Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
All right, it's uh well, 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, and I
(00:49):
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
(01:10):
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 2 (01:21):
Good morning, Gary, Happy fifty three degree day and wind
and forty mile parl wind day in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
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 joy 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
(01:52):
gonna have their babies and they're still gonna try and
get into your house. So is it just status quo?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, it is. You know, they don't like it much
better than we do. But they're 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 breed, they have babies, and the kind
of you know, wildlife and nature keeps marching on, right,
(02:23):
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 bend from the early births. And we're now
(02:43):
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
it as humans because it's unusual for us, but I
think animals keep marching on, you know, they just power through.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So not every animal has a nest in somebody's home,
is that fair? I mean where else do they nest?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, you got 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 of a tree. Groundhogs obviously,
(03:41):
they're the soup desuur right now lately because everything everybody's
get 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 heat instructures like decks and sheds
(04:02):
and front porches. They go underneath those. What a better
roof than a human structure over the top of their head.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
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 2 (04:26):
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
(04:48):
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 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 a once a week or
(05:09):
two walk around and see if there's anything different.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
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 kits and happy, happily ever after. So what's
going on now? I mean you say it's a status quo.
(05:35):
So they've been doing the breeding and they're about ready
to have some babies now, aren't they.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
They have been having babies, so yeah, the baby squirrels
they 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
(06:02):
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
(06:27):
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 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 female raccoon comes and goes multiple
(06:48):
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 or this metal siding. They'll hear the
scratching and they'll look out the window and see this
(07:09):
critter climbing their home.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
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 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
(07:35):
in your attic or in your walls.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
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
(07:58):
haven't you. I said, well, that's first out to get
outside and go around and just look off and look around.
Is there anything damnies 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 have people do, you know, if they see something
(08:19):
funky on their house, and I'll you know, usually can
initially diagnose and then set up the appointment to confirm.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
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 were 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
(08:47):
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 that's a good idea because there's a
real talent to removing wildlife from your from your home.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
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
(09:28):
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? Now, You've got to grab
this trap, like with an angry female raccoon inside of it,
(09:49):
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 get animals get upset,
they kind of urinate and defecate, and that's not pleasant either,
and you're traveling that through the house. So there are
certain ways that you can do things to lessen that
type of impact. And and and that you know that stress
(10:13):
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.
It's unsafe. 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 once you
get animals out, You got to 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 (10:36):
So let's draw a little comparison here when wildlife gets
in your home, makes a mess, 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
(10:59):
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 2 (11:10):
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.
(11:32):
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, well they and squirrels and
anything else that's up there, they'll use your attic as
(11:53):
a restroom, 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 seal the hole, but then
if you don't fix that, that scent and odor stays
and animals outside. Because houses breathe, the airflow goes through them,
(12:15):
they will pick up on this, 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
in the past.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
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. 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
(12:56):
changing daily. It's covered or a non cover event, or
sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it isn't right.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
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
(13:28):
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
(13:48):
about anything you don't want. You're attic and so so
a lot of this expense falls upon the homeowner, and
so that's why it's important to keep your house maintained
on the outside so you don't have to worry about
making repairs on the inside.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Uh, Ron, can you spend about ten more minutes 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 3 (14:24):
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Speaker 1 (17:15):
Ron Kruger's my guess from A plus Wildlife Control in
Northeast Ohio. Now, I know you're awesome, Ron, because I
could keep calling you. 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
(17:37):
Krueger in other parts of the country. Is there an
association with listings and readings or anything like that?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, there is. We have. We have an association called NEWCOA,
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 Operations Association. And they've got uh,
you know, members that are that are in there that
are basically all fifty states. You can go to that website.
(18:09):
Be a good consumer, ask questions 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,
(18:32):
somebody Wisconsin may not be able to do.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
So. So is that new n E w CoA c
O A. Is that dot com or dot org.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Or I think it's dot com?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Okay, all right, new CoA dot com? All right? What's
the most popular animal you remove from a home? Uh?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
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 depends
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 ground hogs. But that that damage
is important because they burrow along foundations, and I know
(19:16):
you talk about a lot of water and basements and
stuff like that, you're realized, Yeah, as soon as you
have a hole right along the foundation, that's just nothing
but a like a rains real hard or the gutters.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Pour over, right, it's.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
A water right along the footers of your house.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Sure is. And that's only going to get worse.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It will, so so you got to you gotta get
them out and then get those get that, get that repaired.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Is your business three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
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
(20:08):
they're going there. Those animals don't hibernate as much as
they do they're there, they've got shorter winters and so
they stay busy. So wildlife doesn't stop. Some of it hibernates.
So we don't touch ground hogs in the wintertime because
they're asleep in their dens. But raccoons they're active. They're
out forging sore squirrels, and uh yeah, they sure are.
(20:29):
They stay. They keep us not as busy, but they
keep they keep they keep us hopping.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
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 2 (20:46):
Can you imagine the hole on the outside of the
house that left that?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
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 summer time,
is it still raccoons and squirrels or we get into
bats and other things?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
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
(21:27):
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 as we 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 integrader needs sealed.
(21:47):
I mean it's that's hawking.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Is your friend calking, is your friend.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Talking? And cock? Yeah, we go through cases and cases
and cases and cases of cock.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
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 2 (22:15):
Yes, Akron Canton's mostly our primary er, Gary all.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Right, and the national association is new CoA n e.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
W co A No no no, and and w CoA
a n.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
W CoA dot com. Very good, my friend. Thank you so.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Much, God blessed. Take care all right, take care?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Thanks? All right. There you go. 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 Sullivan.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Weekends mean a never ending list of things to do
around your home. Get help at one, eight hundred and
eighty two three Talk You're at Home with Gary Sullivan
All right, it's uh well, 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, and I
(00:49):
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
(01:10):
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 2 (01:21):
Good morning, Gary, Happy fifty three degree day and wind
and forty mile parl wind day in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
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 joy 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
(01:52):
gonna have their babies and they're still gonna try and
get into your house. So is it just status quo?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, it is. You know, they don't like it much
better than we do. But they're 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 breed, they have babies, and the kind
of you know, wildlife and nature keeps marching on, right,
(02:23):
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 bend from the early births. And we're now
(02:43):
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
it as humans because it's unusual for us, but I
think animals keep marching on, you know, they just power through.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So not every animal has a nest in somebody's home,
is that fair? I mean where else do they nest?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, you got 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 of a tree. Groundhogs obviously,
(03:41):
they're the soup desuur right now lately because everything everybody's
get 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 heat instructures like decks and sheds
(04:02):
and front porches. They go underneath those. What a better
roof than a human structure over the top of their head.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
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 2 (04:26):
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
(04:48):
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 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 a once a week or
(05:09):
two walk around and see if there's anything different.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
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 kits and happy, happily ever after. So what's
going on now? I mean you say it's a status quo.
(05:35):
So they've been doing the breeding and they're about ready
to have some babies now, aren't they.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
They have been having babies, so yeah, the baby squirrels
they 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
(06:02):
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
(06:27):
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 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 female raccoon comes and goes multiple
(06:48):
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 or this metal siding. They'll hear the
scratching and they'll look out the window and see this
(07:09):
critter climbing their home.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
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 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
(07:35):
in your attic or in your walls.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
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
(07:58):
haven't you. I said, well, that's first out to get
outside and go around and just look off and look around.
Is there anything damnies 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 have people do, you know, if they see something
(08:19):
funky on their house, and I'll you know, usually can
initially diagnose and then set up the appointment to confirm.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
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 were 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
(08:47):
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 that's a good idea because there's a
real talent to removing wildlife from your from your home.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
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
(09:28):
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? Now, You've got to grab
this trap, like with an angry female raccoon inside of it,
(09:49):
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 get animals get upset,
they kind of urinate and defecate, and that's not pleasant either,
and you're traveling that through the house. So there are
certain ways that you can do things to lessen that
type of impact. And and and that you know that stress
(10:13):
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.
It's unsafe. 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 once you
get animals out, You got to 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 (10:36):
So let's draw a little comparison here when wildlife gets
in your home, makes a mess, 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
(10:59):
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 2 (11:10):
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.
(11:32):
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, well they and squirrels and
anything else that's up there, they'll use your attic as
(11:53):
a restroom, 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 seal the hole, but then
if you don't fix that, that scent and odor stays
and animals outside. Because houses breathe, the airflow goes through them,
(12:15):
they will pick up on this, 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
in the past.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
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. 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
(12:56):
changing daily. It's covered or a non cover event, or
sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it isn't right.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
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
(13:28):
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
(13:48):
about anything you don't want. You're attic and so so
a lot of this expense falls upon the homeowner, and
so that's why it's important to keep your house maintained
on the outside so you don't have to worry about
making repairs on the inside.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Uh, Ron, can you spend about ten more minutes 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 3 (14:24):
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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Speaker 1 (17:15):
Ron Kruger's my guess from A plus Wildlife Control in
Northeast Ohio. Now, I know you're awesome, Ron, because I
could keep calling you. 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
(17:37):
Krueger in other parts of the country. Is there an
association with listings and readings or anything like that?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, there is. We have. We have an association called NEWCOA,
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 Operations Association. And they've got uh,
you know, members that are that are in there that
are basically all fifty states. You can go to that website.
(18:09):
Be a good consumer, ask questions 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,
(18:32):
somebody Wisconsin may not be able to do.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
So. So is that new n E w CoA c
O A. Is that dot com or dot org.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Or I think it's dot com?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Okay, all right, new CoA dot com? All right? What's
the most popular animal you remove from a home? Uh?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
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 depends
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 ground hogs. But that that damage
is important because they burrow along foundations, and I know
(19:16):
you talk about a lot of water and basements and
stuff like that, you're realized, Yeah, as soon as you
have a hole right along the foundation, that's just nothing
but a like a rains real hard or the gutters.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Pour over, right, it's.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
A water right along the footers of your house.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Sure is. And that's only going to get worse.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It will, so so you got to you gotta get
them out and then get those get that, get that repaired.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Is your business three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
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
(20:08):
they're going there. Those animals don't hibernate as much as
they do they're there, they've got shorter winters and so
they stay busy. So wildlife doesn't stop. Some of it hibernates.
So we don't touch ground hogs in the wintertime because
they're asleep in their dens. But raccoons they're active. They're
out forging sore squirrels, and uh yeah, they sure are.
(20:29):
They stay. They keep us not as busy, but they
keep they keep they keep us hopping.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
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 2 (20:46):
Can you imagine the hole on the outside of the
house that left that?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
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 summer time,
is it still raccoons and squirrels or we get into
bats and other things?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
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
(21:27):
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 as we 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 integrader needs sealed.
(21:47):
I mean it's that's hawking.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Is your friend calking, is your friend.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Talking? And cock? Yeah, we go through cases and cases
and cases and cases of cock.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
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 2 (22:15):
Yes, Akron Canton's mostly our primary er, Gary all.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Right, and the national association is new CoA n e.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
W co A No no no, and and w CoA
a n.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
W CoA dot com. Very good, my friend. Thank you so.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Much, God blessed. Take care all right, take care?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Thanks? All right. There you go. 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 Sullivan.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Weekends mean a never ending list of things to do
around your home. Get help at one, eight hundred and
eighty two three Talk You're at Home with Gary Sullivan
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