Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, so we can welcome at Home with Gary Salvin
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(00:53):
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(01:13):
we work way through another hour. If you'd like to
join us, it's eight hundred and eight two three eight
two five five and Bill welcome. How are you doing
doing fine? Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I've got a house. It's built nineteen sixty five at
a lanch and I got a whole house fan in it,
and it's quick working. And our whole house fans do
they not use them anymore or anything? Or do they
still use them?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Sure, it's just I'm losing a lot of heat and
air conducing just.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Do that, well, you wouldn't have it on when the
air conditioning's on. A whole house fan is really a
lot of it depends on the climate that you live in.
So it's if it's a hot area with a lot
of humidity, maybe they're not used as much as say,
like in a climate like in Michigan. But it pulls
the cooler air from the outside through the windows in
(02:12):
the summertime, pulls it up through you know, the whole
house fan is on usually the highest point of the house.
You got a ranch, so more centrally located, pulls it
up through the attic, and the attic's got to be
very well ventilated to disperse the air, the heated air
that's trapped in the house, it's pulling that up into
(02:33):
the attic. So yeah, they're still used. And you know,
how long have you had it? Have you had it
for a while.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's original and it's got like metal rubs and the like.
You can see up above on the roof frost. There's
not frost there. I just feel like I'm moving on.
Do they make newer ones that are.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
No But well, there's a couple of things I got
comments on that Number one is you lose a lot
of heat uh in the in the UH in the
winter time. You got to insulate those or seal them
off and enable them, you know, or turn them off.
You know, you don't want that thing going on in
the in the winter time. And those lovers. I used
(03:21):
to have one in my old home. I literally put
plexiglass over you know where those louvers are. And you know,
even if you took out the switch, you don't want
anybody to turn that on, and you want to definitely
insulate it. Otherwise your heat is rising. It's going right
(03:42):
up to the it's just little metal lovers and it's
going right in the attic. You are losing a lot
of heat. So there are insulating covers for those also.
So to answer your question, you're not really losing I
guess you would be losing air conditioning in the summertime too,
you know, if you're not using it. Uh, same same
(04:05):
process has taken place, but I think that's probably one
of the negatives to it. But there is insulating boxes
that can be installed so where you live, you know,
maybe around you know, when heating season starts, you're going
to insulate and maybe in July and August. You're going
(04:27):
to insulate it, you know depends, but yeah, that that
air that's in your house is going to go to
the attic.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, this one has quit working. I can you like
convert it? You've talked to those ones that bring air in,
you know, actively that based on the commidity inside and
outside for Clebe Polkingbon, I don't remember the name.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
You think I could like kind of a humidistant right, yeah, yeah,
so there would be you midist at you know, when
you get again. I don't know what you're what you're
wanting to measure? You wanting to measure outdoor or indoor.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I was under the impression of a point that it
would either bring it into your house, you know, or
remove the air from your house based on the humidity
inside and outside. I might be wrong about that.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, I think there's there's some switches or there's EUMDI
stats for fans for addicts, when you get to a
certain humidity level, it turns the fan automatically on. I
I assume, I don't know, I assume those could actually
be attached to a whole house fan. Also, okay, but.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
You're saying either definitely worth keep going POSI one could
welcome so Id and get it running again.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Well, I can tell you this. I can tell you this,
you know, I don't know. I think you've got to
decide whether it's worth it. When I moved from the
house that had mine, I missed mine a lot. I
used it all the time. Uh usually late April, May June.
(06:20):
That's usually when I used it. I used it in
the fall September, October, and outside of that I usually
had it insulated. But I thought it was worth it
to me. I enjoyed it. Some of the older ones
are noisy. The newer ones there's less vibration. They're not
nearly as noisy. But you got to decide whether you
(06:43):
enjoyed it. If you if you thought you were losing
more than you were gaining, and you're not interested in
really managing it by you know, a humid astat or insulating,
then it's probably not worth it to you.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Already, Okay, I very much, and I appreciate the show.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Thank you very much. Take care all right. Our phone
numbers eight hundred and eight two three eight two five
five grab a line. Happy to talk to you about
your home project and Jason welcome.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Hi, I appreciate the show very much.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I have a Anderson like screen door and aluminum glass
and screen door that I installed maybe a couple of
years ago at the front of my house. A house
gets a lot of sun in the front, and when
it's cool, even at night in the summer and all winter, Uh,
you know, I guess the woods expanding and contracting, and.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Then it's the dead bowl is so far.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Away when it's cool that it you doesn't even lock.
And then when it's really hot, it's I can barely
shut the door, it's too tight. And sometimes in the
summer I unscrew the you know, part of the frame
and move it over, and then I had to do
this every season, and it just doesn't seem like it
(08:07):
should have to be that way.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
What do you think, Well, obviously you're getting a lot
of expansion in contraction with weather change, which is normal.
Whether it can be fastened to minimize the expansion contraction,
maybe with more insulation behind the jams, that might be
(08:30):
an option. So it's not really the screws on the hinges.
You're loosening nose to get some movement in a door.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Correct, Yeah, Well, it's not the hinge side, but the
lockside is I'm moving that portion of the frame back
and forth with the seasons. But I can't believe everybody
who has a I had a cheaper screen door before this,
it didn't have that problem. That's another thing I'm not
(08:59):
understanding of.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well. Another thing too is when that you know, that
throw that bolt throws into the jam, I wonder if
that could be a little bit misaligned. In other words,
it exacerbates the movement to a point where it won't
lock at all. Now let me ask you a question.
(09:20):
Maybe you've tried this, maybe you haven't, but it'll tell
you a lot. In other words, in the winter time,
do I have to pull the door into you into
me to lock it? Do I have to lift up
on it? In other words, can we adjust that the
way that door is hanging, Which sometimes you can by
building out the hinges, but you got to know which
(09:42):
way it's going to uh, which way it needs to move?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, you know, the the hingside and the swing of
the door. It doesn't seem to be you don't have
to wrestle with it to close it. It's not like
hawk eyed or kitty wampis. It's because when I installed it,
it had these plastic forms on it, so it went
on real square, you know, uh huh. And then you
(10:11):
remove the plastic forms and it's just that I have
to move the lock side and it's screwed into wood.
Would it be helpful if I removed the wood and
put in some other material as the you know, behind
it that it is screwing into. Is it the wood
moving or is the whole house like shifting?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Well, no, I don't think the whole house is shifting. No,
it could be, you know, I mean it could be.
Wood expands and contracts based on moisture and temperature. That's
why I was saying, if it's screwed into the wood,
if you want to take off some of that trim
and stuff insulation in there where it's not as affected
by the temperature, that may help.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
I don't know if I'll be able to get it
an area of insulation. What about those like plasticky you
know that plastic stake wood? Would that be better to be.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Would be more stable? But I don't think it would
be a.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Sound okay, but it might be more stable.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
It may be now if you're talking about a composite
wood or a PVC faux would I don't know. But
a composite wood is basically paper, fiber and plastic that
is molded together, so it you know, they make it
for decking, so it's you know, it's not a structural
(11:39):
piece of it's not structural. How about when you talk
about insulating, because I'm going to go back to that.
Rather than not having the room to get insulation in there,
what about a low expansion foam that we could pump
in there.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
You know, I have my house, which is just a
regular house in a regular neighborhood, but the outside walls
are four by four inch timbers. It's kind of like
a log cabin, and then it's got aluminum siding on
the outside and drywall on the inside. But if you
were to bust open that drywall, it would be solid wood.
(12:17):
I don't think there's a lot of insulation issues, and
I don't really know where if I could pump in foam. Anyway,
it's pretty tight because you know, you have the aluminum
siding that's right butted up against the door jam or
the door train. But you said, you said composite wood
(12:38):
that like sake decking stuff, might be more stable and
less expansive.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
It would be more stable, but it wouldn't be as
good structurally.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Well, this is just a screen door. I mean, it's
not holding up the whole house. There's a solid door
behind that.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Well, you can try it, you know. If you're asking
me what I would do, what I would do, I
don't think I'd change out the wood. I think I
would take it. Like right now, if you're having trouble
opening or closing it, I would loosen your hinges bottom one,
loosen that hinge a little bit and see if you
(13:17):
can pull and pull that door in where it needs
to be. And then where that hinge has been loosened,
which is allowing you to maneuver it into its keeper,
you can take some toothpicks, some shims or something like
that and put it behind on the hinge side, which
(13:38):
is kicking the door. In other words, you're repositioning that door,
and tighten those screws down. Not so much that you
strip them. That could even be another issue, but you
shim those So you loosen the screws, you reposition the door,
you get it in its keeper, You shim those hinges,
(13:58):
you tighten the hinges, and you go with it and
see where you are when it gets cold, and see
if it moves again, or see if you've stabilized it.
That's what I'd do, Jason. I just think, I mean,
you can try the composite wood if you want, but
it's not really designed for that. And even that, when
(14:20):
I say it's more stable, it is, but you know,
heat expands, it expands a composite wood. So I say,
in my mind it's more stable, but it's not one
hundred percent stable. And I really think it's more of
an alignment issue there. There is some movement. But if
we can get it where we kind of square that
(14:43):
thing up, I think you I'm not so sure it's
perfectly aligned to begin with, and readjusting that is the
direction i'd go. All right, Thank you much, I appreciate it.
And a quick tip here too is if you do
have a screen door, and this all depends on your
entry door. If you have a an entry door, and
(15:03):
especially the the fiberglass entry doors, and even more so
than that is maybe a metal entry door and you
have a a storm door on it, that's nice. Today's
entry doors are they're they're pretty they're pretty good insulators.
(15:23):
I know the storm door does help you. But if
you've got a metal entry door, and some of them
look like would but if it's metal, uh, and you
have a storm door on it, and you're facing the
west with that glass in there, now, I know you're
gonna put screen in there, probably in the summertime, but
(15:45):
I would even encourage you to have that glass out
of there, depending on where you live, by the first
of April, and probably not put that glass back in
till uh till probably November. Otherwise, that glass on that
screen door works like a giant solar panel against a
metal door. And I mean I've seen it where you've
(16:09):
had storm doors in there and literally you can you
can burn yourself on that door. So might take a
look at doing that. All right, we'll take a little
break and we'll continue with your calls. You're at home
with Gary Sullivan.
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(19:06):
You know a couple other things on that screen port.
I think we covered it, but I don't think he
was in sync with me. Loosing the screws and holding
in repositioning a strike plate might be another thing you
can try. Check to make sure the frame isn't bad.
That's another thing to try. And again, just closing it
(19:27):
slowly and see where it catches will help with that alignment.
All right, we're gonna talk about wildlife that gets into
your attic and what to do that's next? At Home
with Gary Sullivan.
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(22:23):
it's that time of the day where I like to
bring in experts in individual fields in the uh home
improvement industry. And one of the things that occurred to
me yesterday, Uh well it's been on my mind is
we've had some pretty lousy uh weather this year, uh coolish, rainish, cloudy,
(22:43):
and I was wondering how does that affect wildlife that
has a tendency to get into our attics and cause havoc.
And uh my expert is Ron Krueger, and he is
with A plus wildlife Control now just so you know,
he's in kind of the northeastern part of Ohio, Canton Acron,
(23:04):
Cleveland area, and but he's my go to person that
has been to for a good ten years. And Ron,
welcome again at home with Gary Sullivan. How you doing.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Good morning, Gary, Happy fifty three degree day and wind
and forty mile parl wind day in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Good lordy, I'm telling you what so that That's kind
of my question, is you and I are always chatting
about the soup de joor, in other words, what wildlife
is trying to get into my attic to have their
babies and create a nice little snug home. And I
was thinking, wonder how much movement there's been this year,
or does does weather affect them? I guess they're still
(23:47):
gonna have their babies and they're still gonna try and
get into your house. So is it just status quo?
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Yeah, it is. You know, they don't like it much
better than we do, but they're built for it. They've
got you know, they got their fur coats and stuff
like that. But when it comes to springtime, in my opinion,
that the animals are kind of on autopilot. You know,
they breathe, they have babies, and the kind of you know,
(24:14):
wildlife and nature keeps marching on, right, so everything has
a season. You know, we started what in February with
skunk breeding season, and shortly thereafter, you know, groundhogs woke
up in March and they breed immediately, and you know,
we're starting to get baby groundhogs already emerging from the
(24:34):
bend from the early births and we're now tackling raccoons
that have broken into houses and tore up soffits, that
have gotten through some bad wood on houses where they're
you know, they've had their raccoon kits, their babies up
in the attic, and so we're dealing with that also.
And so yeah, it you know, we may not like
(24:55):
it as humans because it's unusual for us, but I
think the animals keep marching on, you know, they just
power through.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
So not every animal has a nest in somebody's home,
is that fair? I mean, where else do they nest?
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Well, you got to realize we deal with a lot
of urban areas, right, so we're dealing with with habitat
that has a lot of human structures. Raccoons have adapted,
but they've lived in nature forever so that you know,
they'll burrow under logs and brush piles or into an
old not big old knot in a tree. You know,
we've had raccoon kits, you know, where they've had hollow
centers and these big stumps of a tree. Groundhogs obviously,
(25:36):
they're the soup desuur right now lately because everything everybody's
got their gardens out and well they build their own homes.
They just dig a hole and they go down, you know,
six eight feet and cause a lot of havoc that way. Skunk,
same thing, they burrow. They have their natural areas, but
they have adapted to human structures like decks and sheds
(25:57):
and front porches. They go underneath those. What a better
roof than a human structure over the top of their head.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
That's what I was going to say. That's high class living.
If they can find a house that is not maintained well,
do you see that when you have calls from people,
is it from homes that just weren't maintained well or
is it that the animals are just going to get
in there.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Well, we do get the houses that are not not
maintained well, where the wood is rotted or punky, and
the houses are very old. Yeah, they can get into
those fairly easier because it's just easier structure to get into.
But the newer houses. I've had houses that were two
years old, brand new construction, and a raccoon will just
(26:42):
out of brute force, rip open a softa or a
ridge vent and decide it wants in, and so it
can happen either way. But maintaining the home is always
obviously the main main thing you want to do to
your home. And always look up when you walk around
your house. Look up around your house, check it out
once at least once once a week or two, walk
(27:04):
around and see if there's anything different.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
And as I drive around, some of your older urban
areas are probably less maintained. And that is a wonderful place,
I guess if your wildlife, to make your nest and
have your your kits and happy happily for after. So
what's going on now? I mean you say it's a
(27:29):
status quo. So they've been doing the breeding and they're
about ready to have some babies now, aren't they.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
They have been having babies, So yeah, the baby squirrels
they've bred in like December January. Those babies are actually
basically leaving the house now. They're already three quarters the
size of adult. And actually squirrels in a few months
are going to have their second breeding. They have two
letters a year and or how typically, and so we're
(27:56):
going to have our summer late summer, you know, young
for squirrels. Groundhogs breed once typically, and raccoons and skunks
just breed once a year, so we're basically having the
rash of spring just marching forward, you know. So we're
just we're right now. The calls I've been getting this
morning's groundhogs and uh and raccoons getting there. They're hearing
(28:21):
the raccoons moving around more so the raccoon babies or
kits are growing larger, and now they're hearing a lot
more thumping and bumping around the attics and moving around.
They're hearing vocalizations from the from the young in the attic,
and they're hearing creaking and you know creaking and metal
metal moving like on a metal soft that or something
like that. As the as the female raccoon comes and
(28:41):
goes multiple times a night, she'll go out and forward
a while, but her young needs to be fed quite often,
so she is really active, coming and going on on
and off the top of the roof quite often. And
that's where people usually hear them, is climbing up the
gutter or down the gutter or down the corner vinyl
caps of the siding, you know, this metal side, and
they'll hear the scratching and they'll look out the window
(29:03):
and see this critter climbing their home.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
So That brings up a really good point. All businesses
have its peak. I guess once they got into the
house and are just nesting, there's maybe a good chance
you're unaware that they're even in your home. But now
with the babies being born and mom out forging and
coming and going, don't ignore the sounds you hear in
(29:30):
your attic or in your walls.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Yeah, yes, well I get calls all the time, daily,
almost multiple times a day. I'm hearing stuff in the attic.
It sounds larger than a mouse, and it could be
and I and they always What I asked, folks is
that I said, did you go outside and walk around
your house? Did you look at it? And I'd say
fifty percent of the time people said, well, no, I
(29:53):
haven't you. I said, well, that's your first stop, to
get outside and go around and just look off and
look around anything. Damn he's different. You know, we can
still come out and do an inspection and figure out
what the noise is. But it sure helps. Just a
quick observation, take a picture, send it to me, is
what usually to How people do you know if they
see something funky on their house, and I'll you know,
(30:15):
usually can initially diagnose and then set up the appointment
to confirm.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah. You know, one of the things I've tried to
do over the thirty nine years run is talk to
people about where their talents are and where they're not.
And when I met you, I used to get a
lot of calls that people are like, Oh, I got
something in my attic, I've got this have a hard trap,
and I'm going to go up and get them. And
(30:41):
the more I talk to you, the more I realized
that if I was to have a wild animal in
my attic, I would probably call you and maybe if
you could just spend a little time really and tell
people why that's such a good idea, because there's a
real talent to remove in wildlife from your from your home.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Well dealing with wildlife professionals like wildlife control operators across
the nation. These guys and gals are out there that
have knowledge and skills to know the animals. We need
to know their behavior. We're kind of like wildlife detectives.
You come out to a house, we're obviously looking for damage,
but we're looking for my minute things like hey, why
is there a muddy Paul print ten feet off the
(31:22):
ground up on the gutter or down spout that you know,
these are clues they're saying, Okay, this is the travel pathway,
this is what we're seeing. You know sec you know,
setting traps and addicts. I've had people do that, but
then they realize they actually caught something. What are you
going to do with it?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Now?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
You've got to grab this trap, like with an angry
female raccoon inside of it, inside of its tight space,
somehow get it down a hatch and then out the door.
You know, it's all the whole time. It's when they
animals get upset, they kind of urinate and defecate, and
that's not pleasant either, and you're traveling that through the house.
(32:00):
So there are certain ways that you can do things
to lessen that type of impact, and and that you
know that stress and hassle is just to hire somebody.
Plus most of the time we're up on ladders and
on roofs, and most residents are not going to want
to do that. I'm safe. You've got to have the
protective gear and and then you still got to make
the repairs when you're done. You don't leave an open hole.
(32:21):
Once you get animals out, you gotta you gotta know
how to seal it, you know correctly, So so the
house is kind of bulletproof, right, kind of what you want.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
So let's draw a little comparison here. When wildlife gets
in your home, makes a ness, has their young, and
you discovered as a homeowner, or you suspect something's going on.
This is an expensive proposition. This isn't This isn't just
(32:53):
about getting rid of the animal, correct. I mean, I'm
going to show how important it is to work on
the maintenance of the home and not let it get
to this point.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
So, once animals get into attics, they do a couple
of things besides having babies. But they'll disrupt your insulation,
not only moving it around. Squirrels and raccoons will push
it all around to make whatever betting they want to
make up there, but they'll also compact the insulation. You
can get a twenty pound raccoon walking all around your attic.
(33:26):
After a short period of time, that attic insulation is
not fluffy anymore. And that fluff in the insulations what
makes insulation work. You want that air fluff in there,
and if you compress it, your our value gets completely
messed up. And doesn't work right. And the third thing
that happens is that raccoons, they and squirrels and anything
else that's up there, they'll use your attic as a restroom,
(33:48):
as a bathroom, as a toiletry area, and they will
make some bad message up there. They can be quite
stinky and smelly. You know, you might get the animals out,
you might see the but then if you don't fix that,
that scent and odor stays and animals outside. Because houses breathe,
the airflow goes through them, they will pick up on this,
(34:11):
and raccoons particular and squirrels will pick up on that.
They're hey, I smell that house from a distance. There's
been animals in the house before. Let's go check it out.
And they will investigate and potentially reoffend a house because
there's been animals.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
In the past.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So the next question, because you know it again, I
emphasize this is an issue. This is obviously an issue,
but it's also an expense. Oh you got removal, you
got repair, you got sanitation, you got all kinds of
things going on here. Is this the in the insurance
industry is just changing daily. Is covered event or a
(34:55):
non covered event? Or sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it isn't right.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
So the biggest expense, obviously is repair. If you had
roof damage, oh my gosh, you know you could have
a new roof, what ten twenty thousand dollars? You could
Insulation replacement at attic restoration can run anywhere from a
few thousand up to we've had some that run fifteen
thousand dollars just because of the size of the square
footage of the insulation that needs to be removed and
(35:22):
replaced insulation. When it comes to insurance companies, they used
to cover us a lot of this stuff, but more
and more, you are correct, they are not being it's
forthcoming with that anymore. They're not covering that. A lot
of times they're using words like we are excluding damage
from vermin, which is a catch all phrase for just
(35:42):
about anything you don't want your attic and so so
a lot of this expense falls upon the homeowner, and
so that's why it's important. Yeah, keep your house maintained
on the outside so you don't have to worry about
making repairs on the inside.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Run, Can you spend about two more mess with me,
We'll take a break and come back, no problem. All right,
ron Krueger. He is with A Plus Wildlife Control in
the northeast part of Ohio. He is my guest as
we talk about wildlife that has invaded your home and
will continue to do that. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This He's at home with Gary Sullivan.
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Ron Kruger's my guess from A plus Wildlife Control in
Northeast Oha. Now, I know you're awesome, Ron because I
(39:00):
keep calling you to ross that please you're one of
the best. Maybe you are the best. But if people
listening to us in Boston right now, or in Louisville, Kentucky,
or in California and they're like, how do I find
a ron Krueger in other parts of the country. Is
there an association with listings and readings or anything like that?
Speaker 4 (39:23):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
We have.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
We have an association called new CoA, which is an acronym.
It's it's NWCA dot com. You probably can go to
that NWCA dot com. It stands for National Wildlife Control
Operators Association and they've got you know, members that are
in there that are basically all fifty states. You can
go to that website. Be a good consumer, ask questions
(39:48):
to whoever you you know, question about how their fee
structure is and what's going on and just and yeah,
but everybody on there has got a lot of training
and does does a really good job. And in each
one of those in each state knows their own state ordinances,
laws and rules because every state's different. And what I
can do in Ohio, somebody Wisconsin may not.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Be able to do. So. So is that new n
E w co c o A Is that dot com
or dot org or I think it's dot com? Okay,
all right, new CoA dot com? All right, what's the
most popular animal you remove from a home?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Probably two is probably be the raccoon and squirrel. Yeah, yeah,
those are the two primary ones. Those are the ones
that break in and do a lot of damage to
gutters and soffets and insulation and stuff, and it defends
and certain times a year. Right now, Like I said,
we're getting a slew of calls in the last four
or five days for groundhogs. But that that damage is
important because they burrow along foundations and I know you
(40:54):
talk about a lot of water and basements and stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
You're controlizes.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Yeah, as soon as you have a whole right along
the foundation. That's just nothing but a like a raine,
real hard or the gutters pour over right, it's a
water right along the footers of your house.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Sure is. And that's only going to get worse.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
It will, so so you got to you gotta get
them out and then get those get that, get that repaired.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Is your business three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Well, yes, we obviously have our because we're in the
Northern States, part of the state's northern tier. We call
it the North Coast up here in Ohio that we
slow down obviously after Thanksgiving Christmas time, just because a
lot of the animals slow down the weather gets cold.
But you know, you get to Kentucky and South and
you know Tennessee and Georgia and Florida, you know they're
(41:45):
they're gonna they're those animals don't hibernate as much as
they do they're there. They've got shorter winters and so
they stay busy, so whid life doesn't stop. Some of
it hibernates. So we don't touch groundhogs in the winter
time because they're asleep in their dens. But rack UNEs,
they're active, they're out forging sore squirrels, and uh, yep, yep,
they sure are. They stay. They keep us not as busy,
(42:08):
but they keep, they keep, they keep us hopping.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Well, I heard a news story today and I wasn't
really paying much attention. It was in the background, but
somebody's home got a bear in the attic and fell
through the ceiling.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
Can you imagine the hole on the outside of the
house that left that?
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Oh my gosh. I was thinking, how in the world
did that happen? Before I let you go? What's you
know the season of June, July, August in the summertime,
is it still raccoons and squirrels or we get into
bats and other things?
Speaker 4 (42:43):
Great question. So bats, we just finished our spring bat
season where we're allowed to kick bats out. Now we're
in the middle of birthing season for bats, which we're
not allowed to touch them in our state and actually
mostly nationwide, it's about the same policy. But in Ohio,
starting August, all the baby bats are flight capable and
we can start. Yeah, I'll get to start getting calls
(43:04):
probably July all the way through August and September for bats, bats, bats,
and we'll do almost eight weeks to ten weeks worth
of bat work. And we'll do quite a few homes.
As many homes a wee can squeeze in in that
period of time, bats will come in and that's a
lot of work. That's a lot of every gap out
of house, that's a third of an integrator needs sealed.
(43:24):
I mean it's that's.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Hawking is your friend, cawking is your friend.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
Talking? And cock? Yeah, we go through cases and cases
and cases and cases of cock.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
So I'll bet you do. I'll bet you do well.
Ron Again, thank you very much for joining us today.
I had a good conversation with you yesterday. I appreciate
your friendship. You run a great business. It's a plus
Wildlife Control. Are you officially in Canton Akron Canton area?
Speaker 4 (43:53):
Yes, Akron Canton's mostly our primary area.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Gary all right, and the National Association is new KOA
n E w co A no no no and and
w CoA A n w CoA dot com. Very good,
my friend, Thank you so much, God bless take care
all right, take care of things all right.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
A great guy, very knowledgeable too. And uh well, we'll
follow up on some of that conversation when we get
on the other side of the news. You're at home
with Gary.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Sullivan weekends, I mean I never writing list of things
to do around your home. Get help at one eight
hundred and eighty two three Talk. You're at home with
(44:45):
Gary Sullivan
Speaker 3 (45:00):
Five
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(01:13):
we work way through another hour. If you'd like to
join us, it's eight hundred and eight two three eight
two five five and Bill welcome. How are you doing
doing fine? Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I've got a house. It's built nineteen sixty five at
a lanch and I got a whole house fan in it,
and it's quick working. And our whole house fans do
they not use them anymore or anything? Or do they
still use them?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Sure, it's just I'm losing a lot of heat and
air conducing just.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Do that, well, you wouldn't have it on when the
air conditioning's on. A whole house fan is really a
lot of it depends on the climate that you live in.
So it's if it's a hot area with a lot
of humidity, maybe they're not used as much as say,
like in a climate like in Michigan. But it pulls
the cooler air from the outside through the windows in
(02:12):
the summertime, pulls it up through you know, the whole
house fan is on usually the highest point of the house.
You got a ranch, so more centrally located, pulls it
up through the attic, and the attic's got to be
very well ventilated to disperse the air, the heated air
that's trapped in the house, it's pulling that up into
(02:33):
the attic. So yeah, they're still used. And you know,
how long have you had it? Have you had it
for a while.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's original and it's got like metal rubs and the like.
You can see up above on the roof frost. There's
not frost there. I just feel like I'm moving on.
Do they make newer ones that are.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
No But well, there's a couple of things I got
comments on that Number one is you lose a lot
of heat uh in the in the UH in the
winter time. You got to insulate those or seal them
off and enable them, you know, or turn them off.
You know, you don't want that thing going on in
the in the winter time. And those lovers. I used
(03:21):
to have one in my old home. I literally put
plexiglass over you know where those louvers are. And you know,
even if you took out the switch, you don't want
anybody to turn that on, and you want to definitely
insulate it. Otherwise your heat is rising. It's going right
(03:42):
up to the it's just little metal lovers and it's
going right in the attic. You are losing a lot
of heat. So there are insulating covers for those also.
So to answer your question, you're not really losing I
guess you would be losing air conditioning in the summertime too,
you know, if you're not using it. Uh, same same
(04:05):
process has taken place, but I think that's probably one
of the negatives to it. But there is insulating boxes
that can be installed so where you live, you know,
maybe around you know, when heating season starts, you're going
to insulate and maybe in July and August. You're going
(04:27):
to insulate it, you know depends, but yeah, that that
air that's in your house is going to go to
the attic.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, this one has quit working. I can you like
convert it? You've talked to those ones that bring air in,
you know, actively that based on the commidity inside and
outside for Clebe Polkingbon, I don't remember the name.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
You think I could like kind of a humidistant right, yeah, yeah,
so there would be you midist at you know, when
you get again. I don't know what you're what you're
wanting to measure? You wanting to measure outdoor or indoor.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I was under the impression of a point that it
would either bring it into your house, you know, or
remove the air from your house based on the humidity
inside and outside. I might be wrong about that.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, I think there's there's some switches or there's EUMDI
stats for fans for addicts, when you get to a
certain humidity level, it turns the fan automatically on. I
I assume, I don't know, I assume those could actually
be attached to a whole house fan. Also, okay, but.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
You're saying either definitely worth keep going POSI one could
welcome so Id and get it running again.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Well, I can tell you this. I can tell you this,
you know, I don't know. I think you've got to
decide whether it's worth it. When I moved from the
house that had mine, I missed mine a lot. I
used it all the time. Uh usually late April, May June.
(06:20):
That's usually when I used it. I used it in
the fall September, October, and outside of that I usually
had it insulated. But I thought it was worth it
to me. I enjoyed it. Some of the older ones
are noisy. The newer ones there's less vibration. They're not
nearly as noisy. But you got to decide whether you
(06:43):
enjoyed it. If you if you thought you were losing
more than you were gaining, and you're not interested in
really managing it by you know, a humid astat or insulating,
then it's probably not worth it to you.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Already, Okay, I very much, and I appreciate the show.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Thank you very much. Take care all right. Our phone
numbers eight hundred and eight two three eight two five
five grab a line. Happy to talk to you about
your home project and Jason welcome.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Hi, I appreciate the show very much.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I have a Anderson like screen door and aluminum glass
and screen door that I installed maybe a couple of
years ago at the front of my house. A house
gets a lot of sun in the front, and when
it's cool, even at night in the summer and all winter, Uh,
you know, I guess the woods expanding and contracting, and.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Then it's the dead bowl is so far.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Away when it's cool that it you doesn't even lock.
And then when it's really hot, it's I can barely
shut the door, it's too tight. And sometimes in the
summer I unscrew the you know, part of the frame
and move it over, and then I had to do
this every season, and it just doesn't seem like it
(08:07):
should have to be that way.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
What do you think, Well, obviously you're getting a lot
of expansion in contraction with weather change, which is normal.
Whether it can be fastened to minimize the expansion contraction,
maybe with more insulation behind the jams, that might be
(08:30):
an option. So it's not really the screws on the hinges.
You're loosening nose to get some movement in a door.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Correct, Yeah, Well, it's not the hinge side, but the
lockside is I'm moving that portion of the frame back
and forth with the seasons. But I can't believe everybody
who has a I had a cheaper screen door before this,
it didn't have that problem. That's another thing I'm not
(08:59):
understanding of.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well. Another thing too is when that you know, that
throw that bolt throws into the jam, I wonder if
that could be a little bit misaligned. In other words,
it exacerbates the movement to a point where it won't
lock at all. Now let me ask you a question.
(09:20):
Maybe you've tried this, maybe you haven't, but it'll tell
you a lot. In other words, in the winter time,
do I have to pull the door into you into
me to lock it? Do I have to lift up
on it? In other words, can we adjust that the
way that door is hanging, Which sometimes you can by
building out the hinges, but you got to know which
(09:42):
way it's going to uh, which way it needs to move?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, you know, the the hingside and the swing of
the door. It doesn't seem to be you don't have
to wrestle with it to close it. It's not like
hawk eyed or kitty wampis. It's because when I installed it,
it had these plastic forms on it, so it went
on real square, you know, uh huh. And then you
(10:11):
remove the plastic forms and it's just that I have
to move the lock side and it's screwed into wood.
Would it be helpful if I removed the wood and
put in some other material as the you know, behind
it that it is screwing into. Is it the wood
moving or is the whole house like shifting?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Well, no, I don't think the whole house is shifting. No,
it could be, you know, I mean it could be.
Wood expands and contracts based on moisture and temperature. That's
why I was saying, if it's screwed into the wood,
if you want to take off some of that trim
and stuff insulation in there where it's not as affected
by the temperature, that may help.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
I don't know if I'll be able to get it
an area of insulation. What about those like plasticky you
know that plastic stake wood? Would that be better to be.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Would be more stable? But I don't think it would
be a.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Sound okay, but it might be more stable.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
It may be now if you're talking about a composite
wood or a PVC faux would I don't know. But
a composite wood is basically paper, fiber and plastic that
is molded together, so it you know, they make it
for decking, so it's you know, it's not a structural
(11:39):
piece of it's not structural. How about when you talk
about insulating, because I'm going to go back to that.
Rather than not having the room to get insulation in there,
what about a low expansion foam that we could pump
in there.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
You know, I have my house, which is just a
regular house in a regular neighborhood, but the outside walls
are four by four inch timbers. It's kind of like
a log cabin, and then it's got aluminum siding on
the outside and drywall on the inside. But if you
were to bust open that drywall, it would be solid wood.
(12:17):
I don't think there's a lot of insulation issues, and
I don't really know where if I could pump in foam. Anyway,
it's pretty tight because you know, you have the aluminum
siding that's right butted up against the door jam or
the door train. But you said, you said composite wood
(12:38):
that like sake decking stuff, might be more stable and
less expansive.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
It would be more stable, but it wouldn't be as
good structurally.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Well, this is just a screen door. I mean, it's
not holding up the whole house. There's a solid door
behind that.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Well, you can try it, you know. If you're asking
me what I would do, what I would do, I
don't think I'd change out the wood. I think I
would take it. Like right now, if you're having trouble
opening or closing it, I would loosen your hinges bottom one,
loosen that hinge a little bit and see if you
(13:17):
can pull and pull that door in where it needs
to be. And then where that hinge has been loosened,
which is allowing you to maneuver it into its keeper,
you can take some toothpicks, some shims or something like
that and put it behind on the hinge side, which
(13:38):
is kicking the door. In other words, you're repositioning that door,
and tighten those screws down. Not so much that you
strip them. That could even be another issue, but you
shim those So you loosen the screws, you reposition the door,
you get it in its keeper, You shim those hinges,
(13:58):
you tighten the hinges, and you go with it and
see where you are when it gets cold, and see
if it moves again, or see if you've stabilized it.
That's what I'd do, Jason. I just think, I mean,
you can try the composite wood if you want, but
it's not really designed for that. And even that, when
(14:20):
I say it's more stable, it is, but you know,
heat expands, it expands a composite wood. So I say,
in my mind it's more stable, but it's not one
hundred percent stable. And I really think it's more of
an alignment issue there. There is some movement. But if
we can get it where we kind of square that
(14:43):
thing up, I think you I'm not so sure it's
perfectly aligned to begin with, and readjusting that is the
direction i'd go. All right, Thank you much, I appreciate it.
And a quick tip here too is if you do
have a screen door, and this all depends on your
entry door. If you have a an entry door, and
(15:03):
especially the the fiberglass entry doors, and even more so
than that is maybe a metal entry door and you
have a a storm door on it, that's nice. Today's
entry doors are they're they're pretty they're pretty good insulators.
(15:23):
I know the storm door does help you. But if
you've got a metal entry door, and some of them
look like would but if it's metal, uh, and you
have a storm door on it, and you're facing the
west with that glass in there, now, I know you're
gonna put screen in there, probably in the summertime, but
(15:45):
I would even encourage you to have that glass out
of there, depending on where you live, by the first
of April, and probably not put that glass back in
till uh till probably November. Otherwise, that glass on that
screen door works like a giant solar panel against a
metal door. And I mean I've seen it where you've
(16:09):
had storm doors in there and literally you can you
can burn yourself on that door. So might take a
look at doing that. All right, we'll take a little
break and we'll continue with your calls. You're at home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Solo shootings to your home improvement are as easy as
calling one eight two three.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Talk this.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
He's at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
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(19:27):
slowly and see where it catches will help with that alignment.
All right, we're gonna talk about wildlife that gets into
your attic and what to do that's next? At Home
with Gary Sullivan.
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(22:23):
it's that time of the day where I like to
bring in experts in individual fields in the uh home
improvement industry. And one of the things that occurred to
me yesterday, Uh well it's been on my mind is
we've had some pretty lousy uh weather this year, uh coolish, rainish, cloudy,
(22:43):
and I was wondering how does that affect wildlife that
has a tendency to get into our attics and cause havoc.
And uh my expert is Ron Krueger, and he is
with A plus wildlife Control now just so you know,
he's in kind of the northeastern part of Ohio, Canton Acron,
(23:04):
Cleveland area, and but he's my go to person that
has been to for a good ten years. And Ron,
welcome again at home with Gary Sullivan. How you doing.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Good morning, Gary, Happy fifty three degree day and wind
and forty mile parl wind day in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Good lordy, I'm telling you what so that That's kind
of my question, is you and I are always chatting
about the soup de joor, in other words, what wildlife
is trying to get into my attic to have their
babies and create a nice little snug home. And I
was thinking, wonder how much movement there's been this year,
or does does weather affect them? I guess they're still
(23:47):
gonna have their babies and they're still gonna try and
get into your house. So is it just status quo?
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Yeah, it is. You know, they don't like it much
better than we do, but they're built for it. They've
got you know, they got their fur coats and stuff
like that. But when it comes to springtime, in my opinion,
that the animals are kind of on autopilot. You know,
they breathe, they have babies, and the kind of you know,
(24:14):
wildlife and nature keeps marching on, right, so everything has
a season. You know, we started what in February with
skunk breeding season, and shortly thereafter, you know, groundhogs woke
up in March and they breed immediately, and you know,
we're starting to get baby groundhogs already emerging from the
(24:34):
bend from the early births and we're now tackling raccoons
that have broken into houses and tore up soffits, that
have gotten through some bad wood on houses where they're
you know, they've had their raccoon kits, their babies up
in the attic, and so we're dealing with that also.
And so yeah, it you know, we may not like
(24:55):
it as humans because it's unusual for us, but I
think the animals keep marching on, you know, they just
power through.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
So not every animal has a nest in somebody's home,
is that fair? I mean, where else do they nest?
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Well, you got to realize we deal with a lot
of urban areas, right, so we're dealing with with habitat
that has a lot of human structures. Raccoons have adapted,
but they've lived in nature forever so that you know,
they'll burrow under logs and brush piles or into an
old not big old knot in a tree. You know,
we've had raccoon kits, you know, where they've had hollow
centers and these big stumps of a tree. Groundhogs obviously,
(25:36):
they're the soup desuur right now lately because everything everybody's
got their gardens out and well they build their own homes.
They just dig a hole and they go down, you know,
six eight feet and cause a lot of havoc that way. Skunk,
same thing, they burrow. They have their natural areas, but
they have adapted to human structures like decks and sheds
(25:57):
and front porches. They go underneath those. What a better
roof than a human structure over the top of their head.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
That's what I was going to say. That's high class living.
If they can find a house that is not maintained well,
do you see that when you have calls from people,
is it from homes that just weren't maintained well or
is it that the animals are just going to get
in there.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Well, we do get the houses that are not not
maintained well, where the wood is rotted or punky, and
the houses are very old. Yeah, they can get into
those fairly easier because it's just easier structure to get into.
But the newer houses. I've had houses that were two
years old, brand new construction, and a raccoon will just
(26:42):
out of brute force, rip open a softa or a
ridge vent and decide it wants in, and so it
can happen either way. But maintaining the home is always
obviously the main main thing you want to do to
your home. And always look up when you walk around
your house. Look up around your house, check it out
once at least once once a week or two, walk
(27:04):
around and see if there's anything different.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
And as I drive around, some of your older urban
areas are probably less maintained. And that is a wonderful place,
I guess if your wildlife, to make your nest and
have your your kits and happy happily for after. So
what's going on now? I mean you say it's a
(27:29):
status quo. So they've been doing the breeding and they're
about ready to have some babies now, aren't they.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
They have been having babies, So yeah, the baby squirrels
they've bred in like December January. Those babies are actually
basically leaving the house now. They're already three quarters the
size of adult. And actually squirrels in a few months
are going to have their second breeding. They have two
letters a year and or how typically, and so we're
(27:56):
going to have our summer late summer, you know, young
for squirrels. Groundhogs breed once typically, and raccoons and skunks
just breed once a year, so we're basically having the
rash of spring just marching forward, you know. So we're
just we're right now. The calls I've been getting this
morning's groundhogs and uh and raccoons getting there. They're hearing
(28:21):
the raccoons moving around more so the raccoon babies or
kits are growing larger, and now they're hearing a lot
more thumping and bumping around the attics and moving around.
They're hearing vocalizations from the from the young in the attic,
and they're hearing creaking and you know creaking and metal
metal moving like on a metal soft that or something
like that. As the as the female raccoon comes and
(28:41):
goes multiple times a night, she'll go out and forward
a while, but her young needs to be fed quite often,
so she is really active, coming and going on on
and off the top of the roof quite often. And
that's where people usually hear them, is climbing up the
gutter or down the gutter or down the corner vinyl
caps of the siding, you know, this metal side, and
they'll hear the scratching and they'll look out the window
(29:03):
and see this critter climbing their home.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
So That brings up a really good point. All businesses
have its peak. I guess once they got into the
house and are just nesting, there's maybe a good chance
you're unaware that they're even in your home. But now
with the babies being born and mom out forging and
coming and going, don't ignore the sounds you hear in
(29:30):
your attic or in your walls.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Yeah, yes, well I get calls all the time, daily,
almost multiple times a day. I'm hearing stuff in the attic.
It sounds larger than a mouse, and it could be
and I and they always What I asked, folks is
that I said, did you go outside and walk around
your house? Did you look at it? And I'd say
fifty percent of the time people said, well, no, I
(29:53):
haven't you. I said, well, that's your first stop, to
get outside and go around and just look off and
look around anything. Damn he's different. You know, we can
still come out and do an inspection and figure out
what the noise is. But it sure helps. Just a
quick observation, take a picture, send it to me, is
what usually to How people do you know if they
see something funky on their house, and I'll you know,
(30:15):
usually can initially diagnose and then set up the appointment
to confirm.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah. You know, one of the things I've tried to
do over the thirty nine years run is talk to
people about where their talents are and where they're not.
And when I met you, I used to get a
lot of calls that people are like, Oh, I got
something in my attic, I've got this have a hard trap,
and I'm going to go up and get them. And
(30:41):
the more I talk to you, the more I realized
that if I was to have a wild animal in
my attic, I would probably call you and maybe if
you could just spend a little time really and tell
people why that's such a good idea, because there's a
real talent to remove in wildlife from your from your home.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Well dealing with wildlife professionals like wildlife control operators across
the nation. These guys and gals are out there that
have knowledge and skills to know the animals. We need
to know their behavior. We're kind of like wildlife detectives.
You come out to a house, we're obviously looking for damage,
but we're looking for my minute things like hey, why
is there a muddy Paul print ten feet off the
(31:22):
ground up on the gutter or down spout that you know,
these are clues they're saying, Okay, this is the travel pathway,
this is what we're seeing. You know sec you know,
setting traps and addicts. I've had people do that, but
then they realize they actually caught something. What are you
going to do with it?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Now?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
You've got to grab this trap, like with an angry
female raccoon inside of it, inside of its tight space,
somehow get it down a hatch and then out the door.
You know, it's all the whole time. It's when they
animals get upset, they kind of urinate and defecate, and
that's not pleasant either, and you're traveling that through the house.
(32:00):
So there are certain ways that you can do things
to lessen that type of impact, and and that you
know that stress and hassle is just to hire somebody.
Plus most of the time we're up on ladders and
on roofs, and most residents are not going to want
to do that. I'm safe. You've got to have the
protective gear and and then you still got to make
the repairs when you're done. You don't leave an open hole.
(32:21):
Once you get animals out, you gotta you gotta know
how to seal it, you know correctly, So so the
house is kind of bulletproof, right, kind of what you want.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
So let's draw a little comparison here. When wildlife gets
in your home, makes a ness, has their young, and
you discovered as a homeowner, or you suspect something's going on.
This is an expensive proposition. This isn't This isn't just
(32:53):
about getting rid of the animal, correct. I mean, I'm
going to show how important it is to work on
the maintenance of the home and not let it get
to this point.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
So, once animals get into attics, they do a couple
of things besides having babies. But they'll disrupt your insulation,
not only moving it around. Squirrels and raccoons will push
it all around to make whatever betting they want to
make up there, but they'll also compact the insulation. You
can get a twenty pound raccoon walking all around your attic.
(33:26):
After a short period of time, that attic insulation is
not fluffy anymore. And that fluff in the insulations what
makes insulation work. You want that air fluff in there,
and if you compress it, your our value gets completely
messed up. And doesn't work right. And the third thing
that happens is that raccoons, they and squirrels and anything
else that's up there, they'll use your attic as a restroom,
(33:48):
as a bathroom, as a toiletry area, and they will
make some bad message up there. They can be quite
stinky and smelly. You know, you might get the animals out,
you might see the but then if you don't fix that,
that scent and odor stays and animals outside. Because houses breathe,
the airflow goes through them, they will pick up on this,
(34:11):
and raccoons particular and squirrels will pick up on that.
They're hey, I smell that house from a distance. There's
been animals in the house before. Let's go check it out.
And they will investigate and potentially reoffend a house because
there's been animals.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
In the past.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So the next question, because you know it again, I
emphasize this is an issue. This is obviously an issue,
but it's also an expense. Oh you got removal, you
got repair, you got sanitation, you got all kinds of
things going on here. Is this the in the insurance
industry is just changing daily. Is covered event or a
(34:55):
non covered event? Or sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it isn't right.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
So the biggest expense, obviously is repair. If you had
roof damage, oh my gosh, you know you could have
a new roof, what ten twenty thousand dollars? You could
Insulation replacement at attic restoration can run anywhere from a
few thousand up to we've had some that run fifteen
thousand dollars just because of the size of the square
footage of the insulation that needs to be removed and
(35:22):
replaced insulation. When it comes to insurance companies, they used
to cover us a lot of this stuff, but more
and more, you are correct, they are not being it's
forthcoming with that anymore. They're not covering that. A lot
of times they're using words like we are excluding damage
from vermin, which is a catch all phrase for just
(35:42):
about anything you don't want your attic and so so
a lot of this expense falls upon the homeowner, and
so that's why it's important. Yeah, keep your house maintained
on the outside so you don't have to worry about
making repairs on the inside.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Run, Can you spend about two more mess with me,
We'll take a break and come back, no problem. All right,
ron Krueger. He is with A Plus Wildlife Control in
the northeast part of Ohio. He is my guest as
we talk about wildlife that has invaded your home and
will continue to do that. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This He's at home with Gary Sullivan.
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Ron Kruger's my guess from A plus Wildlife Control in
Northeast Oha. Now, I know you're awesome, Ron because I
(39:00):
keep calling you to ross that please you're one of
the best. Maybe you are the best. But if people
listening to us in Boston right now, or in Louisville, Kentucky,
or in California and they're like, how do I find
a ron Krueger in other parts of the country. Is
there an association with listings and readings or anything like that?
Speaker 4 (39:23):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
We have.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
We have an association called new CoA, which is an acronym.
It's it's NWCA dot com. You probably can go to
that NWCA dot com. It stands for National Wildlife Control
Operators Association and they've got you know, members that are
in there that are basically all fifty states. You can
go to that website. Be a good consumer, ask questions
(39:48):
to whoever you you know, question about how their fee
structure is and what's going on and just and yeah,
but everybody on there has got a lot of training
and does does a really good job. And in each
one of those in each state knows their own state ordinances,
laws and rules because every state's different. And what I
can do in Ohio, somebody Wisconsin may not.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Be able to do. So. So is that new n
E w co c o A Is that dot com
or dot org or I think it's dot com? Okay,
all right, new CoA dot com? All right, what's the
most popular animal you remove from a home?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Probably two is probably be the raccoon and squirrel. Yeah, yeah,
those are the two primary ones. Those are the ones
that break in and do a lot of damage to
gutters and soffets and insulation and stuff, and it defends
and certain times a year. Right now, Like I said,
we're getting a slew of calls in the last four
or five days for groundhogs. But that that damage is
important because they burrow along foundations and I know you
(40:54):
talk about a lot of water and basements and stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
You're controlizes.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Yeah, as soon as you have a whole right along
the foundation. That's just nothing but a like a raine,
real hard or the gutters pour over right, it's a
water right along the footers of your house.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Sure is. And that's only going to get worse.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
It will, so so you got to you gotta get
them out and then get those get that, get that repaired.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Is your business three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Well, yes, we obviously have our because we're in the
Northern States, part of the state's northern tier. We call
it the North Coast up here in Ohio that we
slow down obviously after Thanksgiving Christmas time, just because a
lot of the animals slow down the weather gets cold.
But you know, you get to Kentucky and South and
you know Tennessee and Georgia and Florida, you know they're
(41:45):
they're gonna they're those animals don't hibernate as much as
they do they're there. They've got shorter winters and so
they stay busy, so whid life doesn't stop. Some of
it hibernates. So we don't touch groundhogs in the winter
time because they're asleep in their dens. But rack UNEs,
they're active, they're out forging sore squirrels, and uh, yep, yep,
they sure are. They stay. They keep us not as busy,
(42:08):
but they keep, they keep, they keep us hopping.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Well, I heard a news story today and I wasn't
really paying much attention. It was in the background, but
somebody's home got a bear in the attic and fell
through the ceiling.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
Can you imagine the hole on the outside of the
house that left that?
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Oh my gosh. I was thinking, how in the world
did that happen? Before I let you go? What's you
know the season of June, July, August in the summertime,
is it still raccoons and squirrels or we get into
bats and other things?
Speaker 4 (42:43):
Great question. So bats, we just finished our spring bat
season where we're allowed to kick bats out. Now we're
in the middle of birthing season for bats, which we're
not allowed to touch them in our state and actually
mostly nationwide, it's about the same policy. But in Ohio,
starting August, all the baby bats are flight capable and
we can start. Yeah, I'll get to start getting calls
(43:04):
probably July all the way through August and September for bats, bats, bats,
and we'll do almost eight weeks to ten weeks worth
of bat work. And we'll do quite a few homes.
As many homes a wee can squeeze in in that
period of time, bats will come in and that's a
lot of work. That's a lot of every gap out
of house, that's a third of an integrator needs sealed.
(43:24):
I mean it's that's.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Hawking is your friend, cawking is your friend.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
Talking? And cock? Yeah, we go through cases and cases
and cases and cases of cock.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
So I'll bet you do. I'll bet you do well.
Ron Again, thank you very much for joining us today.
I had a good conversation with you yesterday. I appreciate
your friendship. You run a great business. It's a plus
Wildlife Control. Are you officially in Canton Akron Canton area?
Speaker 4 (43:53):
Yes, Akron Canton's mostly our primary area.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Gary all right, and the National Association is new KOA
n E w co A no no no and and
w CoA A n w CoA dot com. Very good,
my friend, Thank you so much, God bless take care
all right, take care of things all right.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
A great guy, very knowledgeable too. And uh well, we'll
follow up on some of that conversation when we get
on the other side of the news. You're at home
with Gary.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Sullivan weekends, I mean I never writing list of things
to do around your home. Get help at one eight
hundred and eighty two three Talk. You're at home with
(44:45):
Gary Sullivan
Speaker 3 (45:00):
Five
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