Ask a Pest Expert a Question – CKNW radio – April 1st, 2022

Mike Smyth (Host):

It’s springtime. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and the creepy, crawly bugs, insects and other pests are on the move. It is spring pest control time. How to pest proof your home. What to do if you have an infestation of bugs or worse. Let’s discuss with our expert now. Mike Londry, owner of West Side Pest Control. And I’m very pleased to welcome him back to the show. Hey, Mike. Thanks for coming on.

Mike Londry (guest):

Good morning. Thank you.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay, Mike. Is this a busy time of year for you over at Westside Pest Control? As the weather warms up, does your phone start ringing?

Mike Londry (guest):

Absolutely. Yeah. As people start to head outdoors, the insects come to life again, and we definitely start getting calls. I would say our most common call right now at this time of year is for carpenter ants.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. Let’s talk about those. So, what kind of ants are those? A lot of different varieties of ants. What do the carpenter ants do?

Mike Londry (guest):

So, carpenter ants live in areas of wood. So they like to tunnel through typically outside. They’re going to be in large, old, rotting stumps, but we’ve built structures out of wood here in NBC, which has created perfect homes for them. Unlike termites, they don’t actually chew and ingest wood. So your house won’t disappear if you have carpenter ants, but they can do significant structural damage.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. What kind of damage can they do?

Mike Londry (guest):

Well, they’ll dig out extensive tunnels in the beams in your home. So, over months and years, you may have eventually have to actually do a major renovation to the home because the structural integrity can be compromised.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Whoa. Okay. So, when you respond to a carpenter ant call like that, are they a tough job? Are they easy to get rid of? How do you approach it?

Mike Londry (guest):

Well, you really need to target where the nest site is. So, just putting out little bait discs or doing a spray around the inside or outside of your house. Although it may be effective to a very small degree, you really need to get treatment inside the exterior walls, which is usually where their nests are located.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. What can you do to keep them out of your house in the first place?

Mike Londry (guest):

Well, one of the things to do is to monitor for any signs of water ingress. So, if you’ve ever had any leaks on the outside of your house, make sure that you’re replacing any damaged wood. You’re repairing crack stucco. If the hose bibb on the outside of your house is leaking on a regular basis, make sure that you get that repaired. The biggest issue that causes and attracts carpenter ants to reside in a home is moisture ingress.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. Speaking and talking about springtime pest control with Mike Londry, West Side Pest Control. What are some other common pests that emerge in the spring?

Mike Londry (guest):

Well, it’s baby season for lots of things. So, squirrels, raccoons, skunks. They’re looking for an ideal place to start their spring family and where better than under a shed or in an attic or a crawl space.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. How do you deal with those? Do you do humane trapping for animals like that or…

Mike Londry (guest):

Yeah, absolutely. So what we do is get into the space where they’re residing and get them out of the space. And then we’ll seal up access points. In some situations, if there’s a family of young squirrels, what we try to do is encourage the homeowner to allow them to reside there for another six weeks until the young squirrels are able to leave and then we’ll come back and install a one-way door so they can exit, and can’t reenter again. In some situations, you’ve got something like raccoons that might be doing a lot of damage to the interior of the home. So, whatever possible, we get the little ones outside in a warming box and then mum can come back and relocate the whole family somewhere else. Raccoons have usually got backup dens in multiple locations. So, she’s normally got somewhere else to take them.

Mike Smyth (Host):

That’s nice that you look out for the baby squirrels. I’m glad to hear that, but what about… Okay. If you’re dealing with rats or mice though, I mean, come on, we got to deal with that with extreme prejudice though, right?

Mike Londry (guest):

Yeah. Well, that’s a funny thing that most of the squirrels that we have here are the gray squirrels, which are actually an invasive species that legally have as many rights as rats do, believe it or not, but we treat them with a lot more care, regardless. When it comes to rats though, there’s nothing you can do other than deploy extermination processes. When we can, we install one-way doors. We’d like to avoid poisons whenever possible and use trapping stations instead or, again, a one-way door. What a one-way door does is it allows the rodent to get out of the structure and not return into it again.

Mike Smyth (Host):

What about one of the ones that buzz around my place sometimes in the warmer months, and I haven’t seen them lately. I think they come out later. Fruit flies. They just always seem to infest my kitchen. When do those start showing out? Fruit flies.

Mike Londry (guest):

Normally, as soon as it starts to warm up a little bit. Excuse me. So, that’s normally a May, June, July pest, but yeah. Once you’ve got them, they seem usually almost impossible to get rid of. So, if you don’t keep your organic food waste in your freezer year round, I’d suggest to start doing that in May.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. I got the phone lines open right now for Mike Londry from West Side Pest Control. It is springtime. The bugs are out and spiders, stink bugs, rats, mice, raccoons. Mike does it all. Phone up right now if you want to ask a question to an expert. 604-280-9898 is the number. *9898 on your cell. Lots of calls. Kim in New West. Hi, Kim. Go ahead.

Kim:

Hi. I have moths. Indoor moths. They’re tiny. They’re a light brown color, and they seem to be inside. And I just-

Mike Smyth (Host):

Where are they? Are they in your closet?

Kim:

No. No, they’re flying around in my kitchen, in my dining room. I don’t know where they’re coming from.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

Okay. It sounds I’d be 95% sure that you have pantry moths, and they can be a little bit challenging to eliminate, but it is entirely possible. It just requires trying to locate the source and eliminate that. And usually that’s going to be in food stuff. So, unfortunately, a lot of the dry goods in your kitchen have probably been compromised. The only ultimate way to be sure you’re going to eliminate them is to pull all of the dry goods out. You’re probably going to have to throw most of them away. If there’s anything that’s really important or valuable to you, you’re going to want to put it in the freezer for, I would say, about two to three weeks. And in addition to that, you may need to get a professional to come in and treat the inside of the kitchen cupboards. Pantry months, is probably what you’ve got. They can be eliminated, but it takes a little bit of effort.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay, Kim. Good luck with that one. Let’s go to Sean on the line in Cloverdale. Hi, Sean. Go ahead.

Sean:

Hi. my question. And maybe a wrong question to ask your guest, but the device that you plug in, the frequency, does that work? So I’ll wait for my answer.

Mike Smyth (Host):

All right. I’m having trouble understanding you. Can you repeat your question again?

Sean:

Yeah. The device that you plug into the wall with a high frequency sounds, does that work?

Mike Smyth (Host):

To get rid of what?

Mike Londry (guest):

Yes. [crosstalk 00:08:34]. I think you’re…

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead, Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

Sure. I think you’re referring to the ultrasonic devices. I’m not very convinced that they do a lot for insects. However, for rodents, such as mice and rats, so long as there’s no infestation currently in the house. If there’s nothing there, then they can act as a deterrent. I’ve said to a couple of previous guests on the show before for garages, for boat storage over the winter, it’s a great idea to put in at the beginning of the fall as a deterrent. If you have a mouse infestation, the ultrasonic devices, unfortunately, won’t work to eliminate them.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. So they’re kind of… They emit a frequency that only mice and rats can hear or something.

Mike Londry (guest):

Yes. Yeah, exactly. Some other pets may pick them up too. So, if you have pets, you might want to experiment with a couple of different ones to find something that doesn’t bother them.

Mike Smyth (Host):

So, what does it do to the mice and rats? It drives them up the wall crazy, and then they just get out of there?

Mike Londry (guest):

Well, yeah, exactly. But mice and rats, their senses are so… They’re really highly driven by what they hear and smell. So, for instance, if a mouse has been living in an area for three weeks and it gets back to its home and it smells that space, it really doesn’t care what it hears. But if it’s entering that space for the first time and there’s an unpleasant sound, then it’ll go elsewhere before it decides to take up residence.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. Good to know. Lori in Delta. Hi, Lori. Go ahead.

Lori:

Hey, guys. We have these really creepy, evil, little things called drain flies. Ew.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Ew, drain flies. What are they like?

Lori:

Oh, they look like little eeny-teeny moths, and they seem to be hovering around in the bathroom whenever I’m blowing out my hair. There’s a whole crop of them that are flying around and my husband looked it up and concocted this Goop to throw down the drain and that caused them to stop for a while. And then they crop out again. So, what can we do to murder them out?

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay, Mike. Okay, Mike. How do you murder these drain flies, man?

Mike Londry (guest):

Well, there’s actually some really great foaming products that are totally safe, even for commercial kitchen. So, you don’t have to drop nasty things like Drano down the drain for them. That’s the good news. Essentially, it works to break up the organic matter that it’s in the drain. So, this is usually the issue is standing water. So, my guess is there’s probably an issue with the plumbing somewhere under the sink. So, most sinks will have a trap under the sink. Sometimes, for whatever reason, if a renovation was done, there might be some water sitting horizontally in a pipe that never properly drains and allows them to find a place to breed. If that organic matter that’s built up can be eliminated through the means of a brush and then the plumbing can be can fixed so that it drains properly, your issue should disappear.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. Good luck with that, Lori. Rhonda in Aldergrove. Hi, Rhonda. Go ahead.

Rhonda:

Hey, good morning. Good timing for our family. Every time about this time of year, we get these tiny, tiny, tiny little ants that show up in our basement. They only last literally for three, four days tops. We can spray them with Ant Killer or whatever, but I’m just wondering if a little tiny ant like that could actually cause any problems or if what we’re doing just killing them annually is sufficient.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

Interesting. Tiny ants for just a couple of days of the year. To be honest, if you could have a look on our website, I’d be more than happy to take a look at a sample picture. If you could send one to us. Just trying to guess over the phone, anything that’s that small and is only showing up for a couple of days of the year, I wouldn’t be concerned in terms of it doing any structural damage. It sounds like-

Mike Smyth (Host):

Well, that does not sound like carpenter ants then.

Mike Londry (guest):

It’s not carpenter ants. I don’t think it’s even pavement ants. It’s too early in the season for it to be moisture ants. They would be showing up for a couple of days in August. Yeah. If you could send a picture to our contact page, I’d be happy to try and figure out what that is.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay, Rhonda. Please do that. Send a photo to Mike. Look up West Side Pest Control online, and you’ll find a contact page there. Send that photo to Mike. And I know he’ll take a look at it. Just remind him you brought it up on the radio. He’ll know what you’re talking about. Hi, Michael. Go ahead.

Michael:

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I have a big slab of concrete in the back as a driveway. And it’s sectioned off in about six sections. So, during the springtime and close to summer, there’s the ants. They start to dig out and they bring out just a whole bunch of sand. So, how can I deter them from doing that and then coming into the house afterwards because they’re coming into the basement suite? And I can’t get to them because they’re underneath the concrete.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Mike.

Michael:

Yeah.

Mike Londry (guest):

So, what you’re describing to me, I’m quite certain is pavement ants. In terms of them doing significant structural damage, it’s relatively minor. However, over time as they continue to excavate, obviously, they are removing some of that sand. So it could cause in the long term cracks or it could cause areas to sink. To try to eliminate them, I mean, the best thing you can do almost any over-the-counter product that has ants on the label from your local hardware store, try to find something with a straw that comes with the ant treatment and get that straw and get the product into the ground. These nests can really spread out. They can have up to 100,000 in a colony. So, don’t be afraid to empty a quarter of a can on each of those sand piles. And then I would use the same product to just treat around the corners of your back door or any other entrances and adjacent to the house, and that should help a lot.

Mike Smyth (Host):

All right. Welcome back to the show. My guest is Mike Londry from West Side Pest Control. Always a super popular guest. If you have questions about springtime pest control around your home, this is the guy you want to talk to. Phone him right now. 604-280-9898. *9898 on your cell. Lots of calls still coming in. Lori in Vancouver. Hi, Lori. Go ahead.

Lori:

Good morning, gentlemen. I have a quick question. I’m another ant person. It was last week and on my counter, I lifted something up. There was a swarm of ants. Anyways, I cleaned everything down and then I sprayed around the bottoms, but anyways, I’m still seeing ants and they’re even on the walls or in the wall in the bathroom. They’re in the back thing in the kitchen, the back splash. And I don’t know where they’re come and they’re making me crazy, but it seems like they do crawl under the baseboard by the dog water bowl. So I don’t know what to do.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Oh, boy. Okay. Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

So, Lori, would you describe the ants as larger or smaller than a grain of rice?

Lori:

They’re little, tiny, black guys.

Mike Londry (guest):

Little, tiny, black ones.

Lori:

Yeah. Little, tiny, black guys.

Mike Londry (guest):

Okay. All right. Yeah, they’re probably pavement ants then. It’s a little bit early, but they do often start appearing in people’s homes as early as March and April. We see them more predominantly in people’s homes early and even throughout the winter if they have heated floors or they’re slab on grade. Houses in Richmond, for instance. My suggestion for you, if you haven’t tried any baits yet, any boric acid based bait is a great idea. The great thing about small ants like this and treating them with a bait, the domestic baits you get in the hardware store are actually fantastic. The strong commercial baits that we have access to can be too strong for them to be able to take back to their colony. I would start with that. However, given the amount of activity that you’re seeing, you’re probably going to end up wanting to call a professional company to come in and take a look at it.

Lori:

Oh, no. Okay.

Mike Londry (guest):

Okay. Thank you for that. Good luck with that, Lori. Darrell in South Surrey. Hi, Darrell. Go ahead.

Darrell:

Yeah. Hi, Mike and Mike. I got two problems here. My neighbor noticed in my mom’s chimney, she leaves down in Kitts, a squirrel carrying cardboard and newspaper and stuff down there to build a nest. I was wondering where I get one of those one-way doors to put on. It’s an unused chimney from wood burning.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

Okay. You should be able to get something on Amazon. To be honest, if you Google one-way squirrel doors, they should come up, and retail price on something like that should be about 50 bucks, I would expect. And the installation of them is fairly self-explanatory. The only thing I would remind if you’re installing one, make sure that the door, the flap that comes up and down, goes down when it’s in a closed position as opposed to the other way around because if it’s installed upside down, the squirrels might be able to get back in.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Yeah. Don’t want your one-way door leading the squirrels in and they can’t get out. You want them to go the other way, right?

Mike Londry (guest):

Exactly.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Yeah. Okay. And is that common to go down a chimney?

Mike Londry (guest):

Yeah. We do see squirrels doing that. One thing I would add to that. If they are going down the chimney this time of year, they sometimes will nest on top of the flue. So, I would, before installing that one-way door, get into the… Put your head inside the fireplace. Kind of shake the flue around a little bit. The cover if you can. If there is one, if it’s a wood burning fireplace, but have a very good listen because if there’s young ones in there, that squirrel is going to do more damage than you want to think about to the outside of the house if she’s removed from her babies.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay, Darrell. Good luck with that. Jeff in Vancouver. Hi, Jeff. Go ahead.

Jeff:

Good morning, and welcome to your guest. Condo, living concrete, small bathroom, and a small hallway just beside each other. And there seems to be, well, once a week, once every two weeks, silverfish, one or two of them. Is there a paste or anything you can put down that they don’t like and will move on?

Mike Smyth (Host):

Oh, that’s silverfish, man. I hate those things. I got them in my place too. Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

Well, I mean, they do love bathrooms and they do love kitchens. The one thing that you have to your advantage immediately being in the bathroom. So long as you have a bathroom fan, turn it on 24 hours a day for the next month if you can bear the noise because they’re unable to reproduce under those low levels of humidity. And then in addition to that, put out some glue boards. You can purchase them really cheap from almost any hardware store. Just a sticky glue board. They like adhesives and they like cellulose. So the paper and the glue is an attractive. They get stuck on it. Stop them from reproducing. You’ll probably knock the levels down by quite a bit. If that doesn’t work, most domestic insecticides, sprays will definitely kill a lot of them on contact. Obviously, be sure to ventilate the space and vacate your apartment for a couple of hours after the application.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay. Thanks for the call, Jeff. Adam in Coquitlam. Hi, Adam. Go ahead.

Adam:

Hey, Mike. Thanks for taking my call. This has been a regular occurrence of mine. I live in a ground level basement suite, and I want to say they’re wood beetles. They’re the little, gray, oval bugs. I’ve been calling them wood beetles. I noticed a bunch of dead ones popping up in the corner around my baseboard. And occasionally see some live ones crawling around my plates. I’ve sprayed some Raid. And then that seems to get rid of them for a little bit, but then maybe a couple months later, they come back, and I’m just wondering. First off, am I getting them by the right name? And then how do you get rid of them?

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay, Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

So, I think you’re referring to Sal bugs or wood bugs. It’s really common to see them in basements or on the ground level, in a slab on grade house. These bugs like to live between moist soil and a solid object. So they like to reside near the foundation of the house. What happens when it rains a lot, there’s not enough oxygen any more. So they literally flush inside the house, but then unfortunately, there’s not enough moisture for them inside the house. So they usually dry up and die. Spraying them is really just… And you’re basically just killing them twice because it’s likely to happen anyways. The best thing that you can do is put some silicon or other caulking along the bottom of the baseboards to physically prevent them from entering.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay, Adam. Good luck with that. *9898 is the number to call on your cell phone. *9898. John in Langley. Hi, John. Go ahead.

John:

Good morning, gentlemen. What we’re having here are… They look like little, black worms, but actually I think they’re what my neighbor calls them. Millipedes. They’re about an inch long and, oh, maybe the size of a very thin lead pen. The lead and the pencil. And they seem to be more prominent after when we get a lot of rain. They come up the expansion cracks in the patio concrete and they’re in the carport and our house is white stucco and they love to climb… I go out and brush them off the wall and they crunch when you walk on them. What are they, and what can I do about them.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

Yeah, those definitely are millipedes. And for instances inside the house, it’s almost the same treatment as I would’ve suggest for the wood bugs previously. If you’re seeing them inside or in the carport, do your best to seal any cracks and crevices. Depending on where the cracks are in the garage, if it’s an expansion joint, then my suggestion would be to use a flexible adhesive like a flexible siliflex type product so that you’re sealing them out, but not destroying the properties of what that expansion joint is supposed to do.

**Elastic sealant SILIFLEX 120: Acetic reticulation, one-component sealant with high elasticity and good adhesion to seal joints between non-porous materials. It’s elastic, silicone resin. Primary Function is leak-proofing

Mike Smyth (Host):

Okay, John. Good luck with that, man. Let’s go to Jim on the line in Burnaby. Hi, Jim. Go ahead.

Jim:

Yeah, nobody seems to be talking about one of the most insidious pests of them all, even in commercials, regarding pest control. They talk about ants and flies and squirrels and mice, but not these creatures. And that is bedbugs.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Oh.

Jim:

Are they rare or they’re just nobody has them or… I’m just kind of curious about that one.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Oh, people got them. And I know they can be a nightmare. Mike.

Mike Londry (guest):

So, I think it’s just one of those things that people get, but they don’t like to talk to their friends about or post or anything to that degree. Our company actually hasn’t treated bedbugs for about 12 years. It’s not one of the services that we do, but I personally have done them a lot in the past. And yes, they are a huge challenge. There has been some good developments over the past few years in terms of more effective products to get rid of them. But it’s usually a multi-visit, multi-pronged approach that requires a lot of cooperation between the person living in the suite and the pest control applicator. They are, unfortunately, typically not a pest unlike things like silverfish that can be treated by the homeowner. It normally requires professional help.

Mike Smyth (Host):

Yeah, I’ve known some people who’ve gone through that and it can be a nightmare, but yeah, you got to get a professional in to help with that, for sure. Hey, Mike. I’m very grateful to you for all your time today. What is your website there if people want to check it out?