applied without compensation, other than the trading of personal services between producers of agricultural commodities.
An agricultural commodity is a plant or animal grown for sale, lease, barter, feed or human consumption and animals raised for farm or ranch work. No license is required to apply general-use pesticides to produce agricultural commodities.

I looked at getting that license becasue I think you only have to renew it every 3 or so years...but not really legal wiht this for me treating homes and HOA proeprties and then charging them right?

[TuffWork]

Sayin "Hi" from NW Texas. Growing as fast as I can. Added irrigation this year and looking at adding applications next year. Got 4 employees and myself. Still working the field and managing with the wife as secretary. Sorry for the bad grammar just fixin to hit the recliner after a long day. Good luck to all in the Lone Star State. Keep that cooler full!