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Hidden Pests, Big Problems · PEST PROSpectives

• 0:08
  Richard Piet: I'm Richard Piet.
• 0:09
  Richard Piet: This is Pest Prospectives, the official podcast from Pest Pros of Michigan.
• 0:15
  Richard Piet: We talk about bugs and wildlife and lots of things, perhaps, that maybe weren't obvious at first, that they could be a signal to maybe a wildlife problem or a pest problem in general.
• 0:30
  Richard Piet: Tony Sorentino's back from Pest Pros of Michigan, and we have a special guest today, Daine Patton, from Bats to Rats Wildlife Control.
• 0:38
  Richard Piet: That about covers it, doesn't it, Daine?
• 0:41
  Richard Piet: That's right.
• 0:42
  Richard Piet: So our intent today is to give folks a couple of ideas about things you might see around your property, your business, that could signal bigger problems.
• 0:56
  Richard Piet: If we were to just name a few things that you've seen that didn't look like much, but sure turned into something bigger, what would they be?
• 1:09
  Tony Sorrentino: We've been in in attic spaces where the people literally had nothing, there was nothing visible from the outside from the ground level.
• 1:17
  Tony Sorrentino: There was an access point uh along the the ridge vent on the spine of the roof.
• 1:23
  Tony Sorrentino: And um there was a maternal colony of bats there.
• 1:27
  Tony Sorrentino: There was over 400 bats that were living and roosting in the attic space.
• 1:33
  Tony Sorrentino: What caused them to call us to come out was a bat-human interaction where uh a juvenile bat had gotten into the living space because it wasn't sure how to get in and out.
• 1:44
  Tony Sorrentino: The whole exclusion ridge vent or ridge guard and um sanitation bioremediation of the attic space was $13,000.
• 1:55
  Richard Piet: So they can really exist in that vast number, and no one hears a sound, no one ever heard any kind or saw any kind of signal.
• 2:07
  Tony Sorrentino: Most people don't go up in their attic spaces.
• 2:09
  Tony Sorrentino: I know I've we've lived at our house for five or six years now.
• 2:14
  Tony Sorrentino: I've never been in my own attic.
• 2:16
  Richard Piet: I guess you think that you're gonna hear some noise or something's gonna happen that's gonna tip you off.
• 2:22
  Richard Piet: Does this sound unusual to you, Daine?
• 2:24
  Richard Piet: Have you seen this before?
• 2:25
  Richard Piet: Uh a bat colony and no idea it's there.
• 2:29
  Daine Patton: Oh yeah.
• 2:29
  Daine Patton: We s we see this stuff every single day in in the in the field that that we do, you know.
• 2:34
  Daine Patton: Actually, just two weeks ago, I remember getting a call, um, and it was somebody that's lived in their house since 1993.
• 2:40
  Daine Patton: Never been in their attic space since they've lived there.
• 2:43
  Daine Patton: You know, when they when they moved in ther 30 some years ago, um they were a bit younger, but now they're an older couple and they're like, hey, um, we just want want somebody to take a look.
• 2:52
  Daine Patton: They they've had so much mouse activity.
• 2:54
  Daine Patton: All of the insulation was completely matted down.
• 2:57
  Daine Patton: There was tunnels, runways throughout all the insulation.
• 3:00
  Daine Patton: Um, I went down into the basement.
• 3:02
  Daine Patton: There's three separate crawl spaces plus a full basement, and it was just littered with rodent activity.
• 3:08
  Daine Patton: And and they're just in areas that these people weren't going in or never had the need to go in any any any longer.
• 3:16
  Daine Patton: And and there's been probably 20 years of rodent activity that that they just didn't didn't realize.
• 3:21
  Daine Patton: Every once in a while they would catch a mouse in the fall, and most customers that we have, they think that's normal.
• 3:27
  Daine Patton: Little did they know they had years and years worth of rodent activity, and we we need to bring the insulation team out, the exclusion team out, we're gonna have to bait and trap and reduce population numbers.
• 3:38
  Daine Patton: So it's gonna be a huge project, and and it was just because they didn't ever go and take a look at these things.
• 3:44
  Richard Piet: You know, I latched on to something you said there.
• 3:47
  Richard Piet: They saw a mouse occasionally and dealt with it and thought that was normal.
• 3:52
  Daine Patton: Is that typical thinking?
• 3:53
  Daine Patton: I hear it all the time.
• 3:54
  Daine Patton: You know, people they'll they'll say, Oh yeah, we you know, every fall, you know, because we live in Nebraska, so we have a we know we're an agricultural state, and and every every time that uh corn's um harvested in the fall, there's always an influx of of rodent activity.
• 4:10
  Daine Patton: And people think, well, it's just normal.
• 4:12
  Daine Patton: Come come when it cools down and the harvest and that, uh I catch a couple mice and and then we let it go.
• 4:18
  Daine Patton: But what we try to do is educate our customers and let them know that the reason that they're finding them is because there's some sort of weak point on the outside of the structure, a hole, gap, crevice that they're able to sneak themselves in, or they've just shoot a hole somewhere, and and that's how they're coming in.
• 4:33
  Daine Patton: And and we provide them solutions to take care of those issues.
• 4:36
  Richard Piet: Tony, you probably heard that too.
• 4:37
  Richard Piet: Uh I catch a mouse occasionally, no big deal.
• 4:41
  Tony Sorrentino: Michigan, we get seven months of summertime and uh in the springtime, and then the when the weather really starts to turn bad, people will start calling in.
• 4:50
  Tony Sorrentino: Well, we we usually see a couple in the fall.
• 4:52
  Tony Sorrentino: The the mice are harboring inside of your home, and like Daine said, gaps, cracks, crevices, plumbing penetrations, corner posts where the the mice can climb all the way up to the soffits and then they have access to the roof.
• 5:04
  Tony Sorrentino: So having having these these open entry points, plus Daine, Daine spoke about sebum a few minutes ago.
• 5:12
  Tony Sorrentino: Um sebum is the the combination of body oils and microdroplets of urine and pheromones that they they track on every entry point, and it's like a flashing neon light to these rodents when they they come to repopulate the area, which inevitably is going to happen.
• 5:28
  Richard Piet: Yeah, I hope not.
• 5:29
  Richard Piet: But right, you've made a point here.
• 5:31
  Richard Piet: You've made a point here that uh this can happen under the radar for 30 years or something, this could happen.
• 5:39
  Richard Piet: That is unbelievable.
• 5:42
  Richard Piet: Do other ideas, other uh things you've seen come to mind that fall into this category?
• 5:49
  Richard Piet: People live for years without knowing it.
• 5:52
  Daine Patton: Yeah, you know, and the same thing I was just thinking about that we see quite a bit is air conditioner lines.
• 5:58
  Daine Patton: When those lines are coming into the house, so often is that something simple that that you know, our listeners, our homeowners, could take care of themselves or that they could at least look look out for.
• 6:09
  Daine Patton: And we see it too often we're walking around, and that AC line has the plumber's putty around it, and whether it's it's been chewed off or it just dries up, cracks, falls off, stuff like that happens, and it's just a super highway for mice to f or rats to find their way into people's homes.
• 6:25
  Daine Patton: So that that's something that's small that gets overlooked way too often.
• 6:29
  Richard Piet: And we probably underestimate how flat they can make themselves and get into small places.
• 6:36
  Richard Piet: So uh what's the Tony, the most impressive, other than maybe bads, uh the most impressive thing you've seen, and maybe the most unbelievable thing that was a small entry point that turned into something big.
• 6:53
  Tony Sorrentino: There was a uh grapefruit sized, so you know, about four, four, four and a half, five inches hole in a gable vent.
• 7:01
  Tony Sorrentino: Ian pulled 15 raccoons out of this attic, and they were they were living there.
• 7:06
  Tony Sorrentino: The house was vacant, so that yeah, there's no way you'd miss 15 raccoons.
• 7:11
  Tony Sorrentino: This is no easy task, I presume, because they can be aggressive.
• 7:15
  Tony Sorrentino: Yeah, and it was multiple trap sets over about a week of time to get everything out of there.
• 7:20
  Tony Sorrentino: There was there was mothers and and juveniles, and they were all cohabitating.
• 7:25
  Tony Sorrentino: It was like a I don't even know what the word.
• 7:27
  Tony Sorrentino: Daine, do you know what it's called for a group of raccoons?
• 7:29
  Tony Sorrentino: Isn't it like a bandit or something?
• 7:32
  Daine Patton: Yeah, something like that.
• 7:33
  Daine Patton: But yeah.
• 7:33
  Daine Patton: It's it's funny that you brought that up.
• 7:35
  Daine Patton: Fifteen's fifteen's more than than I had, but a couple years ago, dirt between Christmas and New Year's, I caught 10 raccoons out of somebody's attic space, and it it it it took me like two hours to find the hole on the house.
• 7:48
  Daine Patton: There were so many raccoons up there, but it was a you know concrete tile roof, and the the one hole that that they found, they were getting underneath a tile, and you'd never know looking at it, but then you know, we had to do our inspection and and it it just took forever.
• 8:02
  Daine Patton: Looked all over the places you normally think, and then yeah, here's a loose tile, and they're just going right underneath.
• 8:08
  Daine Patton: Ten raccoons.
• 8:09
  Daine Patton: It was like two every other day for a week.
• 8:12
  Richard Piet: Was that another of these under the radar things where you might not see it, but you also weren't hearing it?
• 8:18
  Daine Patton: Yeah, a hundred percent.
• 8:20
  Daine Patton: The they were living in these people's attic spaces, and they they just started seeing a stain coming through their ceiling.
• 8:26
  Daine Patton: They didn't hear anything or anything like that.
• 8:28
  Daine Patton: And and this this was a newer, newer built home in a pretty nice uh area, so they had you know R63 insulation.
• 8:36
  Daine Patton: There was so much insulation up there, and in the raccoons they were on top of it and just kind of padded it down, but it acts as a noise blocker for for lots of people.
• 8:45
  Daine Patton: And it's nice and cushy for them.
• 8:48
  Richard Piet: Exactly.
• 8:49
  Richard Piet: Is there uh something in Michigan, Tony, that stands out in this category?
• 8:56
  Richard Piet: Something sneaky in our state?
• 8:59
  Tony Sorrentino: Southwest Michigan, um flying squirrels and red squirrels.
• 9:04
  Tony Sorrentino: Fliers are notorious, they'll live in your house.
• 9:07
  Tony Sorrentino: We've had huge infestations with flying squirrels, and red squirrels are notorious for chewing wires and and ruining insulation.
• 9:15
  Richard Piet: When you say flying squirrels, so it's a squirrel with wings.
• 9:20
  Richard Piet: I mean, what do these look like?
• 9:22
  Tony Sorrentino: They have they have a uh piece of skin that runs from their from their wrist and then it it's attached at their ankle, and so they're gliders.
• 9:31
  Tony Sorrentino: If they jump and spread their little arms out, they fly.
• 9:34
  Tony Sorrentino: Flying squirrel.
• 9:35
  Tony Sorrentino: What about Nebraska, Dang?
• 9:37
  Daine Patton: Got something special there?
• 9:38
  Daine Patton: Oh, I don't think that we have any kind of different uh wildlife than than Michigan's gonna have because we have we have winters here too, so we don't get the the exotic things like they do down south, but um every once in a while we get some some good snake calls, and and those are always fun to deal with.
• 9:56
  Richard Piet: So what's the moral of this story?
• 9:59
  Richard Piet: You might not realize that you have an infestation, number one, right?
• 10:05
  Richard Piet: So what's the solution?
• 10:07
  Richard Piet: A periodic inspection.
• 10:10
  Daine Patton: Is that it?
• 10:11
  Daine Patton: Uh 100%.
• 10:12
  Daine Patton: I it seems like people that that own homes, they they don't necessarily maintain them as well as they used as we used to.
• 10:20
  Daine Patton: Also, we we have a lot of storms.
• 10:23
  Daine Patton: There's always new construction going on and people replacing roofs and people are putting new siding on, stuff like that.
• 10:28
  Daine Patton: And just walking around the outside of your house and making sure that that that your gutters are are free and clear and water can flow through them, making sure that like your AC lines are sealed, making sure that vents have have proper screening and cages on them, uh, making sure your crawl space vents are caged and closed off, stuff like that, because it it doesn't take much.
• 10:48
  Daine Patton: It takes about a dime size hole for for a bat to get in.
• 10:51
  Daine Patton: You know, if a mouse can fit its head in, uh chew a hole in, if it's head, it can fit the rest of its body and its whole family inside there.
• 10:58
  Richard Piet: Unbelievable.
• 10:59
  Richard Piet: We just got through talking about in our last episode about home inspections and pest inspections.
• 11:05
  Richard Piet: Here's another reason to consider a pest inspection, the notion that it could be I'm still lingering on this 30-year infestation that nobody knew about.
• 11:16
  Richard Piet: It it that seems extreme, but uh the point is they could be there and you don't know.
• 11:22
  Richard Piet: Do you run into this a lot, Tony?
• 11:24
  Richard Piet: Somebody calls you about some weird thing and it's an infestation.
• 11:28
  Tony Sorrentino: Mm-hmm.
• 11:28
  Tony Sorrentino: It it it it happens more times than not, where I'm hearing noises, whether it's scratching or chirping or thumping.
• 11:37
  Tony Sorrentino: If you're hearing noises, say something.
• 11:40
  Tony Sorrentino: That's a a good starting point where where we're gonna come out and do an A-Z evaluation of your home from the the ridge vent to the foundation line, and we're gonna figure out what's going on and how we can help.
• 11:52
  Richard Piet: And when you do, if it reveals a problem, there's gonna be a plan to sort that out, and then you're gonna come back and check that again, right?
• 12:02
  Tony Sorrentino: Yep, that's the warranty on all of our exclusion services, termite services too.
• 12:08
  Tony Sorrentino: But um, that we put a one-year warranty on it, we'll do uh a whole house exclusion where there's so much going on that we need to wrap the foundation with metal to seal up all the gaps.
• 12:20
  Tony Sorrentino: Or if we have to build custom roof returns or do custom built color matched metal work for the roof, whatever it takes to get the job done.
• 12:31
  Richard Piet: So, Daine, do you ever go to a uh a pest inspection and you find nothing?
• 12:36
  Richard Piet: I mean, somebody's called you and uh there must be some kind of suspicion about something.
• 12:42
  Richard Piet: But do you do you go and and everything's fine and you say see you in a year?
• 12:46
  Richard Piet: Or what's the thought there?
• 12:49
  Daine Patton: Yeah, uh every every once in a while that that does happen, and it can happen from time to time.
• 12:53
  Daine Patton: People are hearing noises, and like I said, they're not just going outside and walking around, they're calling an an expert to come and take a look at it.
• 13:00
  Daine Patton: And I've I've been plenty of times where it's just trees scraping against the the s the roof.
• 13:06
  Daine Patton: One time I had a kite that was stuck uh wrapped around somebody's chimney, and every time it would blow, it would it would uh start hitting this metal vent up there, and you know, just you you you just you see everything.
• 13:18
  Daine Patton: I mean, I've been doing this for almost 20 years now, so every once in a while, but for the most part, you know, those are few and far between.
• 13:24
  Daine Patton: Mostly we find some sort of of issue that of uh rodents or bats or or some sort of wildlife issue.
• 13:32
  Richard Piet: Yeah, and as you pointed out, uh taking care of a home is perhaps more difficult than it's been in uh prior generations.
• 13:41
  Richard Piet: And so sometimes, you know, the idea of spending a few bucks just to have a peace of mind or have a at least a report and approach is not something people want to do.
• 13:54
  Richard Piet: But boy, imagine a 30-year infestation like that example is the alternative sometimes, and that is tremendous.
• 14:03
  Richard Piet: Tony, you've probably seen that too.
• 14:05
  Richard Piet: The idea that um somebody doesn't want to do this, but boy, when they do, they end up happy they did.
• 14:12
  Tony Sorrentino: It's a differentiator.
• 14:13
  Tony Sorrentino: Where you the Daine said something that was important, and I wanted to add something.
• 14:18
  Tony Sorrentino: The the people aren't keeping up on their houses as much, and the houses that they're building these days aren't built to the same standards with the same materials that they were built with 50 or 60 or 75 years ago.
• 14:29
  Tony Sorrentino: The wood that they use and and the framing and structural timbers is not as dense, it's not as um robust.
• 14:37
  Tony Sorrentino: And the the the builders that are building these houses these days leave gap, they have they have a term for it.
• 14:45
  Tony Sorrentino: It's called building builders' gaps.
• 14:47
  Tony Sorrentino: And if it's if it's less than a if it looks good from 30 feet or 30 miles per hour, you're good to go.
• 14:53
  Tony Sorrentino: There's a structural vulnerabilities that that are left behind and then behind the siding, so then the the owner, the homeowners don't know that either.
• 15:03
  Richard Piet: So how often, Daine, then, should we have an inspection?
• 15:06
  Richard Piet: If everything turns out okay and there's nothing to it, when do you want to go back again?
• 15:11
  Daine Patton: Yeah, I always reckon my customers do an annual inspection.
• 15:14
  Daine Patton: You know, uh if you're gonna hire a professional at least once a year, or if you have any exterior construction done to your house, it's always good to have um somebody like myself or Tony, or there's so many great companies out there come and do a walk-around of your property and and do a full inspection.
• 15:30
  Daine Patton: Um for for customers that we have have uh secured their properties, we offer that extended warranty service.
• 15:37
  Daine Patton: So we we do the same thing like Tony, we give them a one-year warranty, but then every year we offer to extend that warranty for for a low price, you know, much lower than what the actual job costs.
• 15:47
  Daine Patton: But for us to come out and and uh for our time and and energy and effort to come out and do a full inspection, and we we do the same thing like we do if it's if it's a first uh appointment.
• 15:57
  Daine Patton: We'll get the ladder out, we get up on the roof, we do the full roof line, we do you know, basement, crawl space inspections, underneath porches, all that kind of stuff.
• 16:05
  Daine Patton: And it gives people peace of mind because most for most people, your home is the most valuable thing that that you're gonna spend your money on, and you'd much rather not be sharing it with with wild animals that uh that aren't aren't uh part of your family.
• 16:22
  Richard Piet: At least the wild animals that aren't part of your family.
• 16:24
  Richard Piet: Yeah, okay.
• 16:25
  Richard Piet: No, that's uh great information, something for you to think about.
• 16:28
  Richard Piet: And of course, if you're in Lincoln, Nebraska, Daine will be happy to talk to you about that from Bats to Rats Wildlife, and of course, Pest Pros of Michigan in Southwest Michigan, Tony and the team ready uh there as well.
• 16:41
  Richard Piet: Check the show notes for the links through and make contact if they sparked an inspiration for a question, they're ready to answer.
• 16:49
  Richard Piet: All right, gentlemen, thanks for what you do.
• 16:51
  Richard Piet: We appreciate it and we appreciate the insight.
• 16:55
  Daine Patton: Thanks, Richard.
• 16:56
  Daine Patton: Thanks, Daine.
• 16:57
  Daine Patton: Yeah, thank you, Tony.
• 16:58
  Daine Patton: Thank you, Richard.
• 16:59
  Daine Patton: Uh, super grateful to be here and uh and love you guys.
• 17:03
  Richard Piet: Don't forget, subscribe where you get podcasts and keep track of past perspectives.