Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mosquitoes & Ticks

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Yes, we can help with these. For ticks, we use two spray treatments /summer, and a bunch of tick tubes, which are biodegradable cardboard tubes that contain treated cotton attractive to mice for making their nests nice & comfy. The bedding doesn’t contain enough pesticide to hurt the mice, but it is not nice to the ticks that often hang out in their nests.

Mosquito treatment is quite a lot move involved, however – at least when it is done using IPM, which means in such a way to be effective while also protecting the environment. In most cases, the two tick sprays are really all the pesticides we use. We spray the home /cottage if needed for spiders at the same time – and aside from that, we skip the poison, and instead use a product that repels mosquitos (and many other annoyances) without causing even a little bit of harm to your environment. It can even be used (legally) on waterfront properties, which other products cannot (they harm aquatic life, and spraying in such a way as to allow the spray to drift OR to run off into the lake is not okay – and if caught, subject to significant fines. )

Additionally, because I do have my mosquito (& landscaping) pesticide licenses in addition to structural, I am able to also use other products (to manage standing water) where warranted – but mostly, we try to avoid standing water wherever possible (that means I can be a bit of a nag, actually!!)

Anyway – the lawns I treat aren’t dead zones – there are still enough bugs to attract the birds and frogs and toads and turtles.

Do we guarantee that you’ll never see a mosquito? Nope – neither we nor any other company can. But a noticeable reduction, most definitely. And as an added bonus, because you’ll have a fully licensed IPM pest control technician visiting every couple of weeks, other issues get caught/treated before they become a big enough problem to cost you extra money 🙂

If you’d like a quote re: treating your cottage or home for (almost) all the pests that pester you through the summer, why not send an email to ccpestcontrol@gmail.com, or text or call me at 705.534.7863. I teach on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this summer, and of course can’t answer during class. And I spend a lot of time driving and only have hands-free set up in one of our three cars right now – but if you leave a message, I will get back to you asap.

Wow – I did a terrible job including place names in this one! Bad SEO – but 7 minutes late leaving to pick up Noah already so it’ll have to do. Hope your day is as much fun as mine is going to be and if you were here to look for info about the car, I’m sorry that I’m out of time – I will do my best to get that added this evening though. Or this weekend at least.



Yikes! I am a very bad blogger!

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I’m shocked at how long it’s been since I last updated this blog! Pretty sure I sat down to do it at least once or twice over the summer, but apparently I got distracted before I actually finished. My bad. In my defense though, I’ve had a lot on my plate.

Teaching in Barrie, hanging out with the grandson(s) regularly, and solving people’s pest problems – it all eats up a lot of time! But I’m still having fun, so….. guess I’ll keep on keeping on.

Ross is doing well. Pretty much all healed; now just old LOL He turned 70 last month so I suppose he’s allowed to stay retired. Although he definitely still keeps busy! He’s built and insulated a shed for me, moved bunches of stuff around, and cleaned out the house we owned on John St so we could sell it. So glad that is done!

So – pest control! The LDD /gypsy /spongy moths seem to be all done for the time being; hopefully, for the trees’ sake, it’ll stay that way for awhile – but if/when they do make their return, this time we’ll be ready for them.

We started doing mosquitoes & ticks this summer – only a small number so that I could make sure I was pricing things fairly and that our environmentally responsible works as well as I’d hoped. That when quite well, so we’ll do it again next year. Hopefully in 2023 we’ll have enough people signed up in closer proximity that we can lower our prices a bit. Even more if there are multiple people in the same area. Although many other companies are spraying pesticides at every visit, we prefer to limit that to only when it’s absolutely necessary. Not only is it better for the earth and the water, it means there’s still food for the birds and frogs /toads, etc. So those stick around, as do butterflies and bees.

Over the winter, of course, it will mostly be mice and rats, bedbugs, and possibly some bats that didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to leave for the winter. We’ve become really persistent about figuring out where mice / rats / squirrels are getting in and whenever possible, we fix it so they can’t. Much quicker the more we do it, too.

The other task for the winter is to learn the new program I bought to manage jobs, invoicing, etc. I was dithering about spending the money but while I was looking at it, several people emailed me to ask if I might send them one at some point because I hadn’t. I figure for everyone that emails me and asks, there’s probably someone else that doesn’t – so can’t really lose, can I? Hopefully being more organized will mean that I’ll be able to spend more time in my kayak in 2023. At least that’s the plan.

Anyway, time for me to crawl off to bed before I get sucked into another TV show or marking or reading or…. still so much to do, but maybe I’ll find some time while proctoring tests tomorrow. Ha!! Like that’s going to happen.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

And if you had / have mice or other unwanted pests, please do give me a text or call @ 705.534.7863 or email me at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com. We cover most of Simcoe County and Muskoka, Midland, Penetanguishene, Tiny and Tay Townships. Happy to stop in to check cottages over the winter as well, by the way.

Holiday Weekend

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You’d think having lived in this area for – geez, is it really more than 20 years now?! – I’d know better!! But in my defense, I was so happy to finally have a full day of nice weather that, even without Jessa, I figured I could work, clear some of the backlog the wet weather has caused.

Jessa pouted – she wanted me to go to Wonderland with her and a few of the day care kids – and honestly, I would have loved to! But backlog. Oh, and a phone call with our real estate agent about the house we had on the market (yay for past tense!!!!). AND we had company, who I totally neglected (sorry!!) and who helped Ross build my shed even though I am a terrible auntie (thank you!!).

But instead, I did a couple of local jobs in Midland Point in the morning, detoured home to hear the offers, then headed off to work some more in the afternoon. Was hoping to get to everyone I still had outstanding, at least in this area – but duh! Went North on the 400 for the first (supposed to be) two jobs. No problem – until it was time to turn around and do the rest of the route (yes, I use a route planner now; don’t know why we didn’t investigate THAT a whole lot sooner; it makes a huge difference).

Had to cut out several jobs I’d hoped to get to in Tiny; my apologies! Fortunately I should have Wednesday afternoon free this week, so hopefully the weather will behave and I WILL get to all those I haven’t yet – well, except for the Orillia /Brechin / Ramara loop, but that too will get done. Soon.

Anyway, much as I’d love to sit here and ramble on, it’s almost time to leave to go spend the day with my favourite Noah. We’re heading off to the zoo to meet up with Jessa and her kids, and shopping to buy his mommy’s birthday present from Pappy (Ross). Hope your day is as fun.

If you’ve stopped by for help with gypsy moths, spiders, mice, squirrels, whatever, do give us a call at 705-534-7863. Or email ccpestcontrol@gmail.com. We’re always happy to help – well, except when we’re stuck in traffic! Doh!

Checked your trees today?

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Well, they’re here – spongy ldd gypsy moth caterpillars are up in the leaves eating as of this week. Jessa and I are a little annoyed that they have reached the leaves before we managed to get everyone that wanted a spray for them done – darn rain!!

We’ve been able to do a few things this weekend, but nowhere near as many as we could have if the weather would have just cooperated!! SO annoying!! But it did mean that we were able to spend some time troubleshooting around squirrels and mice at one home in Tiny. I was pretty darn proud of myself at that one – usually it’s Jessa that finds things but this time I did it!! I found a mouse nest mostly by smell. And then I topped that off by – just as we were about to leave – noticing a (very) split beam that answered the question of how the heck the squirrels got in. Yay me!!

Solving mysteries is a fun part of this gig.

Anyway, just today we saw caterpillars eating in the leaves in Victoria Harbour, Bracebridge, Midland, and Tiny – basically every place we went whether it was about those or not. Was very satisfying to stop by some of the trees we sprayed proactively. No holes in the leaves, no caterpillars…. just as we wanted.

Too late for proactive now – we’ll have to switch to spraying up into the leaves as well as just ’round the trunks – but still able to make a huge difference in how much damage they’ll do and how much (or how little) mess you’ll have to deal with.

We’re pretty booked up right now, and the weatherman is STILL not cooperating too well!! But we are most definitely trying to get to everyone that is outstanding right now. Next weekend is Robin’s Point – if you’re here to sign up for that, there’s a link in the menu bar at the top or you can click right here: Robin’s Point Form.

If you need help with your spongy moths though – or with any other pests you didn’t bring into the world yourself, please do give us a call and we will do our very best to get there and solve it for you just as soon as we can.

Lauralee

New for 22

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Did you see our newsletter? If not, it may have ended up in your spam folder, or under promotions. It’s not spam though, honest!! I only do one email newsletter a year (if that)!

So if you didn’t get it, you can, by clicking on this link right here.

There’s a link at the bottom of it that lets you set preferences (where you can sign up if you like) and another that lets you unsubscribe (but seriously, it’s only one per year; why would you?! Never mind, don’t answer that, you’ll hurt my feelings).

Quick fly by

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Yep, we’re up and running, albeit in a Ross-less way … he’s still around and occasionally even answers the phone, and he’s telling us all what to do and how to do it, but not going out on calls these days.

As you probably know, the weather has been particularly not cooperative … not rain so much, but wind, at least along the water, which is, of course, where people need spider sprays most. But we’re starting to book them – tentatively, weather permitting – so do give us a call at 705-534-7863, or email me at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com.

And now I’m off to spend the day with my grandson. Tuesday is my favourite day of the week! Have a good one 🙂

Lauralee

More questions & answers

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So, if Ross is retired, who is taking over?

Many of you will have met Matt last season – he’s still with us, and in the long run, the hope is that he’ll take over all aspects of the business so that I can retire too. But we’re not quite there yet, so hi … I’m Lauralee, and I am currently studying for the licensing exams – was scheduled to take them on 16-April but got email today that they’ve been canceled (thank the good Lord!! That was way too fast given that the three books just arrived yesterday!).

I’m not actually likely to be DOING much of the actual spraying and so on but until Matt and Jessa get their licenses and enough training in all aspects to not need me any more, I expect I’ll be hanging around a fair bit. Jessa is my youngest – she works M – F in Oshawa, so is only available to us on weekends, but she wants to learn and get licensed so that she’ll have more options with which to make a living. She’s an ECE, mostly, and loves operating her home day care – but that, especially given that she’s single, has serious limitations.

So… when you call, you’ll get either Ross, myself or Matt; email is almost always me, and if/when you book you’ll get either Matt or Jessa.

All of us have been or are learning from the master, though, so you can expect the same environmentally responsible pest control solutions as ever. We’re looking forward to getting busy. Well, Matt & Jessa are – me, I still have a semester to finish, exams to study for, and so on… so I can wait a week or three yet!

By the time this ’emergency brake’ thing ends, we’ll be ready to go full steam ahead – and in the meantime, we are here and will make time to help you with any pressing problems.

Welcome Back

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Here’s hoping everyone made it through another year of pandemic unscathed!

We’re about ready to get up and running again. That will look at bit different, now that Ross is retired – I’m hoping he’ll still answer phones for us and do some scheduling but he says no …. we shall see. Pretty sure a messed up shoulder doesn’t preclude doing the phones, right? Sure does make one feel older though. Especially with the pandemic on top.

Anyway – we’re still here, and looking forward to providing you with environmentally responsible pest control when you need. We are, however, somewhat reducing our offerings – unfortunately, we are no longer able to provide service for ~bigger~ rodents & critters. We’ll still do mice, and offer advice and guidance where we can for others – but we’re not trained for rooftops and unless/until something changes, we’re not in a hurry to get trained either!!

So – mice; ants (big, little & in between); spiders; fleas; roaches, and my personal favourite, bedbugs – what am I missing? I’ll have to add to the list as things come up.

We are not doing mosquitoes & ticks yet – but we’ll be working on that so that we can do it legally & effectively.

Got lots of work to get done, and a whole lot of steps, yet, also – but some quick answers to most often asked questions.

When will we start spraying?

When the weather settles a bit – generally that’s been end of April, early May – but if we can get going earlier, we will.

What areas do we cover?

All of Tay & Tiny. Orillia, Brechin, Ramara, all that fun stuff. Midland & Penetang, of course. Beyond that, we do during the busy season, but we try to avoid anything past Parry Sound or Gravenhurst-ish. Not because we have anything against you guys, but because the only way we can do that further stuff reasonably is to bunch them up with others along the way. Same goes for going any further south than Barrie – except for family, anyway!

Will you come give us a quote?

Not usually. But we’re pretty darn good at giving quotes by phone or email, and you really can’t lose. If we get there and find out we quoted too high, we lower the price. If we get there and find out we quoted too low, we honour that price, but let you know that if we have to come back, the cost will be whatever. The only time that doesn’t apply is if/when we show up and discover that a) people have grossly misrepresented the situation or b) they keep adding on additional services they didn’t mention up front – but you would never do any of those things, so that won’t be a problem, right? Right!

What if I pay cash?

No problem. Just let me know upfront so that I raise the price accordingly. Coincidentally, but 13%.

The price is the same no matter how you pay though. And while I’m on that subject, no, we don’t do credit cards. We love email money transfers though. Those can go to ccpestcontrol@gmail.com. Cheques & cash are okay too.

Such a fun time …

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So … business is challenging this year – and then some!

Ross injured himself falling off a ladder and is feeling his age these days …. finding out the hard way that the older you are, the longer it takes to heal.

The plan is for Matt to take over – but that is complicated by COVID and other issues.

Here’s hoping things get back to relatively normal soon!

Ants and mice and critters, oh my!

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It’s a very odd year. Still the normal stuff for this time of year – spider sprays and carpenter ants, mostly. A LOT of carpenter ants.

But we are also still getting so many calls for other pests – pests that aren’t usually a problem until fall. Mice are the biggest; we have had about 3x as many calls that include mice infestations as we normally would by this time of year. I guess conditions were good for overwintering this year, and maybe even for having increased numbers of litters.

We’re also getting a lot more wasp calls than usual; those seem to be mostly in Tay and Muskoka – and apparently Victoria Harbour as well, as I seem to have some of my own! I’d better call an exterminator, eh?

Even though we’re pretty busy right now, we’re still getting to most things within a few days, so if you have pest problems anywhere in Tay, Tiny, Midland, Penetanguishene and/or surrounding areas, give us a call at 705-534-7863, or drop us an email at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com.

And just so you know, the guys are all aware of the actions they need to take to keep everybody safe, and are traveling with masks, gloves and sanitizer to be used as needed.