92 YEAR OLD LADY GETS CONNED BY GENERAL CONTRACTOR
GETTING RID OF RATS!
This lady had a severe rat infestation and call out a pest control company to solve her problem. She said they trapped out trapped out dozens of rats but didn’t get them all. She then called a general contractor out that was advertising as a rat control expert, he said he could get rid of the rats, she paid him $900 but he failed. She didn’t have money to try someone else so she said she’d just have to live with the rats. She says she has to sweep the rat dropping up three times a day and shoos them away with a broom.
Even though we were not involved in that project we can tell you what must be done to clear a building and why the pest control company she hired failed. If you miss any one of these steps your doom to fail:
You have to know what type of rat you’re dealing with (was the type of rat identified?)
Was their nesting sight found? (Have to know where they are coming from.)
Was the bait used for the traps varied? (Some rats prefer different foods.)
Was exclusion work complete? (All possible ways the rats are getting inside must be found and sealed.)
Was a population control program set up on the outside of the building? (If you have a heavy population of rats on the outside, they will follow the scent from other rats to the building and they will either find another way in or they will make another way in.
The scent from the rats in the building has to be eliminated!(If not it will be a constant attraction for other rats.)
Eliminate food sources, eliminate hiding places and eliminate water sources. (Make your place unattractive to rats.)
When you hire a pest control company for a rat control problem make sure their contract spells out what they are going to do and look to see if they have a specific number of visits they are going to make. You want to make sure they will work until the problem is resolved and not set just a number of visits they will make.
Wheeler’s Pest Control specializes in rodent control and advertises a lot in that area. Because of that we get a lot of business exterminating rats, doing rats exclusions and doing clean-up work from rat infestations.
Over the last few years and especially during the recent recession we started to see more and more general contractor, HVAC, and insulation companies get into this area of pest control. Problem is that these contractors don’t have the proper license to do that type of work. And if they don’t have that proper license their insurance and bond doesn’t cover their people or any problems they may cause.
Furthermore, because they don’t have the proper license they can’t buy products that maybe needed to do a complete and through rodent control job. To get the professional grade products, they need that license and that license must be registered with the suppliers that sell professional grade products. So they either go to Home Depot or places like that to by consumer grade products, which aren’t always effective or they tell the consumer that they aren’t needed.
By state law and regulation you have to have that Structural Pest Control License to:
Identify pests
Suggest a method of treatment.
Apply or set out Pest Control Products.
The State of California and all other states require training, experience and testing within whatever area you are trying to get licensed in. Those elements in acquiring a license are set up to protect the consumer, to make sure that those doing the work know what they are doing. In California, to identify pests and give advice on pest control problems in a structure you have to have specific training, work experience and be tested on your knowledge in your field. The State Structural Pest Control Board is the governing agency that controls the licensing and policing this field.
