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July 9, 2023 • 38 mins
Skip chats with Scott McGrath from McGrath Pest Control and Scott answers callers pest questions.
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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
Ktr H Garden Line does not necessarilyendorse any of the products or services advertised
on this program. Welcome to KTRHGarden Line with Skip rictor so Smelly Shrimp.

(00:20):
Just watch him, so many curea sign sun. Well, good

(00:44):
morning, Good Sunday morning. You'relistening to garden Line, and we're here
to talk all kinds of things gardening. But this hour we're going to focus
on all kinds of things creepy crawley. All the pests around your house,
Well, let me let me limitthat, not the two legged pests,
not the four legged us. Butif it has six or eight legs,
we're gonna talk about it today.How about that. We're gonna welcome Scott
McGrath from McGrath Pest Control. Scott, Welcome to garden Line. So glad

(01:07):
to have you here. Thanks Skip, It's fun. I'm looking forward to
it. We're gonna wear you outby picking your brain. Okay, I
think we already have a call comingin here on that. Uh. You
know. When it comes to insects, people range from I am very comfortable
with insects too. I have someonein my family. Let them go unnamed
in case they're listening to other day. But I mean, if something with

(01:32):
six legs crawled in that door,they would be going out that window.
I mean, you know, absoluteintomophobia, right, And I've got the
kids that grew up playing with insectsand bugs and things, you know,
tying string to cicadas and flying themaround the yard, blowing them up a
little piece of thread. I forgotwho I'm talking, dude. This is

(01:56):
a guy armed with a can ofAquaNet hairspray, a big lighter. Yeah,
man, after my own heart.My weapon of choice was a magnifying
glass. But you know, compciousis the same thing, you know,
sunshine right right? Oh yeah,there's many ways. It's funny talking about,
you know, people having phobias ofdifferent insects. I talk to people
all the time that it's funny.Someone some of them are great with roaches,

(02:17):
and ants are fine, and thenspiders just freak them out, yeah,
you know. Or some of themare okay with spiders, but if
they see a roach, oh mygosh, they're, like you said,
they're jumping out the window. Soit's funny. You deal with so many
different people in this industry, right, Yeah. I usually get called I
when I had young kids, raisedthem up. They're all out of the
house now, but I could tellby the pitch of the scream in the

(02:39):
back bedroom about what size the littlething was that they saw. Usually it
was a jumping spider in the window, and I would explain, look,
they're fuzzy, they got a littlemonkey face, and they're catching flies for
you, and you know, noneof that matter. Just just bring the
heel of your shoe, dad,Let's get this over with. Yes,
exactly, yes. I mean I'veactually had customers say, okay, I'll

(03:00):
ask him, so, how badis the is your infestation? Well?
Is he? Um? My daughterscreamed four times this morning, so it's
really really bad. Like I understand, Okay, I'm on it all right,
bring in a professional. Speaking ofthat, what are some of the
common insect issues that are kind offloating to the top of the list during
this hot summer season. Well,you know, Houston is good for for

(03:23):
bucks. You know, we alwayslaugh and say in this industry we have
job security. There's always gonna bebugs here, you know, so every
season's kind of something else kind ofpulls up. You know, we can
and we can kind of tell everymonth what's going to be different. You
know, right right now during thesummertime, it's it's hot and we're not
having a whole lot of rain,and so we get the normal. We
get the roaches and the ants andthe spiders. The mosquitoes are always always

(03:47):
prevalent. Termites are always going tobe there. So just kind of the
general insects that you get. Earwigyou see earwigs a lot, silverfish,
springtails, all kinds of little thingjust kind of occur around the house and
inside the house. Yeah, that'strue, and silverfish can really spoil the
party. We had some family booksthat were very old. They were stuffed

(04:11):
in a box. I'm on ashelf somewhere. I don't know how the
silverfish found them, but when theyfound them, they ruined them. Oh,
they do that. And that's usuallywhere we see the nest because silverfish
are attracted to glue and paper products. So a lot of times you'll see
them in boxes or around like Isaid, books, Um, they'll they'll
nest in addicts a lot, orin garages, comes down the walls and
uh and I mean also too,they'll they'll even get into your clothes and

(04:34):
they'll they'll make little holes in yourclothes as well. So that's something that
official will do that. Yeah.No, I've seen silverfish do that as
well. Yeah, so another reasonto not like them, yes, and
and so that's why we say,you know, if you've got that,
you know, especially in addicts,get rid of boxes, you know,
get rid of of different things,or storm in in tupeware containers, you

(04:55):
know, plastic containers that'll help youknow the minutes that that popular. Well,
I'm always amazed, you know,insects. They're incredible creatures. I
mean, fascinating, the way they'veadapted, the way they survived, just
all aspects of entomology as you getinto it are just really I think they're
really cool. Stuck, but I'malways getting amazed. You know, we

(05:16):
lived in a house I lived overin Lockhart, Texas from all and we
had a garage. But there's acrack through the foundation garage and I'd set
a bunch of boxes on the floorof that garage and when I came out,
there were termites in the paper ofthe box that had gone under the
slab come through. I never ina million years thought about if I set

(05:40):
a box in a crack in thefoundation. You know, I'm gonna get
termites. Well, so the keywith termites is all they need is one
sixty fourth of vintache to get insomewhere. That's it. How big?
One sixty fourth vinach? So huge? No, it's a very very small
area. So for us, it'sall about identification when it comes to termites.
You know, we have to beable to see the foundation, we

(06:00):
have to be able to see thetunnel. We have to know, you
know, we can see where they'recoming from to figure out how they're getting
in. They're attracting a moisture andfungus. So a garage area like that,
you get a little crack. Imean, it's it's gonna be dark
and probably human in there at somepoint. And then you put a box
over it, which is made ofpaper, which is trees, which is
wood. You know they now theydon't eat the wood. They eat the

(06:23):
cellulos inside the wood. Okay,and that's what they do. And so
but that's that's a perfect area.And we see so many areas well.
We'll say, okay, you havetermites in this area, Well how do
they get there? And then wekind of deduct and move things around and
put our Sherlock Holmes hat on andlook, and sure enough there's a small
little crack that's hidden in some farcorner of the house or the slab or

(06:46):
the garage or something. You're like, oh, there it is. Well
and this is your business and youknow what to look for. So when
you go to a home, youhave you know all the insects deepest secrets,
and you're able to hopefully get aheadout of the well the game where
we hope, so we hope.So I will say this, and I
tell all my staff all the time, is I said, you know,

(07:08):
we learned something new every year whenit comes to this, and you know,
a new way that they're coming inor how they're getting in or why
they're getting in, and you know, and kind of my new slogan is
we think like a bug. Andthat's kind of it's it's kind of a
joke, but it's true. Isthat you need to figure out you have
to think like a bug. Ifyou were a roach, how would you
get in this little area right here? That's it, you know, get

(07:30):
in tune with your inner exactly.You meditate, We meditate that good inn
insect. We can have some funfor that. Well, that's good.
We're we're talking to Scott mcgraf mcgrafpest Control on all things insects. We're
about to take a little break here. If you will give us a call
seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four, you can ask Scott

(07:50):
a question and Jarrett out in Delagoyou will be first up when we come
back. Awesome, spot does whateverSpotty can spins a weathering handy size good
just thieds just like flies. CowWell, good Sunday morning. You're listening

(08:16):
to garden Line and we are hereto talk about things that interest you in
this morning at during this eight o'clockhour, we're talking with Scott McGrath and
McGraph Pest Control about all things insects. I think everybody probably has a few
creepy crawleys that they have some questionsabout, and now would be a good
time to call seven one three twoand two fifty eight seventy four. We're
gonna start by going out to delLogo and talking to Jarrett. Hello,

(08:39):
Jarrett, what's up? Good morning, Good morning everyone. I've got something
maybe I will but looked or couldn'tsee the pants or maybe it's not a
pant at all, but kind anornamental pepper plant. Um. It's probably
about twelve minutes, just tall orso now, and the lower leaves are

(09:00):
getting me swirthly brown lines on them. It looks like maybe something was in
the leaf or eating it. Idon't I don't know it. It's not
like this jump through. I gotyou, I got you, Jarrett.
I'm just gonna answer thistion right quick. That is it's called a leaf miner,
a serpentine leaf miner, and theyattack tomatoes, they attack peppers,
They take a lot of plants,and there's even a type that attacks your

(09:22):
citrus trees. The leaf miner there, it's a little insect that's tunneling between
the top and bottom surfaces of theleaf. It's inside the leaf, so
a surface spray doesn't kill it.But if you will use a product that
contains spinosaid in your garden. Youmentioned this is ornamental that especially with you
know, a pepper you're gonna eat, if you'd rather not put a pesticide

(09:45):
in general on spinosa, it soaksinto the tissue and it'll kill the insect
inside. And so that would bewhat I would recommend all right, and
okay, and what place would sellthat? Bottom? Almost everywhere, every
mom and pop garden center, wetalk about ACE hardware stores, thirty nine
of them all over town sell it. Even feed stores are often going to

(10:09):
have a spinosid based insecticide for you. Okay, thank you very much.
All right, thank you, Jared. I appreciate that. Yes, Scott,
So, I kind of am curiousabout like when you go out to
a house, someone calls you andsays, hey, I got some paths,
but I just kind of want youto come around and do a general
treatment. What what what are youlooking for when you're out there, and

(10:31):
kind of what's the approach to thatkind of first time. Hey, we're
going to help you out here andget you off to being start. So
first musically, you know, ifI come out for a brand new customer,
if they're not sure what they have, then I'm you know, I'm
gonna walk around. I'll probably walkaround the perimeter of the house look and
see if I see any kind ofant mounds or a guest, termites or
spiders or cracks and crevices and holesdifferent things that insects come in, you

(10:56):
know, how they can get intothe house as far as inside. First
of all, I want to askthem if they have, you know,
if they are they seeing something?Are you seeing evidence in anything? Is
there anything that UM you know thatyou're worried about. UM. I may
look underneath kitchen cabinets, UM andmaybe an addicts. I'm gonna look for
droppings. I'm gonna look for smudges, you know, anything like that,

(11:18):
because usually, especially if you havelike a like a roach issue, you're
going to see droppings in cabinets orunderneath sinks, sometimes even in um in
pantries. So I'm gonna look fordifferent things like that, and that's going
to kind of give me an ideaof what we're what we're looking for.
Ok Now, if I don't reallysee anything, then I want to suggest,

(11:39):
Okay, this is what we cando for you to help prevent you
from getting insects in the future.And sometimes it could be a treatment.
Sometimes it could just be kind ofa a pest prevention thing where we seal
upholes. We don't necessarily have toput insect in secticide out right, that's
good and I know that you knowthey can come in through the thresholds because

(12:00):
sometimes those little things that are supposedto seal up the threshold up you do
a really good job over time,and they can do that. I know
with gardeners, we're always telling them, hey, don't put the flower beds
up with where the soil is atthe wheat poles or where there's multu over
the wheep poles, because that justgives termites an easy way in where you
can't walk by and just visually lookfor the mud trails. And that's that's

(12:22):
a big thing now, Yeah,especially if we're talking about termites, because
I can Like I said earlier,the key to term identification is visualization,
which means I have to see thetunnel to know you have it. Okay
again, termitesied one sixty fourth minutesto getting somewhere, and they're attracted to
moisture and fungus. So we haveto be able to see that foundation to
see any sort of termite activity.Okay, that connection. Yes, And

(12:43):
you know, if we can't,then I don't know if you have termites
or when you're can get termites.And when way I'll know that is all
of a sudden you started getting littleholes come out of your chi rock.
Oh boy. Yes, And thenand then you think you've got an issue.
Yes, bad, Yes, youmentioned looking for insect droppings. One
the biggest surprises of my life.It was meeting a forensic entomologist at Tech

(13:05):
SAM and he works on all theseissues. You know, somebody was found
in the woods and New Jersey orwhatever, and they go in and they
look at insect droppings on the bodyand determine you know, no, this
was actually killed in Arizona really inthe spring, and it was hauled in
New Jersey and drop. I mean, it's crazy stuff. Intomological scatology.

(13:28):
Yeah, that's that's a little abovemy pascale, I know, but it's
so cool, you know, likethe caterpillars that folks bear with me.
I realized it's lunch is coming.That hang on with me for a minute.
Caterpillars like their digestive tract and rearand then everything have ridges and stuff,
and it's like those little playto thingswhere you push playto through and it

(13:48):
comes out as a star or ahalf moon or whatever. And the bologists
can often actually look at the droppingsfrom the insect and tell you exactly what
insect it is. I just findthat to be oh yeah, like for
us for us. You know,we can we can tell because a lot
of people will mistake roaches and micedroppings and you know, or is it

(14:09):
an American cockroach? Is it aGerman cockroach? You know, the droppings
are different that way. Is ita subterranean termite or is it a drywood
termite? The dropping, Yeah,the droppings are different that way too.
So talking about lunch, it's youcan always tell if a bunch of pest
control people get together because they don'tcare. They can be out having fine

(14:31):
lunch and and talking about German roaches. I don't care. I know people
that are into the deal. Well, we're visiting with the entomological, scatology
and expert scottograph this morning about allthings pest control. Scott. We got
a call from Bill in spring andwe're gonna find out what Bills up to.
Hey Bill, good morning, Welcometo Gardenline. Hey Bill, you're

(14:56):
on, Yeah, yeah, I'mgood. Into station. And for the
last couple of weeks, a littlesmall flying bugs they land on the wall
and they're about an eighth of aninch wall and it looked like they're asleep
or something, and you touch them, they'll start flying offs well, seeing
them before they just showed up.I don't know what they are, how

(15:18):
to get rid of them. Youknow that it could be a couple of
different things. It sounds like tome you could just be ants. I
mean this time of year you geta lot of a lot of flying ants
that will come in, especially kindof during nighttime. They're attracted to light.
Um, you know they could bedoing that now. It could also
it could be it could be turnmy swarmers. Um, this this time
of year, drywood turn my swarmersor are active. I saw my first

(15:41):
infestation the other day of the year, and um, so it could be
that. It could be it couldbe nats. It's it's kind of hard
to tell. It could be acouple of different things. I probably suggest
one thing I to a lot ofcustomers is trying to take a picture of
it. You can take a pictureof it. You can email it to
me, you could, you know, you could text it to us.
We can kind of let you knowwhat it is. Um, you know,

(16:02):
if it's if it's a fly,or if it's a gnat or something
like that. That's more of asanitation issue that then we want to dress
on the outside, or there's otherissues that we need to dress. If
it's just a little a little flyingant um, like I said, they'll
come into the during the u thenighttime, they'll try to light you know,
turn off outside lights, or wecan maybe we can treat the outside

(16:22):
area for you. Hopefully that mayhelp, all right, ant No,
it's more like a little well,it could be a moth then, you
know, it could be it couldbe a pantry moth. A lot of
people you'll get maybe go look inthe pantry and see if you see like
little cocoons, uh like kind offorming on the corners of the pantry,

(16:44):
or see if you've got little littleblack little bugs um in your pantry.
A lot of times you'll get that. And then they'll they'll molt into into
moths and then and then they'll flyout everywhere. And if and if it
is a moth, then we needto address that pretty quickly because they'll they'll
spur everywhere and it's really really hardto get rid of them. So Bill,
I guess starting with a good closeup photo and a good sharp focus

(17:07):
would be probably the best thing.And you can if you want to send
me that picture. If I can't. If I can't identify it, I
can certainly pass it along and haveScott or somebody doing identification. But I
tell you, the closer and thesharper the focus, the better. Otherwise
it's just going to be Yeah,you're right, that's some kind of an
insect. Okay, I could certainlydo that, Thank you very much.

(17:30):
All Right, I'm gonna put youon hold and Josh, my producer,
is gonna give you an email.All right. I appreciate that call.
You know that this is a seasonfor a lot of different things, and
of course it always seems like it'sa roach season around here, and people
get concerned and we have a lotof different kinds of roaches that that is

(17:52):
one of the things that I thinkmost people are concerned about because they see
them in the house. They feellike, oh my gosh, it's it's
it's disease, filth, it's allthat kind of stuff, right. Uh.
Actually, cockroaches are kind of clean. They're grimming themselves all the time.
So I don't know, if youknow, i'd want one crawling across
my sandwich. They still no,you don't, you don't, but yeah,

(18:12):
it's kind of funny. You canyou can always tell people who just
moved here to Houston, because ifthey haven't experienced a July, August,
September and Houston, they have noidea about about the big the roaches we
call them bombers or water bugs orsomething, you know, and they're they're
huge and they fly. Uh.Yes, see, the American cockroach is

(18:33):
always going to be here. Um. Just because you see them inside or
or dead off out somewhere, itdoesn't mean it's not a cleanliness thing.
Doesn't mean you're dirty. It justmeans you live in Houston. And so
then we just got to figure outhow they're getting in and eliminate them from
coming in and stop that. Sodo you do look at things like dusts,
cracks and crevices or sprays or doyou use a bait or all the

(18:56):
above? All the above? Yes, there's there's a bunch of different things
that we can use. We basicallywe'll try and specialize what we do base
on the house itself and what theinfestation is. You know, sometimes sometimes
it's as easy as just sealing upthese areas to keep them from coming in.
Okay, good, Well, we'vegot a bunch of calls coming in,
so let's you jump to those.I'm going to start off and go

(19:18):
to let's see, we're gonna goto Carl and Beaumont, and Carl has
a termite question. I believe.Awesome, Carl, we got about one
minute, so let's see if wecan get that done. Okay, mine's
more of a readerational. Scot's beentalking about about the termites find their own
way, and they're smart little creatures. Years ago had no knowledge of termites.

(19:40):
And the perimeter visualizing the perimeter ofthe house is so huge, as
you've said, I had a visualon the entire slab except for where a
Fawcett came out of the ground nextto the slab of the house, of
course, and you've gotten I don'tknow, a half inch between in the
slab the pipe in the slab,and he even put some insulation behind that

(20:04):
around around the pipe. And Carl, I hate to interrupt that we've got
about twenty seconds or fifteen seconds here? Do we need to hold you over
pass break? Sure? Go ahead, all right, Sorry about that.
We're about to take a break forthe news. We're talking about Scott McGrath,
about all things insects. McGrath PestControl. If you got insect questions,

(20:25):
give us a call. We'll getyou on the line seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. You're listening to Garden Line and as

(20:48):
always, our music comes as asurprise. We are visiting today with Scott
McGrath about all kinds of things insectrelated, and we're gonna just jump right
in and go back to Carl Beaumont. Carl, did you have a question
connected to that? I really didn'thave a question. Mind was more of
a reiteration of what Scott was talkingabout about the termites being smart little critters

(21:10):
and going up on this on thishouse exactly where the only visual visual couldn't
be gotten behind the pipe. Yeah, it always happens that way. Yeah,
it always happens that way. Theone area that you overlook because you
never think that some of them willget there, that's where they'll be there.

(21:30):
You go right exactly, Well,Carl, I appreciate that call.
Thank you very much, Carl verymuch. We're gonna get back. You
know, it's hard to think oftermites as a beneficial insect, but when
you think about the eons and eonsfor us, we would be a mile
deep in tree trunks if it wasn'tfor the termites and fungi and a few
other things. Let's now go outto Brazoria County and we're gonna talk to

(21:52):
Louise. Hello, Louise, Louisor is it Lewis. It's Lewis.
Good morning, Good morning. Questionabout mud davers I have, I said,
come home on the coast of countythat I'm prepping to sell and just
got through climate. How would yourepel mud dabbs? Discourage them? Move

(22:12):
now I'm kidding. Um, yeah, maybe it's spray some pam non stick
sprang stick out there. Yes,yes, Um, you know I always
always heard the old old story thatif you paint your the your porch roof
blue, they'll think it's a skyand they won't gone there. That's that's
not true. I'll see them dothat. Yeah, okay, but they

(22:33):
mud dog run on the side wherethe white and the blue come along.
But yeah, the blue actually work. We did it about five years ago.
Hate blue okay, good good,Yeah, it's yeah. It's it's
hard. It's hard to totally getrid of them. I mean, like
any flying insect, they're going tobe around. You know. That's why
we can we can do things toyou know, we can spray some stuff
or some dust on there. That'llthat'll that'll help it, that will discourage

(22:53):
them. Um. But you knowagain, you know they make their little
mud mud things there in the thecorner, and what I use I just
knock them off or wash them offwith the hose. Um. And because
they don't stay in there, allthey do is they fly around, they
go get their their carcasses and theygo and they put them inside the little
the little mud thing and there,so it's hard to fully get rid of

(23:15):
them. Yeah, I just wantto always want to drop some bison or
something to you just on a discouragefor the next three or four months until
it's a little taller, you knowthat. Yeah, that could help you.
Spray around there, Spray around youryard area, spray your bushes.
I mean we do that for forWASP all the time too. We can
spray under the bushes and around thebushes and you know, if there's a
nest something, that'll get rid ofthem. But um, eventually they're going

(23:36):
to come back. Yeah. Soyou know, I just want to mention
Lewis. Lewis when you're when you'redoing spraying, especially up on the eaves
like that, you just want tobe careful with any pesticide that doesn't drift
down into your eyes. And alot of times when they do it yourself
job, we don't quite have theequipment, and so we try to get
a little bit more range out ofour little pump up spray or something mend
up standing right underneath it. Soright, be a little careful with I

(23:56):
always wear some PPPs. There yougo. Good, good point. One
of the quick questions or comment.I think Skip claimed that pillbugs out bugs
are adable. I just want toknow your no, No, I did
never. I've never said that.Where there was that once? I didn't
know? Well, they are crustations, So I guess what did we be?
Pillbugs on the half shell or somethinglike? Good show. Thank you

(24:17):
for the help, Thanks a lot, Lewis. I appreciate that insult very
much. Thank you for the call. Glad you're Let's go to Parallel now
and talk to Craig. We've gota lot of calls coming in here.
Hello, Craig, how are youdoing this morning? Fine? Start and
thank you gentlemen taking a call.Just got a question about the status of
the crazy answer, because we don'thave an infestation. But I remember several

(24:41):
years back there used to be inthe news and you know, there were
stories of them overwhelming different parts ofthe city and actually knocking out power.
But I haven't seen any at allin years. And have they moved on?
Are they still around or whatever happenedto crazy about those ants are actually
raspberry or tawny ants, and sothey were pretty prevalent for a couple of

(25:06):
years or so, but yeah,they've kind of gone kind of downhill on
that. I haven't I haven't seenan infestation of them in a very long
time. Um. The thing aboutthem, it used to be because there
were so many and they were sopopulous that you know, you would you
would spray something around uh the antswould would you know, walk across that
they would die, But then theother ants would walk right on top of

(25:26):
the dead ants and not get tothe chemical and that that's what was making
them so hard to uh to uhto kill. Um. Yeah, those
tawny ants, I haven't seen thosein a number of years. So,
but there's there's all kinds of differentcrazy ants, NUIs and ants that are
out there um right now. Alot of the rover ants, which a
lot of people see, a littlesmall black ants, which a lot of

(25:47):
people call them the crazy ants.They're pretty prevalent right now. The ghost
ants um. You'll see those alot around the outside perimeter of your house
or in bathrooms, in the kitchensbecause they're attracted there, attracted to moisture.
Um. So I'm not sure ifyou're seeing those or not. No,
No, we don't. Haven't hadany issues whatsoever. I was just

(26:07):
I was just wondering whatever happens thestate. They actually were in our neighborhood
and they the fire ants out.I mean, there were so many of
them. Oh yeah, you didn'tsee fire I said, anymore. But
they've just never come back. I'venever seen any So I'm gonna status us.
Yeah, I'm just gonna say.McGrath's control got rid of them all
everywhere. There you go. That'swhy you've gotten to the bottom of it.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou, thank you. Appreciate that.

(26:30):
Call Craig, if you'd like tocall and talk insects today with Scott
McGrath seven one three two one twofifty eight seventy four. All right,
Scott. Well, let's talk alittle more about mosquitos. You mentioned them
earlier on what are the options fromjust a home doot yourself to a professionally
done job on the mosquitoes. So, yeah, mosquitoes are pretty bad here

(26:52):
in Houston. And actually, kindof funny thing is we were just talking
about people. This has kind ofbeen a slow mosquito season, which is
good for I guess for people,but bad bad for us because of the
because of the temperatures and the lackof rain. Anytime you've got a lot
of raincome and the mosquitos are goingto hatch. You know they're there,
they could say dormant and until there'sa little bit of water. Um.

(27:14):
As far as your house, there'sa bunch of different things you can do.
Um. You know, you ifyou keep your grass mode, if
you keep your bushes trimmed, makesure there's no standing water, make sure
there's no staggnant water anywhere. Imean they can they can lay up to
thousands of eggs in just a littlebottle cap somewhere. So you want to
make sure you don't have anything likethat land around the house. You know,

(27:34):
Gutters, checker gutters, make surethere's no leaves or anything in there
that they're they're clean. Um,you know, any kind of tires or
anything like that. Um. Youknow, if you're still getting them.
One thing you can do is highfans like ceiling fans or box fans.
Uh, you can you can turnthose on and the mosquitoes won't. They
can't stay when there's a lot ofhigh winds on there, they'll go away,

(27:56):
um, you know. And thenthere's there's certain plants that you can
buy that some people say that helps, you know, certain um, rosemary
and centronella plants, different things likethat, UM, that will help eliminate
them. But then you know,of course with me, I own a
pest control company, So I'm gonnasay getting a backpack fogger done you know
every three weeks or so was good. We have mosquito systems that I love.

(28:22):
That helped too. And that's somethingthat's put on the eaves. Yes,
so mosquito system. It's it's beenaround for a number of years.
It's one of those you know,gets a little nozzles. You put them
on the eaves of the house aroundthe fence line. UM. It goes
off about forty five seconds. Thatdust get at dawn because that's when the
mosquitoes are most active, and andit kills any kind of flying insects around.
It's also great for june bugs andspiders and flies, anything that's flying

(28:47):
around. Now, the good thingabout it too is it doesn't it doesn't
like have a residual. It doesn'tstay on the grounds. It dissipates after
so many minutes. So it's safefor kids and dogs and toys. And
we can even be out there.Um. In fact, I laugh and
say, I'm out there with mine. If I forget it's going off,
I'm just gonna cover up my drinkand I move out of the way and

(29:07):
I'll be good to go. That'ssound like at pirethrun or what's what what
I means. Yeah, it's apromethrin based chemical, Yeah, that we
use persistent. Yeah, And prometheanis a very popular active ingredient. It's
in a lot of flea and tickmeds and and soon any certain repellents things
like that, you know. Andthen we also offer of some the pyrethrum

(29:27):
chemicals to the rip ties and thenatural stuff. Okay, good, Hey,
you're listening to garden Line. We'retalking to Scott mcgraffin and we're gonna
take a break and we'll be rightback if you'd like to get on the
boards called Josh seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four A pant

(29:47):
and the need to day come onday and the pants, Well that on
tell you something number one. You'relistening to guard line number two. We're
talking bugs entomology today. We've gotScott McGrath with McGrath Pest Control here with
us. Hey, we've talked aboutdifferent products and things like that, and

(30:11):
I just wanted to mention if you'relooking for the one source where you're going
to have the best selection of allkinds of things like herbicides and secticides,
fungicides. If you're an organic gardeneryou want organic products, you're not going
to find a better selection than SouthwestFertilizer. You know, Bob Patterson and
his team, they know what they'retalking about. And if you walk in
there with a picture or a sample, they're going to be able to identify

(30:33):
it. They're gonna be able totell you what works and what doesn't work.
They're not going to say you somethingyou don't need. They'll sell you
something's effective and tell you how touse it, and that in and of
itself is well worth the price ofadmission. They have lots of garden tools.
They are sharpen you mower blades andeven fix your small engines there in
the shop. It's easy to findSouthwest Fertilizer there on the corner of Bissonette

(30:56):
and Runwick, or just go onlineto Southwest Fertilizer dot com. And trust
me, when you go in there, you will be very impressed and you
will come home with a quality productthat is specifically designed for the issue you're
trying to deal with. Well,we're talking to Scott McGrath today and Scott,
i'd like you to tell a littlebit about maybe the history of the
company, how you got started,and just kind of give people an overview

(31:19):
of what McGrath Pest Control is today. Sir, so McGrath Pest Control was
started in nineteen seventy four by mydad, Doug. He was a school
teacher out in the Cyprus area didit for a number of years. I
didn't want to get out and dosomething customer oriented, and you know,
back then it was this was agreat customer service thing, and I kind

(31:41):
of allow because I kind of grewup with it, and I remember him
working out an oldsmobile with a handtank in the trunk and just kind of
group them there, you know,and he kind of still just the old
fashioned customer service, very honest type, you know what I'm gonna do to
take care of the company. Andso I've kind of grown up with this
business and I've been doing it fulltime for about twenty four years. I've

(32:04):
owned the company for fourteen years now. He's he's retired, and they didn't
want to hear the word bug anymorebecause you're doing it so long. But
but it's been a great just ahonest, family, family run business that
we've had, and I'm hoping it'llkeep going for another couple of you know,
another couple decades. Oh yeah,I mean you grew up witnessing from
your dad the concepts of hard workand honesty and taking care of the customers

(32:28):
and the value of that, andthat is so important today. Nothing turns
me off faster than to go intoa store or to you know, hire
a service, and it's just likethey could care less that you're there,
give me your money, I'm goingto my next job, and instead of
you know, really communicating and respectingthe customers, showing up when you're say
you're going to show up, allthose kind of things that that in and

(32:51):
of itself is worth a lot.Oh it is. And you know,
and that's when that we try andpride ourselves onto this company is you know,
I tell a lot of my techniciansdon't sell services. Let's help the
customer. Let's help figure out whatthe problem is, because maybe there's something
that we can't do or we don'tneed to do that they can do on
their own as long as it solvesa problem. And I want to make

(33:12):
sure that we give good value toyou know, to our customers, and
we make them proud to have us, you know, in their house.
That's good. That is good.Hey, we're going to go out to
Cleveland. Robert has a question forus, and so Robert, how can
we help today? Yes, goodmorning, Scott, thank you for being
there and asking questions. My wifehas a sunflower plants and we have a

(33:35):
twofold problem. We have small dogsand we have what appears to be small
snails on the sunflower eating the leavesand the point snails. Well, I'm
going to take that at face value. If you've got snails, you know,
the best thing you can do outin the garden is to get a

(33:57):
bait for them, bait product.You want to get it fresh, and
you want to put out enough ofit. You don't want them to get
a little sick and then not eatit anymore. That bait shyness thing can
happen with snails. But there's anumber of them. There's a Slugo out
there, I believe. I believethere's an organic one. I can't think
of what it is now, butSlugo has iron phosphate which gives them a
terminal case of constipation, which ifyou don't like snails, that's a happy

(34:21):
thought. But anyway, and that'susually what we suggest, is you just
get some that slugo stuff. Yeah, that works great, all right,
Robert. Do you know if that'ssafe for dogs as well? Or I'm
sure it is. Yes, Ithink it would be, because it's not
like, you know, a chemicalpesticide type thing. It's more just an

(34:42):
iron phosphate based bait. There aresome other baits out there. I would
put them in some kind of astructure where the dogs can't get to them.
If you're worried about it, butjust remember that when you put them
out, you want fresh bait,and you want to get it out there
and have plenty of access for themto eat all that they can. All

(35:02):
right, all righty, thank youso much, you bet, thank you,
Robert. I appreciate that call.Let's go to Lake Jackson now and
we're gonna talk to Danny. Ibelieve Danny's got an entomology question. Yep,
good morning, I do. Myquestion is, uh, is there
you know we have a lawn schedule. Is there a schedule for pest control?

(35:29):
Is it in the spring, maybebefore winter? I have a I
have a rental property enrichment and Iwant to the rent as happy. Yes,
so so yeah. I mean thegood thing about Houston is that you
know, we have we have wehave slow winters. You know, we
have warm winters pretty much, soyou can pretty much our schedules are usually

(35:51):
every three months, every ninety days. That will come out of what tree
to house. UM. Now,if you're not looking to getting on any
kind of set schedule or anything likethat, UM, we used to say,
let's just start something in the earlyspring. If you can get something
done to early spring, tweet thehouse, treat the yard. That should
last you for the majority of thesummer. But if you're looking for some
sort of a schedule, yes,well, use you do every ninety days.

(36:13):
I used suggest getting the yard doneprobably twice a year, which would
be every other every other quarter.If you get that done, you keep
on a regular basis, and youknow and you keep you keep everything kind
of clean and sanitation free. Youshouldn't have any issues, at least not
even major issues. Good do you, guys? Service Richmond. We do

(36:34):
every day, all day, everyday you'll be hearing from me. I
appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you, Denny. I appreciate
that very much. Appreciate that call. By the way, if you want
to get a hold of Scott,you can call two eight one four six
nine eighty two forty or just goto MacGrath pest Control dot com and you
can learn a lot more and getin touch with them. Well, we

(36:57):
got about about a one minute orless, but I'd like you, if
you would to just talk a littlebit about the rodent issues, some of
the four legged creatures that we dealwith. So here in Houston, the
rodents are everywhere you're you're going tohave them. People get disgusted when they
see them in a yard and Isay, you don't worry about They're always
here, okay, we just don'twant to get them inside the house.
So that that's a big it's abig issue um using the winter months when

(37:22):
it gets colder, because squirrels androdents have like to come inside. So
we have to be able to sealup around around the area to keep them
from coming in. There's things wecan do on the outside to that to
help eliminate and determine, you know, and reduce it. But if we
if we can keep it from comingin, that's the major problem. And
again that's something that we do ona daily basis. We would love to

(37:43):
help someone out with that. Youknow what to look for when you walk
around the house and you look upin there and you know, yeah,
that's that's where they're coming in.That's one of them. We see it
every day. I bet well,Scott, I so appreciate you coming into
Thank you Great sex. A lotof interest from callers as well. If
you're interested in getting in touch withScott McGrath Pest Control, go to MacGrath

(38:04):
Pest control dot com or give ma call to eight one four six nine
eighty two forty. We'll be backfor our last hour this morning of in
fact, last hour this weekend ofgarden Line. Remember that if you miss
garden Line, you can listen tous by podcast. You can catch up
with an old show or maybe maybeyou heard Scott or I say something and
you like, what was it theysaid? What product did they talk about?

(38:28):
Well, go back and listen tothe past shows and on your podcast,
and that's a great way to doit. I appreciate all the folks
from all over the country really thatlisten to garden Line by listening live on
the computer as well. It's justgreat to be able to help folks.
And again, Scott, thank youso much. You were quite welcold,
great time.
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