Tag Archives: severn

Of course we are still here!

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But Google has disappeared us. I am not amused.

I’m still going back and forth with them, but for the time being, I can’t get a single blessed customer support person that can, apparently, see reason. They just keep telling me that we don’t qualify to be on the map. Which is fine by me!! I’m not TRYING to be on the map, I’m trying to show up in Google search. That’s all.

They say that businesses that go to customer’s homes can appear in Search, which is all I’m trying to do, but apparently, that’s not something they comprehend. I wound up in the Map side of things and all they are concerned about is making sure we don’t appear on the map. Round and round in SO FRUSTRATING circles we go.

I never thought I’d hate Google the way I do right now.

But anyway, we are still here, and available to solve your pest problems in Barrie, Orillia, Elmvale, Tiny, Tay, Port McNicoll, Severn, Gravenhurst, Parry Sound, Oro, and so on and so on….

These days that’s mostly mice, rats, and bedbugs, but still some carpenter ants around. Apparently, they are making some adjustments to their behaviour these days, perhaps as a result of climate change? I’m sure there will be research reports on it sometime soon.

If you’re looking for environmentally responsible pest control, give us a call or text 705.534.7863. Or you can still reach us via ccpestcontrol@gmail.com because apparently, we do exist there.

Weather watch

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So much unpredictability this season!

windThe weather is not cooperating! Or perhaps more accurately, the weatherman is not cooperating. IT would be ever so much easier to plan the guys’ days if we could believe whatever the weather people posted.

Supposed to rain but it doesn’t; not supposed to, but it does. And always, always, it seems, wind, wind, and more wind. Which is a pain. Actually, both wind and rain are a pain.

Wind, because it makes it too hard to control the direction and placement of the spray. Exterminators are responsible for controlling their product, and if it’s too windy to do that well, it’s too windy for spraying. There are minor variations, though; if you are on/near water, the amount of wind that can be tolerated becomes far less.

Rain is a pain also – but not for the reason you might think. Rain is a pain because it causes people to worry that the spray will be all “washed off” if it should happen to rain after it’s applied. Fortunately, rain doesn’t actually cause the micro-encapsulated product to break down. Once it’s on, it’s pretty much going to stay there until the light breaks it down.

We don’t typically spray DURING a rain, but that’s because most people won’t ~BELIEVE~ if we do and they’ll whine until they get a second spray.

Fun fact: Exterminators have to be able to do all kinds of nifty math to figure out how much product to add to how much water to get the most environmentally safe mix to give you the result you want. They even have to be able to calculate how much water or product they have to add to an existing amount in the sprayer to change it to make it a different application mix and all that fun stuff.

There is NO benefit to us to spray your place if we know the product is not going to work; why would we even do that?! Really, we don’t want to have to come back to do the job again. That would waste your time, energy & resources – & ours as well!

That is most assuredly not what we are about!

And….we’re off….

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Georgian Bay sunsetNot off as in on holiday, but off as in we are getting a pretty full on stream of calls finally. Slow start to this season – not a bad thing, actually. Full days, but not packed & running full tilt is clearly better for old guys. Not that Ross is getting old, or anything! (But he is)

Has a helper most of the time this year; Matt & Ross worked together way back when they started in pest control (for someone else). Matt went off and did other things for several years, but he was available this summer, so we grabbed him. Always easier to have two anyway – but mostly, Ross needed someone to keep track of his hat and his phone!

Bit of a pain juggling everything with me working at the College and not here to answer the phone. Email works; I still get to that right away – but phone messages, not so much! I keep thinking that I should check them periodically from work but … yeah… that usually doesn’t happen; sorry!

Anyway …. coffee’s almost done and time I was making lunch and heading off to work…. ooh… or ordering some fancy new stylus pens and THEN heading off to work.

Have a lovely and pest-free day – but if not exactly pest-free, yep, we are still here and Ross will be happy to take care of your carpenter ants, spider webs, mice, bedbugs, and/or whatever else for you 🙂

Give us a call at 705-534-7863 (or if urgent, call or text me at 705.647.2567), or email us at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com . And now I’m really off to work!

And so it begins…

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Even though I have yet to send my annual email  (my bad – BUT I got through a condensed semester with all my marks done & submitted early AND got my gall bladder out last week, so…. yeah… )  I’ll get there!

But it was a beautiful day and a whole bunch of people decided the time was right even without that. Lots of phone calls and emails today. I THINK I have everything sorted so that Ross can deal with things while I work at the group home tomorrow. We shall see 🙂 I might need to print off calendar pages for him… hmmm ….

Anyway, we are here and we are getting sorted so please do feel free to give us a call at 705-534-7863, or email me at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com. Oh, and we’d love it if you followed us on Facebook as well, if you do that Facebooking thing 🙂

Beekeeping

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bees in hiveWell, I don’t know that I’m interested enough to spend money to set up hives – but did attend a beekeeping course this weekend. Mostly, I was hoping to get more information so that I’d be better able to help people that call about swarms of honey bees. We do get a fair number of calls about bees each year…. and have yet to find a beekeeper in the area that wants anything to do with them.

Fortunately, only some of them actually turn out to actually be bees – except in the case of swarms. Wasps of any variety, we have no qualms about treating, but with so much in the media about bees dying and how that will impact pollination and food production, we’d hate to harm any more than absolutely necessary.

Interestingly, one of the very first things I learned about bees is that they don’t actually belong here! Bees are imports; they don’t like Canadian weather. But they do so much good for food production that it’s worth it to continue to help them to survive here. And clearly, if’s very possible to do so, if one knows what one is doing (and is willing to invest the time & money to do things properly). And it can be a profitable enterprise as well.

I did not, however, learn a whole lot about dealing with swarms! Which wasn’t at all surprising, as it was an introductory course meant for potential beekeepers, not really for me. He did talk about when and how they happen though, and that, in combination with further research, has given me rather more to go on. Think I’d want to do a whole lot more learning before we would actually feel qualified to DO anything though.

And of course, there’s little/no point to collecting a swarm unless one has a place to relocate them to. Suppose we could purchase a hive and supplies and hope for a swarm call to come along – but that seems like a fairly big investment for something that may or may not happen.

Anyway, we shall see. For now, though, we shall continue on as we have been, which is to identify the pest, and figure out the best way to handle it. In most cases, a bee swarm really isn’t near as big a problem as people tend to think. They are in search of a new & suitable home, and as long as you’re not providing them with that, they will soon move along.

 

Ross’ boat

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Ross' boat

June 10 and it’s still in the yard! And filling up with tree gunk too.

Well, we’re off to a very busy start this season.

So busy, in fact, that Ross’ boat is still sitting in the yard. He had time to remove the tarps. And he’s got it serviced.

And – well, since then, he’s been on lots & lots of other people’s boats. That should count for something right?

This week has been all about the Honey Harbour area. Lots of carpenter ants, mice and of course spider sprays. Have had him up there several days already, and today he’s out with Big Red Works all day. That works great – they run him around so that he can fit a whole lot more into one day by skipping the time spent waiting at marinas.

Already got more island calls set up for next week as well, both in Honey Harbour and the Parry Sound area. Oh yeah, and Mactier. Haven’t heard much from Go Home Lake cottagers yet. Hmm… maybe they don’t like us any more?!  Or maybe they’ve just been spared the invasion of the carpenter ants, I don’t know.

Anyway, given how busy we are, and the fact that it doesn’t seem like he’s going to have time to get our boat in the water any time soon, I guess I won’t complain. Too much!

If you’re having problems with birds, carpenter ants, mice, spiders, etc etc, do give us a call or email us and we’ll do our best to fit you in somewhere. Even though we’re hopping, we’re still managing to get to most within a day or two. On land, anyway.

Rainy days & spider sprays

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Darn rain!!!

Got Ross’ calendar filled and then some – and the bleeping rain just messed that all up.

Truth is that it doesn’t actually have to bring everything to a standstill; rain doesn’t actually wash the product we use away once it’s set (about 20 minutes) …. so he COULD still spray and as long as it doesn’t pour immediately afterwards, it would work just fine.

BUT, we have discovered, people just don’t believe that 🙂

And since we want our customers to be happy and believe, yeah, we delay or reschedule exterior spider sprays on rainy days.

Fortunately for today, we had some carpenter ants and wasps we could move into the freed up space…. we’ll try again for sprays tomorrow if the weather cooperates…. weather network isn’t exactly being encouraging though!

If there’s anything Ross can help you with, give us a call at 705-534-7863, or email me at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com …. we’re pretty busy this time of year but we will fit you in one way or another. And yes, weekend appointments are available for you cottagers.

Not just killing things

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I joke sometimes that Ross kills things; I do everything else – but the truth is that a lot of what he does as an exterminator – especially one that believes strongly in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) who has been green since long before it became a ~thing~ – a lot of what Ross actually does involves NOT killing things.

Bats, raccoons, skunks, squirrels & chipmunks, for example – when dealing with these sorts of issues, the focus is on humane removal, exclusion, and prevention. No killing. Fortunately, Ross has years of construction experience on top of his exterminator’s license; that’s part of the reason he is really good at figuring out what’s causing the problem(s) and how to fix it – for real. And he tells people, too!  And let’s them handle it themselves so that it’s cheaper, even.

Similarly, when dealing with birds, our preference is always for actually solving the pigeon-300x200problem. We could, in some situations, use poisons which kill birds. But why the heck would we want to? If you are offering birds a great location, as soon as you take out the current inhabitants, new ones will just move in anyway.  IPM offers a far better approach – figure out why they’re coming and fix that. Existing birds will leave, and others won’t take their places. Win, win.

Of course, bedbugs and other assorted wee pests that can cause damage to people or property must die, and we’re okay with that.

No matter what sort of pest problem you have, if you are in & around Tiny, Tay, Simcoe, Port Severn, Parry Sound, Muskoka, Ross will be happy to help you with it. Just give us a call at 705-534-7863 or email us at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com. Or you can fill out our handy-dandy quote form (which I need get around to modifying a bit one of these days!)

 

Wasps & Hornet season

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wasp2Still dealing with lots & lots of carpenter ants these days – but now the hornets & wasps are demanding their bit of attention too. They are obnoxious this year!!!!

Part of the problem, for us, is that many people wait to call about them… by the time they give up on trying to solve the problem themselves using whatever over the counter product they can buy, the wasps are well and truly burrowed in, and they are a royal pain in the posterior. Used to be in almost every case we got called for, one treatment would do it… but this year, some of the infestations are so bad, we’re having to go back. That is not a good thing!

We haven’t yet raised our prices for them, but if this keeps up we’re going to have to!