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Five Scary Things About Pests · PEST PROSpectives

• 0:08
  Richard Piet: I'm Richard Piet.
• 0:09
  Richard Piet: This is Pest Prospectives.
• 0:11
  Richard Piet: The Pest Pros of Michigan want to share information with you about pest control, and this is the way we do it.
• 0:18
  Richard Piet: Number of episodes already with experts like Amber Byars, Associate Certified Enemologist who oversees FieldOps at Pest Pros of Michigan.
• 0:29
  Richard Piet: Today, it's very scary.
• 0:32
  Richard Piet: We're talking about five scary things about pests.
• 0:37
  Richard Piet: At the time we're talking about this, we're approaching Halloween, so it seemed appropriate, yeah, to get a little scary.
• 0:44
  Richard Piet: Hi, Amber.
• 0:45
  Amber Byars: Hey, Richard.
• 0:47
  Richard Piet: So we're gonna go from five to one.
• 0:50
  Richard Piet: The five scariest things.
• 0:52
  Richard Piet: Number five does sound scary to me.
• 0:56
  Richard Piet: Sometimes activity is hidden.
• 0:58
  Amber Byars: Yes.
• 0:58
  Amber Byars: A couple of pests that come to mind are cockroaches and termites.
• 1:03
  Amber Byars: And I say that because even though cockroaches are out in the open and you see them crawling around and they move fast and they're out at night when the lights are off, and it's because you're only seeing a small percentage of what's actually on the property.
• 1:15
  Amber Byars: Oh boy.
• 1:16
  Amber Byars: What as a client, as a homeowner, you're not crawling around drains and you're not up under your sink, you're not behind your toilet, you're not, you know, looking in those really weird and untraveled spaces, but that's where the cockroaches are.
• 1:31
  Amber Byars: That's where a majority of them are.
• 1:33
  Amber Byars: We're just talking about pheromones, we're talking about aggregation, and cockroaches are thygmotropic and they love to be in between two tight little spaces.
• 1:42
  Amber Byars: We're not in those spaces in our home.
• 1:45
  Amber Byars: We're out in the open.
• 1:46
  Amber Byars: Relax.
• 1:47
  Richard Piet: That is true.
• 1:47
  Richard Piet: Right?
• 1:48
  Richard Piet: But they're not all that small, but yet they like tight spots.
• 1:52
  Amber Byars: That's right.
• 1:53
  Amber Byars: Yeah.
• 1:53
  Amber Byars: One of the biggest spots I see, you know, because they love moisture, they love water and heat.
• 2:00
  Amber Byars: I get up under somebody's sink and I turn, you know, you gotta crawl in there.
• 2:04
  Amber Byars: And you turn around, turn upside down, and you look up right under where the sink and the cabinet are, and they're they're just everywhere under there.
• 2:12
  Amber Byars: So when you're seeing the two or three crawling across the counter, there's a hundred of them right underneath that that countertop.
• 2:19
  Richard Piet: Oh my gosh.
• 2:21
  Amber Byars: Yeah.
• 2:21
  Richard Piet: You are braver than I.
• 2:22
  Richard Piet: Let me just say that first.
• 2:24
  Richard Piet: To be in a closed space that close, and there's a whole colony there.
• 2:30
  Amber Byars: I'm in, you know, in those really weird spots, you know, you're like, man, are they gonna fall on me?
• 2:35
  Amber Byars: And yeah, sometimes sometimes they just do, and that's just part of our job.
• 2:40
  Richard Piet: I uh hand it to you.
• 2:42
  Richard Piet: Hats off to you and your colleagues.
• 2:44
  Richard Piet: So what else attracts cockroaches?
• 2:47
  Richard Piet: I mean, they like dark, damp spots, but there's other things that they're looking for, right?
• 2:52
  Amber Byars: Yeah, they love uh organic material like d decaying organic grime and material like that.
• 2:59
  Amber Byars: Um they will pretty much eat anything.
• 3:02
  Amber Byars: Okay.
• 3:02
  Amber Byars: So I'm talking anything.
• 3:04
  Amber Byars: The the glue in a book, cardboard, they love cardboard.
• 3:08
  Amber Byars: They can they will eat anything, but they have to have water, which is why it's a lot easier to treat when a in a home that clients haven't utilized over-the-counter products.
• 3:19
  Amber Byars: Um, we go right for the water sources.
• 3:21
  Amber Byars: We go to the sinks, the toilets, the bathtubs, water heaters, laundry machines, and that's where we're gonna find a lot of those pockets of cockroaches.
• 3:29
  Richard Piet: And then at night, they might come out and uh go on a little adventure looking for something new.
• 3:35
  Amber Byars: That's right.
• 3:35
  Amber Byars: Yeah, electronics.
• 3:37
  Amber Byars: We see them a lot in electronics because they have that motor and it's it's warm in there.
• 3:41
  Richard Piet: Oh, interesting.
• 3:43
  Richard Piet: All right.
• 3:44
  Richard Piet: Now, you mentioned termites.
• 3:46
  Richard Piet: This makes sense, number five on the scary list, because they are hidden.
• 3:51
  Richard Piet: This is going on in the woodwork behind the walls.
• 3:55
  Amber Byars: Yeah, our company does a lot of real estate inspections for transactions for new home buyers, and a big part of our inspection is just educating our buyer that a majority of activity is in inaccessible areas behind fixed walls, fixed ceilings, uh floors.
• 4:16
  Amber Byars: So we utilize tactics like oblique lighting on a wall.
• 4:20
  Amber Byars: If you take your flashlight and you let you rest it right on the wall, you can see the shadow across the wall.
• 4:26
  Amber Byars: And if you see any divots in the drywall, anything protruding out, we know to probe at those areas to see if those are, you know, evidence of termites.
• 4:37
  Amber Byars: But a lot of the time, you know, it's it's hard to find termites unless the damage has been so obvious, you know.
• 4:44
  Richard Piet: I think we've all we've all watched HGTV too, and you know, they tear down the drywall and there they all are in the in the woodwork.
• 4:55
  Richard Piet: The weakened woodwork.
• 4:57
  Richard Piet: By then they've done some of what you're talking about to get to that point.
• 5:01
  Amber Byars: Yes, exactly.
• 5:02
  Amber Byars: We're trained and we know exactly where to go and where to find the termites, but a lot of the time, if we don't find them, it's because it was inaccessible and they were invisible view of our inspection.
• 5:17
  Amber Byars: Um, so that is scary.
• 5:18
  Amber Byars: That is something scary to think about, especially when you're purchasing a new home, which is why we go above and beyond with our inspections.
• 5:26
  Richard Piet: Yeah, that reminds me uh an episode not long ago dealt with the difference between home inspections and pest inspections and why a home inspection doesn't mean a pest inspection.
• 5:37
  Amber Byars: Yes.
• 5:38
  Richard Piet: You can go back and have a listen to that one.
• 5:41
  Richard Piet: All right, number four on the scariest things about pest list.
• 5:44
  Richard Piet: Some might say this is number one.
• 5:47
  Richard Piet: That's health concerns.
• 5:49
  Amber Byars: Yes, that is a good one.
• 5:51
  Amber Byars: That's also scary.
• 5:52
  Amber Byars: It actually it scares me sometimes.
• 5:54
  Amber Byars: I sit through conferences and I and I listen to zoonotic disease classes and trainings and and uh certain and I get certified in these courses, and then I'm, you know, I go back out in the field and it's almost like it's terrifying because it's it's almost like an invisible thing that you don't necessarily know is in the environment you're in.
• 6:15
  Amber Byars: It can be airborne, it could be something that you touched, you just didn't see it.
• 6:19
  Amber Byars: So PPE is huge in this industry.
• 6:22
  Amber Byars: I mean, it's just huge.
• 6:24
  Amber Byars: The the right respirators, the right gloves, the right coveralls, those invisible zoonotic diseases that can be left alone by rodents, bats, uh the urine or the droppings, you know, those those things can be dangerous.
• 6:38
  Amber Byars: Absolutely.
• 6:39
  Richard Piet: All right.
• 6:40
  Richard Piet: And so uh moral of that story is uh if you suspect this kind of activity in your space, you'll want to get it checked out sooner than later.
• 6:51
  Amber Byars: Yeah.
• 6:51
  Amber Byars: You know, a lot of our clients ask us, you know, can I clean this up?
• 6:54
  Amber Byars: I mean, they have rodents, they have rodent droppings or urine or uh bat guano or um infested insulation or whatever the case is.
• 7:03
  Amber Byars: We always offer that service as a restoration and sanitization service.
• 7:07
  Amber Byars: And clients always want to know, you know, is that something that we could do as homeowners?
• 7:11
  Richard Piet: Yeah.
• 7:11
  Amber Byars: Uh the answer is yes, it is, but there are so many precautions that we want to list out if a client's even thinking about touching those things.
• 7:19
  Amber Byars: We want to, we're talking about with rodent droppings.
• 7:22
  Amber Byars: If you're ever gonna clean up rodent droppings, you want to make sure that you get them damp, that you spray them down, make sure of water and bleach, let them get moist before you sweep them up so that those particles don't get as airborne.
• 7:36
  Amber Byars: You're not breathing them, getting them in your eye.
• 7:38
  Amber Byars: You know, these are you know, molecules in your eye can can absorb that.
• 7:42
  Amber Byars: So um, we always make sure our clients know spray these things down, wear the right gloves, wear the right respirator, which is why we always recommend doing it as professionals.
• 7:52
  Richard Piet: Yeah, and you're you know the right PPE, personal protective equipment.
• 7:56
  Richard Piet: You know what you should be wearing and using.
• 7:59
  Amber Byars: That's right.
• 8:00
  Amber Byars: Yeah, sir.
• 8:01
  Richard Piet: All right, number three on the five scariest things about pest list, hitchhikers.
• 8:09
  Amber Byars: Yes, hitchhikers.
• 8:11
  Amber Byars: Number one, I know everybody's thinking right now, bed bugs, right?
• 8:16
  Richard Piet: Yeah, definitely.
• 8:17
  Amber Byars: Yes, they are known as the hitchhiker.
• 8:19
  Amber Byars: Uh cockroaches too, but bed bugs more so, you know.
• 8:22
  Amber Byars: They you can just pick them up from anywhere, from anywhere.
• 8:25
  Amber Byars: Every time we deal with a client with bed bugs, it breaks my heart.
• 8:28
  Amber Byars: They always want to know, you know, how how do I know where these came from?
• 8:32
  Amber Byars: It's hard to say without us knowing every person in their life and inspecting all the environments they've been in where they came from.
• 8:39
  Amber Byars: They could pick them up from public transit, you could pick them up from a movie theater, you could pick them up from brushing up against somebody that's got bed bugs on them in a hospital or something.
• 8:49
  Amber Byars: Like the craziest of stories that you could think of is you could get bed bugs from.
• 8:54
  Richard Piet: Yeah.
• 8:54
  Richard Piet: And if you think about the people who maybe live in your home and everywhere they've been, people visiting your home, same thing.
• 9:03
  Richard Piet: Maybe none of that.
• 9:05
  Richard Piet: Like you say, you might just be out and you happen upon them in some way and they hitchhike home with you.
• 9:13
  Amber Byars: Yep.
• 9:13
  Amber Byars: And you know, one thing I will say though about those, yes, that's a scary thought.
• 9:17
  Amber Byars: It is.
• 9:18
  Amber Byars: And there, you know, a lot of people are terrified of getting bed bugs or having bed bugs.
• 9:22
  Amber Byars: One thing I'll will will say about that is there's so many things in this world that could hold us back from just living a normal, happy life.
• 9:31
  Amber Byars: And that, you know, this could, this is one of them.
• 9:33
  Amber Byars: And one thing I'll say is, you know, there are measures to protect yourself, inspecting the areas that you go to, right?
• 9:40
  Amber Byars: If you're gonna go stay at a hotel, take a look at the bed, right?
• 9:43
  Amber Byars: Just take a look at the bed.
• 9:44
  Richard Piet: And when you say that, you mean pull up the bedding and look in the crevices.
• 9:51
  Amber Byars: That's right.
• 9:51
  Amber Byars: Yeah.
• 9:52
  Amber Byars: Lift up the, you know, they have the skirt on, lift the skirt up, look around the bed frame.
• 9:56
  Amber Byars: And yeah, you're down.
• 9:57
  Amber Byars: You're down on the on the floor doing this because you don't want to have to pull everything off.
• 10:01
  Amber Byars: But you, yeah, you definitely want to do your due diligence.
• 10:04
  Amber Byars: I still do that to this day when I go stay at a hotel.
• 10:08
  Amber Byars: I just be safe, you know.
• 10:09
  Amber Byars: And one thing I do know is if ever I were to get bed bugs, I always have this in the back of my mind.
• 10:15
  Amber Byars: Man, if I ever get bed bugs, I know who to call.
• 10:18
  Richard Piet: That's true.
• 10:19
  Richard Piet: Yeah.
• 10:20
  Richard Piet: Well, that inspection is key.
• 10:23
  Richard Piet: And obviously, if you find something, you march right out of that room.
• 10:26
  Amber Byars: That's right.
• 10:27
  Richard Piet: Probably that whole building.
• 10:28
  Richard Piet: But I guess that's a personal thing.
• 10:30
  Richard Piet: Yes, that's right.
• 10:33
  Richard Piet: All right, number two on the five scariest things about pests, hidden breeding sources.
• 10:41
  Richard Piet: What are we talking about here?
• 10:42
  Amber Byars: This is a pain.
• 10:43
  Amber Byars: This is a pain even for us in the industry.
• 10:45
  Amber Byars: It's one of the things that, you know, you get and it's just like a head scratcher.
• 10:49
  Amber Byars: It's like, man, where is the source?
• 10:52
  Amber Byars: Where are these pests coming from?
• 10:54
  Amber Byars: And that ideal, I could even deal with this in, you know, in my person, in my house.
• 10:58
  Amber Byars: So I see a f a one fly or two flies.
• 11:00
  Amber Byars: I'm like, where did they come from?
• 11:02
  Amber Byars: And my house is clean, everything's picked up, I'm in pest control.
• 11:05
  Amber Byars: I know, you know, I know what to do.
• 11:07
  Amber Byars: And, you know, sometimes there's just this unexpected off the wall source somewhere in the in the environment.
• 11:15
  Amber Byars: And I'll give you a few examples.
• 11:16
  Amber Byars: So um, there are a few smaller flies that we deal with that come from a crack in a sewer line.
• 11:24
  Amber Byars: Okay, so to be able to find that crack, a sliver of a crack in a sewer line, can be very challenging.
• 11:32
  Amber Byars: And it might not, you know, even be possible for us to do alone.
• 11:35
  Amber Byars: We might have to hire in a plumber or a our contractor to open up a wall void and to take a closer look into areas that we just can't see.
• 11:44
  Amber Byars: Another example would be um the we'll say on the small fly trend with fruit flies.
• 11:49
  Amber Byars: Fruit flies, you think it's just gonna be some rotting fruit sitting on the counter, but there's none of that that exists in this environment.
• 11:57
  Amber Byars: Okay, so now maybe we have something going on in a drain.
• 12:00
  Amber Byars: Which drain?
• 12:01
  Amber Byars: We have to check the whole house, do all the dirty, the dirty work to try to figure that out.
• 12:07
  Richard Piet: Well, uh, it makes sense now, the description, hidden breeding sources.
• 12:12
  Richard Piet: Yeah.
• 12:13
  Richard Piet: It very often is something we can't see, and that's where the source is.
• 12:18
  Richard Piet: And by the way, if you don't address that, you might kill some, uh, and then they just come back.
• 12:24
  Amber Byars: Yeah, they do, yeah, relentlessly.
• 12:26
  Amber Byars: Yeah, they do.
• 12:27
  Amber Byars: If there, if there is a if there is a source there that you haven't been able to find or get rid of, you're probably gonna have this like lingering activity.
• 12:35
  Richard Piet: And that is a segue to the number one scary thing about pests, and that is the comeback.
• 12:43
  Amber Byars: Yes, yes.
• 12:44
  Amber Byars: And it's uh, I love this.
• 12:45
  Amber Byars: It is a great segue.
• 12:47
  Amber Byars: It's always related to a conducive condition that maybe we just didn't see up front, and it's kind of plagued the area for a while.
• 12:56
  Amber Byars: Maybe you thought it was this, but it really wasn't.
• 12:58
  Amber Byars: You got rid of that, and they are still lingering.
• 13:00
  Amber Byars: Or, yeah, I mean, just made a comeback in general.
• 13:03
  Amber Byars: Our maintenance services are so good for this because we're constantly on the property.
• 13:09
  Amber Byars: When we're there, we're looking at these things.
• 13:12
  Amber Byars: We're looking at conducive conditions, overgrown vegetation, leaky gutters, siding that's falling apart, high grade around the home, things that you just don't think about as a homeowner.
• 13:25
  Amber Byars: You know, you just you just live in your life.
• 13:27
  Amber Byars: You have a million other things to do.
• 13:29
  Amber Byars: That's why we are there.
• 13:30
  Amber Byars: We're there to look at those off-the-wall conducive conditions that pests are really attracted to.
• 13:36
  Richard Piet: And you talked about the plan that you have.
• 13:40
  Richard Piet: So as you keep coming back, if you're not noticing the differences in population that you were expecting, one of the reasons could be the source hasn't been identified.
• 13:54
  Amber Byars: Exactly.
• 13:55
  Amber Byars: Yes, which is when we lean really heavily into the biology and behavior of that pest, right?
• 14:01
  Amber Byars: We really we really have to lean into what is this pest attracted to typically?
• 14:07
  Amber Byars: What is their food source?
• 14:08
  Amber Byars: What are they gonna, what are they gonna be eating?
• 14:10
  Amber Byars: How are they surviving?
• 14:11
  Amber Byars: What are the environments that they typically like to be in?
• 14:14
  Amber Byars: And that's what's gonna kind of draw us to certain areas.
• 14:18
  Richard Piet: All right.
• 14:18
  Richard Piet: Well, those things are scary.
• 14:20
  Richard Piet: Hidden activity, health concerns, hitchhikers, hidden breeding sources, and the comeback.
• 14:27
  Richard Piet: Five scariest things about pest control.
• 14:30
  Richard Piet: If we scared you with some of those, uh Amber and the team at Pest Pros of Michigan are ready to help get you unscared.
• 14:39
  Richard Piet: I don't know if that's a word, but uh the point is they're ready to address it, and they're professionals happy to do so.
• 14:47
  Richard Piet: Information in the show notes about what to do, how to reach them, and more information on the website as well.
• 14:53
  Richard Piet: There's a link there.
• 14:54
  Richard Piet: You can have a look at some of those things and listen to some of our other episodes too, which address a lot of these behaviors specifically for certain pests, and see if any of those ring familiar to you.
• 15:08
  Richard Piet: In the meantime, follow us for more pest prospectives episodes.
• 15:12
  Richard Piet: And for buyers, thank you for this one.
• 15:14
  Amber Byars: Thank you so much, Richard.