Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Well, how are you. I'mMichael Blaze. Welcome to Your Home three
sixty, the show where we talkabout everything that has to do with your
home. We've got a brand newsponsor of Your Home three sixty, Mosquito
Joe of Charleston. I've got DanDanner in the studio and we're going to
talk about mosquito mitigation in the LowCountry and what you can do to get
rid of these little bloodsuckers. That'scoming up real quick here and a little
(00:23):
bit later on in the show.I'm also going to talk about this settlement
from the National Association of Realtors wherehow can I put this diplomatically? Lawyers
go after money and they come afterreeltor commissions. So we'll explain that whole
process in what happened a little bitlater on in the show. And I
(00:44):
also want to give a shout outto our other big sponsor of Your Home
three sixty, which is Poolworks.They're the Low Country exclusive dealer of the
little pool line of pools, avery strong, very cool, above ground
fiberglass pool. Find out more aboutthat by going to Mypoolworks dot com.
Joining me today live in the studiois Dan Danner, he's general manager of
(01:07):
Mosquito Joe of Charleston. Welcome,Dan, Oh, thank you so much
for having me. Yeah, it'salways good to talk to you. So
let's jump right in here and explainthe life cycles of biting insects. A
lot of people think that they're killedoff when cold weather hits, but they're
not killed off, right, Theykind of go into a dormancy because as
soon as it gets warm, it'samazing, Like the minute it heats up,
(01:29):
they're swarming all over the place.That is exactly the case during wintertime.
Those that some will die off thatdon't burrow deep enough, but yeah,
they go dormant to go into thesoil. And yeah, because you
know Charleston South Kakilaki know how itgoes. Like we started up in February
this year because it started getting warmand wet and then here they come.
Yeah, absolutely, And it's justmaddening because every time, and it's they
(01:51):
just instantly appear like out of nowhere, it seems. Sometimes. So yeah,
aside from your service, what aresome mosquito mitigation practice is that people
can implement on their own just tolessen the impact of mosquitoes and gnats and
so forth in their yard. Ohthat is a fantastic question, because I
tell this to all of my customersI'm meet in person all the time.
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Please please please go out into youryard. And I understand if you have
children there might be some toys outthere, but please check your yard for
any kind of buckets, pots,containers that can be holding standing water,
because standing water is your worst enemy. It is literally an assembly line for
mosquitoes. Now do you think it'sa good idea? You see those for
lack of a better description, thosebiscuits they sell you in the store,
(02:34):
that you put in your fountains andall that stuff. Is that something that
people should viewalize. Oh, yes, most definitely. You can most oftenly
use that. They are very safefor all types of aquatic life as well.
So if you have fish or anythinglike that. First of all,
if you have a coipon with fishin it, you don't need anything.
The fish themselves will eat the mosquitolarvae. But if you have a fountain
things like that, yes, thoselittle biscuit things called BTI dungs, they
(02:55):
are very useful and tell us aboutyour product about mosquito. Joe of Charleston
what's involved with your service, andwhat kind of products do you use in
your treatments. Okay, well,I can't give you the kernel's secret recipe,
but I can give you the gistof about what we do. Sure,
So what we do is we comeout, we treat the perimeter of
your property. We treat the perimeterof your home that we come out and
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we look for sources of standing waterthat you might miss. See, we
do this for a living, Sowe're gonna come and check out all the
hidden spots, cracks and crevices andthings like that where you might not realize
you have some children's toys underneath thedeck or like a little you know,
a beach sand bucket from your kid, that might be holding standing water that's
been there for several weeks and nowit's just teeming with mosquito larvae, which
is a big problem. So you'retelling me it's probably a bad idea that
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I have a bunch of old usedtires laying around my yard that have water
in the bottom. Oh, thatis the absolute worst. Whenever I see
a tire, I know immediately wherethe problem's coming from. I can just
walk over. Yep, there's thewater. And it's pretty stagnant and brown.
So this has been here for awhile, and oh yeah, here
comes the mosquitos flying right out ofit. Yeah, and it's kind of
amazing. Like I said, notonly do they seem to appear out of
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nowhere when it gets warm, butalso if there's like a moist area or
even like mats on your porch sometimesor something, you move it and poof,
here comes a bunch of little insects. Oh yeah, most definitely.
And something I hear a lot ofcustomers talk about the issues with mosquitos going
into their houses. So I canshow up and I take a look,
and right there on their front porchare two very large ferns on either side
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of their front door. Ferns arenotorious for hoarding mosquitos. Wow, I
did not realize that. What otherkind of plant life shelters mosquitoes? Oh,
let's see. Basically, lots ofall of our families pretty much,
not all of it. Like flowers, you're usually pretty good. But dense
bushes azaleas, which are very popularround here, those can be once they're
not blooming. While they're blooming,mosquitos tend to stay away from them.
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But while they're not blooming. Ohyeah, that's a big hoarding spot for
mosquitoes. You see those like giantlooking they look like the mosquito version of
Daddy long leg spiders. They're likegiant mosquitoes. Now I've heard that those
are male mosquitos and those are goodbecause they eat the female. Is there
any truth to that? Halfway?What those are commonly known as. Yeah,
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these big giant mosquitos that look likethe ones from the cartoons back in
the days, like Looney Tunes orTom and Jerry, Right, those are
actually not mosquitos. Those are commonlyknown as mosquito hawks, and they eat
mosquitoes. Wow, so mosquito hawks. That's interesting. I did not know
that. So if you see oneof those flying around, leave it alone.
Yeah, yeah, basically leave italone. But also be aware that
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is a sign that you have mosquitosin the area. So it's the same
way as like when you have asnake problem. You have to assume there's
rodents in the area, right exactly, so you know that there's a food
source that you have that you haveto mitigate. You had mentioned about a
natural solution, so explain to ushow the natural solution works, and how
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that may differ from your regular service, Well, well, it's the application
is exactly the same around the perimeterof the property in the house. But
with the old natural solution, it'ssafer for the pollinators, for bees and
butterflies and things like that. Wenever spray flowers directly. You never do
that with synthetic or all natural.But if a little bit of the all
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natural kind of drifts over to theflowers, it's going to be safe for
the pollinators once it is dried,and it is normally dry within fifteen to
thirty minutes. When you say thesynthetic product, that is not an unsafe
product, however they are, Ohno, no, no, absolutely.
These things are heavily regulated by thestate and federal level. A lot of
people have questions like that, isthis safe? If it's safe? The
bottom line is if these pesticides werenot safe to use on your property,
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we wouldn't be able to legally usethem period the old days of using DDT
and crop dusting and waking up witha lump somewhere, And this is why
pesticides have to be heavily regulated.Since we're on that subject, there's also
a health benefit to getting rid ofmosquitoes and biting insects because they spread all
kinds of nastiness, diseases and everythingelse, don't they. Oh, yes,
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absolutely, mosquitoes can pass on thingslike the West Nile bird flu and
all kinds of different types of fancynames they have for them. Definitely have
diseases that you don't want to bea part of. It's just the same
as how during the old days ofthe black plague or the bubonic plague,
it wasn't the rats that they thought, it was the fleas that were on
the rats that were spreading these diseases. Dan, is there a specific type
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of mosquito that happens to carry youknow, West Nile more than another?
Say no, not really. It'spretty much when it comes to mosquitos,
the species and the type of mosquitodoesn't matter. What does matter is that
they, you know, have accessto us and to inject us and drink
our blood and things like that thatthey need for eggs. And while they're
injecting us, you know, itis quite a strong possibility if it is
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carrying something that's going to transmit itto you. The reason they're biting you
in The first place is to getyour blood to feed their eggs. Right,
So explain how that process works.How many generations do we go through
over a season of mosquitoes? Oh, geez, you getting real technical with
it. Okay, Well, thepart of the life cycle that matters.
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I want numbers, Dan, youknow what. I'm going to give you
the number that are the most important. During peak season, I'd say between
June and August, it will takeone week for a mosquito to go from
the egg to flying around trying tobite you. It is the females that
will bite us to drain our bloodto get the protein for the eggs,
but both males and females to getenergy, they come around and they suck
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the juice out of plants, whichis why we treat the plants in the
foliage around your property and around yourhome, so that when they're trying to
get some energy to fly around anddo some hunting, they're going to touch
the chemical, be it synthetic orall natural, and it's going to take
care of them. Well that's interesting. Now, if a mosquito bites you,
can they bite you more than once? Oh? That is a good
question, long answer plus shorter answer, yes, because they will lay more
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than one batch of eggs, Sothey'll lay a batch of eggs, probably
usually a couple dozen at a time, in different spots around the yard.
And then yeah, they're not justgoing to die off just because they laid
eggs. And then once they gothrough that cycle of egg laying, they're
gonna come around and they're going tobe hungry and you are the meal.
Yes, unfortunately, So now Idon't know the proper terminology. Is there
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anything that our bodies. I knowthat our breath, the carbon dioxide from
our breath will attract mosquitoes. Isthere any other kind of substance that we
emit, an endorphin or something likethat that will attract mosquitoes, please explain.
Well, yeah, the carbon dioxideand our overall body heat that attracts
them as well, just because youknow they're hunting mammals. That's where they
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need a million blood if you will. They tend to stay away from reptiles
and things like that, amphibians unlessthey're just absolutely desperate. But for the
most part, what you can do, you don't have to walk around holding
your breath or anything like that.What you do is try to find somebody,
a romantic partner that tells you,oh, I constantly get just eaten
in life by mosquitos. This isthe person you need to be with for
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the rest of your life, becausethe lay every couple, every couple,
it's the husband or the wife alwayswon gets eaten up in the other one.
They oh, they don't touch me. It is because they really like
whatever's going on with your partner.That's why. So find somebody like that
and put a ring on it.Well, that's great advice. Yeah,
And then make sure every time yougo out in the yard you're like,
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hey, honey, I could yousure help out here? I just enjoy
your company. Can you please comewith me? You know, honey,
I have to mow the law,could you, you know, just come
outside on the deck and just,you know, have a sweet tea and
it's wonderful weather. Sooner or leadershipmight pick up on it, but you
know it'll last as long as itcan. Well that's funny. Now,
this might be bad news for dudes. I've heard that beer drinkers get bitten
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more often by mosquitoes than non beerdrinkers. Is there any truth to that?
That's a new one. I haven'theard that before, because I think
that was my wife trying to getme not to drink as much beer anymore.
Oh, I see, I seeit. Well, then what you
do is you tell her will besweetheart. See, if I drink the
beer, the mosquitos will be moreintracted to my carbon dioxide. So when
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I'm out here on the back deck, just join me. You have a
sweet tea, and I'll be outhere, and then they'll still go back
to her. I was just doingit to protect you, honey, exactly,
And then they'll still go back toher. Right of course, that
is funny. And you have abackground in comedy, don't you, dare.
I don't know where you hurt.These ridiculous rumors I cannot confirm,
nor didn't I. Well tell ushow you got in the mosquito mitigation business.
(11:16):
Well, for mosquitos, I justI had years of pest control experience,
and then after my travels doing comedyand things like that, I came
back to South Carolina kind of gotinto pest control. Then after a few
years, I just joined a mosquitojoe of Columbia, South Carolina, and
long story short, I worked hard, learned to work smart and did a
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good job and then came down hereto Charleston and absolutely fell in love with
Charleston. This is it. I'mdone. I'm retired. I'm not moving
anywhere else. Grew up a militarybrat, traveled all around after high school.
Nope, absolutely fell in love withCharleston. And this is this is
where I'm here to stay and justdoing my part, trying to keep them
skeeters off you, because you knowthey're going to get you. They go
get you real good. Yeah,they're good at it here because we just
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have vast expansions of marshland here andI've got some vacant land a little bit
south of here when we go toand I mean that place is those little
noseums and everything are getting It drivesme nuts because they go in your ears
and up your nose and in youreyes and in every orifice of your body.
(12:26):
Yes they do, Yes they do. And I wanted to keep that
as clean as I could, butI mean, it's just irritating when you're
out there working on something and youhave to keep you know, wiping your
eye, and the things are likeeverywhere. You know, I was following
you around like a cloud coming outof the marsh, going up the nose
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and in the eyes and everything.Like I said, it's maddening. Yeah,
the no seems especially are a bigproblem, not just because I mean
they'll hang out in the bushes likethe mosquitoes will as well, but no
seams are small enough to hide inthe grass and they will just swarm as
you just walk across your backyard.A lot of people come to me and
they ask about no cms and theysay, yeah, nobody can take care
of no sms tonight. I'm alwayswhat are you talking about? I can
do that. It's like I'll comeback here tomorrow and prove it to you
(13:09):
well, and you can prove itto our listeners. To thirty nine bucks
for your first service, and howlong does the service usually last? For
the service with a synthetic treatment,it lasts up to three weeks. With
an all natural it lasts up totwo weeks. We guarantee a sprays,
which means if we come out andtreat you notice a couple of days later
a significant amount of still swarming swimmingflying around you, then please give us
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a call. We will come backout retreat your property at no extra charge.
To you. Nice. What's thephone number? Oh, it's a
eight four to three six two eightseven seven eight eight eight four three six
two eight seven seven eight eight.That's right, it's eight four three hey,
Well do that for me. Well, it's eight four three six two
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eight seven seven eight eight. That'seight four three six two eight seven seven
eight eight. Nice. And thenyou can also go to Mosquitojoe dot com.
Right, Oh, absolutely, yep, and check out their service right
now, thirty nine bucks for yourfirst service. We can do a regular
service, we can do special eventservice. The point is I care about
providing a good service to people.You're you're paying a mortgage, Okay,
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the backyard comes with it. Shouldn'tyou be able to enjoy this? Yes,
you should, so call Mosquito Joeand give the number one more time.
There, Dan, it's eight fourthree six two eight seven seven eight
eight. That's eight four three sixtwo eight seven, seven eight eight.
Dan Danner, general manager of MosquitoJoe, Charleston, Thanks for your time
today. Well, thank you somuch for having me enjoyed it. You've
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probably heard in the news lately aboutthe changes coming to realtors through the National
Association of Realtors to the changes incompensation of commissions, and the National Association
of Realtors has also agreed to paya settlement of four hundred and eighteen million
dollars over four years to settle lawsuitsthat were filed, and the National Association
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of Realtors claim aims that by settlingthese lawsuits, they're protecting its members.
Now, I have some choice wordsfor the National Association of Realtors, but
I'll be honest with you, I'mafraid to share them with you because I'm
afraid that they'll come after me.And they have a whole set of rules
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that is pretty self serving to theNational Association of Realtors, and it's my
belief. Well, see here Igo. I'll stop right there. So
anyway, I'm not a huge fanof the National Association of Realtors, But
if you want to practice real estateeffectively, you need to be a realtor.
(15:39):
In my point of view, alot of people don't understand the difference
between a real estate agent and arealtor. So I have a license that
allows me to conduct real estate transactionsin the state of South Carolina. It
has nothing to do with being arealtor. I'm a licensed to real estate
agent in South Carolina, and thenI choose to be a member of the
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National Association of Realtors. Why doI choose to be a member of the
National Association of Realtors if, likeI just said, I have a bunch
of choice words for them that I'meven afraid to share with you. Well,
because there's a local association, andthen there's a state association, and
then there's a national association. Thelocal association runs the MLS, the Multiple
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Listing Service, and the MLS hasgreat data in it. And you know,
there's been competing companies that come along. Zillos the one that I think
would be top of mind for everybodywhere. You can go on see what's
for sale, the descriptions, thepictures and all those things. But the
MLS has data. You can lookback at the history of a property,
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at the history of the listing,at when changes were made, what changes
were made to the listings, howmuch they sold for, whether there were
concessions from the seller to the buyer, which will help you hone in more
effectively on what the true sales priceof that property was. So the data
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set is excellent and actually a lotof these companies that use data, like
Zillo, a lot of that datacomes from these local MLS boards. So
in order to have access to thatMLS, you have to join your local
board, and you have to jointhe South Carolina Association of Realtors, and
you have to join the National Associationof Realtors. You can't just pick and
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choose which one you want to join. You have to join all of them,
and then you follow You're required tofollow the Golden Rule, its code
of conduct from the National Association ofRealtors. So on the surface, those
are not bad things. Those aregood things. But when you look at
it from a competitive point of view, when you look at it through the
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lens of a practitioner, an honestpractitioner, let me put it that way.
All the time, I'm like,why do I need to follow these
arbitrary rules set by the National Associationof Realtors When my client trusts me I'm
doing the right thing, Why doI need to do something else? Over
here? I get this added pieceof paperwork signed by everybody or whatever it
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might be. You know, it'smy business how I deal with my clients
and I treat my clients well,and my clients trust me. So why
do I need this interference from anyof these boards. My answer is I
don't, but I'm forced into belongingto them because i want that access to
the MLS. Like I said,my license doesn't require it. I'm required
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to take continuing education courses. I'mrequired to be educated in the first place,
and then pass the exam and thentake continuing education by the state,
and then I have my real estatelicense. All this other stuff is separate.
So in my view, I don'tneed belong to the National Association of
Realtors, or the South Carolina Associationof Realtors or the Charleston Trident Association of
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Realtors. I choose to do sobecause I want access to the MLS and
the data that it provides. Simpleas that. Now, to explain what's
going on here, some lawyers nothere in Charleston, but often other parts
of the country, and there werecopycat lawsuits also. They sued the National
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Association of Realtors, saying that byoffering cooperative compensation through the MLS, that
realtors were setting the standard of commission, forcing the sellers to pay the buyer's
agent commission, and they've drilled intoour heads for years. Commission is negotiable.
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And if you've ever filled out alisting agreement or a buyer's agency agreement,
you'll know that commissions are negotiable.But these lawyers went after them,
and the media kind of misrepresented ormisrepresents this. They keep saying the standard
is six percent. You've probably seenthat on the news, the standard six
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percent. There is no standard becauseit's negotiable. Now, a lot of
us charged six percent, but noteverybody does. Some charge more, some
charge less. I happen to thinkyou get what you pay for, and
it takes a certain amount to runa successful business. Otherwise you're not in
business, So what does it matter? So you need to be compensated correctly
(20:33):
for your services. So without gettingin all of that too much and doing
a commercial for myself, I willtell you this much that it's always been
negotiable and it's in the best interestof the buyer if you ask me,
Because the way this process works iswhat cooperative compensation is on the MLS.
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So first, you sign a listeningagreement with somebody that wants to sell their
home, you charge them x amountwhatever you put on that contract. And
then there's another area where you stipulatehow much of that is going to go
to a buyer's agent. So we'lluse six percent as an example. If
I charge you six percent, Inow it's all negotiable, and I can
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arrange that however I wish, aslong as the client agrees. But what
I do is say, all right, six percent and three percent goes to
the buyer's agent. So we're offeringcooperative compensation. You bring me a buyer,
you bring me your client, andI will give you half of the
commission that I charged for this listing. It can be five percent and it's
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two and a half on a side. I've seen realtors charge seven percent and
then keep four or five of itand offer the other side two and a
half three percent. So it canbe arranged however you wish, and however
you've worked out with your client.Well, now they've done away with that.
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The National Association of Realtors has negotiated, through the settlement of these lawsuits,
to remove cooperative compensation from listing agreements. Now the media, even the
President has chimed in on this.The President of the United States of America
and he was wrong with what hehad to say about it, by the
way, but that didn't surprise me. You know what, the narrative in
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the media is that this is goingto make home buying less expensive. No
it's not, and this is nota good thing for the consumer if you
ask me. Because the way thatit used to work was you had a
listing agent and the listing agent listedthe property, and if you were a
buyer, you went to that listingagent and you said, hey, I
(22:48):
want to buy this house, andthey're like, I will gladly help you.
Through the years, that seemed alittle bit too it proved itself to
be a little bit too much ofa conflict of interest. So they came
up with buyer agency. And buyeragency is just what it sounds like.
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You represent the buyer and you putthe buyer's best interest first. Your fiduciary
duty is to the buyer when youhave an agency agreement with a buyer,
so you owe them your fiduciary duty. So now the seller has an agent
that owes them their fiduciary duty,and the buyer has an agent that owes
(23:32):
them their fuduciary duty. The seller, through the listing agent offers compensation to
the buyer's agent. On the MLS, each side has their own representation,
and if you ask me, that'smuch better for the consumer than removing the
compensation or going back to the oldway, or who knows how this is
(23:52):
going to play out. I don'tknow if this is going to go back
to the old way exactly, butthey're removing that compensation from them. So
they removed the ability for the buyer'sagent to say, well, seller's agent,
I brought my client to the table, and you agreed through the MLS
on your listing to compensate me.Now they've muddied all that up. And
(24:17):
you know a lot of people havesaid, well, if the buyer wants
a representation from a realtor, thenthey can pay for it. Well,
what's most likely to happen is thebuyer's like, Man, I'm strapped already
and housing's really expensive. I haveto come up with a down payment,
I have to come up with closingcosts, I have to come up with
attorney costs, I have to comeup with moving costs, and now I
(24:38):
have to pay a realtor on topof all of this. I'm not doing
it I'll just represent myself. Andit reminds me of you know, the
old saying about attorneys. If youdon't hire an attorney and you represent yourself,
you have a fool for a client. So to me, this is
bad for the consumer. And I'mpretty angry at the National Association of Realtors
(25:00):
for several different things. Go backand look at what's been going on in
house at the National Association of Realtorsfor the last several years. They want
to tell us how to behave that'spretty rich. Look into it and see
what I'm talking about. But that'soff subject. So back on point.
(25:21):
I understand they were being sued andthey had to do something and settle it.
But I had hoped they would havefought harder for both the consumer and
the realtors that they represent, butthey did not. They settled it,
and now they're going to remove cooperativecompensation from the MLS, And like I
said, it's going to hurt theconsumers. It's not only going to hurt
realtors. It's going to hurt buyersand you know else it's going to hurt.
(25:45):
It's going to hurt sellers because nowyou and your agent are going to
be dealing with a bunch of peoplethat don't know what they're doing, and
realtors provide a valuable service, andI truly believe this. I'm an honest
broker. I look out for myclients. I have a fiduciary duty to
(26:06):
do so, and whether I'm representingthe seller or the buyer, I utilize
my experience to get an honest resultfor both. To me, honesty is
the most important thing, and that'swhy I'm having this honest conversation with you.
And that's why it might even beto my detriment, because they don't
like when you talk nasty about them. The National Association of Realtors, there
(26:30):
are the other organizations for that matter. But I'm just afraid that this is
going to really cause an upheaval inthe real estate business, and that upheaval
is not going to be good forany party involved, whether it be the
realtor or the buyer or seller.I don't think that this is a good
way to approach things. I thinkthat things were the way they were for
(26:53):
a reason, and they had evolvedto that place in order to protect the
consumers, and now they're undoing it. I care about this industry, and
I care about the reputation of thisindustry. Let's face it. I mean,
we're already less respected than used carsalesmen by the public, and this
kind of stuff doesn't help so andit's misrepresented by the media. It was
(27:15):
misrepresented by the President of the UnitedStates. And how about fixing financial policy.
How about fixing your own house beforeyou go criticizing somebody else's. And
I'm talking to the politicians. Thisis not going to make houses cheaper.
This is going to make the processharder. And there's going to be a
whole lot more losers than you seetoday in this process. There's going to
(27:38):
be a whole lot more problems.And I could keep talking about this forever,
and maybe I will. Maybe I'lldo another show here coming up.
As a matter of fact, Iwill as they provide more clarity on how
they wish us to proceed and howthis is going to play out in the
real world. Maybe I'm wrong.I've been wrong before, but I don't
think I'm wrong about this. Sofor now, we'll leave it right there,
(28:00):
But more to come. Believe me, I have plenty more to say
about this. That's it for yourhome. Three sixty. Make sure you
tune in every Saturday, and ifyou want to catch the podcast, you
can download that for free on youriHeartRadio app. You can also find it
online at ninety four to three WSCdot com. Just look under podcasts
Well, how are you. I'mMichael Blaze. Welcome to Your Home three
sixty, the show where we talkabout everything that has to do with your
home. We've got a brand newsponsor of Your Home three sixty, Mosquito
Joe of Charleston. I've got DanDanner in the studio and we're going to
talk about mosquito mitigation in the LowCountry and what you can do to get
rid of these little bloodsuckers. That'scoming up real quick here and a little
(00:23):
bit later on in the show.I'm also going to talk about this settlement
from the National Association of Realtors wherehow can I put this diplomatically? Lawyers
go after money and they come afterreeltor commissions. So we'll explain that whole
process in what happened a little bitlater on in the show. And I
(00:44):
also want to give a shout outto our other big sponsor of Your Home
three sixty, which is Poolworks.They're the Low Country exclusive dealer of the
little pool line of pools, avery strong, very cool, above ground
fiberglass pool. Find out more aboutthat by going to Mypoolworks dot com.
Joining me today live in the studiois Dan Danner, he's general manager of
(01:07):
Mosquito Joe of Charleston. Welcome,Dan, Oh, thank you so much
for having me. Yeah, it'salways good to talk to you. So
let's jump right in here and explainthe life cycles of biting insects. A
lot of people think that they're killedoff when cold weather hits, but they're
not killed off, right, Theykind of go into a dormancy because as
soon as it gets warm, it'samazing, Like the minute it heats up,
(01:29):
they're swarming all over the place.That is exactly the case during wintertime.
Those that some will die off thatdon't burrow deep enough, but yeah,
they go dormant to go into thesoil. And yeah, because you
know Charleston South Kakilaki know how itgoes. Like we started up in February
this year because it started getting warmand wet and then here they come.
Yeah, absolutely, And it's justmaddening because every time, and it's they
(01:51):
just instantly appear like out of nowhere, it seems. Sometimes. So yeah,
aside from your service, what aresome mosquito mitigation practice is that people
can implement on their own just tolessen the impact of mosquitoes and gnats and
so forth in their yard. Ohthat is a fantastic question, because I
tell this to all of my customersI'm meet in person all the time.
(02:13):
Please please please go out into youryard. And I understand if you have
children there might be some toys outthere, but please check your yard for
any kind of buckets, pots,containers that can be holding standing water,
because standing water is your worst enemy. It is literally an assembly line for
mosquitoes. Now do you think it'sa good idea? You see those for
lack of a better description, thosebiscuits they sell you in the store,
(02:34):
that you put in your fountains andall that stuff. Is that something that
people should viewalize. Oh, yes, most definitely. You can most oftenly
use that. They are very safefor all types of aquatic life as well.
So if you have fish or anythinglike that. First of all,
if you have a coipon with fishin it, you don't need anything.
The fish themselves will eat the mosquitolarvae. But if you have a fountain
things like that, yes, thoselittle biscuit things called BTI dungs, they
(02:55):
are very useful and tell us aboutyour product about mosquito. Joe of Charleston
what's involved with your service, andwhat kind of products do you use in
your treatments. Okay, well,I can't give you the kernel's secret recipe,
but I can give you the gistof about what we do. Sure,
So what we do is we comeout, we treat the perimeter of
your property. We treat the perimeterof your home that we come out and
(03:15):
we look for sources of standing waterthat you might miss. See, we
do this for a living, Sowe're gonna come and check out all the
hidden spots, cracks and crevices andthings like that where you might not realize
you have some children's toys underneath thedeck or like a little you know,
a beach sand bucket from your kid, that might be holding standing water that's
been there for several weeks and nowit's just teeming with mosquito larvae, which
is a big problem. So you'retelling me it's probably a bad idea that
(03:38):
I have a bunch of old usedtires laying around my yard that have water
in the bottom. Oh, thatis the absolute worst. Whenever I see
a tire, I know immediately wherethe problem's coming from. I can just
walk over. Yep, there's thewater. And it's pretty stagnant and brown.
So this has been here for awhile, and oh yeah, here
comes the mosquitos flying right out ofit. Yeah, and it's kind of
amazing. Like I said, notonly do they seem to appear out of
(03:59):
nowhere when it gets warm, butalso if there's like a moist area or
even like mats on your porch sometimesor something, you move it and poof,
here comes a bunch of little insects. Oh yeah, most definitely.
And something I hear a lot ofcustomers talk about the issues with mosquitos going
into their houses. So I canshow up and I take a look,
and right there on their front porchare two very large ferns on either side
(04:20):
of their front door. Ferns arenotorious for hoarding mosquitos. Wow, I
did not realize that. What otherkind of plant life shelters mosquitoes? Oh,
let's see. Basically, lots ofall of our families pretty much,
not all of it. Like flowers, you're usually pretty good. But dense
bushes azaleas, which are very popularround here, those can be once they're
not blooming. While they're blooming,mosquitos tend to stay away from them.
(04:42):
But while they're not blooming. Ohyeah, that's a big hoarding spot for
mosquitoes. You see those like giantlooking they look like the mosquito version of
Daddy long leg spiders. They're likegiant mosquitoes. Now I've heard that those
are male mosquitos and those are goodbecause they eat the female. Is there
any truth to that? Halfway?What those are commonly known as. Yeah,
(05:04):
these big giant mosquitos that look likethe ones from the cartoons back in
the days, like Looney Tunes orTom and Jerry, Right, those are
actually not mosquitos. Those are commonlyknown as mosquito hawks, and they eat
mosquitoes. Wow, so mosquito hawks. That's interesting. I did not know
that. So if you see oneof those flying around, leave it alone.
Yeah, yeah, basically leave italone. But also be aware that
(05:26):
is a sign that you have mosquitosin the area. So it's the same
way as like when you have asnake problem. You have to assume there's
rodents in the area, right exactly, so you know that there's a food
source that you have that you haveto mitigate. You had mentioned about a
natural solution, so explain to ushow the natural solution works, and how
(05:47):
that may differ from your regular service, Well, well, it's the application
is exactly the same around the perimeterof the property in the house. But
with the old natural solution, it'ssafer for the pollinators, for bees and
butterflies and things like that. Wenever spray flowers directly. You never do
that with synthetic or all natural.But if a little bit of the all
(06:08):
natural kind of drifts over to theflowers, it's going to be safe for
the pollinators once it is dried,and it is normally dry within fifteen to
thirty minutes. When you say thesynthetic product, that is not an unsafe
product, however they are, Ohno, no, no, absolutely.
These things are heavily regulated by thestate and federal level. A lot of
people have questions like that, isthis safe? If it's safe? The
bottom line is if these pesticides werenot safe to use on your property,
(06:31):
we wouldn't be able to legally usethem period the old days of using DDT
and crop dusting and waking up witha lump somewhere, And this is why
pesticides have to be heavily regulated.Since we're on that subject, there's also
a health benefit to getting rid ofmosquitoes and biting insects because they spread all
kinds of nastiness, diseases and everythingelse, don't they. Oh, yes,
(06:51):
absolutely, mosquitoes can pass on thingslike the West Nile bird flu and
all kinds of different types of fancynames they have for them. Definitely have
diseases that you don't want to bea part of. It's just the same
as how during the old days ofthe black plague or the bubonic plague,
it wasn't the rats that they thought, it was the fleas that were on
the rats that were spreading these diseases. Dan, is there a specific type
(07:12):
of mosquito that happens to carry youknow, West Nile more than another?
Say no, not really. It'spretty much when it comes to mosquitos,
the species and the type of mosquitodoesn't matter. What does matter is that
they, you know, have accessto us and to inject us and drink
our blood and things like that thatthey need for eggs. And while they're
injecting us, you know, itis quite a strong possibility if it is
(07:33):
carrying something that's going to transmit itto you. The reason they're biting you
in The first place is to getyour blood to feed their eggs. Right,
So explain how that process works.How many generations do we go through
over a season of mosquitoes? Oh, geez, you getting real technical with
it. Okay, Well, thepart of the life cycle that matters.
(07:56):
I want numbers, Dan, youknow what. I'm going to give you
the number that are the most important. During peak season, I'd say between
June and August, it will takeone week for a mosquito to go from
the egg to flying around trying tobite you. It is the females that
will bite us to drain our bloodto get the protein for the eggs,
but both males and females to getenergy, they come around and they suck
(08:18):
the juice out of plants, whichis why we treat the plants in the
foliage around your property and around yourhome, so that when they're trying to
get some energy to fly around anddo some hunting, they're going to touch
the chemical, be it synthetic orall natural, and it's going to take
care of them. Well that's interesting. Now, if a mosquito bites you,
can they bite you more than once? Oh? That is a good
question, long answer plus shorter answer, yes, because they will lay more
(08:41):
than one batch of eggs, Sothey'll lay a batch of eggs, probably
usually a couple dozen at a time, in different spots around the yard.
And then yeah, they're not justgoing to die off just because they laid
eggs. And then once they gothrough that cycle of egg laying, they're
gonna come around and they're going tobe hungry and you are the meal.
Yes, unfortunately, So now Idon't know the proper terminology. Is there
(09:03):
anything that our bodies. I knowthat our breath, the carbon dioxide from
our breath will attract mosquitoes. Isthere any other kind of substance that we
emit, an endorphin or something likethat that will attract mosquitoes, please explain.
Well, yeah, the carbon dioxideand our overall body heat that attracts
them as well, just because youknow they're hunting mammals. That's where they
(09:26):
need a million blood if you will. They tend to stay away from reptiles
and things like that, amphibians unlessthey're just absolutely desperate. But for the
most part, what you can do, you don't have to walk around holding
your breath or anything like that.What you do is try to find somebody,
a romantic partner that tells you,oh, I constantly get just eaten
in life by mosquitos. This isthe person you need to be with for
(09:46):
the rest of your life, becausethe lay every couple, every couple,
it's the husband or the wife alwayswon gets eaten up in the other one.
They oh, they don't touch me. It is because they really like
whatever's going on with your partner.That's why. So find somebody like that
and put a ring on it.Well, that's great advice. Yeah,
And then make sure every time yougo out in the yard you're like,
(10:07):
hey, honey, I could yousure help out here? I just enjoy
your company. Can you please comewith me? You know, honey,
I have to mow the law,could you, you know, just come
outside on the deck and just,you know, have a sweet tea and
it's wonderful weather. Sooner or leadershipmight pick up on it, but you
know it'll last as long as itcan. Well that's funny. Now,
this might be bad news for dudes. I've heard that beer drinkers get bitten
(10:31):
more often by mosquitoes than non beerdrinkers. Is there any truth to that?
That's a new one. I haven'theard that before, because I think
that was my wife trying to getme not to drink as much beer anymore.
Oh, I see, I seeit. Well, then what you
do is you tell her will besweetheart. See, if I drink the
beer, the mosquitos will be moreintracted to my carbon dioxide. So when
(10:52):
I'm out here on the back deck, just join me. You have a
sweet tea, and I'll be outhere, and then they'll still go back
to her. I was just doingit to protect you, honey, exactly,
And then they'll still go back toher. Right of course, that
is funny. And you have abackground in comedy, don't you, dare.
I don't know where you hurt.These ridiculous rumors I cannot confirm,
nor didn't I. Well tell ushow you got in the mosquito mitigation business.
(11:16):
Well, for mosquitos, I justI had years of pest control experience,
and then after my travels doing comedyand things like that, I came
back to South Carolina kind of gotinto pest control. Then after a few
years, I just joined a mosquitojoe of Columbia, South Carolina, and
long story short, I worked hard, learned to work smart and did a
(11:37):
good job and then came down hereto Charleston and absolutely fell in love with
Charleston. This is it. I'mdone. I'm retired. I'm not moving
anywhere else. Grew up a militarybrat, traveled all around after high school.
Nope, absolutely fell in love withCharleston. And this is this is
where I'm here to stay and justdoing my part, trying to keep them
skeeters off you, because you knowthey're going to get you. They go
get you real good. Yeah,they're good at it here because we just
(12:01):
have vast expansions of marshland here andI've got some vacant land a little bit
south of here when we go toand I mean that place is those little
noseums and everything are getting It drivesme nuts because they go in your ears
and up your nose and in youreyes and in every orifice of your body.
(12:26):
Yes they do, Yes they do. And I wanted to keep that
as clean as I could, butI mean, it's just irritating when you're
out there working on something and youhave to keep you know, wiping your
eye, and the things are likeeverywhere. You know, I was following
you around like a cloud coming outof the marsh, going up the nose
(12:48):
and in the eyes and everything.Like I said, it's maddening. Yeah,
the no seems especially are a bigproblem, not just because I mean
they'll hang out in the bushes likethe mosquitoes will as well, but no
seams are small enough to hide inthe grass and they will just swarm as
you just walk across your backyard.A lot of people come to me and
they ask about no cms and theysay, yeah, nobody can take care
of no sms tonight. I'm alwayswhat are you talking about? I can
do that. It's like I'll comeback here tomorrow and prove it to you
(13:09):
well, and you can prove itto our listeners. To thirty nine bucks
for your first service, and howlong does the service usually last? For
the service with a synthetic treatment,it lasts up to three weeks. With
an all natural it lasts up totwo weeks. We guarantee a sprays,
which means if we come out andtreat you notice a couple of days later
a significant amount of still swarming swimmingflying around you, then please give us
(13:30):
a call. We will come backout retreat your property at no extra charge.
To you. Nice. What's thephone number? Oh, it's a
eight four to three six two eightseven seven eight eight eight four three six
two eight seven seven eight eight.That's right, it's eight four three hey,
Well do that for me. Well, it's eight four three six two
(13:50):
eight seven seven eight eight. That'seight four three six two eight seven seven
eight eight. Nice. And thenyou can also go to Mosquitojoe dot com.
Right, Oh, absolutely, yep, and check out their service right
now, thirty nine bucks for yourfirst service. We can do a regular
service, we can do special eventservice. The point is I care about
providing a good service to people.You're you're paying a mortgage, Okay,
(14:11):
the backyard comes with it. Shouldn'tyou be able to enjoy this? Yes,
you should, so call Mosquito Joeand give the number one more time.
There, Dan, it's eight fourthree six two eight seven seven eight
eight. That's eight four three sixtwo eight seven, seven eight eight.
Dan Danner, general manager of MosquitoJoe, Charleston, Thanks for your time
today. Well, thank you somuch for having me enjoyed it. You've
(14:33):
probably heard in the news lately aboutthe changes coming to realtors through the National
Association of Realtors to the changes incompensation of commissions, and the National Association
of Realtors has also agreed to paya settlement of four hundred and eighteen million
dollars over four years to settle lawsuitsthat were filed, and the National Association
(14:58):
of Realtors claim aims that by settlingthese lawsuits, they're protecting its members.
Now, I have some choice wordsfor the National Association of Realtors, but
I'll be honest with you, I'mafraid to share them with you because I'm
afraid that they'll come after me.And they have a whole set of rules
(15:18):
that is pretty self serving to theNational Association of Realtors, and it's my
belief. Well, see here Igo. I'll stop right there. So
anyway, I'm not a huge fanof the National Association of Realtors, But
if you want to practice real estateeffectively, you need to be a realtor.
(15:39):
In my point of view, alot of people don't understand the difference
between a real estate agent and arealtor. So I have a license that
allows me to conduct real estate transactionsin the state of South Carolina. It
has nothing to do with being arealtor. I'm a licensed to real estate
agent in South Carolina, and thenI choose to be a member of the
(16:00):
National Association of Realtors. Why doI choose to be a member of the
National Association of Realtors if, likeI just said, I have a bunch
of choice words for them that I'meven afraid to share with you. Well,
because there's a local association, andthen there's a state association, and
then there's a national association. Thelocal association runs the MLS, the Multiple
(16:23):
Listing Service, and the MLS hasgreat data in it. And you know,
there's been competing companies that come along. Zillos the one that I think
would be top of mind for everybodywhere. You can go on see what's
for sale, the descriptions, thepictures and all those things. But the
MLS has data. You can lookback at the history of a property,
(16:45):
at the history of the listing,at when changes were made, what changes
were made to the listings, howmuch they sold for, whether there were
concessions from the seller to the buyer, which will help you hone in more
effectively on what the true sales priceof that property was. So the data
(17:06):
set is excellent and actually a lotof these companies that use data, like
Zillo, a lot of that datacomes from these local MLS boards. So
in order to have access to thatMLS, you have to join your local
board, and you have to jointhe South Carolina Association of Realtors, and
you have to join the National Associationof Realtors. You can't just pick and
(17:30):
choose which one you want to join. You have to join all of them,
and then you follow You're required tofollow the Golden Rule, its code
of conduct from the National Association ofRealtors. So on the surface, those
are not bad things. Those aregood things. But when you look at
it from a competitive point of view, when you look at it through the
(17:52):
lens of a practitioner, an honestpractitioner, let me put it that way.
All the time, I'm like,why do I need to follow these
arbitrary rules set by the National Associationof Realtors When my client trusts me I'm
doing the right thing, Why doI need to do something else? Over
here? I get this added pieceof paperwork signed by everybody or whatever it
(18:18):
might be. You know, it'smy business how I deal with my clients
and I treat my clients well,and my clients trust me. So why
do I need this interference from anyof these boards. My answer is I
don't, but I'm forced into belongingto them because i want that access to
the MLS. Like I said,my license doesn't require it. I'm required
(18:42):
to take continuing education courses. I'mrequired to be educated in the first place,
and then pass the exam and thentake continuing education by the state,
and then I have my real estatelicense. All this other stuff is separate.
So in my view, I don'tneed belong to the National Association of
Realtors, or the South Carolina Associationof Realtors or the Charleston Trident Association of
(19:07):
Realtors. I choose to do sobecause I want access to the MLS and
the data that it provides. Simpleas that. Now, to explain what's
going on here, some lawyers nothere in Charleston, but often other parts
of the country, and there werecopycat lawsuits also. They sued the National
(19:27):
Association of Realtors, saying that byoffering cooperative compensation through the MLS, that
realtors were setting the standard of commission, forcing the sellers to pay the buyer's
agent commission, and they've drilled intoour heads for years. Commission is negotiable.
(19:47):
And if you've ever filled out alisting agreement or a buyer's agency agreement,
you'll know that commissions are negotiable.But these lawyers went after them,
and the media kind of misrepresented ormisrepresents this. They keep saying the standard
is six percent. You've probably seenthat on the news, the standard six
(20:11):
percent. There is no standard becauseit's negotiable. Now, a lot of
us charged six percent, but noteverybody does. Some charge more, some
charge less. I happen to thinkyou get what you pay for, and
it takes a certain amount to runa successful business. Otherwise you're not in
business, So what does it matter? So you need to be compensated correctly
(20:33):
for your services. So without gettingin all of that too much and doing
a commercial for myself, I willtell you this much that it's always been
negotiable and it's in the best interestof the buyer if you ask me,
Because the way this process works iswhat cooperative compensation is on the MLS.
(20:55):
So first, you sign a listeningagreement with somebody that wants to sell their
home, you charge them x amountwhatever you put on that contract. And
then there's another area where you stipulatehow much of that is going to go
to a buyer's agent. So we'lluse six percent as an example. If
I charge you six percent, Inow it's all negotiable, and I can
(21:18):
arrange that however I wish, aslong as the client agrees. But what
I do is say, all right, six percent and three percent goes to
the buyer's agent. So we're offeringcooperative compensation. You bring me a buyer,
you bring me your client, andI will give you half of the
commission that I charged for this listing. It can be five percent and it's
(21:41):
two and a half on a side. I've seen realtors charge seven percent and
then keep four or five of itand offer the other side two and a
half three percent. So it canbe arranged however you wish, and however
you've worked out with your client.Well, now they've done away with that.
(22:02):
The National Association of Realtors has negotiated, through the settlement of these lawsuits,
to remove cooperative compensation from listing agreements. Now the media, even the
President has chimed in on this.The President of the United States of America
and he was wrong with what hehad to say about it, by the
way, but that didn't surprise me. You know what, the narrative in
(22:25):
the media is that this is goingto make home buying less expensive. No
it's not, and this is nota good thing for the consumer if you
ask me. Because the way thatit used to work was you had a
listing agent and the listing agent listedthe property, and if you were a
buyer, you went to that listingagent and you said, hey, I
(22:48):
want to buy this house, andthey're like, I will gladly help you.
Through the years, that seemed alittle bit too it proved itself to
be a little bit too much ofa conflict of interest. So they came
up with buyer agency. And buyeragency is just what it sounds like.
(23:10):
You represent the buyer and you putthe buyer's best interest first. Your fiduciary
duty is to the buyer when youhave an agency agreement with a buyer,
so you owe them your fiduciary duty. So now the seller has an agent
that owes them their fiduciary duty,and the buyer has an agent that owes
(23:32):
them their fuduciary duty. The seller, through the listing agent offers compensation to
the buyer's agent. On the MLS, each side has their own representation,
and if you ask me, that'smuch better for the consumer than removing the
compensation or going back to the oldway, or who knows how this is
(23:52):
going to play out. I don'tknow if this is going to go back
to the old way exactly, butthey're removing that compensation from them. So
they removed the ability for the buyer'sagent to say, well, seller's agent,
I brought my client to the table, and you agreed through the MLS
on your listing to compensate me.Now they've muddied all that up. And
(24:17):
you know a lot of people havesaid, well, if the buyer wants
a representation from a realtor, thenthey can pay for it. Well,
what's most likely to happen is thebuyer's like, Man, I'm strapped already
and housing's really expensive. I haveto come up with a down payment,
I have to come up with closingcosts, I have to come up with
attorney costs, I have to comeup with moving costs, and now I
(24:38):
have to pay a realtor on topof all of this. I'm not doing
it I'll just represent myself. Andit reminds me of you know, the
old saying about attorneys. If youdon't hire an attorney and you represent yourself,
you have a fool for a client. So to me, this is
bad for the consumer. And I'mpretty angry at the National Association of Realtors
(25:00):
for several different things. Go backand look at what's been going on in
house at the National Association of Realtorsfor the last several years. They want
to tell us how to behave that'spretty rich. Look into it and see
what I'm talking about. But that'soff subject. So back on point.
(25:21):
I understand they were being sued andthey had to do something and settle it.
But I had hoped they would havefought harder for both the consumer and
the realtors that they represent, butthey did not. They settled it,
and now they're going to remove cooperativecompensation from the MLS, And like I
said, it's going to hurt theconsumers. It's not only going to hurt
realtors. It's going to hurt buyersand you know else it's going to hurt.
(25:45):
It's going to hurt sellers because nowyou and your agent are going to
be dealing with a bunch of peoplethat don't know what they're doing, and
realtors provide a valuable service, andI truly believe this. I'm an honest
broker. I look out for myclients. I have a fiduciary duty to
(26:06):
do so, and whether I'm representingthe seller or the buyer, I utilize
my experience to get an honest resultfor both. To me, honesty is
the most important thing, and that'swhy I'm having this honest conversation with you.
And that's why it might even beto my detriment, because they don't
like when you talk nasty about them. The National Association of Realtors, there
(26:30):
are the other organizations for that matter. But I'm just afraid that this is
going to really cause an upheaval inthe real estate business, and that upheaval
is not going to be good forany party involved, whether it be the
realtor or the buyer or seller.I don't think that this is a good
way to approach things. I thinkthat things were the way they were for
(26:53):
a reason, and they had evolvedto that place in order to protect the
consumers, and now they're undoing it. I care about this industry, and
I care about the reputation of thisindustry. Let's face it. I mean,
we're already less respected than used carsalesmen by the public, and this
kind of stuff doesn't help so andit's misrepresented by the media. It was
(27:15):
misrepresented by the President of the UnitedStates. And how about fixing financial policy.
How about fixing your own house beforeyou go criticizing somebody else's. And
I'm talking to the politicians. Thisis not going to make houses cheaper.
This is going to make the processharder. And there's going to be a
whole lot more losers than you seetoday in this process. There's going to
(27:38):
be a whole lot more problems.And I could keep talking about this forever,
and maybe I will. Maybe I'lldo another show here coming up.
As a matter of fact, Iwill as they provide more clarity on how
they wish us to proceed and howthis is going to play out in the
real world. Maybe I'm wrong.I've been wrong before, but I don't
think I'm wrong about this. Sofor now, we'll leave it right there,
(28:00):
But more to come. Believe me, I have plenty more to say
about this. That's it for yourhome. Three sixty. Make sure you
tune in every Saturday, and ifyou want to catch the podcast, you
can download that for free on youriHeartRadio app. You can also find it
online at ninety four to three WSCdot com. Just look under podcasts
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