Monthly Archives: August 2016

Busy busy

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wpid-milk-carton-with-missing-cell-phoneRoss is having a very busy day today!

We’re off this weekend – going to nephew’s wedding in Alliston for a couple of days, then to our friends’ cottage for one night (yes we live in a cottage in cottage country, but it’s different going to someone else’s 🙂 ) and then back in time for grandson’s birthday party Sunday evening.

So have been trying to get everything possible cleared out of the way before we leave. Lots of calls in and around Midland, Honey Harbour and Tay Township; many new, plus a few follow-ups (damn wasps!). All of which was going according to plan. Until yesterday afternoon, that is, when he got to the right road for an appointment in Port Severn and went to double-check the address on his phone. No phone!!!!

It is most definitely not anywhere in his car, and our attempts to re-trace his travels were completely and utterly unsuccessful. We even toured between here and Kirkfield (yes, we do go over that way on occasion, although it’s not really in our area) looking along the side of the road through a stretch, because according to the google maps timeline, he (or rather, the phone) went up to Kirkfield, then part way back and then it stopped transmitting. The PLACE were it stopped transmitting was nowhere near either of the two places he stopped along the way though, which was very weird. The trail stopped at a corner pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. *sigh*

Anyway, no phone. And several hours (for both of us) lost to hunting for phone. For some unknown reason, it wouldn’t show up in my phone locator thing-a-ma-jig – got to hate it when THAT happens!!!  For about the first half hour after he noticed it missing, I was calling it and it was ringing – but then whoever had it apparently turned it off and it started going right to voicemail. Me, at that point, I was pretty much convinced that the trip back to Kirkfield was not going to be successful, but he wanted to try so try we did.

Which meant that the 3 more jobs he had been going to get done yesterday have now been added to today. And I got to stay up late last night to get my marks finished and submitted and write a cover letter for a job I won’t get (but I’d LOVE to get it and I’d be AWESOME at it).

So now he’s out doing two days work in one (with my phone) and I should get off my butt and go find a big-enough box and wedding gift wrapping paper but I’m tired and clearly am going to need more coffee before that happens!

ANYWAY… how’s that for long, rambling & nothing much to do with solving your pest control problems? But of course, if you’ve stopped by because you do have a pest (other than the sort you married or brought into the world your self), we will be happy to solve it for you.

Just not today, and definitely not this weekend cuz Alex & Michelle are getting married!

We do have a friend staying here this weekend to watch the mutts and give the chinchillas their treats, and he will do his best to take phone messages, but chances are that phone calls likely won’t get returned until Monday, sorry.

However, I will have MY phone and will check and respond to email when I can. No reception at friends’ cottage last time I was there though, so that might be an issue. ANYWAY… I will do my best – and rest assured that by Monday we’ll be back and ready to solve your pest issues.

Have a great weekend!

Lauralee

705-534-7864 || ccpestcontrol@gmail.com

Wasps & hornets

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wasp2
Having a really bad year for wasps all through cottage country this year… has been an issue all summer, but now as we’re heading to fall, just crazy!

And yes we treat them – but before you call us (or any pest control company) you should know that we can’t do magic!

We can treat existing wasp problems. Any wasps that happen to be there when Ross is will wind up dead.

We can use products that provide residual protection as well – so that the wasps that are out and about at the time will die if/when they return

Most often, we try to leave the nest in place – this is for two reasons:

  1. so that the wasps that come back get dead too, and
  2. because new wasps looking for a place to build are less likely to choose a spot that, as far as they know, is already occupied

The residual products, and the (dead/vacant) nests can help to prevent new infestations …. but unfortunately, not 100% and not forever. If there are a lot of wasps in your area, you will quite likely continue to see some wasps even after we’ve been there. If they land in the right place, they’ll die – but if they don’t, well….

So – if you’ve got a wasp, bee, or hornet problem, yes, we can help – but just so we’re clear, we can take care of your existing wasps only. We can not, do not, and will not guarantee that new wasps won’t show up at some point in the future.

Which is not to say that we won’t come back if need be – we do, as much as possible – but we tend to do those follow ups informally; he stops by if/when he’s in the area. BUT you should know that this is done as a courtesy (and because he really prefers to ~win~) not because of any guarantee. And sorry, but the further away you are, the better the chance that you’re likely to have to wait a bit for one of those courtesy (aka free) drop by’s.

If you’d like your existing wasp problem dealt with, please do feel free to give us a call at 705-534-7863 or email me at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com.

 

Rain!

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Carpenter antsFinally some rain!

Works for me – although we’ve got 3 jobs this morning that it rather complicates, but oh well …stuff happens 🙂  If need be he’ll do the inside part today and go back and do the outside when it stops. But complications aside, sure would be nice to get enough rain to get some fire bans lifted, wouldn’t it?

And I’m happy that I can skip watering my tomatoes for a change. Picked my first three yesterday – well, not really – have picked and tossed lots of ugly black flat bottomed ones already – but finally (after adding calcium as one of our tenants insisted I needed to) got some nice non-ucky tomatoes.

Still getting lots of calls about carpenter ants in Tay, Tiny, Severn and beyond. Still lots of people discovering that they have them, or more like, giving up on the trying to fix it themselves with over the counter products and calling for help, now. The majority of the products you can buy are so mild (thanks to government regulations) that for carpenter ants, they really don’t do the job, unfortunately. Professional products, too, are strictly controlled by government regulations – but at least we’re allowed to buy stuff that actually works, thank goodness.

We’re also hearing back from some of the carpenter ant jobs we did earlier this year, which is absolutely expected. There’s almost always a “bloom” about four weeks after treatment. For the first few weeks, you see lots more dead ants, less live ones – and then at about four weeks, the nests are decimated, the queens are dead, and all of a sudden a whole lot of really dumb ants start showing up. People get worried that “it didn’t work” … but in almost every case, it is the exact opposite – the bloom is the indication that it DID work!

There are always many more times the number of ants in the nests than you’re seeing – when the nests die, all of a sudden there’s a flood of the little buggers that don’t know what to do without their queen and out they come. And they’re dazed and confused and do dumb things, too. In one case, they exited en mass and marched into our customer’s pool! – but usually they’re nowhere near that organized about it.

It can be a ~little~ distressing to see so many more all of a sudden. We get that, and  we will come back if need be, honest 🙂

But in most cases, if we can convince you to wait just a little bit longer, you’ll find that you no longer need us to come back, because it really is over and the problem is solved.

Ants are fascinating; I wish we didn’t need to kill so many of them – but since they do so much damage to homes & cottages if left unchecked, it must be so.