Oh Rats! part two

The Pest Control guy arrived today. I don't know what I was expecting, but a very small sturdy-looking older guy was not it. I showed him the evidence of our critter and the ways to get into the attic and crawl space, and left him to it. Every once in awhile he tromped through the living room with a bag of extremely large traps.

When he finished in the crawl space, I asked if it was as bad down there as everyone tells me it is. He said, "I've been going down into houses for 20 years, and that is the WEIRDEST crawl space I've ever seen." Ah, the joys of Frankenhaus!

After awhile he asked me to come out to the garage, and pointed out where he'd laid the traps (after he first made sure there are no pets or small children in the house). Five traps in the attic, five in the crawl space, and three in the garage. He's coming back in a week to check them, part of the initial service.

He then surveyed the routes that animals may use to get into the house, and after all was said and done called me in for a consultation. The news is bad. As I expected, there is no way to keep animals out of the house. The garage door doesn't fit, and there are large gaps around it. But that's not the worst of it, oh no. The worst? This house doesn't really have a foundation. He showed me several places where the animals could easily burrow into the house if they wanted to. No evidence that they have, because there are easier ways for them to get in, but he told me that there was just no point in fixing all the other spots. The house is too open. Short of a complete remodel that involves jacking the house up and putting in a new foundation, nothing is going to make this house secure. Frankenhaus strikes again!

This was pretty much expected. We already had decided that we were going to need the bi-monthly visits. Now we know for sure that we do.

In any case, there was one hole he decided he should patch (no point making it too easy for the rodents), and we were also entitled to another service if we wanted him to protect against something else. SPIDERS. Oh yes, please reduce the number of spiders. I don't expect them to ever go away, but if he could make a dent in their population, I'd be happy. He said it might be possible to reduce them by as much as 50% if we went whole hog (which includes a "no one in the house" spray). I'm thinking of going whole hog, since it's included in the price we'll be paying anyway.

So now we wait for a week, and see if the traps caught anything when he comes back. And hopefully I'll rest a little easier knowing that we're doing something about it.