June 14, 2022 • 18 mins
Living in Florida you see so many different bugs. Today we talk to Darin Whitlock from Hughes Exterminators and we find out different ways that they are getting in without you even knowing.
To get ahold of Hughes Exterminators to come out and see if you have a bug problem you can call
1-877-GoHughes
They are located throughout the State of Florida.
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Homes
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the live your best life barefoot podcast
(00:02):
with your host Mary Morrison andthe team at barefoot bungalow
Realty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to the next episode of live your
best life barefoot.
I'm Ruth and I'm here with Mary
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Today.
Good morning, Ruth.
Good morning.
We are so excited.
We're gonna dive right in.
We have a great guest today.
We were so, um, excited to havehim as part of our team of
resources.
His name is Darren WhitelockWhitlock and he is with Hughes,
just exterminators, Darren.
(00:34):
Welcome.
Good morning.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
And thank you for having me
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Tell us a little bit about you and about your
company.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Uh, well, I've, uh, I'm Darren Whitlock.
I've been in the industry now,uh, 20 years.
Um, I'm fully state certified inall the categories, uh, pest
termite lawn and, uh, fumigationand, um, Hughes exterminators.
We are a, uh, a division youmight say of arrow exterminators
(01:03):
out of Atlanta.
Um, we're one, we're one of thebig ones, but, uh, just with
some name changes due toacquisitions over the years and
copyrights and things like that.
Uh, people and other companieshave similar names.
We have several different namesthroughout the country.
Um, in Florida, we actually haveall of them.
(01:23):
Um, you have the arrowexterminators, which is the
parent company name on the westcoast.
We're called Hughesexterminators east coast.
We're called starkexterminators.
And then we also have another,uh, acquisition we did years ago
called Nader's pest Raiders, um,up in, uh, Jacksonville area.
And then they're also out west.
So we have, uh, close to 160offices over 2,800 employees.
(01:47):
And we like to say we're 58years young.
Um, and it all started out of aback room of a hair salon in
Atlanta, Georgia.
Wow.
Uh, so, um, we are, we are inthe top, uh, I think the top six
now, um, in size.
Um, but we're a family ownedcompany we're privately held by
the Thomas family.
(02:08):
Um, and it's always been thatway and, uh, we take very good
care of our employees and evenbetter care of our customers
love that.
So that's a little bit about us.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
That's great.
So what, um, brought you to thisindustry?
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Um, actually I, uh, I was out of work after nine 11.
I had left a position two weeksbefore nine 11 happened and the
world shut down.
At that point, there was nohiring, nobody was doing
anything.
So I spent nine months, uh,looking for what I wanted to do
and another company, um, thecompany I would came from, uh,
(02:47):
reached out to me and I did myresearch and so forth and said,
Hey, this is a, you know, thisis an industry that doesn't have
a lot of up and down, especiallyin Florida, right.
We're always gonna have bug
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Always there like that.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
so, um, I
joined, I joined them, learned
quite a bit.
Um, even growing up here inFlorida, I didn't have a clue of
what this industry really wasall about.
Um, so it's, uh, we do here inFlorida, we do a lot because we
not only do pest control andtermite protection, but we also
do lawn care, Palm protection,mosquitoes, uh, exclusion work
(03:27):
all time, uh, insulation, thingslike that.
So, um, it was definitelysomething I knew that basically
about week three when I got intothe industry that this is
probably where I would retireone day, because, you know, like
I said, it's just, it's a goodsolid industry yeah.
That people need what we offer.
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah.
So tell us about those bugs
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Well, there again, there's different categories.
Uh, there's the first one is G Pgeneral household pest.
This is what most people know ofants and roaches and silver fish
and fleas and ticks.
Um, things like that.
Um, here in Florida, we have, um, just there's too many to name.
Um, but the bugs people do notwant them in their house.
(04:16):
Um, they do not want them ontheir property.
Um, but being in Florida,especially the tropical nature
of our state, they're nevergoing away.
Right.
And other species get introducedhere, um, brought in of course,
you know, through transit andthings like that.
And once they, uh, get here,they don't go away.
Um, and then of course the otherthings that we deal with the
(04:38):
termites, um, which can do a lotof damage to homes, uh, it's in
the, um, I think the last thingover$1 billion a year and
termite and retreatment damagein, in the United States and
Florida is the leader on that.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, that, that really surprised me.
We talked a little bit aboutthat, cuz I, I knew it was a
problem in California.
Yeah.
But I didn't know that we had asramp rampant of a problem.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
It is.
And the, uh, the university ofFlorida does most of the
research and they basically, uh,this is years ago when I
started, they estimated in thestate of Florida, there's an,
every acre of land.
There's anywhere between 10 to15 termite colonies in the
ground.
Um, and they vary in sizeanywhere between a hundred
thousand termites.
And now with the new speciesthat has been here for a while
(05:27):
though, um, upwards are 10million in each of those
colonies.
Wow.
So there's an old saying outthere that it's not, if I have
termites, it's win.
If, if you don't have protectionon your home.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
So I know kind of the thinking of the general
consumer, cuz I'm that consumer,um, I have a cinder block house,
so I'm good, right?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Oh, absolutely not.
okay.
You have to think about what'sin your house.
Okay.
Your, your house has baseboards,correct?
Yeah.
Yeah.
As furniture cabinets, uh, mostpeople don't realize that the
sheet rock that is, you know, onthe walls, in your home, on the
backside of that is paper, well,termite eat cellulose, which
(06:14):
comes from trees.
Oh, anything made out ofcelluloses, that's what they
want to consume.
Hmm.
So, and it takes less than one64th of an inch, which is a
very, very small opening for atermite to get in, um, in your
home, whether it be in theground or above ground, there
are so many possiblepenetrations that a termite can
(06:36):
get in.
And they're just constantlyexploring because they can't see
where they're going anyway.
They don't actually have eyesmm-hmm.
Um, so they basically doeverything by pheromones and
touch and sense and they do well, you, we talked about, you've
got that colony of two to 3million termites and they're
just out there looking forsomething to eat.
That's that's their job.
(06:58):
I, I, I said something manyyears ago that there's two
reasons, um, that, you know,termites are here and that's to
eat your house and, and makemore termites.
That's pretty much it.
So we have to understand, weinvaded their area, not vice
versa, you know, bybuilding the home right on top
(07:20):
of them.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Right.
Right.
Um, so tell me, because we, wedo have some stick homes here in
the area, um, as far as pestsand a specifically termite say,
is that better?
Worse, same.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Well, I would say you it's, you know, wood framed
homes.
Okay.
There there's two differenttypes of termites.
There's the subter termite,that's in the ground.
Then you have the dry woodtermite, which is if you've ever
seen usually a building or ahome that has a tent over the
top of it, that's typicallybeaten, treated for the dry wood
termite that lives above ground.
(07:59):
Um, doesn't make any contactwith the soil.
So, um, wood frame homes andblock homes are all susceptible.
Um, there's certain I won't getinto all the building things,
but there's certain ways thatwith a, with a framed home, um,
you have to make sure that your,your siding is above grade.
And, and so you can see thefoundation underneath it, um,
(08:22):
because the termites, you know,they'll build a mud tube and you
can actually see it.
Um, if it's, if you got stuccoand everything down below grade,
you can't see the sub trainingtermites coming in your home.
Well with block homes, you can'tsee'em either.
Um, because they're not, they'renot crawling up the outside of,
of a house.
Dry wood termites are probably alittle more prevalent, um, and a
(08:44):
little bit easier access forthem to get in, uh, on a framed
home.
Um, just because of the natureyou've got wood or siding on the
outside and lots and lots ofavenues for them to get in, um,
around windows and door framesand things like that because dry
wood termites typically eitherfly in, um, could be the
neighbor next door.
(09:04):
It could be out of a tree, um,even a Palm tree, um, or you
actually can bring them intoyour home in pieces of wood, uh,
pieces of furniture.
People need to be very carefulwhen they go and buy antiques.
Cuz if it was in a home that haddry wood termites and they're in
the furniture, now you bringthat furniture in your home.
(09:26):
Now you can have dry woodtermites.
That'll basically swarm out thatpiece of furniture and now they
get into your walls and, and ittakes a while, but they can do
some serious damage over time.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So how do you check for those termites?
If you're a antier
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Well, the first thing you do, you, you, you're looking
very closely at it.
You typically, if the drytermites will create what they
call an exit hole, it's a verysmall pinhole, literally about
the size of the head of a, aball point pin.
And that's where they'llactually, when they consume what
they eat, um, it, they createtheir droppings and at certain
(10:05):
times they'll start dropping'emout that hole to kind of clear
out cuz it's what they call agallery where that's how they
travel and they can only travelwhat they've eaten, they've
create their own space, like amold, so to speak.
Um, so you look for pinholes andthings like that, um, on, on the
furniture before you buy it, butit doesn't necessarily have to
(10:27):
be antiques.
Um, I had a situation where abrand new piece of put together
the furniture from a very large,large store that does a lot of
furniture put together thefurniture.
We don't have one over here,there's Miami and Orlando and so
forth has one and, uh, open upthe box and you could actually
hear the pellets inside.
(10:47):
One of the pieces of the wood asyou turned it, it sounded like,
uh, you know, water rushing oneside or the other Uhhuh.
And it, so it was in that pieceof wood cabinetry.
Um, you have to be very carefulbecause this has come up at
literally in the last 10 yearswhere termites, uh, the cabinet
makers, they don't realizethey're in the wood that they've
bought.
(11:07):
They build the cabinets.
They, they basically kind of cutaround the termites, not even
knowing that they're there andthey build the cabinets, they
put'em in the house and they'vebasically built the cabinets
with the termites in the house.
Wow.
So it's uh, and, and it's notcuz they don't treat the wood.
Um, most Wood's not treated in ahouse.
Right.
Um, because if you do a lot oftreated wood, what happens over
(11:29):
time with wood?
When it dries, it course itstarts to warp.
Um, so that's why you want driedwood in there.
Right.
Um, so people say, well, whydon't they just, you know, have
do pressure treated wood and allthe studs in my house, cuz it'll
all start to turn and you canimagine the cracks and the
drywall and everything else.
Interesting.
They give a fence post outside,you know, it eventually dries
(11:51):
out.
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
That's interesting.
Hadn't thought of that.
Well, that brings us to our nextgreat, scary.
I know.
Right?
Scary.
I'm thinking about my newcabinets in my house right now.
so if, if we areconcerned about buying or
selling our home, mm-hmm you have a great
(12:12):
service, um, that you offer tomake sure that that home is free
of any concerns or help you.
And then if there is concernsyou can help mitigate those
concerns.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Um, well basically depending on, well, you know,
the type of issue, um, termitesare the biggest one that when,
when you're selling a home andso forth is that if, if you have
a termite protection program onyour home, um, you're less
likely to have an issue.
Okay.
(12:49):
Um, you want it to be with a repreputable company using the
proper products and all thattype of thing.
Um, but no, nothing's a hundredpercent.
Um, no program out there is100%.
That's gonna say you're nevergonna have a problem.
Um, the pressures are just toogreat.
So that's why you want tocontinue to carry that.
Um, whether you're selling nowor maybe you're in the future.
(13:12):
Um, because with our, especiallywith termite protection, the new
homeowner can actually transferthat same coverage over and can
continue it on.
Um, and that's something thatyou really, it helps benefit the
seller, the ha that they've hadprotection, um, because
something may not happen thisyear, but it could be four or
(13:34):
five years down the road, right.
That something got through some,there was a breakdown somewhere,
unfortunately, um, with theamount of pressure that's out
there and then companies likeus, depending on the type of
coverage you have depends onexactly what all we do, whether
you have a retreatment onlyprogram where we'll just come
out and retreat, those specificareas, or whether you actually
(13:56):
have a retreatment and repaircoverage, which means if we go
out there and there's an issuewe find live termites, why we
have the active program going,then we're responsible for the
repairs of the damage thatthey've caused.
Wow.
Um, so, and it's, you know,that's why when we come out and
do our inspections, we want tobe extremely thorough because
(14:17):
we're taking on that liabilityof that home.
Right, right.
Um, first off, we don't want thetermites to be there.
Um, nobody wants the termites tobe there.
Um, but it, when it comes to theother pest and things like that,
your general household pest, um,that program, we're coming out
there working with the homeowneror whoever's living there to, to
(14:39):
create the best solution, but wedon't live there every day.
So there are things that we willlet them know, Hey, you need to
do this or stop doing thisbecause otherwise what we're
trying to do, won't beeffective.
And we won't able to solve thoseproblems that you are hiring us
to
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Solve.
That makes sense.
Well, well, we're excitedbecause in partnership with you,
we are able to offer, if youwant to put your home on the
market, you haven't had a, aprogram going, and you're
curious if you have issuesbefore you have that, um,
inspector come out, you guyswill come do a pre-listing
(15:16):
evaluation for no charge.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Absolutely.
We do that.
That's the relationship that,that we build with the realtors
to say, we want to be a part ofyour team, right?
Um, just like you, most, most,uh, realtors have, you know,
somebody that's, uh, you know, aplumber for them or a handyman
or something like, well, we're,we're just part of the team a
lot of times to help thatrealtor get that listing because
(15:39):
they're able to rattle off, Hey,well I have this company, I have
this company that's part of myteam to, so when we come in here
to help, you know, if we chooseus, we're gonna come out and do
all this stuff in the beginningto make sure that your home is,
is best.
It can be to put it on themarket.
I know the market things movereally fast right now, but it,
it hasn't always been that way.
(15:59):
Right.
Um, so having that advantage towhere I've got a team, that's
gonna make sure that my home isgonna be the best it could be to
put it on the market and I'mable to get the most value out
of that home when
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I sell it.
No surprises.
That's awesome.
Yes.
Well, thank you so much forcoming on today.
We've really enjoyed getting toknow you and, um, having you as
part of our team and
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Absolutely.
Um, we are, we're proud to that,you know, to deal with all the
realtors we're especially, youknow, happy that we, we, we
hooked up at the, uh, themeeting the other day and we
were able to provide, you know,this opportunity with some
education for people,
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Love it.
If people wanna get a hold ofyou, what's the best way.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Well, the best way here at our office, which my
office is here in Naples.
Um, the easiest way is to call 18 77, go Hughes, H U G H E S.
Um, that'll basically take youto our corporate call center and
they can transfer you towhatever office cuz we have an
office here, Naples.
(17:00):
It handles from Bonita Springsall the way out to Everglade
city.
But then we also have our FortMyers office that is actually in
Cape coral, um, that handlesAero and Fort Myers, Fort Myers
beach, Lehigh Le um, and labelbell, things like that.
And on up the, on, up the westside of the state, and again, we
have, uh, quite a few, um,throughout the state of Florida,
(17:23):
I think we're, um, 50, um, we'replus 50 offices now in the state
of Florida.
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Awesome.
So
Speaker 4 (17:31):
Somebody's that 180 7 7 go Hughes would kind of get
you to, they'll be able todirect you to whatever mark you
might be interested in.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Perfect.
Right.
Or you can reach out to us wouldbe happy to connect you.
And um, if you have anyquestions, feel free to reach
out to barefoot bungalow at 8 23 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5, and as always
remember to live your best lifebarefoot.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Thank you for listening to the live, your best
life barefoot podcast, sponsoredfive barefoot bungalow Realty to
learn more about barefootbungalow Realty, go to
www.barefootbungalowrealty.comor call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.
Welcome to the live your best life barefoot podcast
(00:02):
with your host Mary Morrison andthe team at barefoot bungalow
Realty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to the next episode of live your
best life barefoot.
I'm Ruth and I'm here with Mary
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Today.
Good morning, Ruth.
Good morning.
We are so excited.
We're gonna dive right in.
We have a great guest today.
We were so, um, excited to havehim as part of our team of
resources.
His name is Darren WhitelockWhitlock and he is with Hughes,
just exterminators, Darren.
(00:34):
Welcome.
Good morning.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
And thank you for having me
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Tell us a little bit about you and about your
company.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Uh, well, I've, uh, I'm Darren Whitlock.
I've been in the industry now,uh, 20 years.
Um, I'm fully state certified inall the categories, uh, pest
termite lawn and, uh, fumigationand, um, Hughes exterminators.
We are a, uh, a division youmight say of arrow exterminators
(01:03):
out of Atlanta.
Um, we're one, we're one of thebig ones, but, uh, just with
some name changes due toacquisitions over the years and
copyrights and things like that.
Uh, people and other companieshave similar names.
We have several different namesthroughout the country.
Um, in Florida, we actually haveall of them.
(01:23):
Um, you have the arrowexterminators, which is the
parent company name on the westcoast.
We're called Hughesexterminators east coast.
We're called starkexterminators.
And then we also have another,uh, acquisition we did years ago
called Nader's pest Raiders, um,up in, uh, Jacksonville area.
And then they're also out west.
So we have, uh, close to 160offices over 2,800 employees.
(01:47):
And we like to say we're 58years young.
Um, and it all started out of aback room of a hair salon in
Atlanta, Georgia.
Wow.
Uh, so, um, we are, we are inthe top, uh, I think the top six
now, um, in size.
Um, but we're a family ownedcompany we're privately held by
the Thomas family.
(02:08):
Um, and it's always been thatway and, uh, we take very good
care of our employees and evenbetter care of our customers
love that.
So that's a little bit about us.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
That's great.
So what, um, brought you to thisindustry?
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Um, actually I, uh, I was out of work after nine 11.
I had left a position two weeksbefore nine 11 happened and the
world shut down.
At that point, there was nohiring, nobody was doing
anything.
So I spent nine months, uh,looking for what I wanted to do
and another company, um, thecompany I would came from, uh,
(02:47):
reached out to me and I did myresearch and so forth and said,
Hey, this is a, you know, thisis an industry that doesn't have
a lot of up and down, especiallyin Florida, right.
We're always gonna have bug
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Always there like that.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
quite a bit.
Um, even growing up here inFlorida, I didn't have a clue of
what this industry really wasall about.
Um, so it's, uh, we do here inFlorida, we do a lot because we
not only do pest control andtermite protection, but we also
do lawn care, Palm protection,mosquitoes, uh, exclusion work
(03:27):
all time, uh, insulation, thingslike that.
So, um, it was definitelysomething I knew that basically
about week three when I got intothe industry that this is
probably where I would retireone day, because, you know, like
I said, it's just, it's a goodsolid industry yeah.
That people need what we offer.
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah.
So tell us about those bugs
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Well, there again, there's different categories.
Uh, there's the first one is G Pgeneral household pest.
This is what most people know ofants and roaches and silver fish
and fleas and ticks.
Um, things like that.
Um, here in Florida, we have, um, just there's too many to name.
Um, but the bugs people do notwant them in their house.
(04:16):
Um, they do not want them ontheir property.
Um, but being in Florida,especially the tropical nature
of our state, they're nevergoing away.
Right.
And other species get introducedhere, um, brought in of course,
you know, through transit andthings like that.
And once they, uh, get here,they don't go away.
Um, and then of course the otherthings that we deal with the
(04:38):
termites, um, which can do a lotof damage to homes, uh, it's in
the, um, I think the last thingover$1 billion a year and
termite and retreatment damagein, in the United States and
Florida is the leader on that.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, that, that really surprised me.
We talked a little bit aboutthat, cuz I, I knew it was a
problem in California.
Yeah.
But I didn't know that we had asramp rampant of a problem.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
It is.
And the, uh, the university ofFlorida does most of the
research and they basically, uh,this is years ago when I
started, they estimated in thestate of Florida, there's an,
every acre of land.
There's anywhere between 10 to15 termite colonies in the
ground.
Um, and they vary in sizeanywhere between a hundred
thousand termites.
And now with the new speciesthat has been here for a while
(05:27):
though, um, upwards are 10million in each of those
colonies.
Wow.
So there's an old saying outthere that it's not, if I have
termites, it's win.
If, if you don't have protectionon your home.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
So I know kind of the thinking of the general
consumer, cuz I'm that consumer,um, I have a cinder block house,
so I'm good, right?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Oh, absolutely not.
You have to think about what'sin your house.
Okay.
Your, your house has baseboards,correct?
Yeah.
Yeah.
As furniture cabinets, uh, mostpeople don't realize that the
sheet rock that is, you know, onthe walls, in your home, on the
backside of that is paper, well,termite eat cellulose, which
(06:14):
comes from trees.
Oh, anything made out ofcelluloses, that's what they
want to consume.
Hmm.
So, and it takes less than one64th of an inch, which is a
very, very small opening for atermite to get in, um, in your
home, whether it be in theground or above ground, there
are so many possiblepenetrations that a termite can
(06:36):
get in.
And they're just constantlyexploring because they can't see
where they're going anyway.
They don't actually have eyesmm-hmm.
Um, so they basically doeverything by pheromones and
touch and sense and they do well, you, we talked about, you've
got that colony of two to 3million termites and they're
just out there looking forsomething to eat.
That's that's their job.
(06:58):
I, I, I said something manyyears ago that there's two
reasons, um, that, you know,termites are here and that's to
eat your house and, and makemore termites.
That's pretty much it.
So we have to understand, weinvaded their area, not vice
versa, you know,
(07:20):
of them.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Right.
Right.
Um, so tell me, because we, wedo have some stick homes here in
the area, um, as far as pestsand a specifically termite say,
is that better?
Worse, same.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Well, I would say you it's, you know, wood framed
homes.
Okay.
There there's two differenttypes of termites.
There's the subter termite,that's in the ground.
Then you have the dry woodtermite, which is if you've ever
seen usually a building or ahome that has a tent over the
top of it, that's typicallybeaten, treated for the dry wood
termite that lives above ground.
(07:59):
Um, doesn't make any contactwith the soil.
So, um, wood frame homes andblock homes are all susceptible.
Um, there's certain I won't getinto all the building things,
but there's certain ways thatwith a, with a framed home, um,
you have to make sure that your,your siding is above grade.
And, and so you can see thefoundation underneath it, um,
(08:22):
because the termites, you know,they'll build a mud tube and you
can actually see it.
Um, if it's, if you got stuccoand everything down below grade,
you can't see the sub trainingtermites coming in your home.
Well with block homes, you can'tsee'em either.
Um, because they're not, they'renot crawling up the outside of,
of a house.
Dry wood termites are probably alittle more prevalent, um, and a
(08:44):
little bit easier access forthem to get in, uh, on a framed
home.
Um, just because of the natureyou've got wood or siding on the
outside and lots and lots ofavenues for them to get in, um,
around windows and door framesand things like that because dry
wood termites typically eitherfly in, um, could be the
neighbor next door.
(09:04):
It could be out of a tree, um,even a Palm tree, um, or you
actually can bring them intoyour home in pieces of wood, uh,
pieces of furniture.
People need to be very carefulwhen they go and buy antiques.
Cuz if it was in a home that haddry wood termites and they're in
the furniture, now you bringthat furniture in your home.
(09:26):
Now you can have dry woodtermites.
That'll basically swarm out thatpiece of furniture and now they
get into your walls and, and ittakes a while, but they can do
some serious damage over time.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So how do you check for those termites?
If you're a antier
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Well, the first thing you do, you, you, you're looking
very closely at it.
You typically, if the drytermites will create what they
call an exit hole, it's a verysmall pinhole, literally about
the size of the head of a, aball point pin.
And that's where they'llactually, when they consume what
they eat, um, it, they createtheir droppings and at certain
(10:05):
times they'll start dropping'emout that hole to kind of clear
out cuz it's what they call agallery where that's how they
travel and they can only travelwhat they've eaten, they've
create their own space, like amold, so to speak.
Um, so you look for pinholes andthings like that, um, on, on the
furniture before you buy it, butit doesn't necessarily have to
(10:27):
be antiques.
Um, I had a situation where abrand new piece of put together
the furniture from a very large,large store that does a lot of
furniture put together thefurniture.
We don't have one over here,there's Miami and Orlando and so
forth has one and, uh, open upthe box and you could actually
hear the pellets inside.
(10:47):
One of the pieces of the wood asyou turned it, it sounded like,
uh, you know, water rushing oneside or the other Uhhuh.
And it, so it was in that pieceof wood cabinetry.
Um, you have to be very carefulbecause this has come up at
literally in the last 10 yearswhere termites, uh, the cabinet
makers, they don't realizethey're in the wood that they've
bought.
(11:07):
They build the cabinets.
They, they basically kind of cutaround the termites, not even
knowing that they're there andthey build the cabinets, they
put'em in the house and they'vebasically built the cabinets
with the termites in the house.
Wow.
So it's uh, and, and it's notcuz they don't treat the wood.
Um, most Wood's not treated in ahouse.
Right.
Um, because if you do a lot oftreated wood, what happens over
(11:29):
time with wood?
When it dries, it course itstarts to warp.
Um, so that's why you want driedwood in there.
Right.
Um, so people say, well, whydon't they just, you know, have
do pressure treated wood and allthe studs in my house, cuz it'll
all start to turn and you canimagine the cracks and the
drywall and everything else.
Interesting.
They give a fence post outside,you know, it eventually dries
(11:51):
out.
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
That's interesting.
Hadn't thought of that.
Well, that brings us to our nextgreat, scary.
I know.
Right?
Scary.
I'm thinking about my newcabinets in my house right now.
selling our home, mm-hmm
(12:12):
service, um, that you offer tomake sure that that home is free
of any concerns or help you.
And then if there is concernsyou can help mitigate those
concerns.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Um, well basically depending on, well, you know,
the type of issue, um, termitesare the biggest one that when,
when you're selling a home andso forth is that if, if you have
a termite protection program onyour home, um, you're less
likely to have an issue.
Okay.
(12:49):
Um, you want it to be with a repreputable company using the
proper products and all thattype of thing.
Um, but no, nothing's a hundredpercent.
Um, no program out there is100%.
That's gonna say you're nevergonna have a problem.
Um, the pressures are just toogreat.
So that's why you want tocontinue to carry that.
Um, whether you're selling nowor maybe you're in the future.
(13:12):
Um, because with our, especiallywith termite protection, the new
homeowner can actually transferthat same coverage over and can
continue it on.
Um, and that's something thatyou really, it helps benefit the
seller, the ha that they've hadprotection, um, because
something may not happen thisyear, but it could be four or
(13:34):
five years down the road, right.
That something got through some,there was a breakdown somewhere,
unfortunately, um, with theamount of pressure that's out
there and then companies likeus, depending on the type of
coverage you have depends onexactly what all we do, whether
you have a retreatment onlyprogram where we'll just come
out and retreat, those specificareas, or whether you actually
(13:56):
have a retreatment and repaircoverage, which means if we go
out there and there's an issuewe find live termites, why we
have the active program going,then we're responsible for the
repairs of the damage thatthey've caused.
Wow.
Um, so, and it's, you know,that's why when we come out and
do our inspections, we want tobe extremely thorough because
(14:17):
we're taking on that liabilityof that home.
Right, right.
Um, first off, we don't want thetermites to be there.
Um, nobody wants the termites tobe there.
Um, but it, when it comes to theother pest and things like that,
your general household pest, um,that program, we're coming out
there working with the homeowneror whoever's living there to, to
(14:39):
create the best solution, but wedon't live there every day.
So there are things that we willlet them know, Hey, you need to
do this or stop doing thisbecause otherwise what we're
trying to do, won't beeffective.
And we won't able to solve thoseproblems that you are hiring us
to
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Solve.
That makes sense.
Well, well, we're excitedbecause in partnership with you,
we are able to offer, if youwant to put your home on the
market, you haven't had a, aprogram going, and you're
curious if you have issuesbefore you have that, um,
inspector come out, you guyswill come do a pre-listing
(15:16):
evaluation for no charge.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Absolutely.
We do that.
That's the relationship that,that we build with the realtors
to say, we want to be a part ofyour team, right?
Um, just like you, most, most,uh, realtors have, you know,
somebody that's, uh, you know, aplumber for them or a handyman
or something like, well, we're,we're just part of the team a
lot of times to help thatrealtor get that listing because
(15:39):
they're able to rattle off, Hey,well I have this company, I have
this company that's part of myteam to, so when we come in here
to help, you know, if we chooseus, we're gonna come out and do
all this stuff in the beginningto make sure that your home is,
is best.
It can be to put it on themarket.
I know the market things movereally fast right now, but it,
it hasn't always been that way.
(15:59):
Right.
Um, so having that advantage towhere I've got a team, that's
gonna make sure that my home isgonna be the best it could be to
put it on the market and I'mable to get the most value out
of that home when
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I sell it.
No surprises.
That's awesome.
Yes.
Well, thank you so much forcoming on today.
We've really enjoyed getting toknow you and, um, having you as
part of our team and
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Absolutely.
Um, we are, we're proud to that,you know, to deal with all the
realtors we're especially, youknow, happy that we, we, we
hooked up at the, uh, themeeting the other day and we
were able to provide, you know,this opportunity with some
education for people,
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Love it.
If people wanna get a hold ofyou, what's the best way.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Well, the best way here at our office, which my
office is here in Naples.
Um, the easiest way is to call 18 77, go Hughes, H U G H E S.
Um, that'll basically take youto our corporate call center and
they can transfer you towhatever office cuz we have an
office here, Naples.
(17:00):
It handles from Bonita Springsall the way out to Everglade
city.
But then we also have our FortMyers office that is actually in
Cape coral, um, that handlesAero and Fort Myers, Fort Myers
beach, Lehigh Le um, and labelbell, things like that.
And on up the, on, up the westside of the state, and again, we
have, uh, quite a few, um,throughout the state of Florida,
(17:23):
I think we're, um, 50, um, we'replus 50 offices now in the state
of Florida.
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Awesome.
So
Speaker 4 (17:31):
Somebody's that 180 7 7 go Hughes would kind of get
you to, they'll be able todirect you to whatever mark you
might be interested in.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Perfect.
Right.
Or you can reach out to us wouldbe happy to connect you.
And um, if you have anyquestions, feel free to reach
out to barefoot bungalow at 8 23 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5, and as always
remember to live your best lifebarefoot.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Thank you for listening to the live, your best
life barefoot podcast, sponsoredfive barefoot bungalow Realty to
learn more about barefootbungalow Realty, go to
www.barefootbungalowrealty.comor call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.
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