What’s in a name? Many years ago, I worked for a pest control company and we considered ourselves Pest Elimination, and Pest Elimination was in the name of the company. Back then, we turned up our noses at pest control companies because what we were doing was far superior in terms of service and results. We Eliminated pests, and prevented new infestations from returning. The other guys Controlled pests, by keeping the populations of infestations low. We had a zero tolerance policy with pests, they were okay with a few pests. Make sense?

Today, pest control companies have incorporated all kinds of new nomenclature into the names of our companies: Pest Control, Pest Elimination, Pest Management, Pest Inspection, etc.  I originally wanted to be called Exodus Pest Elimination, but it was too hard to say when answering the phone, so I added the DBA of Exodus Pest Control. What I do is Pest Elimination whenever possible, because that’s the way I was trained to do it. It’s the right way.

What’s the difference? I received a call from a woman in Hillsboro who had mice in the house.  My training in pest elimination dictates that I find all the possible entry routes for rodents into the house and seal them off to prevent new infestations from returning. In her case, mice were entering a hole in the crawl space vent screen (pictured above). Pest Control dictates that a bait station or two be placed in the crawl space and one or two outside the perimeter, preferably where possible entry routes into a house occur. You might already know how I feel about baiting for rodents in a home.

So which way is better for you, the consumer? A long-term contract is needed if you are using pest control techniques. While I know that you will love my service, I also know that you want your rodent problem solved as quickly as possible, and you want it done once and for all, not over a year.

It seems early for the year, but I received my second call for bird removal yesterday. I usually start getting these calls in the late winter and throughout the spring, but I’m always happy to assist amidst the never-ending downpour.

Birds aren’t stupid. They don’t like rain and cold weather any more than we do, and out in the cold is not the kind of place they want to raise a family in.  The economy is terrible, even for birds, and they are on a strict budget too.  Finding a warm and dry shelter is priority one, but a rent free place? Ideal. That’s why up under the eaves or in the attic is like moving on up to the east side, literally into a deluxe apartment in the sky.

Usually birds like to enter through the attic vents. See Bird Removal. The screen used to keep pests out is ridiculously thin and usually only held together with a few staples. This photo shows a slightly different scenario. The two colors show different units of a townhouse complex. These birds were entering the attic through a gap between the townhouses. The builder thought it safe from moisture, but the birds struck gold with this find. Well–until I arrived. I served them an eviction notice, boarded up the entry points with galvanized hardware cloth, and finished by cleaning as much of the feces as possible.  We don’t hurt the birds in any way, but they need to find somewhere else to lay their beaks.

Not only are birds rude for squatting in our dwellings, their cleanliness leaves a lot to be desired.  No consideration for where to use the bathroom, at all. It gets everywhere. The stuff is not exactly healthful, and their nasty, poopy nests attracts other pests like bedbugs and carpet beetles. When you look at it this way, birds are jerks.

Bird jobs vary from house to apartment to office building, so an inspection is necessary for pricing and is based on level of difficulty, heights, the slope of the surrounding property, and time.

I am often asked if yard moles hibernate in the winter, and the answer is no. Moles are active all year round, and if you do not have any active in your lawn at the moment, consider yourself lucky. The fact that you are reading this leads me to believe you may have some mounds in your yard right now.  I always reference the ambient moisture to relay how active moles may be. Look at the driveways and gutters in the morning for earthworms. Moles love earthworms, and if the worms are near the surface, the moles will be too. In extreme cold and heat, the ground surface is too unpleasant for the worms and they dive down to milder, moister climes.  The moles simply follow. This explains why lawns that are irrigated in summer tend to have more mole activity. I took this picture in Portland yesterday after the brief snowstorm, showing snow on the valley floor, and the captured mole. (Yay!)

These are generalities to be sure. In my experience, I have seen all kinds of weird cases and exceptions.

If you plan to tackle the job yourself, remember a few things:

1.Know your enemy. Is it a mole or gopher? Mole mounds are more typically conical like Mt. Hood. Gopher mounds are blown out on one side like Mt. St. Helens.

2. Buy the right product for the job. Anything that says it will control moles AND gophers will often do neither. I use traps for mole removal and gopher removal, because the stuff in the store simply does not work.

3. Consider cause and effect carefully. Sonic mole chasers do not work. If they did, wouldn’t pest control companies use them? (Same is true for those sonic pest devices you plug into the wall.) If you have used these products in the past with success, chances are they just moved temporarily to find a better source of food.

In most cases, I prefer a client who has tried to do the work themselves, I feel they appreciate my success and what I do in general a little more. Except for moles, it is less expensive if we get to the problem sooner rather than later. Since we treat each mound, you can imagine there a difference in price between 3 mole mounds and 43. There is a lot of bad information out there, I have had some do-it-yourselfers cause more damage to their own lawn than the moles themselves. They were trying to install a whole host of traps excavating huge amounts of earth, only to find out none of the traps were effective on the Western mole. At Exodus Pest Control, we try and take a more surgical approach to your lawn-knowing that once the mole is gone you’ll want the grass back.

I received the dreaded phone call. “Do you guys come out and remove dead animals?”  Don’t get me wrong, this call is great for business. I just feel terrible for the homeowner who has the sickly stench of death wafting up into the place where they eat and sleep, and live. No one needs to live under those conditions.

So here it is, the reason I don’t use rodent baits to kill rodents in homes. I came out to the house where they had suspected a rat had died in the crawl pace. A do-it-yourself-er, albeit a talented one, sealed up the holes in the foundation vents where they thought the rats were entering the home. They put commercially-available rat poison packs into the crawl space near where they had suspected the rat to have traveled. Done deal. Of course, then I got the call.

There is – I don’t know what you would call it – old wives’ tale, urban myth, or whatever out there that claims that when a rat or a mouse eats rodent, it makes them thirsty and they leave the crawl space in order to find a new water source. I’ve actually heard a new one that claims that it makes them thirsty and claustrophobic, I liked that one.  In the Portland area, I have found two problems with these statements, besides the fact that it’s just completely false. Mice don’t readily drink water, they get most of the moisture they need to survive from the food they eat. So maybe it works for rats. The other problem is that most crawl spaces have some water in them somewhere, especially during the rainy season.

Here is how most rodent bait works. Imagine eating a whole bottle of aspirin, an anticoagulant. Your blood thins to the point that as it travels through your capillaries, it leaks out into your body, causing internal hemorrhage. Your heart tries to keep up with the body’s demand for oxygen, until it finally quits, and you take a very long, relaxing nap. Basically it is the same for rodents. They eat the bait, and then a couple of days later, die in their sleep. Where they die, that’s anybody’s guess.

Back to the Do-It-Yourself-er.  First off, I noticed all of the entry routes were not sealed properly. Really, how would the average Joe know what to look for?  But the rat ate the bait, and a couple of days later curled up on top of the layer of insulation just beneath the homeowner’s bedroom. The room was an addition to the original floor plan, and the contractors didn’t leave adequate space between the old and new for a person to fit through. Retrieving the dead rat was impossible, and my advice to the homeowner-besides waiting the 7 to 14 days for the smell to finally dissipate, was to install fans to blow the stench elsewhere. They decided to sleep in other rooms.

I’ve had other cases where the rat curled up on top of the furnace plenum, the heart of the HVAC system, where the stench was blown through all the other rooms of the house every time the heat kicked on. One time, the rat had chewed its way into the duct work and died. Not only did the death smell penetrate all the rooms of the house, but they also had to replace a good portion of the duct work.

“Do you guys come out and remove dead animals?” I don’t ever want to get that phone call again from one of my existing clients, so I use traps exclusively.  Trust me, it’s a lot easier to throw a few packs of bait into the crawl space and call it good, which is what a lot of professional companies are still doing today. I do it the hard way, which I believe is the right way. Find all of the entry routes and seal them up.  Then I install traps, copious copious traps, into the areas not accessible to us but used frequently by the rodents. Then I come back after a couple of weeks and inspect again, and remove dead rodents from the traps. And then I do it again until all of the activity has ceased. If one of my clients calls and has a death stench wafting up from the floorboards, I can come out and remove the trapped rodent and the smell is instantly gone. Happy customer.

There is a place for the use of rodent baits, they do have a purpose, and on rare occasions it can be used effectively without fear of rodents dying in the walls. For me, those instances are usually worst-case-scenario.

To sum it up, avoid using rodent baits in your home. Doing it yourself could end up costing you more in the long run.

I’ve come across a theme that needs to be addressed when it comes to rodent removal. I have several customers who feel that the presence of mice or rats in their homes means that they are unclean, unsanitary, disgusting people.  The fact is, most of my customer’s houses are spotless, and most of them I would be happy to eat off of their kitchen floors.

The myth that a mouse or rat would prefer a house that is unclean is perpetuated, I believe, by the landlord-tenant relationship.  Many lease agreements state that it is up to the tenant to pay for any rodent control programs should the need arise. This implies that it is the tenant’s responsibility to keep the home clean and free of clutter and debris, otherwise a rodent outbreak will occur.

Here is the problem (sorry landlords!), rats and mice-while they do enjoy the comforting safety of clutter and debris, are looking for proper shelter. What they are looking for when it comes to our houses, is opportunity. If they can get into a crawl space or attic, they might be looking at 10 to 40 degrees warmer weather than what’s outside under a tree. Food is overly abundant, especially in the Portland area. Bird feeders, compost piles, cat food containers left outside, garbage cans are everywhere.

In this picture, the foundation vent screen has been compromised to allow access for cable TV and electrical. A mouse can fit through a hole the size of a dime, a rat-the size of a quarter. Once they can gain access to your home, finding food is the easy part.

My approach to rodent work is simple. 1. Find the ways the rodents are getting into the structure. 2. Eliminate the access (seal holes) 3. Set traps for the rodents 4. Remove the trapped rodents.

I don’t use bait inside structures. I’ll talk at length about this in a later blog, or if you have questions you can always email or call.

Prices range from $150 to a few hundred dollars for rodent control. I perform one-time treatments, which include several follow up services to ensure the quality of the work and the elimination of the rodents.

What happened to the summer?  Was that it? The rains are already in full swing in the Portland area.  And with the fall moisture hitting the ground, that unfortunately means moles and gophers. Unfortunate, that is, for you homeowner. I love trapping moles, so Spring and Fall are my favorite times of the year.

Moles are more active at the surface when their source of food, worms and grubs, is close to the surface. Have you ever seen earthworms crawling around in the street? Chances are, it had rained recently and the ground was still wet.  Earthworms travel to the surface when it’s wet up top, after a rain or when the sprinklers have been on for a while. That’s why you’ll see mole activity in the rainy months and in lawns that are irrigated over the summer. In the winter-it’s anybody’s guess. If the weather is bitter cold outside, the worms will dive down to find warmth. If we have a mild winter like we did last year, then I’ll be busy all winter long. 

If you have big mounds of dirt in your lawn or garden and you live in the city or suburbs, chances are you have moles. It could be gophers, but they are more often found in the outskirts of town, preferring a more country lifestyle.

The hardware store is a place of confusion for most do-it-yourselfers. It seems every week there is some new gizmo for catching or chasing away moles. Try to remember this-if the “solar mole chaser” works so well, are there any professionals using them?

Every pest control outfit that can help you with moles has their own method of calculating how much to charge for this service. I start at $175.00 for the first month of mole trapping for most smaller to medium-sized lawns with one to ten mole mounds in that yard. Then I start adding in increments of $25 for lawn size and mound brackets of ten– 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 mounds, etc.  Sound confusing? You bet it is! It makes more sense when what I’m trying to do is determine how many moles are present (how many trap systems to use),  how much time it will take to clear all the uplifted dirt, and how many trips I have to make in order to achieve success. Once all the traps are in place, I come back to check and replace every three to five days.  Most of my clients fall into the $175.00 to $200.00 range for the first month.

About two hundred bucks. About what you will end up paying for all the do-it-yourself equipment and snake oil repellents. When you start adding in your time, and the stress, and the hair replacement surgery- a bargain at twice the price. Call today for a free consultation. 503-575-0500

Being a Pest Control Technician as long as I have, I have heard all kinds of horror stories of how homeowners have faced a Yellow Jacket nest and attempted to eradicate the wasps themselves.

“I just take a gallon of gasoline and throw it down the hole, and then light it on fire!”

“I took a can of carburetor cleaner to it.”

“I threw a rock at it.”

“I tried drowning it with a hose.”

“I just sealed up the entrance with some silicone.”

While all of the above comments are real, some of them ended badly-and some could have ended in real tragedy.  If you are going to deal with Yellow Jackets yourself, please remember a few important details: 1. There are guard bees waiting for any sign of danger, and they will signal an alarm response if the nest is under attack. 2. If one of the guard bees stings you, they can leave a chemical pheromone signaling to the other members of the colony that you are source of danger to their nest. 3. If you have a nest inside a wall or in the ground, the Wasp and Hornet spray you buy from the hardware store will likely only kill workers as they enter or exit the hive. You may see several of these wasps, but they make up only a tiny fraction of the population of the hive. 4. Consider the expense-I charge about $75 to take out a Yellow Jacket nest as safely as possible and without drama.  How much does it cost to go to the hospital? What is the deductible on your homeowner’s insurance if you burn down half your house? Five cans of Wasp and Hornet spray cost about $30, plus the time and the trip to the hardware store, and it probably won’t achieve 100% control.

If you have a Yellow Jacket nest on or near your house, please call a professional. We do this work every day, and our experience can rule out a lot of unexpected mishaps. The picture above is of a friend of mine who “threw a rock at it,” a Bald-Faced Hornet’s nest. Unfortunately for him, he has really good aim. A wasp came out and stung him right above the lip. This is him in the hospital after a litany of antihistamines and steroid injections.

In my most recent post, I mentioned how rare it was to have a Yellow Jacket nest in the same proximity year after year.  I received a call from a woman in Portland, Oregon yesterday who claimed to have a Yellow Jacket nest in the base of a shrub. These are typically the most dangerous for the homeowner, because often the location of the nest is discovered after it is stepped on or accidentally disturbed. The guard bees of the nest will come out to protect the queen, and because they can sting repeatedly, presto change-o, you’re in a world of hurt.

What was interesting about this call from my client in Portland, Oregon, was that we found two additional Yellow Jacket nests on her property.  They were both in the ground beneath shrubs, and only a few feet away from each other. This video, while terribly shot, shows the distance between the two nests.   Double Yellow Jackets Portland

Last time I visited, I was talking about Yellow Jackets and where you might find them around your house. In fact, here’s that paragraph:

Yellow Jacket’s nests in the Portland area come in basically three varieties: 1. a large wrapped nest exposed on the eave of a house, usually on the north side. 2. Inside the home-either in the wall, crawl space or attic, and wasps are seen entering and exiting through a single hole. 3. In the ground, where wasps are seen entering and exiting through an abandoned rodent burrow or shrub.

Last time I had a short video of a Yellow Jacket’s nest above the front porch of a client’s home. This time I have some video of a Yellow Jacket’s nest inside a client’s wall in Hillsboro, OR. Yellow Jackets Hillsboro

What was interesting about this job is that I had removed a Yellow Jacket’s nest from the same client’s home a year earlier, and just a few yards away from the current site.  Where a Yellow Jacket queen decides to build her new home in the spring is more of a random event, so to have two nests so close together in space and time was rather exciting for me.

I usually put a 2 year warranty on my Yellow Jacket jobs, so this job fell under warranty.  This job would normally cost  $75 to exterminate the wasps.

Summer is finally here in Portland, stay tuned for more Stinging Pest videos.

I have to admit it, when I get a call that a large hornet’s nest is threatening a family, I get a little excited.  Danger isn’t something I encounter everyday on the job, but Yellow Jacket season sure turns up the volume on things.

First off, here in Portland we don’t have any true hornets. Hornets are much bigger and live much farther east and south of where we are. We do have the Bald-Faced Hornet, which you might find nesting in a tree. These wasps are larger, but they are essentially Yellow Jackets, sans the yellow. Bald-Faced Hornets are definitely a nasty bunch, they will sting if you get too close to the nest.

Paper Wasps are not yellow jackets either. These wasps build smaller, exposed nests usually under eaves. Paper wasps are much less aggressive than Yellow Jackets, but will sting if you get too close to the nest.

Yellow Jacket’s nests in the Portland area come in basically three varieties: 1. a large wrapped nest exposed on the eave of a house, usually on the north side. 2. Inside the home-either in the wall, crawl space or attic, and wasps are seen entering and exiting through a single hole. 3. In the ground, where wasps are seen entering and exiting through an abandoned rodent burrow or shrub.

If you suspect a Yellow Jacket’s nest in or around your home, my advice is to call a professional. I’d love to take that call, and I can come out and remove the Yellow Jackets usually from $75-125. I have heard hundreds of stories of do-it-yourselfers who have tried some ridiculous methods to rid their homes of the Yellow Jackets, and there are even crazier videos on You Tube.

And speaking of You Tube, check out this video I shot of a Yellow Jacket nest over the front porch of a home in Hillsboro, OR.  Yellow Jackets Hillsboro