Tag Archives: Ontario

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.

It’s Cottage Week!

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For us, I mean. Even though we basically live in a cottage anyway, we still look forward to going away to another. Since pest control is SO seasonal – except for mice and bedbugs – we don’t really get ALL that much time to enjoy it. And going away is better because we don’t go alone. 

My girls will come up for a visit – not a long one because they work too much, and Ross’s daughter and her family come too. Lots of fishing, losing at euchre, and this year, a new baby!!!

Pappy and Noah

So ….if you’re looking for help with whatever is irking you, we’re sorry, but we’re away. The good news is that it’s only a week – we’ll be back on the 24th and Ross will be totally ready to take care of your pest problems whatever they are. 

If you need advise or want to book an appointment for as soon as we’re back, please do feel free to email me at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com – I’m sure I’ll have to let others have a turn at holding Noah once in awhile. 

 

And it’s summer!!

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Let the – power outages? – begin.

Seems like that’s the order of the day/week around here. There are signs at both ends of our road telling us the power will be out from the 26th to the 28th – but ~only~ from 8:30 to 4:00 pm.

How very convenient – NOT!!!

We will be here and happy to arrange whatever pest control service you need – but no phone/Internet could make that a bit ~fun~. Can get email through my phone though, so that will probably be the easiest way to get in touch. I will also try to remember to check messages remotely but … yeah… haven’t proven to be so good at that.

If you don’t email, and you don’t want to leave a message, do feel free to call us after 4 though. Thanks

Oopsie!

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So I was showing someone our site today and noticed that I hadn’t updated since last October. My bad!! Let’s not mention that to Ross, k?

Funny thing is though, that even though I haven’t been doing much (okay, anything at all) he’s still had probably the busiest winter yet. Bedbugs, roaches and mice, oh my. And we’re seeing more rat calls as well for some reason. Rats are a PITA – way too smart… but I digress.

snowshoe pigPoor guy hasn’t even had much time for working on stained glass so far … did do a snowshoe pig though! (Doesn’t everyone need a snowshoe pig? No? Just Sue then!)  And he just finished a snowshoe old, except it’s  not yet in its snowshoe.

ANYWAY, in spite of the fact that Ross is now officially entitled to all the senior discounts, he’s still going, and we are still here to solve all your pest control problems in Tiny, Tay, Simcoe, Muskoka and beyond.

It’s a little early to be booking yet, but won’t be long before we’re gearing up for spring so here I am babbling about not much of anything so that you’ll know we are in fact still here, and so that all the search engine bots will also know it. Time for me to start posting regularly again, whether I actually have anything interesting to write about or not!

Thanks for stopping by, and if you are looking for help with a pest of some sort, do feel free to drop us an email or give us a call at 705-534-7863.  We look forward to hearing from you. Unless it’s a rat problem. We’ll still solve it for you, but we don’t actually look forward to those ones much!

And we’re back

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Had a great time at NoFishIn Lake, as Ross has taken to calling Lake Nosbonsing, where we were. Disappointed in his quest for walleye yet again! Didn’t see much of anything worth keeping, actually. The only fish that made it to the very nicely outfitted cleaning shack at Birch Hill Camp was a nice-sized bass which “I could have caught at home.” Maybe – but t’wasn’t him that caught the one up there; it was his daughter.

She out-fished us all; more of the little guys, including four too small pike in the same outing that she got the bass, and the only one worth cleaning. Clearly the champ.

Me, I think when you’re going to lakes you’ve never been to, a fish-finder is pretty much a necessity. We have two that came with the boat but neither works. Thinking to buy Ross one for his birthday next month but he wants one that is really really SIMPLE and easy to use and I have yet to find anything that straight forward. They all have multiple bells, whistles, etc – and he doesn’t WANT that; he wants to be able to use it all by his own self, darn it!!

View from our cabin at Birch Hill Camp, Nosbosing Lake. That’s Ross with his two grandkids – they went down in the pouring rain to make sure my kayak was secured.

Anyway, we did have a good week – but OMG I was happy to get back home to my own bed and even more importantly, a bathroom with a tub, a fully functional toilet, and a door that closes properly and does not have little boys opening it at will! Next time we’re looking for a cottage to rent I am SO going to remember to ask what kind of bathrooms they provide, and if there are locks on the door. Bad enough we paid so much to rent a cottage that is further away from the water (and with a lesser view, also) than our home is – shouldn’t have to give up privacy, too. Or is that just me?

 

 

 

So – now we’re back and will get back to work and

View from our front yard. 7-June-17 sunset. We are a ~little~ spoiled.

everything caught up within the next few days. Keep waiting on carpenter ants to slow down, but they don’t seem inclined to do that, especially in Tiny and Tay. Starting to get a whole lot more wasp calls this week – fall must be on its way.

And bat calls too!! Happy to hear that the bats are coming back … hopefully a good sign that perhaps the white nose fungus that has been decimating Ontario bat populations is waning? Once can only hope! But we have started seeing them outside our own home in Victoria Harbour, and we have received quite a number of inquiries about them already this year, so finger’s crossed.

Got pests? Other than the ones you brought into the world yourself? Give us a call at 705-534-7863 or email me at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com.

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.

 

And we’re off…. and running, that is

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I finished work Friday – well, aside from dealing with ~I don’t like my mark~ emails!

It’s like y’all knew that – today has been hopping with lots of little-critter issues – and even better (depending on one’s perspective), the rest of the week is starting to fill up as well. Works for me – got lots of Judge Judy episodes to catch up on! Joking – I have plenty of other things to keep me busy in between your phone calls and emails.

Got pests? As long as they’re not the ones you brought into the world, give us a call and I’ll be happy to send Ross over to fix them for you: 705-534-7863. Or you can email me at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com, or use the handy-dandy quote form up there…whatever works.

Apparently a full day’s work means ~someone~ is hungry enough to start cooking his own dinner …. guess I’d best get moving.

It’s about that crunch the morning after….

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It’s a beautiful morning in cottage country…you grab your coffee, eyes not quite open, and step out on the deck in your bare feet…and  “crunch” .  You just crushed a small but gooey number of the zillion shadflies that have magically appeared overnight and glued themselves to every square foot of your deck, your comfy chairs, your windows and your siding.

Since shadflies are attracted to light, there are a couple of things you can do to help keep them away from your house:

  • Try changing the colour of your bulbs from white to yellow, or even move your outdoor lights away from your cottage so that they won’t cling to your deck, windows and siding.
  • Close your curtains or pull your blinds after dark to prevent them from being attracted to the lights and gathering around your windows.
  • Insect light traps that use UV light may help to keep them away from the cottage.

The best way to clean them up – a broom and a dust pan.

Another alternative is to give Ross a call at  705.534.7863, or email us at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com – he can help with the crunch.

Mouse in the house? Bats in the Belfry? Spiders in the Shower?

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In our neck of the woods pests are INEVITABLE especially when you don’t live here all year round.  There are two ways people deal with this problem – WHEN it happens – or BEFORE it happens.

What do WHEN it happens – bees, wasps, shadflies, bed bugs, fleas, spiders, mice, bats or ants – what ever it is, YOU got them!!!  Give Ross a call and we’ll come and solve the problem.

Calling Ross BEFORE it happens, is an alternative solution that has many different upsides.  At Cottage Country Pest control, we use what’s called Integrated Pest Management systems to effectively control and eliminate the pests that are specific to your environment before they become a problem.

We believe that an ounce of prevention is always better than a pound of cure – especially when it comes to your homes, families and pets.  A preventative (non-reactive) approach to caring for your property will you give peace of mind knowing that:

  1.  You won’t have any surprises when arrive for the weekend with guests in tow and
  2.  We’ve used an environmentally friendly approach to dealing with the problems – so you and your family are not exposed to unnecessary chemicals.

How our service works:

  • Inspection – to find out what, where and why
  • Sanitation Recommendations – to eliminate pest food and havens
  • Exclusion – Keep pests out by screening and sealing
  • Cultural Controls – to change what people do that create the pest problems
  • Biological Controls – attack pests where they live with biological measures
  • Judicious use of Pest Control Materials on an as needed basis rather than liberally applying as is done in the case of an emergency
  • Education – if you understand the causes of the problem, you can prevent it from happening.
  • Communication – We make sure you know what’s being done, when it’s being done and why it’s being done.

Whether you are a WHEN it happens or a BEFORE it happens kind of person, know that the problem is INEVITABLE and we can help.  Give us a call 705.534.7863 or send us an email ccpestcontrol@gmail.com.

Don’t let the Bed Bugs bite…

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A common saying between parents and their children…but a not so funny situation if you have them.

Bedbugs are tiny little bugs with no wings that feed on the blood of humans and their pets at night.  These mini vampires can live as long as a year and half without feeding and are very difficult to get rid of because of this.  In addition their size and flat shape allow them to hide behind wallpaper and in tiny little places that are hard to reach.

Bedbug bites may take up to 14 days to appear and are normally found around the face,chest arms and legs – but can appear anywhere on the body.  Most people do not have severe reactions and an antihistamine and/or antibiotic creams usually do the job.  Should you have more than an itchy bite – please seek medical care.

If your are a DIY kind of person…because we always try to provide a DIY option – trying to get rid of these little bloodsuckers is a nightmare akin to cockroach control and after looking at the suggested process – you won’t be saving any money and the rate of failure is high.

DIY Steps to checking to see if you have a problem – Health Canada has an excellent step by step set of instructions  http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/product-safety-securite-produits/pest-control-products-produits-antiparasitaires/pesticides/tips-conseils/bedbugs-punaises-prevent-prevenir-eng.php

If you believe you may have a bedbug problem – please just give us a call  705-534-7863 or send us an email at ccpestcontrol@gmail.com Ross is always happy to help solve your pest control problems.