My father made me afraid of dinner rolls. Yup, you read that right, allow me to explain.

When I was around 11 years old, a national buffet franchise opened a location in our hometown. It became a “go to place” for our family on nights we were celebrating something like a birthday, exceptional report card, or the such. My father was a spendthrift of a man and always wanted to get his money’s worth when he paid for something. In that vein, he explained to me on multiple occasions that I needed to be careful regarding how many rolls I consumed at the buffet as they would “expand in my stomach and if there was no room, I could explode”. Naturally, as an 11 year old boy, exploding my stomach was not something I wanted to do, so I limited my roll consumption.

So what does that have to do with wildlife removal and exclusion? 

At the age of 11, my father was the absolute authority on life. If I had a question, he had the answer. His word was the gospel in our household. He was infallible and a walking Encyclopedia Britannica. His authority and position gave him maximum influence over his 11 year old son. 

The same is to be said when I or a peer of mine in the industry is in front of a potential client. I have spent over a decade in this industry. I have protected international airports and 7 million square foot retail centers, food production plants and 5 star dining venues, million dollar homes and $1,000 a night hotels. There is not an animal covered by my license that I am not intimately knowledgeable of.  I know it’s behavior, biology, habits, and life cycle. I mean, what good would I be to my clients if I wasn’t an expert in this? The same can be said of many of my peers in this industry.

We are the “experts” our neighbors call to protect the health and property of the community. With that, to steal from Stan Lee, comes great responsibility.

When a client calls, often times they would do almost anything to remove the unwanted animals from their home.  While they were waiting for me to arrive for the inspection they likely spent some time on Google going down a proverbial rabbit hole (pun intended) learning all sorts of scary viruses, diseases, and other health concerns that come with dealing with nuisance wildlife.

An uncouth wildlife professional takes advantage of this fear and anxiety. They sell the client not just on the trapping and exclusion work, but often times will give an estimate in the tens of thousands of dollars range that includes full attic or crawl space remediation. They want the client to sign off on pulling every fiber of insulation in the attic, then treating and sanitizing the entire attic from the trusses to the sheeting on the roof, then they want to blow in the new insulation. I had this happen recently to a client here in my town where the initial company gave an estimate quoting over $17,000 for the work. When I performed my inspection I found a minor amount of mouse droppings and some seeds and nuts. Nothing that constituted a FULL attic remediation.

My competitor took advantage of my client’s fear. They took advantage of my client’s ignorance and they took advantage of my client’s desire for fast results.

I am not saying that attic and crawlspace remediation is not ever needed, I just feel as an industry, there are some wildlife professionals who are quick to try and sell a client on unnecessary services to raise revenues.

Know that from day one, to the day we close the doors for good, Huntsman Wildlife will only suggest to our clients the NECESSARY work to protect their health and property. I would rather a client hire me five times for $700 over the span of time that they own their home in trapping charges and exclusion work that solves their problem, versus a one time add on sale for $3,500 that they later find out they didn't really need.

I am not gonna tell you dinner rolls will explode your stomach, but I will tell you if you eat too many rolls, you won't have room for your other favorite dishes. Facts versus fear. 

Till next time… see ya folks.