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Michael Wienecke 0:18
Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest control podcast here in Birmingham, Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Halina, Alabaster, Pelham, and all other surrounding areas. Hey, so today I want to talk about what I would consider for most of our customers, the scariest moment in their pest control experience. And that is how bugs are entering in your house.
Travis McGowin 0:50
Well, I was actually having a conversation with a customer about two days ago. You know, we were we were talking about pest control in general. But I do remember specifically stating to that customer that no matter how well your house is built, doesn’t matter if it’s got the latest and the greatest technology doesn’t matter if it’s the latest and greatest building practices. I don’t care who built the house. There’s always going to be some way shape or form of avenue for a bug to enter the house.
Michael Wienecke 1:26
Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, the first thing that comes to my mind when you say something like that is a slab home, because what do they do when they pour a concrete slab? What happens to that slab? It cracks. So when it cracks? Well, but over time, you know, it cracks. So
Travis McGowin 1:43
over time due to settling and the ground shifting and moving and whatnot. Yes, it cracks.
Michael Wienecke 1:50
Yes. So you know, and that’s where we see a lot of millipedes coming up through, you know, a slab home, and extremely hard to control because you’re right there under that that house. So that’s one thing like said just comes to my mind. You know, big, big issues, as far as keeping pests out, is always going to be you know, your product, your technician treating the house, definitely going to help but keeping them out 100% is just not possible. I mean, you’ve got vents going towards your attic, you’ve got weep holes in your brick, if you’re on a crawlspace. I mean, it’s it might as well be wide open. There’s really not a way to seal a crawlspace, especially in Alabama, just for the fact that we have so much humidity and they really liked those crawlspace vents open to get that airflow and keep everything nice and dry.
Travis McGowin 2:35
Now the two of the most common access points that I see other than you know what you mentioned, one, one of which is where your H fac lines go into the house, I see a lot of people whose whose coolant lines and control lines that go to the outside unit, you know, and it goes through the sidewall of the house. Just a huge gap. And you know, that’s not even just an insect problem. That’s a rodent problem waiting to happen to but then the other one I see a lot of is, especially around homes that have a brick veneer on the front or around the house where the brick goes and it meets the the eaves of the house. If you just look up to where that junction is, I mean, there’s some times you can just shine a flashlight up and just see wood members inside the attic space. It’s a direct opening right up into the attic. And like I said, not only is that an insect problem, but that’s asking for a rodent problem as well.
Michael Wienecke 3:34
Yeah, rodents, snakes, chipmunks, I mean you know all sorts of different things. I’m glad you said that. Because you know, we’ve had a lot of people tell us when they have a brick house that that they can’t you know, they can’t they can’t get you know, termites they can’t get bugs in the house because it is a brick home. And the brick veneer is very important because you do have that gap between the actual wood structure and the brick so there is just a runway between between that house where something could enter and go through just I just had an experience the other day I had a customer that really never had a roach problem and all of a sudden they’re killing six a day 12 A day in the top in the living part the basement really wasn’t the issue went over there for my inspection to start the RE service and pulled up and notice the siding was was brand new house now the siding was just kind of fallen off the side of the house where some of those boards and started to warp in the sun and just kind of wide open access to the attic so get in get in the house start doing you know the inspection on the inside. Oh, and I’ll say this to the the right hand side of the house they were building another house so of course that’s going to start stirring up things past rodents I mean all all sorts of different issues. Get inside of the house, do my full inspection and find a window open in the The top and after I finally found a dead Roach to try to figure out what kind of roaches we were dealing with, we were dealing with smoky brown roaches, which are typically going to be found in an attic, or the higher part of the house. So with that window being open, we kind of figured that out close the window, retreated the house, it’s been about seven days, and we had had 100% success.
Travis McGowin 5:24
Yeah, and you know, sometimes it takes just starting with those most obvious places, like you said, for example, just a window being open, you know, some houses a little bit larger, you know, this customer doesn’t go in every room every time forgets that they left a window open and you know, end up with insects or other types of animals inside the house, just because they you know, they gave them an easy access point. And, you know, a lot of insects prefer cracks and crevices and small spaces. But, you know, realistically speaking, a lot of them are going to take the path of least resistance. So closing those windows, making sure that you have gaps around the outside where your H fac. And power goes into the house close to making sure that you have weep holes, you know, where they’re still able to do their job, but also covered so that you know, small insects and animals and rodents can get in there, just as those simple things can save you a lot of trouble and heartache in the future.
Michael Wienecke 6:31
Yeah, yeah. I mean, like I said, I’ll say another thing too, the reason the window was open is because the AC unit was out. So but just just talking to your customer, you know, trying to find out what where that problem is. And they kind of give you that roadmap, and then you just go from there. And like I said, you know, I’ll just say, I feel like we have great technicians and they do a great job problem solving and solving those problems for our customers. Thank you for listening to the pesky pest control podcast here in Birmingham, Alabama with Michael and Travis. If you have any questions about what we’ve discussed today, please give us a call at 205-470-8161. And as for me, Michael wyniki. I’ll be happy to speak with you anytime. And don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and subscribe to us on Apple, Amazon, Google and Spotify. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next time.
