Do y’all care? Probably not really, but that’s okay – I’m happier with it now, even though I might have said some bad words while doing it.
The thing was that I had hired someone to redo it for me last year? The year before, maybe? I don’t know! But they made it SO much slower and harder to work with and I was constantly having to play detective to figure out where to change what.
I actually love doing the detective thing – figuring out where the critters are getting in, or why they’re doing what they’re doing – that sort of thing. But spending an hour digging through stupid stuff to find the place where I can make a minor change? Not so much!
So, I kicked Elementor to the curb and started over – sort of – with a nice clean (boring) template. i might muck about with colours and backgrounds and stuff someday. But it’s not a priority right now.
The other change the developers made was that they basically hid my blog so that it wasn’t even worth updating it any more. So that was annoying and had to change. I know it’s no longer going to help my search engine results as much – it’s all about AI now . My writing will never rank high with AI – but that’s actually okay by me. Personally I think AI is mostly not very intelligent – and artificial is not terribly interesting, either.
And it’s kind of appalling how often it pulls up absolutely wrong information on Google, too! I keep asking for updates about In2Care – but according to Gemini, it’s already available in Canada, but only to licensed technicians. OOOH – just looked again and it’s finally corrected itself. How impressive.
I do not understand why Canada is being so slow to make it available for use! Products that can save pollinators and reduce the amount of pesticides that get into the water should, in my opinion, be fast tracked.
Honestly, I’m starting to think like a conspiracy theorist about the delay. At least in Ontario, they took most pesticides away from landscaping companies and they all jumped to mosquito spraying. Did they agree not to allow in2care in? Because between in2Care and Mosquito-Less, environmentally responsible mosquito control next to no one would need broad spectrum products for mosquito control.
But if we took pesticides away to reduce the amount of pesticides in our environment, how does it make sense to allow a whole bunch of people who do not have even need to have mosquito licenses to run around spraying waterfronts with Dragnet or Prelude?
Both of those products are highly toxic to bees, and toxic to other insects, birds, & wildlife, and neither is supposed to ever be sprayed in such a way as to allow it to enter lakes and/or rivers.
We use Mosquito-Less, which is a very effective garlic concentrate. It doesn’t kill mosquitoes, but rather, repels them. Mosquitos (and ticks, too) do not care for the smell of garlic and can smell it in the environment for as long as 4 weeks, even though we humans will only smell it for an hour or two after it is applied. It’s biggest drawback is that it doesn’t last as predictably as Dragnet or Prelude do. Depending on how much rain we get, it may need to be re-applied. That’s a pain; I get it. But for me, it’s worth it to be helping my customers to enjoy their properties without harming the environment.
I know – I’m bad at the whole business is about profits thing. We could make a lot more money if we did things the way many others do. Quick in and out; spray, bait, send invoice (yes, I still suck at that!) buh-bye. That IS the way to make to higher profits.
BUT it doesn’t work for me. Or Jessa, either. We like investigating and solving pest challenges. And we like knowing that we’re doing things the best possible way. We can take pride in knowing that we are accomplishing so much while caring for our environment.
So yeah, we might need to do an extra spray, or to visit more than once (IPM demands follow-up) or to use a product that maybe costs a bit more because it is better for the environment. And we are fully aware that using bait to wipe out the carpenter ant queen; sealing up the holes to keep the mice out; and dusting under siding, cracks, and crevices; costs us customers – we regularly put ourselves out of work!
But there’s something to be said for being ethical & doing the right thing(s), don’t you think?
