Peskies Pest Control Birmingham Alabama Podcast

In this Peskies Pest Control Podcast episode, hosts Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin assist a Georgia homeowner, Laura, with a persistent Asian Lady Beetle infestation. We explain that these “occasional invaders” swarm southern-facing walls in autumn to overwinter, often returning to the same structures due to lingering pheromone trails. To address the problem, we recommend an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy that combines structural exclusion—sealing cracks and poor door seals—with the application of insecticidal dusts in wall voids and fast-acting liquids on high-activity exterior surfaces. While Laura was previously told that vacuuming was the only solution, the Peskies team asserts that a professional protocol can achieve a 90% to 95% reduction in the beetle population. Watch this YouTube Video! Podcast Transcript:Michael Wienecke: All right, so here today on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we have got a guest—Laura from Georgia. She put a form out on our online fill-out form and said her issue, what she was having an issue with. No one in Georgia could take care of it. Saw a YouTube video that Travis and I had made, and so she came, she wants to come on the podcast and just talk about this issue, which is Asian Lady Beetles. So here she is.Travis McGowin: All right. Welcome, Laura.Laura K: Thank you! Nice to be here.Travis McGowin: So Laura, we understand that you’ve got a pretty extreme—I was about to say German cockroaches! We were talking about those earlier—but Asian Lady Beetles. I mean, who knew? Now is this your first run-in with them that you've ever really had?Laura K: Yes. I’ve never had them—you think they’re ladybugs until you have hundreds or thousands of them and they bite, and you know that's not a ladybug.Michael Wienecke: Did you have any reaction to the bite?Laura K: No, just hurts. And they're not aggressive; they just bite if they get stuck, like under a sleeve or something, but it's still not good.Travis McGowin: Now have you been in Georgia your entire life or…?Laura K: No, I grew up in Virginia… in rural Virginia, so I’m used to bugs and rural areas. And then lived in New Jersey for 10 years, and then we got cold and it was expensive, and we moved to Georgia in 2004. So we’ve been in Georgia since then.Travis McGowin: That's pretty impressive though that you've lived several different places and still up to this point haven’t really had any kind of run-ins with these things. And it feels like—Michael, see if you agree—but I do feel like now over the last probably four or five years, they’ve actually seemed to be getting worse. That's just from my take on how many I've treated and seen. Would you agree with that?Michael Wienecke: 100%. Me and my wife went to Georgia, I do not know exactly where, but it was very similar to your pictures of your home—beautiful home by the way, up in the mountains and all that—but we were bombarded by them. My wife, obviously, it's not something that… they controlled them a lot better than what was outside than what was inside the condo/cabin where we were at. So I think they were doing something. But yes, like Travis said, we’ve had such hot winters. It’s just been extremely hot winters and we normally see a much larger pest infestation or we start seeing a lot more aggregation of pests inside homes in the summer.Travis McGowin: So these Asian Lady Beetles, they fall under a category in our world of trying to overwinter in a warm place. They’re one of a couple—you’ve got Asian Lady Beetles, you’ve got the Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs…Laura K: Stink bugs are all there too, yeah.Travis McGowin: Right, absolutely. So they come into September, October, they start to look for a place to overwinter and ride out the potentially colder weather, which in Alabama we've had like three days of cold weather and the rest has been miserably warm or humid. And I'm sure North Georgia might be better, but Georgia itself is probably not too far off base of what we've been seeing.Laura K: No, it's been a mild winter, yeah.Travis McGowin: Yeah, they creep in and they just try to take over. They're just looking for a place to hang out and they come in droves.Laura K: They do. They fly, yeah.Michael Wienecke: Well, they're called occasional invaders for this reason, that they come in right around that time and then they drop off at a certain time, and then the next year they come right back.Travis McGowin: Right, so, but from what we’ll discuss and from what you’ve experienced, I feel like come next season for these pests, you’ll probably be a lot more well-equipped to deal with them, especially having some understanding about what it is you’re dealing with.Laura K: I hope so. I've got… that’s why I wanted to talk to you guys about it, but also just to come up with a plan for the next six months to start the prevention because I know they’ll come back. I think they’re trying to get out of the house from what I’ve read. And so they get trapped inside now and they die everywhere. And so they are, I guess, trying to get out, but then they’re going to come back in the fall and swarm again. And they swarmed like… you had to walk like you’re swatting them to get up to the house. It was terrible. And I don't think the previous homeowners did anything. I think they were very much more laid back than we are.Travis McGowin: Well, and as with most any pest, on the very basic level, the first thing we always like to take a look at is how are they getting in and what can you do about that? Before any type of chemical application, before any type of pesticide or what have you. I don't know if you're familiar with the term “Integrated Pest Management” or IPM, but in your research you may have seen it or heard it. So IPM is really, really big on cutting the access points off for whatever it is you’re having a problem with even before using anything to basically harm them or kill them or whatever it is. So, judging by what we saw from some of the pictures that you sent us for your house there… you’ve probably got a decent amount of access points around.Laura K: Oh yeah, for sure, yeah. And we’ve tried to seal up windows and doors as best we can, but I think our next step is going to be to hire a painter to just come and caulk the entire house. Like everywhere—outside, inside, if you guys think that would help. But just all those little cracks and crevices because it's an older home and it's got a lot in it.Michael Wienecke: Well, and that's what I wanted to pull up the pictures and talk about too, because there are a few areas, and I’m really hoping because I’ve bet a lot on this in myself, but where these little guys are hanging out mostly in your house. So, right-hand side right there on the deck ledge, is that where you're getting most of the activity?Laura K: Yes, around those doors and that window on the right. Both of the two windows on the right side, but really the one on the right side mostly—right is… they're everywhere. That corner. That lighter colored wood right there.Michael Wienecke: Yes, that shingles, uh-huh.Travis McGowin: Now which direction—can you advise us which direction that part of the house faces?Laura K: That is… it faces south.Travis McGowin: Okay, so being that it’s a southern-facing direction, of course sun rises in the east and then sets towards the west, it's probably, I would dare say, probably receives the most amount of sunlight more so than the rest of the house. Obviously more so than the opposite side.Laura K: Yes, it's been a mild winter.Michael Wienecke: So tell me what your other pest control companies have done to try to get rid of this problem for you as far as treatment?Laura K: They have come out and just sprayed. They sprayed the eaves, the windows, around the doors… they were just out last week.Travis McGowin: So when did they start doing that?Laura K: We’ve only owned the home since November. So they came shortly after when we moved in with the ladybugs and were needing help. So they came probably late November and sprayed, and then I called them and said come back and they did and it didn’t, you know…Travis McGowin: So that—that's the kicker right there, and I'm glad you—I'm not glad you're dealing with this, but I'm glad you said November because it probably hit the nail on the head of what I was thinking in my mind, which is: so they start to migrate in in that September-October range. So by the point that you guys purchased the house, they were already there. Now I'm not going to say you didn't end up with more like you said, they've swarmed and you're swatting at them and all that, but if you don't catch it from a chemical application standpoint on the exterior of the house before they get there, then they're already inside.Michael Wienecke: It is much more difficult to deal with them once they’re already, like he said, established. Because they’re going to put off that pheromone and they’re going to just start kind of coming in there in droves.Travis McGowin: Right. So this is kind of the point in question that we're talking about, that second floor. How are the door seals around that bottom?Laura K: They’re really bad. The doors need to be replaced, we just can’t afford to do it yet. But both doors are in pretty rough shape. I mean, you can see daylight through one of them—like through the crack in the middle.Travis McGowin: And they probably get baked by the sun a lot. The black trim attracts them, I think, because it's warm through there.Michael Wienecke: My other one was the inside—it's beautiful, but you don't have an attic space. So I would imagine that there's some pretty good cracks and crevices between the tongue and groove where they may be getting in through that.Laura K: They are definitely. And in this corner where the fan to the right is… yeah, that corner, there's tons of them. All over there, all through there. And we tried caulking on our own some of those cracks and crevices and it just got to be too much. So… yeah, I think it needs to be done anyway, it'll look better.Travis McGowin: But let me ask you this. So, I know you had—let’s see if I can find the picture that’s in my mind. All right, so I'm going to show two. So first of all you got this one. Yeah, this was a big one. Right. So I'm going to look at this and then transitioning to this picture. That's why I took that for y’all. Right. So this void space that goes up above the living space of the house right there, how open is that past what we can see?Laura K: I mean, there's definitely places for bugs to get in there. We actually got a Starlink and when we had to kind of put it through this… a different area but same idea, put it through the space between the—that we’re looking at, those empty gaps between the boards there… there were like, you know, layers of them in there.Travis McGowin: The Asian Lady Beetles? Yeah, uh-huh. And so think about this too. So if you've got them in large layers or in large groups inside of those void spaces, something similar to this, and there is any type of gaps, cracks, crevices that look into the living space… so think about what happens at night when daylight disappears but the lights come on in the house. Now the only light that these bugs can see is inside your house and what's typically attractive to insects? Right. So, you know, you've got that kind of working against you too. So would you say that in those little void spaces between the boards right there, that any of that sits directly above that tongue and groove that we were looking at right here and that there could be some direct access through those gaps from there?Laura K: There could be, yeah, for sure.Travis McGowin: That's what we were kind of speculating when we first looked at the pictures was that that could also be an issue too. So our speculations have kind of actually been kind of spot on from what we've already been kind of discussing while looking at them. So, but I know that ultimately you're searching for how to make this more tolerable obviously for the upcoming season. So, we kind of hit point number one: that initial exterior application—or for starters, exclusion. Being able to prevent them from entering in the first place is always your best medicine, so to speak, for the problem. And then of course we already talked about the chemical application side being at an appropriate time to catch them before they start migrating to the warm surfaces on the outside of your house.Travis McGowin: Now, if you find yourself in the point where you were behind the eight ball on that and they're already here, Michael, what are some things that we can recommend to her? What are some things that a company might be able to do to help her to help the here and now, now that they're already here?Michael Wienecke: So I mean honestly, the one thing… the spraying, everything that they're doing is fine, but the one thing that I'm seeing they're missing is dust. I mean, you've got dust between the cracks and crevices of—if you want to pull those pictures back up I can kind of talk about that. Which one are you wanting? All of them. All of them.Michael Wienecke: So, to go to the extreme, there are tools that we have that we can put a duster and dust the gable vents, we can dust around the roofline. We've had situations in the past where a customer's had a hole in their roof and they've had Asian Lady Beetles and we're having to combat with water getting in a home, and the dust really does a really good job. So I'd dust around those cracks and crevices where that beam's coming out on that other picture, Travis. That one right there. So where the beam is coming out of the house itself, I'd wonder if you could get some dust behind that, behind those light fixtures if there's any way that we could pull that off, dust that, and get a good bit of dust behind all these areas that these beetles and other pests—roaches and other things—are going to congregate.Travis McGowin: And when he says dust, what we're referring to is an insecticidal dust. Very, very fine powder, doesn’t absorb moisture. Once it goes into a void space like an attic or a wall void or wherever, it is there for a really, really long time.Michael Wienecke: Well, our breakdown of products—and I believe I told you over the phone—is that, you know, the sunlight is going to be the biggest breakdown of our products. UV light is going to break that product down faster than moisture, rainwater, any of that. UV light. So being in that attic space or that dark environment, it's like Travis just said, it's going to be there for a long time.Travis McGowin: So, some other things too right here that I'm just while I'm pointing this out: so, you know, you've got the light fixtures on either side of the double doors, looks like you've maybe got an outlet right there on the lower right wall there. So those are some other places too, if they're not caulked around very well, that you could dust behind those as well because these insects will go ahead and go past these fixtures where they come out and work their way down into the wall voids and hang out in the wall voids too.Laura K: Does the dust have something that attracts them to it or do they just happen upon it?Michael Wienecke: It’s a contact poison. So there’s no attraction to it.Travis McGowin: No, there's no attraction, yep. Basically, the way this works is that it's puffed into wherever it's going to be applied to and then it floats and settles on whatever surfaces are in there. So if it's in a wall void, it's going to float and settle on the sides and down into the bottom of the wall void or whatever insulation's there. And so basically these insects, whether it's Asian Lady Beetles, whether it's roaches, they're going to track through that product and then a lot of insects groom themselves. So when they track through it and they walk through it, they groom themselves and it gets all over their body—or they may just walk through it and it scrapes their body across it, and then their body will absorb it and then that's what eventually kills the insect, yep.Michael Wienecke: It starts to kind of dry them out too. I mean, if the exoskeleton gets damaged, like Travis just said, they’ll start to not retain water as well and all that kind of stuff.Travis McGowin: Right. So definitely I'm glad you were talking about the door seals needing to be remedied.Laura K: We thought about even just putting plastic over them. A lot of people do that in the wintertime.Michael Wienecke: Well, my question too is how much insulation is that between that cedar board and that brick? Because that's on the other side of the wood, correct?Laura K: I guess, we have no idea. Probably not much. I think the previous owner did like a foam… because there’s other parts in the room that we could see that were unfinished and it was like a spray foam, hard, you know, it hardened. I think that was insulation he had in there.Michael Wienecke: Okay. All right, and so let's move on. Can you kind of give us a descriptor of what where this might be? Is this still up on the second floor?Laura K: Yes, all the living space is on the second floor. And this is in a bedroom. If you’re looking at that picture of the outside of the house and the deck was all the way in the right, this is the window counting from right to left, it’s the third window—right before you get to the smaller window there to the far left. And that's a bedroom. And then yeah, and so it got better when we sealed up the window with some—I don’t know what you call it, like sealant caulk—but the stuff you buy in a roll. But they were in there… we were up there last weekend and they were coming in or trying to get out or whatever they're doing, there was a lot more because it was warm last week.Travis McGowin: Right. Okay. And then now I'm assuming this is also off the deck, so off the second floor? So this is a kitchen area?Laura K: East. And there's not too many that come in there. There's a couple, but not terribly bad. And this is still in that same area as that last picture then? Yep, and that's in the kitchen area too and same thing. We get a couple in there but not like we do in the other room.Travis McGowin: All right, so certainly dust applications are great, especially for void space. You can’t just go dust everything in the house, that’s frowned upon for sure. But chemical application around gaps, cracks, crevices, eaves, doors, windows and all that on the outside, dust in void spaces. But then, of course, obviously like in your situation, you still run into that little problem is that they were there already invading before you guys got there in November.Travis McGowin: So one other thing that I like to point out too is that unfortunately, yeah, we do run into those problems to where the insect is already there and it’s like, okay, well what do we do now? They’re going to have to vacuum them up when they die, but we want to expedite their funeral process, so to speak. Because we know they're going to find their—they're going to try to find their way to a light source, which is usually going to be a window or door. Liquids and aerosols around those areas where they're trying to congregate are great.Travis McGowin: One of the liquids that we use, I promise you after I apply it, if there's active Asian Lady Beetles in those areas, I promise you within a minute or two they're starting to drop and they're starting to die. And so if you're going to be stuck with them, at least having to clean them up or vacuuming them up, you might as well do it when they're dead. They're not flying and crawling everywhere. And that usually works out really well in starting to knock down the population because that's where they're going to go.Laura K: Where and how do they reproduce? Are they laying eggs in the walls or are they like out in the woods?Travis McGowin: So I would say that I have never personally seen them like babies in a house at all, ever.Michael Wienecke: It’s going to be coming out of the woodland of the trees. I think their breeding cycle is all completely done before this invasion ever starts. Because I've never seen any type of larva or anything like that. They've always been those the same size, that red to off-red orangeish color.Michael Wienecke: This is not something that, like mosquitoes or something, where you can cut off the life cycle—it’s an every 21-day life cycle, every 30-day life cycle, something of that nature—it's a seasonal issue. So that's why they call it an occasional invader, because it's something that we just don't see. And if we had a proper winter—1993 here in Birmingham for us or something—then we might not have near as a problem like we talked about here at this time of the year.Laura K: Was going to ask would mosquito fogging help prior to, but I guess not, yeah.Michael Wienecke: No. And the protocol really, I mean, it's fairly simple. You're going to come in, we're going to treat around all the windows interior and exterior, we're going to dust in the cracks and crevices and the voids, we're going to treat around the outside perimeter, we're going to make sure to do a really nice spot treatment on that sunny side of the house that we kind of talked about before. I have done three or four this month for the same issue that you've had, kind of the same “oh, nobody can get rid of them,” and the first treatment we've got a 90% reduction. The second treatment I haven't had a callback yet, so I would hope it's a 95% reduction because that's what we're aiming for.Laura K: That’s awesome.Michael Wienecke: Well, we're already looking at opening a branch and going over there and all that, you know, we're ready to go.Laura K: I have told everybody I've run into—because this is a new part of town for us up in Jasper—and I met with the tax assessor about something with our property and I'm like, “Hey, okay now we did that, can we talk about these Asian Lady Beetles?” I'm asking everyone who comes over—the propane guy—like, “What do you do?” And the solution, I'm like, the person who figures this out is going to be very wealthy.Michael Wienecke: Well, we talk about on the podcast information that's to help you as the customer and just to be able to help anybody that wants to do it themselves or anything like that. And we're just honored that you would reach out from Georgia over and even about an Asian Lady Beetle. We didn't even understand that this was really that big of a—I mean, we get it every year where people call about it, but more and more people are telling us this year like companies are saying there's nothing they can do about it. And we're getting that in Birmingham too, they're just giving up. I think it comes down to a liability standpoint, honestly. I think that it comes down to a time and a liability standpoint. Most companies won’t cover yellow jackets because of the liability and the time. I built this company on customer service and customer satisfaction.Laura K: Exactly. There's no way in down in Atlanta in some of those old historic homes where they have old money, there's no way they would put up with it. I don't know where they pull people in from, but they don't settle for this stuff.Michael Wienecke: Well, I'd love to talk to your company that's doing it currently and just if they need any help—I don't mean this in a bad way—but any direction on what maybe they could use that they don't know about. Because again, Georgia and Alabama, we have different rules that we have to follow.Laura K: Okay. I'll ask them about it. I'm not sure I'm going to keep them, so give me a quarter.Travis McGowin: If we ever end up in that area though, we will be more than happy to service your home there.Michael Wienecke: That is the first thing I told Travis when I saw your—I was like, “We gotta find a way to get up there and treat this house.”Laura K: Everybody would be… I just met a new neighbor the other day and I asked her of course, “Do you have this problem?” “Oh, they’re terrible, the whole street has them.” And everybody's been told the same thing: vacuum them up, don’t step on them, they release pheromones, they attract more. I'm like, there's so many, how do I not step on them?Travis McGowin: And I'm glad you said that too, because the fact that this can be a yearly problem… pheromones are definitely—you're talking about something that can raise a beacon and say, “Hey, we got a great place, this is a great hotel for us to accommodate during the winter.”Laura K: Which that's one of my other thoughts was: is there any research or anything out there about attracting them away from property? Instead of just the prevention, it'd be a great plan as if you could find a way to lure them somewhere else through pheromones even. I don’t know, I’m daydreaming about this.Michael Wienecke: I would be on an EPA standpoint then where they would be what they could and couldn't put in the air. Because there's so many… I mean, there is millions and millions of dollars that goes into a product's just invention, you know, being thought of.Laura K: UGA extension office, their research and labs, I read everything at the extension office at UGA… and they said the same thing: vacuuming.Michael Wienecke: Wow, that's interesting.Travis McGowin: Well, again Laura, like I said, we greatly appreciate you taking your time and discussing those photos. It was kind of neat to take those assumptions and make them a reality.Michael Wienecke: Yeah, we had fun.Laura K: Glad I could help. Well, I'll send you our… you know, we’re in Georgia, I was my kids are at UGA, so I’ll send you our… I’ll be sure to pass your names along.Michael Wienecke: How about that?Laura K: You guys have a great day, take care. Bye Laura.Travis McGowin: Hey listen, if you guys watching this podcast, if anybody is having an issue with Asian Lady Bugs just like Laura is, I hope that some of the information that Michael and I shared and discussed with Laura, I hope it helps you. And of course if you’re in our coverage area here in Central Alabama or Northern part of Alabama, North Central Alabama, give us a call. I'll go ahead really quick and put our information up: if you're in the Birmingham area, give us a call (205) 470-8161; and then if you are in the Montgomery area, (334) 595-9055. We would love to talk to you just like we talked with Laura. You'll be 100% happy or you won't pay a penny and we're going to do our very best to get to the bottom of your problem and keep you bug-free. The post Listener Deep Dive: Reviewing Laura's Infestation (Part 2) appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

In this episode of the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin begin a multi-part investigation into a severe Asian Lady Beetle infestation at a listener's home in North Georgia.Through a detailed photo analysis, the team identifies critical vulnerabilities in the home's design, including its wood siding, metal roofing, and sunny exposure, which create a perfect environment for beetles to “overwinter”. The discussion highlights how specific entry points—like gaps in vaulted tongue-and-groove ceilings and unsealed double doors—allow thousands of beetles to bypass local “un-treatable” labels. This first installment focuses on why these pests are attracted to specific structures and the importance of an “ounce of prevention” before the autumn migration begins. Watch this video on YouTube! Podcast Transcript:Michael Wienecke: Hey, so here on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we are talking today—we had a listener from one of our YouTube videos about Asian Lady Beetles. She reached out to us. Travis, read exactly what she said. She's been having this problem for quite some time.Travis McGowin: Right, and to give people just a little backstory on that, basically, we have an area on our website that allows people to submit contact cards and ask us to basically reach out to them. And so, Laura had actually sent in a contact card through our website and this is what it said:“Hello, I know we're outside of your service area as we're in Georgia and you're in Alabama, but I watched your YouTube videos on Asian Lady Beetle infestations and it was the first thing that gave us real hope. We have a home here and can't find anyone locally willing to tackle the problem. Everyone just says that there's nothing that can be done. After seeing your approach, it seems like someone should be able to help. If you have any guidance, referrals in North Georgia, or even offer remote consulting, we'd truly appreciate it. Thanks so much for any direction you can provide. We're desperate. Thank you, Laura.”Michael Wienecke: First off, we are flattered that somebody would reach out that far and ask about some of these problems with Asian Lady Beetles. So, she sent us a ton of pictures, so we were just going to kind of go over each picture that we see and go from there.Travis McGowin: Right, so she's got the pictures that she emailed us. We've got them uploaded and we're just going to talk through kind of one by one. Maybe anybody watching—obviously, if you're listening, you won't be able to see the pictures—but you'll hear a description. If it sounds like something, maybe a condition or maybe similar to the way that your home is built, maybe it can kind of give you some insight and some guidance as to some ways that you might could help lessen the problem, prevent the problem. They do seem like they've been a lot worse this year than in the last couple years. We're still having people with issues around here, and we're almost to the end of February.Michael Wienecke: Well, it's all about the seasons, too. I mean, we've had extremely hot weather.Exterior Analysis: The “Sunny Side” AttractionTravis McGowin: Right. So, I'm going to go ahead and pull us off the screen here and we're going to look at the first picture—the outside of the house first. Obviously, a two-story house, porch, looks like there's kind of a non-enclosed carport type area there. Looks like it may even—almost looks like a fireplace right there in the middle.Michael Wienecke: Yes, right there. The little white recessed—Travis McGowin: Right, and I see obviously the chimney has two stacks on it, so it may have an indoor and an outdoor fireplace, I'm not really sure. But, you know, based upon what we're seeing, the house has wood siding. Go back to that other picture. So, let's just talk about—she's having issues with Asian Lady Beetles. With this first picture that I already looked at, I can already—I'll bet it's the front right-hand side of that house right there where the sun's shining on it.Travis McGowin: Well, yeah, that's usually point number one. The vast majority of the people that have a problem with Asian Lady Beetles end up having a problem specifically on the side of the house that receives the most sunlight. The reason for that is because these beetles are looking for a place to overwinter to stay warm throughout the colder weather, and obviously they're going to be drawn more towards a place that has sunlight because it's warmer.Michael Wienecke: Yep, the metal roof too. I mean, it's going to be hot. And also, how sealable is a metal roof?Travis McGowin: Especially with the textures and the different—I guess it's corrugated surface of it—you're going to have gaps. It's not like it's a flat piece of sheet metal. So, if there happen to be any gaps underneath that metal—a lot of times they'll go over an existing roof with metal—there's going to be gaps around the eaves. And especially with a home like this that looks like more of your log cabin style house or wood siding house, those can be a lot more prone to gaps, cracks, and crevices. Especially with wood having moisture, shrinking, contracting in and expanding because of moisture content—sometimes that can even put you at a higher risk.Identifying Entry PointsTravis McGowin: So, we're going to take a look now at another one. Here's another one—this is an interesting one. What's your first reaction here, Michael?Michael Wienecke: So, I would say that we've got a pinch point right there on the left-hand corner. And it looks like it's getting a little bit of water. And then the type of siding—what do they call that, the wooden shank siding—is not going to seal really well up against that trim piece. Being the sunny side of the house, I think that's probably going to be the sunny side of the house.Travis McGowin: I think if you look at the second-floor deck on the right side—I think you're up on that deck looking at the awning on the back side of that house.Michael Wienecke: That's what I was thinking. Rainwater alone just thinking it's kind of pouring off that deck and just running right off the side of that siding.Travis McGowin: So, here's what I see, though. If you look at the way the roofline slopes down, and then you look at the awning coming off, you've got exposed wood right there that runs towards the main part of the house through the roofline. My guess would be that it's probably not sealed up all that great—at least not from the standpoint of gaps and cracks that are large enough for an Asian Lady Beetle to get through.Michael Wienecke: Seeing that picture, I would say that's a really good harborage. And of course, if they've got a water issue going into that area and it's hot, it's going to kind of heat that up and just kind of make it a really great environment for all pests.Travis McGowin: Well, and then I've got this angle too—so you can kind of see that second-floor side again. Also keep in mind that those two sets of the double doors there—if there are gaps or cracks in the seals in the center or around the doors—if this is the sunny side of the house, that might be a reason why they could be worse in that second-floor room. And then, of course, the bigger the window, the more heat and light it's going to let in, and if you have Asian Lady Beetles inside your home, they're going to be drawn towards those specific areas.Michael Wienecke: Well, and look at the color of the house. The whole color's brown except for that one area is a really light color.Interior Analysis: Vaulted Ceilings and Tongue-and-GrooveTravis McGowin: Right. So, those are the only pictures that I have of the outside of the house, but now we're going to transition over into the inside. In my house, I do get an occasional Asian Lady Beetle—I might at most in a room see two or three at a time. I have sheetrock. But if you had ceilings like this, you might be a little more prone to seeing Asian Lady Beetles. Sheetrock goes from floor to ceiling, across the ceiling, all the edges are really well sealed, taped, mudded, painted. But if you have tongue-and-groove or some type of wooden ceiling, obviously there's gaps, cracks, and crevices.Michael Wienecke: Well, and just judging by what I'm seeing here, it's probably a pretty tight attic space.Travis McGowin: Right, it could be. That vaulted portion—I'm not exactly sure which room that's in—but that vaulted ceiling may not really have an attic space at all. And also, right there where the ceiling meets the brick—a lot of times you've got a little piece of trim or quarter-round right there, but you can still have gaps because nothing's going to really sit flush up against brick much of the time.Michael Wienecke: No, you're right about that. As well as the windows—they look like they're wooden windows. I have wooden windows at my house and out of all of the windows, I would say those are the least sealed.Travis McGowin: Right. And this is just another view of that same room.Michael Wienecke: So that's that room with the light wooding on the other side. I'll bet that that's the area that she's having the most issue.Travis McGowin: Yep. And then if we look, you see vaulted ceiling, definitely the same texture on the ceiling throughout—almost looks like tongue-and-groove or something of that nature. It's very pleasing to the eye, however there's obviously gaps and things that you could see through that. Moving on to what looks like possibly a closet—so it looks like there's almost maybe shiplap or something like that on the wall there. There again, a good bit of gaps, cracks, and crevices for them to come through and hide on.Michael Wienecke: And I can't remember how old she said the house was.Travis McGowin: Right, and it could be older; however, there looks like there's a lot of updated—I mean, recessed lights and things of that nature. Here's yet another room. There again, we've got the wood, not sheetrock, but we've got the wood on the walls. Gaps, cracks, crevices. Moisture causes wood to contract and swell depending upon the moisture content. I see it in my own house sometimes when the humidity increases here in Alabama. I have one door in our bedroom that leads to the master bathroom, and the door doesn't want to close very good because of the moisture content causing the wood in the door to swell a little bit.Michael Wienecke: Right. Well, and like we were just talking about, the wooden windows do the same thing and they're just not going to seal up properly. That room's going to heat up really well and it's going to be hard to control hot and cold compared to a large attic space.The Role of Fireplaces and Double DoorsTravis McGowin: Right. And so, moving on to the next one—this looks like it's probably in the kitchen or something like that. Same throughout—same wood on the walls. That window actually looks like it's just one whole rectangular window. What a view, though!Michael Wienecke: Absolutely beautiful.Travis McGowin: Double doors—big thing about double doors being, and I kind of mentioned this earlier, is that if you have your door seals that go down the center, if the door does not sit flush with the frame, you can have a lot of different entry points or possible access points through that.Michael Wienecke: Yeah, it can be something as simple—I went to a customer's house the other day. We had gotten rid of about 85% of his issue and went back, and his seals on his windows had just—they had cut them just a little bit too short, and just something that small those little guys can slide right on in.Travis McGowin: Right, it doesn't take a very big gap. And then this is just the same kind of a different view of what looks like the master bedroom, maybe. But there again, you got a fireplace. It looks like it runs all the way up above that TV, so it might be a true fireplace as opposed to an insert. I would assume it probably is a true fireplace if it's got a chimney like it does on the outside of the house, and they can come down those as well. You and I, Michael, have both seen an older house that we treated—the one actually in the YouTube video that Laura references—had just hundreds and hundreds of Asian Lady Beetles laying at the base of the fireplace.Can an Infestation Be Treated?Michael Wienecke: Her home was, I would say, older than this home. But just looking at the home, tell me how you feel, but do you think that this home is treatable?Travis McGowin: Absolutely. So, that's why I feel like in a sense where you get people who run a pest control company or operate a pest control company or even just work for one, and they get these questions where it's like, “Okay, can we treat this? Can we do anything with this?” I don't feel like in the pest control world that there should be many times when the answer is “no.” Because even if we couldn't go as far in treatment with Laura's house as we did with the other house that we did the YouTube video on, there's still plenty that can be done. You can always treat gaps, cracks, and crevices around the inside and outside of the house. Most every house is going to have some type of attic space. Attic spaces can be treated. Gaps, cracks, and crevices can be treated with liquids, they can be treated with dusts, aerosols. So, I really feel like you might have to set realistic expectations with the customer and say, “Hey, we can only do so much. I can't promise your problem's going to completely disappear. However, it should be better.” Or what I tell people sometimes is, “Hey, we're going to apply this treatment. I'm not certain we can stop them from coming in—a lot of times when you're seeing them, it's already too late, they've already migrated in—however, I can try to help you only clean up dead ones instead of seeing live ones everywhere.”Michael Wienecke: Well, I mean, you're trying for a 95% reduction is what we like to say because it's a flying insect, right? It can fly from house to house and they are extremely persistent.Travis McGowin: Yeah, they are. Them and the other one that goes hand-in-hand with them is stink bugs. Stink bugs will typically be occupying a house just like Asian Lady Beetles would, and there again, they're looking for a place to overwinter, they're looking for a place to stay warm during the colder temperatures.Treatment StrategiesTravis McGowin: So, you know, let's talk a little bit about specifically treating this house. If you're going to treat the house for Laura and try to help her out here, how do you think you'd start on the outside of this house, Michael?Michael Wienecke: So, first thing is we're going to get the consultation—I mean, that's going to be our most important. Speak to her about where she's seeing them the most. Like I said, we'd talked about that right-hand side of the house. We'd go inside, I'd assess if I could get in the crawlspace—it'd be great to get some dust in there. When I say treat the attic, not the whole entire attic—just around the eaves to those entry points where those pests can get in. Then on the inside, we're going to treat around the windows, cracks and crevices, getting kind of a good barrier around there. Getting an aerosol in between those cracks and crevices that's going to leave us a really good residual as well as killing those little guys on contact.Travis McGowin: Right, and they're going to typically—once they make entry into the house—they're going to typically want to go towards a window because it's obviously warmer if sunlight's coming through, there's light outside, so a lot of times they think they're going towards daylight when in fact they're just stuck behind a glass window.Michael Wienecke: Oh, 100%. Well, and then I mean, it's always good to treat obviously the highest areas where they're coming in. Those beautiful doors right there are very large entry points. Garage doors are always really good spots. Just looking at that window right there, it also looks like it's on the sunny side and it's pretty low grade, so that'd be a really good entry point for them. So again, treating around the base of the home as well.Travis McGowin: Yeah, and just going back to this—now that we've kind of looked through the photos—it's kind of obvious that there's probably not much of an attic space above that second floor that comes to that balcony right there. As you can see, if we swap over to this picture, I believe that's what we're looking at right there. At a minimum, you could at least apply some treatment to this attic space, and around the exterior, if there are gaps, cracks, crevices around the doors and windows, you certainly could treat around those. Even right there where the air conditioning unit is—you're talking about where the lines go into the house—there's a gap usually around there that's sometimes not very well sealed up. So, I think it's very dismissive for a company to say, “Hey, there's nothing we can do, you're just going to have to live with them.” I really do feel like there is some relief that could be sought here and gained here at this customer's property.Michael Wienecke: Well, and then I mean just on the exterior treatment—treating around the windows, treating around the eaves, treating around the walls, treating around the sunny side of the house. You have to follow the label—it's a spot treatment, it's a perimeter treatment. But the label doesn't say that a spot can be to the top of the house or to the bottom of the house; it's still a spot.Prevention and DangersTravis McGowin: Right, right. It reminds me a lot of one of the houses that I have down here in my neck of the woods in the Montgomery area. The customer—the wife—is actually allergic to them, and what some people may not know, the Asian Lady Beetles actually can bite. Yes, they can. I have been bitten on the back of the neck by one actually here in my office. So, I have been on the receiving end of that. But she is actually allergic and has a bit of a reaction to those. So, they live in a two-story house that has wood on it—it's a log cabin style house. And that's the problem that they've run into: the contraction and the swelling of the wood opens up gaps. It doesn't matter how much sealant you put in those gaps, eventually you're going to have to reapply it because of the nature of the wood on the outside. So, come September, October every single year, we really do a good job of treating around the outside. And we haven't been able to prevent them 100%—however, we've made life a lot more livable in their house because of the treatment that we have been able to do.Michael Wienecke: Well, and you have to look at the outside environment, the condition of the home—if it's a wooden structure, if it's a brick structure. We're seeing a lot of issues with this board-and-batten style structure—it just leaves a lot of open cracks and crevices in these newer homes that are being built.Travis McGowin: Right, and unfortunately, the homes are built so fast these days a lot of times. You hope that you've got a great builder and a great set of contractors, no corners are being cut, everything's being sealed in like it's supposed to. And even the best builder may sometimes miss something. You go into these attics that have been spray foamed, and what do you find? You still find bugs. Because even spray foam is not 100% the be-all and end-all of sealing things up. No matter how diligent you try to be to seal something out, unfortunately, if it wants to find a way in, a lot of times it will find a way in, even with spray foam trying to inhibit that.Michael Wienecke: Oh, you're not going to seal Asian Lady Beetles out. It's not going to happen. You have to do a combination of, I would say, decluttering your gutters, making sure there's not a hole in your roof. I think I had them so bad, I discovered I had a water leak in my roof. So just things of that nature. If you're having these issues and you may or may not know it, it's going to be hard to get rid of that issue even with treatment.Travis McGowin: Yeah, and not only do they invade, but they can actually leave some nasty evidence behind that they've been there. I've got a customer—fairly new house, only a couple years old—the house is white, solid white on the outside from the eaves all the way to the ground. They had a wave of these Asian Lady Beetles come in and settle primarily at the highest points of the house around the eaves, and when they were gone, they left this just nasty blackish-brownish film on the eaves of this house that the customer's going to have to have cleaned at some point. So they can make a mess, and then not only that, they can actually cause you to have Asian Lady Beetles year after year after year because, like a lot of insects, they can leave a pheromone that says, “Hey, this is a great spot, this is our new Airbnb—come on in in the fall.”Michael Wienecke: And they can cause house fires. I did see where the curly-cue light—they get in between the light from the heat and they can actually cause it to ignite.Travis McGowin: And we just thought they were just annoying! They can actually be dangerous. That's great.Michael Wienecke: Yes, yes.Final Thoughts: “An Ounce of Prevention”Travis McGowin: But like I said, to kind of summarize it all up, I can understand Laura being frustrated because no matter how many times you clean, you can vacuum all you want to, the next day it's like you never vacuumed, it's like you never cleaned. They're back. Eventually they can't escape, so they just die there in your house, and it is frustrating. I do feel like someone out there could give them some relief. If we were in Georgia, obviously we would be more than happy to go and treat this property for her and get her on the right path to having some relief, too. But I do think in this case, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It's my catchphrase, but it's so true, especially in our pest control world. Because a house like this, or even the one in my area that has Asian Lady Beetles every year, if you know it's coming, applying a great exterior treatment when this wave of Asian Lady Beetles comes through could potentially save you a lot of headache throughout the fall and winter.Michael Wienecke: Definitely. Well, with what we're looking at, I didn't see any of that—the landscape looked good, there wasn't any overgrowth or anything like that. She is on top of a mountain.Travis McGowin: Well, but you know, just from a pesticide application type standpoint, I mean, I think you could come in there probably September-ish, give or take, as long as you weren't already seeing them, and do a good treatment—especially problem areas: gaps, cracks, crevices around doors, windows, the foundation, the eaves, that sort of thing. And probably put a good barrier out there so that when they do inevitably find their way back to the warm side of the house and land on it and crawl, it would probably take care of a good portion of them right out the gate before they ever got in.Michael Wienecke: Well, I'm just glad she reached out to us from Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama. I just thought that was really, really awesome and that's what we set out to do anyway was to help people. So, it seems like that's what we're doing, so we're excited about that.Travis McGowin: Absolutely. The post Listener Deep Dive: Reviewing Laura's Infestation (Part 1) appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

In this podcast episode, Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin from Peskies Pest Control share a startling story about a family who purchased a home only to find a massive bed bug infestation waiting for them. The sellers had actually been living in a camper on the property to escape the bugs, a major “red flag” that was unfortunately missed during the buying process . After the homeowners were let down by a liquid spray treatment that offered no warranty, Peskies stepped in to solve the problem using high-intensity heat. By raising the home’s temperature to 160°F—effectively turning it into an oven—they were able to pull the insects out of the woodwork and eliminate them for good . The episode concludes with a reminder to “buy once, cry once” by investing in reputable inspections and choosing companies that stand behind their work with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Read more about this in our blog post! Watch this vlog on YouTube! Podcast Transcript:Michael Wienecke 0:00 It baffles me that somebody can say they can get rid of bed bugs in one setting with a spray. So just tell me go back over that.Travis McGowin 0:14 All right, right, so we did a bed bug job yesterday. Super nice family. They bought a house. I think it’s been about eight to nine months ago. They, from what they advised to me, that has not been a full year. So they bought this house, and they kind of told me it probably should have been a bit of a red flag when they bought the house, because the previous owners of the house were not living in the house. They were living in a camper in front of the house.Michael Wienecke 0:46 You know, if there were any signs, that would have been the sign.Travis McGowin 0:52 Right, that one definitely, probably would have, would have been like a, you know, a bit of a red flag. It’s like, okay, so you have this house, as opposed to this camper. And maybe, you know, I could get that maybe, if you were doing, like, some serious remodeling or something like that, but, but evidently, they weren’t. So you have this, this house, you know, this three bedroom, one bathroom house, and then you have the people selling it, and they’re not even living in it, but they’re not renovating it, they just don’t want to be in there. So, I mean, that’s at least what I can assume. So anyway, they bought this house, and then come to find out, all of a sudden, they have bed bugs. To their knowledge, they never had them from wherever it was that they were living. So it’s very unlikely that they that they moved and brought something with them. So they move into this house, all of a sudden they have bed bugs. One of the local companies in their area where they live doesn’t touch bed bugs, but they did recommend a gentleman to come and treat them. Claimed that this gentleman is the one that they always recommend when it comes to bed bugs, and so they gave him the card. And so they call the guy. The guy comes out says, Yes, you got bed bugs. I’ll treat it for you. And apparently, from what the customer had advised us, did some sort of liquid treatment. I don’t know what the product was, or how he treated, or what he did, but I think charged them, you know, close to $1,000 and then advise them that they were not going to need a warranty, because this was going to solve the problem, and it didn’t.Michael Wienecke 2:32 I would always say, you know, talk to somebody about their warranty, their guarantee. I mean, we brought up that in the past. It’s just, it’s a really important thing, you know, it’s kind of what, what that company is going to, you know, back themselves.Travis McGowin 2:46 Right, and you’re, you’re going to want to do, and this isn’t even just with pest control. I mean, you can use this in pretty much any faucet of your life. I mean, you know, you probably wouldn’t go buy a new refrigerator if you didn’t think that for X amount of years, it was going to be warrantied for defects or, you know, I mean, there any anything you you want to know that a company that you’re hiring to do a service, or a company that makes a product that you’re wanting to buy is going to stand behind that product in the event that something doesn’t go as planned, something doesn’t work out, or something just fails.Michael Wienecke 3:25 Well, unless question to what the other company did. I mean, did they talk about washing the clothes? Do they talk about, you know, leaving everything inside the house when they were doing the treatment, you know, like with our heat, you know, we give you a full list and of instructions of how to get, you know, the house prepped and ready to go for us to have the best chance to get rid of those bed bugs for you,Travis McGowin 3:48 Right, you know, you’ll probably laugh when I say this, but, you know, it’s like we always tell our guys during training, like, Help us. Help you. Like, get the customer. You know, it’s a partnership. Yes, we are there to take care of these, these pests. We are there, whether it’s bed bugs, German roaches, general household pests, termites, whatever, whatever it is that’s ailing you, so to speak, but we’re there to take it. But it is a partnership.Michael Wienecke 4:15 What’s bugging you. Travis? What’s bugging you?Travis McGowin 4:18 The bugs, all the bugs. So it’s a partnership, though. So you know, case in point, let’s just say you got a really bad German Roach infestation, and we come in to treat but you you know, may not necessarily keep the cleanest kitchen, so instead of the roaches having to contact our product and our bait, well, maybe they’re eating what’s left on the counter or what’s left in the garbage can? Well, it’s going to take a lot longer to get rid of the problem if we can even get rid of it at all, because we’re these are some extenuating circumstances that are not helping us do our job. So in the same token as a bed bug treatment, you know, if the company comes in and says, Hey, you know, we need you to remove. Bed linens, launder them on a high heat. Laundry cycle from washing and dry. And we need you to, you know, remove items off the floor, all these things, these are all things that are going to help you get rid of this infestation. And so help that company, help you.Michael Wienecke 5:18 Well and it, you know, that’s why we chose heat, because we’re able to give that guarantee one one thing. It’s a 90 day guarantee, and that guarantee that we can get you back in your house relatively fast, I wouldn’t say, the very next day, because it’s still a baked potato by the time we’re done with it.Travis McGowin 5:37 The customer’s husband did come home as we were packing up, and it was comical, because he did have some choice things to say about how warm it was in the house. He wasn’t, you know, he wasn’t upset or mad. He knew. He knew we had already advised him. But, you know, it’s one thing to mentally play it out in your mind and go, Okay, you know, they’re going to increase the temperature of our house to X number of degrees, and it’s going to be warm and but 160 degrees in your mind, it’s not doesn’t really seem like a thing until you walk into it, and then it hits you in the face, and then it’s like, oh, wow, it really is hot. So he did. He had some entertaining things to say about it. But, you know, like I said, we had advised them of that before the treatment was ever done, that, you know, hey, when we pack our stuff up and pull our stuff out of the structure, you’re you’re going to need to wait to go in there, because it’s going to be hot.Michael Wienecke 6:39 I did come up with a good idea the other day, we could start selling this to fire departments too, because I felt like I was in a house fire.Travis McGowin 6:47 Right, I mean, you know, we pipe the heat in there through mylar duct work with our propane heater. I mean, the contents from floor to ceiling and everything in between are heating, you know, heating, and then eventually reach this point where we can finally start our timer. And I mean, it was just amazing, you know, when I, when I did the inspection a couple of days earlier. I mean, of course there were bed bugs, but when you start to put the fire to their feet, that’s when they all start to come out of the woodwork. And, I mean, you just, you would be very surprised as that how many you actually end up seeing when they all start to try to find a cooler place to go, and they can’t, I mean, it was just, you know, it’s, it’s baffling to see just how many are actually in there that you didn’t find because they’re so good at hiding.Michael Wienecke 7:40 Well, and that’s why during inspection, I mean, one to 50 of bed bugs, of that. I mean, how long does it take before we have just a full blown infestation on our hands? You’re looking at 21 days to 30 days, and you’ve got something that is almost out of control already.Travis McGowin 7:57 Right, and you know, so looking back, when the customer was purchasing the property, and they, you know, came on site to see that there was the previous owner living in a camper. Well, Michael, as you and I both know, just from being in this profession long enough and dealing with bed bugs long enough, there’s a high likelihood that one, if they were living in that camper to avoid bed bugs. They probably had bed bugs in the camper too, because if they pulled any of their belongings from that house to put them into that camper, they probably brought some bed bugs over there with them. It’s super easy to do.Michael Wienecke 8:36 Karma is a…Travis McGowin 8:39 Right, especially if they didn’t, and I’m assuming they did not disclose any of that to the to the buyers when they bought the house, you know. So it’s unfortunate. You know, it does happen. Obviously, if someone’s looking to sell property, then they’re trying to get rid of it. And you know, unfortunately, people don’t necessarily disclose all the problems, whether it’s structural or electrical or plumbing. And of course, that’s why we have, you know, some inspections. You know, you got a home inspection. Of course, you know, a pest inspection, as a lot of people call, is usually limited to termites or wood destroying organisms. But you know, I’d like to say that even, you know, even if we were called to do an inspection, a wood infestation report, or wood destroying organism inspection on that house, we would have probably went, they have bed bugs, even if everything was out of the house. I mean, there was still plenty of signs there were bed bugs around the top corners of the ceiling. Just there was, there was a pretty, pretty decent amount in there.Michael Wienecke 9:43 Well, and going back to other podcasts we’ve done about just the inspection process and all that. I mean, this is why you pay that little bit of money up front. I mean, you know to varies, but three to $600 is a is a pretty cheap price to pay to make sure that you don’t have all these issues or whatnot. You know?Travis McGowin 10:03 Well, a person’s home. Usually, I don’t know yet. I don’t know if you priced a new vehicle here lately. So this may not be true. This may not be true anymore.Michael Wienecke 10:13 $120,000Travis McGowin 10:15 But typically, most people’s most expensive investment is their home.Michael Wienecke 10:22 100%Travis McGowin 10:24 But like I said, vehicles have really shot up. So let’s you know, I don’t want to leave anything off the table there in terms of vehicles could be more expensive than a house sometimes, but that’s your most expensive investment. And so if it’s something that is my most expensive thing, I’m probably not going to cheap out on something that’s going to make sure that I’m buying a quality product, a quality property. I’m just, I’m just not, you know, I’m not going to cheap out on that. I mean, you can cheap out on ketchup, you know, instead of buying the name brand, you could buy the store brand, or mustard or ranch or something like that. But when it comes to a property, I’m probably not going to cheap out and try to find the lowest bidder on an inspection. I’m going to I’m going to try to find the most reputable company to do it, or the most reputable inspector to do it, and even if that costs me a little more money, that reputation of being able to sniff out problems or disclose problems is going to be well worth the extra money paid.Michael Wienecke 11:26 100%, I mean, a really good guy No. Larry short, he always told me, it’s a stupid tax, right? So if you, if you do something, and you try to cheapen out on doing something, eventually you’re probably going to end up paying something a little bit moreTravis McGowin 11:46 AbsolutelyMichael Wienecke 11:47 Shout out to Larry.Travis McGowin 11:48 You know it’s, it’s the the old saying, buy once, cry once, right?Michael Wienecke 11:53 Yes!Travis McGowin 11:54 You know if I’m going to shop for something, and I know that this one thing checks all the boxes, or this other thing over here checks a couple of the boxes, and I can get by with it, but it’s likely down the road I need to buy this one, and eventually I’m going to have to buy this one. So why not buy this one now and go ahead and get everything that it is that I need so that I’m not paying double the price because I was cheap in the in the beginning.Michael Wienecke 12:21 Well, in this guy that treated the house before for bed bugs, it’s he didn’t give them any kind of information on what he was doing or how he was doing. It seems to be he was nowhere to be seen after whatever he did failed. So again, it just it do some do some research on who you’re hiring.Travis McGowin 12:44 Yeah, absolutely, you know. And do some research on who you’re hiring. Do a really good interview. Get all those questions, write all those questions down, have everything that you want to know on the table if you had a bad experience previously. These were the things left undone, you know, and what is it that that next company that you’re going to hire, what is it that they’re going to do about it? Do you handle this? Like I said when I when I first inspected this house and spoke to that customer, they had some really great questions. You know, really listened and, I think took notes and jotted down everything that that I said, and then one of the top questions, and I know they asked this because the previous guy did not offer them a warranty, but that was one of the first questions they asked after I got kind of done looking at everything, was “What’s your warranty?” And I like that. I hate that it had to come to a second company coming out to get them to that point. And I wish that they could have had that experience the first go around and been bed bug free after that. But ultimately, you know, that was that was that question that said, Hey, I expect you to have a warranty, I expect you to stand beside your product and your treatment. And I have a very sneaking suspicion that if I would have said, “Oh, we don’t have a warranty”, they probably would not have allowed us to step foot on the property of a tree. And that’s a smart idea on their part.Michael Wienecke 14:15 It made me think of Tommy Boy and Callahan Auto, and he was like, “If it doesn’t have a warranty on the box, it’s not any good.”Travis McGowin 14:22 Well, but, yeah. But you know, in that context, in that movie, you know, Tommy Boy basically says, I’m glad your warranty makes your customers feel all warm and fuzzy that they’re buying a junky product with a warranty. So, but in our context, we we genuinely do our best to provide the best service to our customer, and then it’s like our motto. If you’ve seen it on our trucks, you see it on our website, I say it all the time, you’ll be 100% happy, or you won’t pay a penny. And we stand beside that. That’s that, right there is even better than saying, you know, hey, we’re going to warranty this for 90 Days, and that’s great. But hey, if you’re, if we step on the property to handle this problem, and if given an ample opportunity to handle it for some crazy reason, we can’t, what do you got to lose?Michael Wienecke 15:13 Well, I hate I had a I had a newscaster call me a couple months ago, and he was like, Hey, do y’all really, you know, guarantee your your product 100% and I was like, has it? Was like, Have you ever given anybody of their money back? And I said, we absolutely have.Travis McGowin 15:27 Yep, exactly. It’s one of those things, you know, stuff happens unfortunately, but I always like to throw that in, yes, you’ll be 100% happy, or you won’t pay a penny. But we’re going to strive to do everything in our power to make sure that you are, in fact, 100% happy. We’re not just going to do the once and done and go, Well, I’m sorry I didn’t make you happy. Here’s your money back. No, we want you to get what it was that you were searching for, if you were searching for the end of your bed bug infestation from a heat treatment, and for some reason, we were unable to deliver that on the first go around. Guess what? We’re going to try it again. That’s right, we’re going to do our best to handle the problem, because that’s what you hired us to do.Michael Wienecke 16:17 Well, and that’s, you know, some pest issues do require coming back. I mean, there are some, you know, special situations like that. So you really have to know, you know, I would say, as as well as having a warranty, also knowing that that person knows exactly what they’re doing.Travis McGowin 16:32 Absolutely, and that’s where you know, if you’ve got a company stepping on your property for one reason or another, whether it’s to get your roof repaired to, you know, get a pest control treatment to get a crawl space encapsulated. You know what, whatever it is that you’re needing done on your property, a good thorough interview of that company’s representative, a good check online of of customer reviews, you know, what? What are people in your city saying about that, that company, I mean, and if there is negative, you know, feedback, how did that company respond to it? I mean, negative feedback. You know, unfortunately, we’re all people, and sometimes that’s going to happen. But you know, how does that company respond to it? And you know, when the ball is back in their court, you know, what do they do to make it right with the customer? How do they address it? So, you know, being thorough in your in your check of that company’s background, and then being thorough in your questioning to make sure that they’re going to do everything that you want them to do, and then warranty that product is, is just important.  The post The Camper Red Flag: A Bed Bug Nightmare appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

In today’s episode of the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, Michael and Travis discuss mosquito treatment and prevention for your Birmingham, Alabama property! Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke Hey. So here today on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we are talking about mosquitoes, I feel like spring is in the air. I woke up for the last couple of days with my nose a little snotty and sniffly, and it’s just getting hot. Travis? Travis McGowin Don’t even I’m not ready. No, I’m not I refuse to give up winter. You know, no matter how brutal it actually was at times over the last couple of weeks, I’m still holding on to hope that there’s some kind of residual that’s going to come back and, you know, actually show itself again. Because I, spring and summer are not my most favorite times of the year. Michael Wienecke I am feeling that right now. I was taking my kids to school this morning, and I just, it just feels a little humid out, a little too humid for what it what it should be. Travis McGowin For February. Yes. Michael Wienecke Yes, yes. So you said we were, I know we were talking earlier. You said you saw some mosquitoes yesterday already. Travis McGowin Right, right. I had a customer whose house I went to shortly after four o’clock yesterday afternoon. And as I was getting my products ready and my sprayers to go treat their house, yes, I had mosquitoes buzzing around my head already. And like I said, it’s only February. Michael Wienecke Well, as we’ve seen them, we’ve seen them in December. You know, I’ve been deer hunting before and seen them in a climber so, you know, right there in December, so perfect. I mean, even even in February. Let’s talk about some ways to just help customers, not get rid of them, but just stop them from from being so so bad at their property, far as you know, getting the water, you know, diverted away from their house, like all that kind of stuff. Travis McGowin Right, so, you know, for those that may or may not know, mosquitoes breed in standing, stagnant water. So they, you know, they land on top of the surface of the water surface. Tension holds them so they don’t sink, and they basically deposit their eggs onto the stagnant water. And it can be, you know, as much water as inside of a tire that’s been left there and filled up with water from rain for a while, or it can be as little water as a cap full from, you know, a soda bottle. It doesn’t take a whole lot of water for them to actually be able to reproduce and so it really takes a lot of diligence on part of the customer, a lot of effort on part of the customer to make sure that they do not have standing water sources in their yard, and you and I have both seen it before, these things can range anywhere from, like I said, tires to just trash that’s holding water. Got a lot of customers that live around the lake that cover their boats or their jet skis with tarps. Yeah, the tarps just completely hold the water, and they don’t go drain the water off after a rain, and it just collects and then leaf litter, and that leaf debris that gets in there just makes it even more attractive for them. For a stagnant source, just five gallon buckets full of rain water, rain barrels. People that have rain barrels that collect water from their gutters. Clogged gutters. That’s another big one. Leaf litter and gutters clogs it and it holds water. You know. Just think about it, if you had a gutter on the edge of your porch where you like to go and enjoy yourself and sit out in the evenings or what have you, and you’ve got standing water because it’s not draining Well, the mosquitoes are just breeding right there and then coming down and eating you alive. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Like you mentioned earlier, incomplete drainage in yards. Maybe it’s also an area that not only does it not drain, but it doesn’t get a lot of sunlight, so it never dries out. French drains in yards where you’ve got the drain in the ground, some of those don’t empty all the way, and you just, I mean, you just be creating the next breed of mosquitoes coming through your property. Michael Wienecke Well, that’s what I was going to talk about, hidden, hidden places that people wouldn’t think about. I mean, we’ve seen problem accounts, or, you know, what we’d consider a problem account, where they have a bunch of basins in their yard, all that water is going in there, and it’s hidden. You don’t see all the water that’s just caught in that basin, where it’s, you know, a slow drain and all that kind of stuff. I’ve never understood why they did that. I don’t know why it wouldn’t just be a faster drain, to keep it from getting clogged, I guess. Travis McGowin Yeah, there’s, there’s just so many places that water can be, water can stay and be held in people’s property, and a lot of them can be just overlooked. You know, we’ve got some storage buildings in my yard. I don’t go behind them very often. And and so if I were to stick a bucket back there, even a bucket flipped over that will hold water on the bottom of the bucket that’s sitting up in the air. I mean, that’s enough water to breed hundreds and hundreds of mosquitoes and to really cause a problem, and to really make control efforts a little more challenging, Michael Wienecke 100%. @ell, and I’m glad you said the control. So let’s talk about one way that we, you know, help with controlling the water that we can’t control. So we’re flipping over buckets. We’re moving over. You know, I always bird bass need to be changed out. I would say, you know, weekly, every two weeks, something like that, so it doesn’t build up a stagnant pool. But the control with that IGR is really key on the drains in the yard, such such as that matter of getting rid of that problem, because you can’t control that. Travis McGowin Right, And for those watching listening, IGR stands for “insect growth regulator”, so we use a mixture that has a couple of different active ingredient products in there. And what that IGR does is it is a long term game in terms of mosquito control. So picture, you have a technician come to your house. They treat your lawn and landscape areas with a liquid mosquito treatment that’s got that IGR in it. And so let’s say, after that treatment is dry, the technicians gone, the mosquito lands on the underside of leaves that has this IGR on it. Well, not only is that mosquito now contaminated with that IGR, which is going to take an effect on that mosquito and slowly mess with it to where it can’t breed anymore, but then it’s going to go land on a water source, and it’s going to contaminate that water source too, so that other mosquitoes that touch it could be contacting the IGR, and then those mosquito larva that are already in the water, it should mess with their development, so that they don’t even develop all the way into a biting mosquito as they go and continue to develop. So it’s a great product, and it’s a great addition to a mosquito control program. Michael Wienecke Oh yeah, I’d say its a must have, because if you’re not controlling that, that life cycle, if you’re just killing the adult mosquitoes as they buzz around and get under this shaded area, these trees and, you know, decks and all that, then you’re only taking care of one half of it, or not even less than one half. Travis McGowin Right, and we’re, you know, not only were we applying the IGR in our mixture that we’re using along with an adult aside that’s going to kill mosquitoes on contact as well, but we’re also going back to those stagnant water sources our technicians actively are looking for those stagnant water sources. And yes, you know, you know how it is that there’s some times where those sources can’t be drained or dumped, or, you know, the water be removed so that they’re no longer a breeding site, especially when you talk about areas of a yard that hold a lot of water, that don’t drain properly, or don’t dry. So we also use another product called a larvicide. So Michael, elaborate for the listeners, about a larvicide. Michael Wienecke Yeah, so a larvicide. So you’re going to go around the property, and you’re looking for any areas that you cannot control the water flow, you know, like we said, if you see a bucket, we’re going to can flip that over a bird bath, we can change that out, but something that we can’t, such as a drain in your backyard, front yard, we’re going to put that larvicide in there. It’s good for 30 days. So any breeding mosquitoes that breed in that water, those eggs will never develop into a lot of mosquitoes. Travis McGowin Right, and so all these things are things that can be done on your property. But Michael, as I’m sure you’ve seen before, I and I can give an example, I had a customer who we were trying to do mosquito control at, and it was okay, but it wasn’t as great as it could be. And what we discovered is that the neighbor directly behind that customer’s property, who we weren’t treating, we didn’t have any mosquito service at that customer’s property behind them, they had an old above ground swimming pool. Michael Wienecke It’s always a swimming pool. Travis McGowin It is with about maybe, I would say, a foot or so, maybe a little more of water in it. And the water was a beautiful shade of green, with all types of leaf litter and trash and debris in it. And so, I mean, it was just a haven for these mosquitoes to breed in. And, you know, unfortunately, we can’t control what it is the neighbors doing. Michael Wienecke That’s true. So in terms of control, you know, we like to say an 85 I like to say an 85% to 95% reduction of mosquitoes is a win, because you can still have some mosquitoes, but you’re going to get rid of the majority of the mosquitoes and be. Able to enjoy that backyard. I mean, Travis, you treat your house. I treat my house. We’ve we’ve got some pretty good standing water issues. I know I do. I know in some areas where it rains in your house, you get some little bowl issues in the yard. So I would not, not treat my yard in the summertime. Travis McGowin Right, my kids get torn up by mosquitoes, if I don’t. But you know, that is the good thing about our mosquito control program, especially when you really factor in the use of that insect growth regulator. Like you said, 85% to 95% reduction is great. That’s huge, especially when you deal with some of the amount of mosquitoes that I’ve seen before. I mean, when you walk outside, you’re there for less than a minute, and you’ve got, you know, six, eight, ten, mosquitoes buzzing around your ankles and your feet before you even, you know, can take in the outside that you just walked out to, but that IGR is really great, because obviously mosquitoes fly. They can kind of go wherever they want to, but if they contact that IGR and then, let’s just say that the neighbor across the street has one tire sitting against a storage shed in their yard that’s collecting water that’s become this breeding site that they haven’t addressed, well now There’s that potential that that mosquito could spread that IGR to that breeding site and hopefully render it less effective, or completely ineffective for mosquito breeding, and in that way, kind of extend that treatment over somewhere where obviously we can’t go physically apply something. So it really is kind of a nice additive to put, to have in there, to try to help control because, I mean, you know, no matter how much mosquito control you can do there at the end of the day, like we said, they fly, so they’re not very heavy, so the wind can blow them to, I mean, they can be pushed around and all that too. So I don’t think anybody can really ever promise a 100% reduction in mosquitoes just because of the way that they are. However, I think it’s definitely reasonable to think 85 to 95% reduction for most of the properties we deal with. Michael Wienecke I think that, yeah, I think that’s great. And something that a lot of people miss, too, is gutters. I mean, over in Birmingham, Montgomery, we’ve got a lot of trees, a lot of trees, and over the winter, you know, some people do. Some people don’t get all the gutters cleaned out, or don’t even know that they’re they’re clogged and all that stagnant water. There’s really not a product in the world that’s going to take care of that. Travis McGowin Well, you know, not to, not even going to try to be hypocritical here, because I have two areas with with gutters. Oh, me too, down spouts on my my own awnings on my house, three areas, actually, and it is one of my least favorite chores in the world to get up there and clean them. So much so that, I mean, we even, we even had a rainstorm come in one day, and the gutters were so clogged and the downspouts were so slow at draining that the water ended up actually gushing over the side of the gutter and like bowing it. And just because of the weight of the water, it was starting to bow one of the little beams that holds my top of my porch, or owning up. Excuse me, my owning up. And so, yeah, I hate it that much, and I’ve tried to become a little bit more diligent about it, but it is. It’s really something that you need to stay on top of to make sure that there’s no breeding site up there, because it’s just not immediately in your thought process, because it’s not immediately in your view Michael Wienecke Well, and you can go off and that leads to termite damage on a pest control, it can lead to carpenter ant damage. It can lead to a lot of other issues besides just mosquitoes. Travis McGowin Yeah, absolutely. So it’s like that old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You know, you can, you can get a lot done by just being diligent and eliminating those water sources from around your property, you can get a lot done, and your family will thank you. Your neighbors will thank you. Don’t, don’t be that bad neighbor that’s got 25 tires with all water in them, you know, stacked up, and you’re breeding mosquitoes like, you know, be that good neighbor that’s helping the problem, because everybody wins, everybody benefits. I mean, mosquitoes are known to carry many different viruses that cause many different health hazards for you, for your pets. I mean, Zika virus, all those things you know, your pets can get heart worms. They get them from mosquito bites. So there’s just a lot of benefits from keeping these insects away from your property. Michael Wienecke Well, and didn’t we see some some? Was it encephalitis last year? Travis McGowin Yeah, I think it was going around. I mean, you know, some of the lesser known things that people you know might not be necessarily aware of, like I said, Zika virus, yellow fever, dengue, malaria, is a big one, especially in some of your overseas countries, West Nile virus, all of these things, like you said, encephalitis, and they all come from just a mosquito bite, and it’s a strong possibility that you know they could make you your family or your animals sick. Watch this video on YouTube! Click Here! Learn more about our mosquito control! Click Here! The post Mosquitoes Are Already Back in Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke 0:00 Hey, and thanks for listening to the Peskies Pest Control Podcast. I am Michael Wienecke, owner and operator of Peskies Pest Control, and I have Travis McGowin. How we doing Travis? Travis McGowin 0:12 I’m doing well, how are you doing? Michael Wienecke 0:14 Great man, waiting on the freezing storm to get here. Travis McGowin 0:19 You know, I all the projections early on were completely devastating, and now it’s like North Alabama. Sorry, but everybody else, you’re going to get wet. It’s going to be rainy. So we’ll see what happens this weekend. Michael Wienecke 0:34 Well, and then they’re talking about next week. Could be even worse. So we’ll see. Michael Wienecke 0:38 Yeah, good times. Michael Wienecke 0:42 Well, today we want to talk about something that hasn’t come up very often, and that’s reinfestation of bed bugs. So we had a customer, after what about eight months of doing a heat treatment, reinfested her home? Right? Travis McGowin 0:57 Exactly. So initially, the customer believed that they brought bed bugs into their home by purchasing a quilt from a thrift store, I believe is what it was. I think her daughter had gifted her a really nice, handmade quilt that somebody had donated, and she got it home, took it out of whatever packaging was there, and just immediately laid it across the bed. And that’s the only thing that she can think of that was the reason why she was dealing with bed bugs in the first place. And so, of course, we came in, we did an inspection. She had a fairly significant infestation at that time. It’s a two story house. The, you know, the lady lives by herself, so the upstairs really not even utilized. So we, we treated the first floor. And you know, for all intents and purposes, everything was was really good after treatment up until now. Michael Wienecke 1:57 So let’s talk about the initial so you said she brought a she bought, or she thought she bought a quilt, brought it in and it had one bedbug on it. How? How bad was the infestation when you inspected the first time? Travis McGowin 2:11 So I can’t confirm or deny how many bedbugs were possibly on that quilt when it was brought in. However, I can say that when we did the inspection, it was, it was fairly significant with bed bugs in cracks and crevices on the headboard and the frame of the bed, as well as on the box springs and the mattress. So, you know, it’s, it’s possible that she may have had them and not known it prior to the actual quilt itself being brought in. But you know, it’s hard to tell, especially if you, you know, haven’t paid attention to it, or hadn’t noticed it until it was too late. Michael Wienecke 2:48 Well, I mean, they’re, they’re designed to hide in the tightest crack and Travis. I mean, you’ve seen them, you know, at the gas station, between the little pump joints before. Travis McGowin 3:00 I mean, I have seen them at a gas station, inside of the little booth where the the cashier sits, you know, and rings people up for gas and for convenience store goods there inside a cracker Travis, where a lady that worked there had brought them in her purse and set her purse on the counter, and someone had complained about getting bitten by a bed bug there at the gas station, and lo and behold, there was one bed bug in a very little crevice in the countertop. So they do get around. Michael Wienecke 3:31 Well, and that’s what I kind of wanted to talk about, how hard they are to detect. I mean, you know, one or two bed bugs within not knowing that and then a month goes by, and then you start, you’re starting to multiply, get bit all that. I mean, it can turn into a pretty quick, or I would say, a slow infestation, but you’re just not realizing it while it’s happening. Travis McGowin 3:52 Right, and so, you know, bed bugs can range in size, from the eggs, which are really, really tiny, and then the multiple, you know, nymphal stages, where they grow and then they shed their skin or molt, and then they grow again all the way up into the adult stage. I mean, so they can be a varying range of sizes, I would say, anywhere from the size of a mustard seed all the way up to even maybe close to the size of, just to give people an idea, a watermelon seed. I mean, some of these female bed bugs, especially after feeding and being engorged, can be rather large. So you could see where transferring these bed bugs, you know, from one place to the next, if you came in somewhere and sat down at a restaurant where potentially someone had sat with them in their purse or on their clothing, and they fell off in the restaurant booth, and then you came in next and sat down. I mean, it might be very easy to not even notice that you had transferred these little insects in with you and then inadvertently taking them home. So it’s fairly common and easy to get a bed bug infestation. I mean, bed bugs aren’t selective on whose house they go to. They just know that they need a host, and if they can attach on to someone’s clothing or, you know, say, luggage in a hotel or Airbnb or something like that, then they’ll do it. It doesn’t matter if you live in $100,000 house or a million dollar home. They’re, you know, they don’t discriminate. Michael Wienecke 5:23 No, not at all. I mean, we’ve seen them in Mountain Brook, Hoover, Birmingham, Montgomery, Helena. Travis McGowin 5:32 Wetumpka, Prattville, Deatsville. I mean, they’re like I said, they they can be widespread. You can have the cleanest house on the block or the dirtiest house on the block. It really doesn’t matter. Now, you know, with this particular individual we came in, heat treated the first floor of the home, you know, so that included the master bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, the dining room area, all of that we actually, you know, cooked it really, really well, of course, up to the manufacturer’s recommendations for the system that we use. And then everything was perceived by the owner of the home to be fine for, you know, a very, very long time. And then what basically happened next is, you know, eight months later, we have this. She said that she had went to get a blanket and change her sheets out on the bed, and she noticed a bed bug at that time. She kind of was speculating whether the bed bugs could have been hiding in the sheets in the closet or something like that. But what I’d like for people listening to realize is that it’s not likely that that would have been, you know, the issue of reinfesting because they were hiding in the closet or something, eight months later. So, you know, of course, bed bugs, depending upon their size and how long they are in their development, bed bugs can last a decent amount of time without feeding on a human or having a blood meal. You know, for everywhere from the this sounds terrible to say, but the newborn stage and the younger nymphal stages all the way up to the adults. The younger nymphal stages aren’t going to last without a blood meal more than probably, like, two weeks, give or take. And as they grow in size, they’re they’re gonna last a little bit longer to where the adults, you know, may last. Let’s just say six weeks, eight weeks, something like that. But definitely not to the tune of seven or eight months before they feed again. I mean, most of that population would have have died off, even if they were in the closet. So, you know, we kind of ruled that out, you know. And it was frustrating because, of course, you know, we go to do the inspection, and she’s got another significant infestation of bed bugs. So, you know, it does lead us to believe that it was more of an issue of reinfestation, where, I mean, maybe they were in her chair at work, or maybe, you know, in the car. But you know, it’s anybody’s guess as to where they came back from. Michael Wienecke 8:15 Well, and that’s why we always recommend, you know, leave your purse, leave everything you can in the house that we’re heating because that’s going to give us the best chance to get rid of those bed bugs. So let’s talk a little bit about the heat treatment. You know, how it works, all that kind of stuff. Travis McGowin 8:28 Yeah so we use a propane fired heater, and that heater goes, you know, outside of the house. So, you know, we don’t ever bring propane tanks or the actual unit with the heating element inside, inside your home, but we set up where we have access to run duct work. So of course, we set the heater up connected to all of the propane tanks, and then we run big mylar duct work into the structure, whether it’s through a window or a door, and we circulate that heat into the structure, and then we run mylar duct work from a different point of the structure out back to the back barrel of that heater to recirculate that heat. It’s more efficient. It maintains heat at a better rate. We use less propane, and we heat faster that way. But basically, we run that heat in through the mylar duct works, and then we bring in large fans inside of each room that we’re treating, and we circulate that heat and think of it like an, you know, essentially creating an oven inside your home. Okay, so let’s just say it’s the holidays. It’s Thanksgiving, and you go to put a turkey in the oven. You know that heat is going to be circulating around and moving around inside that oven and cooking the, you know, that Turkey, or whatever it is you’re cooking, and it’s going to slowly absorb into the food that you’re cooking. And, you know, increase the temperature of that to, you know, whatever the set temperature or your desire to. Temperature is to cook at, and it’s very similar that heat is going to be absorbed by anything inside the room, the contents that could be couches, chairs, you know, the walls, the ceiling, the floor, anything in between. And after those items reach the appropriate temperature, that’s when, of course, we start our timer, and then we cook based upon what our equipment manufacturers recommendations are. And, you know, afterwards, by the time we pull out all of our equipment and leave, the bed bug infestation is gone. Michael Wienecke 10:33 Yep. And it takes a whole day. I mean, we’re there for almost a whole eight hours. Travis McGowin 10:40 Yeah, absolutely. And you know that’s, of course, size dependent upon the structure. If we’ve got a structure where we’re treating two floors upstairs and downstairs, or just a very massive layout in terms of, you know, the floor on the first floor, it can, it can take a significant amount of time. And then, of course, you know, what the homeowner needs to realize or remember, is that when you come back into that structure after we’re done there again, we turned your home into essentially an oven, it’s going to be relatively warm for a while as that oven cools off, no different than when you take the turkey out of the oven and turn the oven off at Thanksgiving, and that oven is going to be warm for quite a while before the heat dissipates and cools off and then reaches room temperature again. Michael Wienecke 11:27 And that’s what’s so great about the heat treatment, is that, you know, it’s just, it’s kind of like you said, warming up everything at one time, and then it’s slowly radiating heat into other things. So you’re getting an internal temperature to kill those bed bugs in every inch of that home. Travis McGowin 11:43 Well, and bed bugs are very good at hiding. I mean, they didn’t, they didn’t, you know, stick around for this many years because they were bad at hiding. So, you know, if you had, like, a metal bed frame that’s hollow, you know, hollow tubes that make the frame and that’s got gaps or cracks in it where the joints come in. You got to think that bed bugs can get down into those spaces. So that heat being absorbed into furniture and into the room itself is great because it’s going to get to those places where, say, a normal chemical treatment may not be able to reach, and it’s really the quickest, most efficient way to kill a bed bug population, from egg all the way to adult in, you know, just a few hours, as opposed to going for weeks at a time applying a liquid product, having to wait for those eggs to hatch. Because, of course, no chemical product can penetrate the egg of a bed bug or any insect for that matter. Until it hatches, those eggs are safe, usually, but heat is a whole different story. It cooks them before they ever hatch. Michael Wienecke 12:52 Nukes, the whole family. Travis McGowin 12:55 Yeah, that’s, that’s a good way to put it, you know. And it’s what’s also is amazing. It’s good that you’re heating all the surfaces and the contents in the room, because when the increase in temperature begins, and you and I, Michael, have seen it when we go on site to do these treatments, but when those increase in temperatures begin, those bed bugs that are, you know, able to move, that haven’t hatched, or that have hatched already, they start to move, looking for a place that is cooler for them to stay, so that they can survive. And as you know, when you’re heating all those contents and all those surfaces, they don’t have anywhere to go. It’s pretty wild sometimes, and sometimes you don’t even realize how significant an infestation was until you start to crank the heat up, and then they all start to move. Michael Wienecke 13:41 Out of the woodwork. Travis McGowin 13:42 Yep, I had a college, two college dorm rooms that I treated. And you know, I saw bed bugs when I did the inspection, but when I started to turn the heat up in that dorm room, or both those dorm rooms, it was mind blowing how many bedbugs were actually in this empty, vacant dorm room with, you know, two, two beds? I mean, it was just amazing. You would have never guessed there were that many, but they started coming out of the woodwork trying to find a cooler place to go, Michael Wienecke 14:12 Right. Well, and I’m glad you brought that up about chemical and heat, and that’s why we chose heat. Is because heat is just, it’s, faster, in my opinion, in our opinion, it’s more efficient. We’re not having to go back 2, 3, 4, or five times. We’re not having to worry about a reinfestate or, you know, one surviving and reinfesting the home, anything like that, Travis McGowin 14:35 Right. And you know, there’s only so much that us as a pest control provider can actually control in terms of reinfestation. So for example, if you’re going to work in a place that has a known bed bug infestation, and let’s just say you brought them back to your house, your house was treated, your house was cleared. Obviously there’s a huge potential there to reinfest and so you know, if you find yourself in that situation where it’s like, okay, I can’t live peacefully in my own home, in my own space with bed bugs, but I still have to work in a place where there’s a high potential to bring them home, then there’s really some precautionary things that you probably need to be doing when you come home from work, for example, immediately removing those clothes and laundering them every day. The less amount of personal items, such as a purse or bags or anything like that, trying not to take that stuff with you, you know, because things can crawl in there, and then, you know, hitch your ride home with you. There’s just, like I said, there’s just several different things that you might want to look at doing if there’s a high potential to bring them back with you to reinfest your home. Visit us on YouTube! Click Here! Visit us on Facebook! Click Here! Learn more about bed bug heat treatments! Click Here! The post Detecting and Defeating Bed Bug Reinfestations in Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Join Michael as he interviews Dr. Beau Beard, one of the founders of The Farm! The Farm, which stands for “Functional Athletic Rehabilitation & Movement,” is a facility located in the Birmingham/Chelsea, Alabama area that specializes in chiropractic care, rehabilitation, performance training, and functional medicine! Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke Hey and welcome to the Peskies […] The post The Farm Local Business Spotlight appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke 0:23 Hey, and thanks for listening to the Peskies Pest Control Podcast. I'm Michael, and we've got Travis here, and we are going to be talking about the fire stinging insect that is in your front and backyard that creates unsightly mounds and just causes lots of problems. Travis, what are […] The post Fire Ants Are Invading Birmingham, Alabama Lawns! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke 0:00 Steve, hey, so today on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we would like to talk about solving pest issues without chemical application. So we're seeing a lot of especially this month, last month, with the amount of rain we've had Travis, I think you can, with Montgomery, I think you […] The post Tips to Keep General Pests Away in Birmingham, Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke 0:03 Hey. So here today on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we're going to talk about crane flies or Skeeter eaters. What are some other names, mosquito Hawk, tarantula flyer. I've heard all kinds of names, Daddy Long daddy, long legs, all that kind of stuff. Travis McGowin 0:23 So I […] The post Crane Flies Are Not Mosquitoes in Birmingham, Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Podcast Transcript: Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. Today, I wanted to discuss something that seems to have been kind of on an increase in terms of phone calls that we've been receiving on our phone lines, messages that we've been receiving through our website from customers. So I felt like it was something […] The post Fleas Can Turn Into A Problem in Birmingham, Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Podcast Transcript: Travis McGowin: Thank you for joining us again for another episode of the Peskies Pest Control Podcast. Today, we have a very special topic to talk about. Wildlife, and not just any wildlife, one that causes so many problems, so much frustration, and it's just an overall nuisance to a lot of homeowners, […] The post Keeping Squirrels Out of Your Birmingham, Alabama Attic! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Travis McGowin Did you survive the holidays? Michael Wienecke I did. I did Travis McGowin unscathed. No issues, no, no pests, no family issues. You had a good Thanksgiving? Michael Wienecke No, a lot. You know, we wouldn't be on this podcast. We weren't talking about some kind of pest. Kind of pest issue. And […] The post Fruit Flies Are Invading Birmingham Alabama Homes! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke So today here on the pesky pest control podcast, we are going to […] The post Keep American Cockroaches Out of Your Birmingham Alabama Home! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today on the pesky pest control podcast, I'd like to focus […] The post Peskies Interviews a Customer with Severe Termite Damage in Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Travis McGowin Hey, thanks for checking out our video today as we wanted to go […] The post Wood Infestation Reports in Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today on the peskiest Pest Control podcast, I have my personal […] The post Rescuer LLC Birmingham Alabama Local Business Spotlight appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today on the podcast, we want to talk about something we've […] The post Attics Are Winter Havens for Pests in Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today I want to talk about blowflies. blowflies are disgusting. They're […] The post Blow Flies Are Filthy Insects Trying To Get Into Your Birmingham Alabama Home! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Michael Wienecke Hey, so today I want to talk about powderpost beetles. And if you have ever experienced powderpost beetles, then you know exactly what they do they leave a fine frass powder on the floor, it's normally white, yellow, and that is the signs of powderpost beetles. Travis McGowin You know, a lot of […] The post Powderpost Beetles Can Infest Wood in Birmingham Alabama Homes! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Learn more about the Sleep Soundly Sweepstakes! Click Here! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today on the podcast we want to talk about something we're doing kind of a Christmas giveaway. It's called the sleep soundly sweepstakes. And what it is, is it's a free heat treatment to anybody that applies, wins the contest, and they […] The post Bed Bugs And The Sleep Soundly Sweepstakes in Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Michael Wienecke Hey, so today on the podcast, we're gonna be talking about real estate and I've got my good friend. Chancie Rogers Hey, I'm Chancie Rogers with Chancie Rogers Realty brokered by Keller Williams Hoover. Michael Wienecke Well, Tennessee. So a couple questions for you what got you into real estate? Chancie Rogers Well, […] The post Chancie Rogers Realtor of Birmingham Alabama Local Business Spotlight appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

  Michael Wienecke Hey so today on the podcast we want to talk about dryer vent cleaning and I have my good friend Matt Parker with job town dryer vent cleaning Matt how you doing? Matt Parker Good man how are you? Michael Wienecke Doing great man doing great. So um let's dive right into […] The post Jobtown Dryer Vent Cleaning of Birmingham Alabama Local Business Spotlight appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Michael Wienecke Hey, so today we're gonna talk about the house mouse or otherwise known as the common house mouse. We have some pretty cool video today, we're going to show you a little bit later. But I just wanted to go into detail on kind of the what to look for signs of infestation, […] The post Mice Are A Winter Pest Problem in Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Travis McGowin Hey, so today we wanted to come to you and talk to you just a little bit about ants. Ants are a very interesting insect, they're very strong. I always like to tell my customers that if they were to pull their resources they can most likely and definitely take over the entire […] The post Ants Work as a Team in Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Travis McGowin So thankfully, here in Alabama, the weather is getting cooler. Thankfully, this is […] The post Raccoons Are Invading Birmingham Alabama Homes! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today we wanted to talk about bats, it's getting really close […] The post Bats Are Making a Mess in Birmingham Alabama Attics! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today we want to talk about nuisance animals. Referring to squirrels. […] The post Squirrels Are Damaging Birmingham Alabama Homes! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Travis McGowin So today we want to talk to you about a pest that's going […] The post Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs Are Coming to Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today we're gonna be talking about all things crawlspace. And I've […] The post Crawlspace Medic of Birmingham Alabama Talk About Moisture Control! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today I want to talk about what I would consider the […] The post Birmingham Alabama Customers Need to Pay Attention to Warranties! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Travis McGowin: Hey, so today we want to come and talk about a topic that […] The post Explaining Wood Infestation Reports in Birmingham, Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke: All right, so today we want to talk about a extremely deadly virus […] The post Mosquitoes In Birmingham, Alabama Could Be Carrying Eastern Equine Encephalitis! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke: Hey, so at Peskies Pest Control we are a full termite protection company. […] The post Homeowners May Accidentally Bring Termites Into Their Birmingham, Alabama Homes! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

  Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke: Hey, so today we want to talk about entry points in a […] The post Dryer Vents Are Letting Rodents Into Birmingham, Alabama Homes! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke: So we're in pretty much the hottest part of the summer right now […] The post Silverfish Are Sneaking Around Birmingham, Alabama Houses At Night! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Alabaster, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Travis McGowin: So a couple of years ago I actually had a family friend give […] The post Yellow Jackets Are Invading Homes And Yards In Birmingham Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Today, we wanted to address a question that we get quite frequently from from customers and […] The post How Often Should My Birmingham Alabama Home Be Treated For Pests? appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Hey, so today we wanted to come to you and talk to you about a little […] The post Earwigs are invading homes in Birmingham, Alabama! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Travis McGowin Hey, so it is that time of the year again, where we are receiving […] The post Carpenter Bees Are Drilling Holes In Your Birmingham Home! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today on the podcast, we want to talk about the most detrimental, […] The post Formosan Termites Plague Birmingham AL Homeowners! appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey. So on this podcast, we always like to talk about relevant things that […] The post Are Honey Bees A Problem In Birmingham Alabama? appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so here on the peskiest podcast, we like to talk about real life […] The post Birmingham Pest Control Customer Expectations appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so here at Peskies, we are a small business and we like to […] The post Crawlspace Medic Of Birmingham Local Business Spotlight appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today I want to talk about something a little bit different than […] The post Subpar Birmingham Exclusion Work Explained appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke Hey, so today I want to talk about rodent exclusion, something that I'm very […] The post Poor Exclusion Work, What is it Birmingham? appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Travis McGowin Hey, so today we want to come and talk to you about I would, […] The post German Cockroaches Are Nasty Here in Birmingham, Alabama appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas! Michael Wienecke 0:00 Hey hey, so today I want to talk about an issue that we […] The post Flesh Flies are Buzzing Around Birmingham, Alabama appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Michael Wienecke 0:12 Welcome to another episode of pesky pest control podcast here in Birmingham, Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover Vestavia hills, mountain Brook Halina, Alabaster, Pelham, and all other surrounding areas. Travis McGowin 0:35 Hey, so today we're gonna talk about beetles and […] The post Birmingham Alabama Has Visitors from Asian, Asian Lady Beetles appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Welcome to another episode of pesky pest control podcast here in Birmingham, Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover Vestavia, hills, mountain Brook Halina, Alabaster, Pelham, and all other surrounding areas. Hey, so today we're going to talk about another very aggravating and somewhat invasive pest […] The post Stink Bugs are Stinking Up Birmingham Alabama appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Hey, so today I want to talk about something that we've had a lot of here in Birmingham, Alabama and that's rain, a lot of rain can cause bugs to just go for higher ground we see a lot of influx of roaches during rain, we see a lot of ants during rain, pretty much […] The post No One in Birmingham Wants Bugs From Water Problems appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Hey, so today I want to talk about bats, or, as I've heard, and like to call them flying rats, bats look just like rats with wings. So why not call them flying rats? Let's talk about why bats are such a nuisance. Some of the problems they can give you as a homeowner, a […] The post Bats Flying In Birmingham Alabama appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.