Surprisingly, given the rapacious growth in the area over the past fifty years, we South Floridians have not managed to completely eliminate Nature. In fact, the damned things keeps rearing its ugly head, managing to annoy, irritate and occasionally kill us - or at least our toy poodles (otherwise known as Alligator Crunchies[sup]TM[/sup]).
One constant irritation is insects invading one’s domicile. To avoid this, we have Orkin come in every month or so to spray and keep the bugs out. Yesterday morning, they showed up again. The exterminator (nice guy, btw) proceeds to spray the kitchen, the bathrooms, the doorways, etc…
with a can of freaking bug spray!!
Damnit, Orkin, I can do that! I could go out to the local hardware store, load myself up, and kick some bug ass. I pay you because you are supposed to have the Good Stuff; super-secret and highly powerful pesticides that give ants nightmares.
I acknowledge that the Good Stuff may not exist, but that’s where showmanship comes in. Take the bug spray, dump it into one of those big metal canisters with the hand pump, and let me pretend that I’m getting my money’s worth.
I was once making copies in our church’s workroom. And the guy from Nelson Pest Control came in to spray for bugs. And, sensing a rare opportunity, I pumped him for information. And he confessed that there’s “nothing special” in his bug spray, but that the secret for long-term bug control is to spray regularly, as in once a month. “Ya gotta keep after 'em,” he told me. “Which is where we come in. Most people don’t have it together enough to be able to remember to spray each and every month, so they basically pay us to do it for them.”
We called them out once for rats in our attic. Orkin guy climbed up on a ladder, reached up and put one rat trap just barely inside the attic trap door. We could have done that! We breached our contract with them and called a specialist animal management person. This guy had a jockey-sized associate crawl around our low attic space, plug up any holes, and put out several baited but unset traps. A week later he returned to examine the traps, and found the bait nibbled out. He rebaited them and this time set the traps, returned in three days and found in them two large dead rats, which he removed. They said they’d return anytime within two years to redo the plugging and trapping should the problem recur, which it has not. We happily paid their competitive fee. That’s the way to run a business.
Yeah, I was kinda surprised, that he wouldn’t just give me a bunch of tech-speak and then hand me his card. I’ve always assumed that it was the venue, that he figured that if a Church Lady asks you a question in God’s House, even if it is only in the copy-machine room, you’d better answer truthfully.
My friend has been plagued by gnats in her house–clouds of them for a year. They’ ve had the pest control guy repeatedly, who finally gave up and told them to call… a plumber.
Needless to say, I am now suffering from a fruit fly infestation, and I did NOT pick up the phone and call pest control (or Orkin-heh). Forget it–I’ll get rid of them by own bad self.
My bug man comes quarterly with a big secret canister of death juice and sprays around the baseboard. Last week I heard something very ominous in the attic. I don’t know what it is, but I think (well, I almost hope, because the alternatives are… weird and oogy?) that it’s mammalian in nature. Well, guess what? If they come to kill the squirrel or rat or whatever as part of their quarterly service, I don’t pay one dime extra. I love you, Home Pest.
We have used that Ortho Home Defense spray since we got to South FL and it works like a dream, IMHO. It only takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes to spray all over, it dries in minutes and we really only see bugs if they fly in. Screw you, Orkin man!
My workplace uses Orkin. They put roach motels out and they’ve sprayed and bug-bombed, and we continue to be plagued with las cucarachas. Now, we have been told not to keep food in our lockers. Well, gee, what genius came up with that solution? I don’t know of anyone who’s keeping anything in their lockers anymore.
Yeah, after a couple of times of watching the pest control dude I figured I go out, buy a can of Raid and simulaqte what the bug guy does. I sprayed around the baseboards, light fixtures and vents.
You can imagine my surprize when I discovered my method worked just as good as the “professional”. :rolleyes:
I think I spent all of $5 for the can of Raid which will last for several applications.
Hell, I’d pay three times that to not have to invite some stranger into my home.
I have those little fuckers too. While you’re pursuing whichever eradication strategy you have planned, you might enjoy this tip: try putting an inch of fruity vinegar (like cider or red wine) with several drops of dish soap in a glass set near wherever they hang out most. They get all high on the vinegar fumes and drown themselves in it. It doesn’t seem to get them all, but enough of them to cut down on the aggravation factor. Unfortunately, you get to enjoy the vinegar fumes too.
Ortho Home Defense and Spectracide Bug Stop both work better than Raid. We have chronic problems with those huge Oriental wood roaches that live in the walls and come out to stroll around and get a drink of water in the kitchen sink, and Raid isn’t useful for long-term use, mainly because if you look at the can, it’ll say something like, “Effective for 4 weeks”, whereas Home Defense and Bug Stop both retain their knock-down effect for months. I’ve had spots in the basement where I know I haven’t sprayed for a year, and I’ll walk back there, and there’ll be an upside-down bug, wiggling feebly.
OTOH, Home Defense and Bug Stop don’t have Raid’s “instant kill” effect–a wood roach that’s saturated with Bug Stop is unfortunately not an immediately-dead bug, it’s just a very, very ill bug. And if you see one wiggling around on your living room floor months after you’ve sprayed, it’s best to step on it, because although Bug Stop’s knockdown effect remains for months, it gets progressively less lethal as time goes on, and I’ve seen plenty of very-very-ill bugs on my living room floor eventually get up and walk away. So step on 'em. Just to be sure.
Also, Home Defense and Bug Stop both have the added advantages that they don’t stink, and that they come in a humongous gallon-sized trigger sprayer, so you don’t have squat-walk around your kitchen getting pesticide-laden aerosol fumes blowback in your face, and and you don’t have pesticide-laden aerosol fumes all through your house, which I feel can’t be a Good Thing.
