Ask a Pest Expert a Question on CKNW – June 3rd, 2023

Coming soon to a backyard near you. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside. They’re not here for the flowers. They’re here for you. They’re coming for your food. They’re coming for your fun. And if you resist, they will attack. Wasps. Okay, that is one of the ads, of course, from Westside Pest Control.

And right now wasps, yeah, they are on the move. That is one of the most common calls that Mike Londry receives at Westside Pest Control. It’s always great to check in with Mike. He’s the owner of Westside Pest Control. Very pleased to welcome him back. Hey, Mike, thanks for coming on. Hey, Mike. Happy to be here.

Okay, I love the ads. They’re some of my favourite ads that play on the show here every day. And let’s talk about wasps right now. So we’re into summer, Mike. We’re into the hot weather. Are wasps a particular, a particular problem right now? Yeah, and I think we’re gonna see, we’re gonna see them big time in the next two months as well.

Just as a, as a point of, of reference. Comparative to that cold and wet spring that we had last year, we’ve done about 400 percent more wasp calls so far in 2023 than we did up till this date in 2022. So I expect as the summer moves along, these, these baseball sized nests They’re going to start turning into volleyballs and basketballs and they’re going to definitely pose some challenges for people barbecuing in their backyards.

Okay, is that the typical call you receive? There’s a nest near the house or in the backyard and you have to remove the nest? Is that what happens? Yeah, every, every call, every call is a bit different. Wasps will, will build their nest in the ground. They’ll build their nests in the walls, the exterior walls of your home or soffit as well as Traditionally, what they would do which is just a nest hanging from a, a, a tree and the type of wasp we’re talking about are the most common which is, which is yellow jackets, but European paper wasps are another one as well as bald faced hornets.

Those are the three regular offenders. Okay, I remember that we’ve had some of these nests around our home, too, and I remember one year I was at the hardware store. And I bought, it was kind of like a, like a decoy nest. It was like a, it was like a cylindrical sort of sphere that, that looked like a wasp nest that you just hang up outside.

And I guess the other wasps see this fake nest and they say, okay, this spot’s already taken. We’ll go somewhere else. I mean, I, I, I’m sure you’ve seen these, Mike, does that work? No. Okay. Okay. That’s the short answer. So wasps are to some, to some degree, territorial, but if there’s enough resources for, for, for two nests in, in one area it’s not unusual for us to come across two large yellowjacket nests on one person’s home.

I’ve seen them as close as 10 feet apart before. So Realistically, that’s not the best solution. If you’re looking for something to reduce the numbers or maybe prevent them the best tool that you can use for that is to get a pheromone wasp trap there, 10 to 15 available at most hardware stores this time of year.

It’s great because they’re chemical free and they really work. You’ll catch a whole bunch of wasps, which for anybody who’s been stung or doesn’t want them around can be. And be quite satisfying. And speaking of getting stung, Mike, when you’re taking out one of those large nests that you described, have you ever been stung while doing that?

Oh, absolutely. And you know, we’re, we’re probably a lot more responsible now than we were at one time. But I remember in my early days, it was sometimes a contest to see who could be the last guy on our crew to don his suit on any given year. But you do want to be careful around these around these, these insects, because if you provoke a nest especially if you’re working up a ladder or, or on a roof or something like that they can quickly over overwhelm you.

So yeah, if you’re going to do a DIY wasp treatment nighttime is the best time to do it. Make sure you’re donning lots of protective, protective gear and, and have an escape route planned. Oh, escape route. Okay, that’s very smart. Very wise. Okay, speaking to Mike Londry, Westside Pest Control, talking about summer pests around your home.

I know another frequent call you get this type time of year, Mike, are ants. And when we open the phone lines, which we’ll do in a second here, We always get lots of calls about ants, like ants, ants on the move, coming into your house. Which type of ants are the most problematic? Well the most problematic would be carpenter ants because they can be structurally damaging to the, to the home or, or any structure.

But in terms of the, the greatest volume of, of, of calls and… Problematic in the average person’s eyes are, are pavement ants. They’re the little, little black ones that’ll come in as soon as they find any sort of food and then leave a trail a pheromone trail to tell all the other ants this is the way to a free meal.

And that’s when you’ll get the Congo lines traveling back and forth through the, through the kitchen and other parts of the house. Okay, how do you deal with those? You get a, you go out and a call for, for those pavement ants. How do you deal with them? Get them, get them early and sometimes, sometimes domestic ant baits will, will work.

Even DIY products such as cinnamon around doors and, and, and window frames using soap and water in in a, in a spray bottle to, to, to wipe clean those pheromone trails. Is is also a really, a really important factor. Just, just spraying them isn’t necessarily going to work. You want to wipe out those pheromone trails.

Okay, Mike, but this time of year, how about rats and mice? Oh, it’s Vancouver. Rats and mice are every time of year. There’s never. Never never a shortage. We’re definitely getting an uptick in calls for rats in people’s yards this time of year. Fruits coming out on the trees, cherries are starting to fall off of trees and veggie gardens are, are, you know, looking pretty good now.

So they’re not just looking good to us. They’re looking good to the rodents. We’re looking at a new year. So Bye. Bye. And easy things to do. If you have a cherry tree, for instance remove those rotten cherries from the bottom of the tree. Those are definitely an attractive attractant to rats this time of year.

All right. Welcome back to the show. My guest is Mike Londry, the owner of Westside pest control. And Mike always gets a. Ton of phone calls today is no exception. Let’s get right at it here. May in mission. Hi, May. Go ahead.

Oh, my God. Mike, Mike, your thoughts. Yeah. So you definitely want to be attacking it collectively. If if it’s three acres that that’s being developed, that can be a big displacement of rats. Norway. Rats are burrowers, so a lot of people just think of rats as living, living in, in dirty alleyways and maybe in, in, in crawl spaces and, and and basements and stuff like that.

It’s, it’s not the case. They will happily burrow in a, in a field especially if there’s a food source nearby. So. The collect collectively is definitely the best way to do it trapping stations are usually the most effective. If you’re if you’re working in an agricultural area, I would shy away from poison.

If you can just from a raptor friendly perspective, but traps inside tamper proof stations are probably the best. thing to do and get all your neighbors on board, whether it’s DIY or getting a pest control company in you don’t want to be just be doing one section at a time because you’ll be playing whack a mole forever.

Yeah. Whack-a-mole, whack a rat. There in exactly. May. Good luck with that one. Let’s go to Brian and Coquitlam. Hi Brian. Go ahead. Hey Mike. I discovered the best thing for dealing with those pavement ends. Once that line forms, I put a cup full of honey in between the line. I put some killing bait in there too to kill the queen, but it mass, it masses Z.

They all go into the honey. They can’t get out. It just becomes a giant graveyard. No more are in the house ’cause they’re all stuck at the cup. Okay, so you have a cup with, like, honey in the cup, and what do you do, like, they crawl up into the cup? Oh, yeah, and they don’t get out. They get stuck in the honey and it just becomes a giant graveyard.

They don’t go into a house anymore because they get stuck at that spot and then eventually the poison kills the queen and the rest of the colony later. Okay, Mike, what do you think of that? It’s a great, that’s a great idea, especially if they’ve already established those, those, those pheromone trails. Trapping them is is, is an awesome idea.

Pavement ads can number up to 100, 000. A colony, so it may not eradicate the the nest, but I, I love it as a, as ADIY tool. I think that that’s awesome. Okay, phone lines are open. Mike Londry, WestSide Pest Control is my guest.

Hi Jack. Go ahead. I Mike, have I ever been waiting to hear from this this chap on your show? I always, I, look, my problem is I’ve got ants, and they’re in my swimming pool cover. You know, you pull your blue swimming pool cover out, and it’s got all the little baubles and stuff inside. That keeps your pool clean, and it keeps it clear.

But for the last three to four years, and now this year again, The ants are in that cover and whenever I pull it back I have to spend about 10, 12, 15 minutes taking the ants out of my pool. Oh, what a drag. Mike, what do you think of that? The drag is right. Yeah. Mike. Well chances, chances are they’re probably after the moisture and there’s probably some moisture that’s retained on that pool cover when it’s, when it’s rolled up.

Now the ants aren’t going to be residing in the pool cover. They haven’t decided to take that up as their new home, they are probably just attracted to the moisture, but their nest is likely right underneath the concrete in that in that area. My suggestion would be to go to. Any local hardware store and find any, any, any spray that has ants on the label and treat it just around where that pool cover is.

If there’s any little holes, cracks going into the pavement, find a spray with a, with a straw nozzle so that you can get some of the product into the sand that’s underneath that. That pavement essentially set up a barrier around that pool cover. You might need to do this two or three times over the summer, but that should definitely help.

All right, Jack, good luck with that. Let’s go to Kathy on the line in Surrey. Hi, Kathy. Go ahead. Hi. Yeah, I have two, two things. I missed the name of the to get the yellow jackets or wasps or hornets in the nest, what was that called for the product to eliminate them. Mike, Oh, there’s, there’s a, there’s a few different, there’s a, there’s a few different products.

It’s a wasp pheromone trap is what you’re looking for. So and just about any, any hardware any hardware store should have. Something in the aisles usually come in like a clear bag. They can be filled up with, with liquid. But it’s a wasp pheromone trap is what you’re looking for. A wasp pheromone trap.

Is that like the, the roach motel? They check in, don’t check out? Exactly. Okay. Okay, it’s kind of a roach motel for a wasp. Do you have another question, Cathy? I do, thanks. I’m cockroaches. I live in an apartment. I’m good for now, but they keep coming back through the drains, you know, in the kitchen and bathroom.

And they’ve had people in many times to deal with this problem. What can I do? Oh boy, cockroaches. Oh, those are the worst, Mike. I just wanted to circle back quickly. Rescue Me Wasp is the name of one of the readily available… Traps that you can you can purchase. Rescue me wasps. Cockroaches Cockroaches are something that’s usually best left for a professional company because you’re going to likely need commercial grade products to eliminate them.

Now that said, most cockroach infestations can be treated by just using bait formulas. It might require two or three visits from a professional. But there shouldn’t be any insecticide sprays required. Just some, some continuous sanitation, probably following a few instructions from the professional.

And as long as adjacent suites in the building are also being taken care of, it should, the problem should be eliminated in three to six weeks. Yeah, I think good. Good luck, Kathy. Let’s go to Paul on the line in Vancouver. Hey, Paul, go ahead. I want to talk about pigeons. I’ve got a pigeon infestation on my balcony, my condo balcony, because the neighbor above me seems to be feeding them and encouraging them.

So they come onto my balcony, they dump all over the place, it’s dirty, they yeah, what can I do? Have you tried talking to your upstairs neighbor about it? Yes, and I’ve gone to the Strata Council, and I, they, they say they, they’re not encouraging them. I’m sure they’re feeding them, they’re probably nesting up there, and it’s driving me crazy.

Mike, we got 30 seconds here. Mike, go ahead. If there, if the pigeons are being fed right above you, the only thing you’re going to be able to do to prevent them is physical exclusion. Again, this is something that probably requires a professional. Our company is one of several that do it. It might cost you a couple of hundred bucks.

Some pigeon netting that is really not that visible. It can be installed to prevent anything from coming on to the balcony and give you back your peace of mind. Mike, what’s your website? Westsidepestcontrol. com. Mike, it’s always great to have you on here. Thanks for coming on today. Thank you, Mike.

Thanks for listening to the Mike Smith show podcast. Can’t wait