Mike Londry interviews on CKNW answering your pest control questions

It’s what’s happening right now. This is the Mike Smith show.

Mike Smith:

All right, welcome back to the show. Well, it’s that time of year in the fall, when homeowners worried about creepy crawlies around their house, lots of spiders around, moths, rats. Yes, rats, I’m sorry to say. Did you know that Vancouver recently retained its ignominious title as the rattiest city in British Columbia? Have a listen to this report from Global News.

Mike Londry:

It’s not the most highly sought after accolade. Vancouver has been named BC’s most rattiest city. And more bad news, the pandemic is having an impact on the increase of rats in residential areas. Joining us now with more on this is Trina Butler from Orchid, Canada. Thanks for being here, Trina. So what did the survey reveal?

Trina:

Well, the survey revealed that for the fourth consecutive year in a row, that Vancouver again is the rattiest city in BC, followed up by Victoria. We have Richmond, Burnaby, and Surrey on that list, as well.

Mike Smith:

Okay, ew, the rattiest city in the province. Let’s talk about this now with my guest Mike Londry, he is the owner of Westside Pest Control. I’m very pleased to welcome him back to the show. How are you, Mike?

Speaker 5:

Good, how are you?

Mike Smith:

I’m doing great, Mike. So Vancouver is the rattiest city in the province. I’m sure that does not surprise you.

Mike Londry:

Not in the slightest. After 15 years of doing pest control around this area, rats are what keeps us all employed in this great industry.

Mike Smith:

Okay. Why is Vancouver the rattiest city? Why do we have so many rats?

Mike Londry:

We’re a port city and we have a mild climate. So in some of the other parts of Canada where rats are clinging to life due to cold weather, they’re still thriving here in Vancouver.

Mike Smith:

Okay. And what about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic? Is that correct that we’re seeing more rats during the pandemic? Are you experiencing that? Are you seeing that?

Mike Londry:

It was really interesting to see what was going to happen. We didn’t know because there was of course dumpsters where rats would frequent, and businesses were maybe not throwing away as much food scraps and stuff like that, but it’s just … it all gets transferred to another place. So what was [inaudible 00:02:27] commercial dumpster is now out of a takeout box in a residential dumpster. So we didn’t see the same crazy spikes here that happened in some other metropolitan parts of the world, like New York, where there was just all these restaurants, and then nothing. But we’ve definitely seen a slight increase, I would say, in the residential rat activity over the past few months.

Mike Smith:

Okay. Speaking to Mike Londry, Westside Pest Control. Okay, Mike, when you get a call about rats, I’m sure that’s a common call at your business there, is that a tough thing to deal with, or is that pretty standard operating procedure for you there?

Mike Londry:

I love rats. Rats are my favorite challenge of all the pest [inaudible 00:03:10], because it’s really just about outsmarting them and finding out how they’re getting into the structure. And if you can accomplish that, then you can keep them out of the structure. So to answer your question, yes, we do … we enjoy taking rat calls, and we don’t find it all that challenging. They can be challenging at times, because rats can do things like burrow right underneath the foundation of a home. And when they do stuff like that, a lot of investigation is needed to be able to solve the problem permanently.

Mike Smith:

What’s the most common sort of method of entry into a home?

Mike Londry:

Most common entry is usually somewhere up high, actually. So rats love to climb. So where they would often get in is underneath a soffit, where a soffit overlaps another roof line, so somewhere around the roof of the home. They can sometimes get in through lower areas as well as the crawl spaces, like if there’s a crawlspace dent, but it’s actually more commonly mice that get in in lower down, and rats that get in higher up.

Mike Smith:

Yeah, I remember … that reminds me, I remember when I was a young guy and I was just kind of … I had a … renting a cheap bachelor pad, and man, there was a rat in this apartment I had, and it was gnarly. I got out of there pretty quick, but I remember looking around my apartment, and I could not figure out where this thing had gotten into my apartment. And my buddy told me there was a fireplace in the apartment, and he said, maybe it came down the chimney. And I was like, what? You got to be kidding me. He said, no, those things go vertical, like, they can climb. Is that … like, how much can they climb?

Mike Londry:

Well, I mean, think of what a really experienced rock climber could do in terms of just needing a couple of fingers to hold onto something. A house with rough stucco siding provides enough grip for a rat to scale up the side of it.

Mike Smith:

Oh man, that is nasty. Okay, Mike, here’s what we’re going to do right now. Every time Mike is on, he gets a ton of phone calls. So let’s go to the break early here, open the phone lines, and if you’ve got a question or a comment about pest control. So maybe you have rats around your house, you want some questions, you’re looking for answers. Here’s your opportunity to speak to an expert. Have you got any other kind of creepy crawlies around your house? Ants, any other kind of bugs? Phone Mike up. Raccoons? Yeah, he deals with that, too. Phone me on this now. Here we go, 604-280-9898, your questions on pest control. 604-280-9898, toll-free on your cell. It is *9898. Mike Londry is my guest, the owner of Westside Pest Control. Your call’s next.

Mike Smith:

All right, welcome back to the show. My guest is Mike Londry. He’s the owner of Westside Pest Control, always was super popular. Guests on the open line, (604) 280-9898 is the number to call him, *9898 toll free on your cell. Let’s go right to your phone calls, Linda, in Maple Ridge. Hi, Linda.

Linda:

Hi, thanks for taking my call. I am wondering if you have any suggestions for river otters. We have a houseboat down on the Alouette in Pitt Meadows, and the river otters love to come up inside and poop everywhere.

Mike Smith:

Oh, no, Mike, river otters.

Mike Londry:

River otters, so it’s not a pest that we deal with specifically, but I’d be more than happy to look into it for you if you could leave your information with CKNW, I can try and get back to you.

Mike Smith:

Okay, why don’t you-

Linda:

Oh, that would be awesome.

Mike Smith:

… why don’t you do that? Linda, don’t hang up here, and we’ll get your information off the air, but a river otter, that’s got to be a protected species, though. Wouldn’t it be, Mike?

Mike Londry:

Yeah, I mean-

Mike Smith:

Probably.

Mike Londry:

… you certainly aren’t going to be able to use extermination methods, so it would be some kind of exclusion, finding a way to discourage them from coming up onto the space. I don’t think-

Mike Smith:

Yeah, you wouldn’t want to hurt those river otters. They’re super cute.

Mike Londry:

… yeah, I don’t even think relocation would be a permitted method, so Linda’s definitely going to have to get creative with those river otters, I think.

Mike Smith:

Okay, there you go. So you thought you heard it all, Mike, but you haven’t heard it all. Let’s go to John in Vancouver. Hi, John.

John:

Hi. I have a recurring problem every year of rats underneath the hood of my vehicles making nests. And somebody told me that you could use mothballs. Is that an old wives tale told by an old wife?

Mike Smith:

Okay, Mike.

Mike Londry:

So rats underneath the hoods of people’s engines are becoming an issue more and more frequently. About eight years ago, all domestic vehicles got … new environmental laws came in place that required that all the wire coatings were made out of soy-based coatings, as opposed to the petroleum ones that they used to be made out of. So 15 years ago, it was only the expensive European cars that got chewed by rats. Now, unfortunately, it’s all of them. They love to chew, and they like the taste of the wires. So a lot of people are looking at expensive bills.

Mike Londry:

I always recommend, the first thing to do if rats get under the hood of your car, make sure you shampoo the engine really well. Their sense of smell is really strong so they’re going to want to come back to the same place again. And for that reason, you also want to park a car two blocks away for a couple of weeks until they have conditioned themselves to go to somebody else’s vehicle. In terms of the mothballs, if you’ve done those other two things first, it certainly isn’t going to hurt. It might help a bit. You can also buy ultrasonic devices online. Don’t spend $5. If you spend 30 bucks to 40 bucks, you should get one that is going to help deter rodents, again, once the engine has been shampooed. And as far as the new rodent is concerned, it’s just not a nice place to go and visit.

Mike Smith:

Okay. Good luck with that one, John. Ali in White Rock. Hello.

Ali:

Okay. Sorry, buddy, I was in the Tim Horton drive-thru at the same time. My question was about silverfish. We live in a townhouse and my two neighbors on either side, they both won’t participate in calling an exterminator. They don’t want to kill anything, but I wanted to know, if we do it to our house, is it going to get rid of the problem, or do we have to do all houses?

Mike Smith:

Okay, silverfish, Mike. Those are nasty, silverfish.

Mike Londry:

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. They don’t cause any damage. They don’t harbor or carry any diseases. They’re just unpleasant to look at. Nobody likes turning on the light in the bathroom in the middle of the night and see them scurry away. So in terms of treating them just in your unit and not the adjacent ones, yes, you’re definitely going to see some definite relief. And will they come back? Yes, they probably will, however, it will probably take a matter of months, as opposed to just happening the next day. So if they’re driving you crazy, I would say do something about it. And maybe the results of having knocked down your silverfish population will encourage your neighbors to do so, too.

Mike Smith:

Is there a simple over the counter product you can get in a hardware store or something to put in to get rid of them?

Mike Londry:

Yeah, so most aerosol insecticides that you can buy from the hardware stores will definitely help. Diatomaceous Earth is a great non-toxic solution. You have to be very … there’s a bit of an art and a science to applying the dust, but that’s another great option, as well.

Mike Smith:

Okay, Jim in Squamish. Hiya, Jim.

Jim:

Hello, there. We have a reoccurring raccoon problem. We have kind of a catacomb under our house. They keep coming back to use it for a bathroom. We’ve sealed it up so they stopped ripping installation out, but we’ve got multiple families coming and visiting.

Mike Smith:

Okay, Mike.

Jim:

Not sure what to do.

Mike Londry:

So everything has been sealed up? Are there breaking their way back in again each time?

Jim:

Well, they’ve … it’s hard to … I can’t seal it up because it’s built on bedrock. So it’s a raised above bedrock, so there’s like this catacomb of bedrock and crawling options underneath the house. I’ve tried [inaudible 00:15:28] nail strips and scents, and different things to deter, but they keep coming back.

Mike Londry:

Okay. Okay. Some people have had luck in a situation like that using flashing lights, some people have luck using music. In terms of what we do, and this wouldn’t work for a long term, but just to flush them out of an area, they really don’t like the smell of ammonia. So if we’re trying to get raccoons or skunks out from underneath a shed, ammonia on a rag on the end of a stick, and leave it in there for 30 minutes, everything will be gone, and then you can seal it up. But yeah, unfortunately, that’s more of a short term solution. I would try music if you haven’t tried that yet, if you can get an extension cord and a radio down there.

Mike Smith:

Okay. What kind of music? Like punk rock, or what? Does it matter?

Mike Londry:

It doesn’t matter. Yeah, punk rock is great.

Mike Smith:

What about disco? Disco would probably get them out of there.

Mike Londry:

I think the raccoons like disco, actually, so that might not …

Mike Smith:

Yeah, this is why you’re the expert and I’m not. Guy in Surrey. Hi, Guy.

Guy:

Yeah, hi. I’m calling about the rats that we have. They’re very large. They’re the size of squirrels. And the reason why we have these big rats is because the neighbors and whatnot, they get their garbage cans and they don’t close the lids on them. They stack them up high. They’re all renters. They don’t get enough garbage cans for how many people are living in the house, and they don’t want to pay for any more, so I got to deal with all these rats. I don’t know what we can do to get Surrey to use [inaudible 00:17:10].

Mike Smith:

Maybe you should buy them a garbage can.

Guy:

Well, why should I have to buy them all garbage cans?

Mike Smith:

Well, I don’t know, maybe if they won’t buy one for themselves. But what do you think, Mike?

Mike Londry:

Well, yeah, you definitely want to keep food sources away from them. Once they’ve been trained to go somewhere and they know that there’s going to be an available meal for them, they will keep coming back to there. So yeah, unfortunately, until those garbage cans have been dealt with and the lids can be closed properly, it’s going to be an ongoing issue.

Mike Smith:

Yeah, that’s not cool. That’s not a good neighbor policy at all. I would maybe go talk to them or complain to your municipality. Maybe you’ve already tried that. Margaret in Maple Ridge. Hi, Margaret.

Margaret:

Yeah, I’m just calling about rats, mostly, and just wondering if the ultrasound plugin things that you can buy. I bought four of them, because we don’t want to use poison or anything like that because we’ve got animals around here., so if that works.

Mike Smith:

Okay, Mike?

Mike Londry:

So they actually … from my experience, they can work fairly well as long as the space is small enough. It’s not going to work outside. Plugging some of those in outside won’t keep them out of the entire yard, but if you have, for instance, a travel trailer or a garage, and again, you’re able to first make sure that nothing is there, so once the rodents are out, and any mess that they’ve left behind, smells that they’ve left behind, has been cleaned up, that will prevent any more from coming in. The way I like to think about it is, if you went out today and came home, or if you were going to look at a new apartment, and the neighbor was playing some really loud music, you might not decide to move in there. But if you came home today and the neighbors were playing loud music, you would move out tomorrow. And so, for the rats, it’s kind of the same idea. The ultrasonic is going to deter them so long as it’s not already somewhere they live.

Mike Smith:

Okay. We just got a minute left, so let’s squeeze in one more. Hi, Shelley, in Richmond.

Shelley:

Hi. I just wanted to tell the guy about a rat story.

Mike Smith:

Okay. Real quick, real quick.

Shelley:

Okay. I live on farmland, and I ended up … something was burrowing through the fence, so I bought a live trap, and I put it down, and the next morning, I came out and I thought, oh my goodness, there is a chocolate lab puppy in the trap. It wasn’t a lab puppy, it was a rat. It was the size … it was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and-

Mike Smith:

Oh my god, Mike, what’s the … we got 20 seconds.

Shelley:

Mike Smith:

Mike, what’s the biggest one you’ve ever seen?

Mike Londry:

A 17 inch Norway rat in somebody’s attic.

Mike Smith:

Oh my god, that’s going to give me a nightmare tonight. What’s your website, people want more info about Westside Pest Control?

Mike Londry:

Westsidepestcontrol.com.

Mike Smith:

Okay, that’s easy to remember. Mike-