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Hi, good morning. Let’s talk about pest prevention. And thank you for joining us for another episode of the Benz Pest Control podcast. My name is Ben Sell, and I am the owner of Ben’s Pest Control right here on the Treasure Coast. And today we want to discuss an old adage that is very relevant to pest control as it is to actually a lot of things in life. And that adage is, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Now maybe you’ve heard that maybe I’m aging myself, maybe that tells you about how old I am. But I think that’s pretty easy to figure out if I’ve been in pest control for 27 years anyways. But this saying came along a long time ago in regards to really taking care of yourself, and how watching what you eat and exercising, you know, affects your body in general, and how taking care of yourself can hopefully prevent from having major health problems. Well, as I stated, The same thing is actually true when it comes to situations like pest control. Now in pest control, we just had a house the other day that we saw that the home when we got there, they had soffit vents and the soffit vents were completely ripped out. There was absolutely no screening or no covers on those vents. While we were inspecting the structure, we also found an AC line that was completely open, there had been nothing done to seal the bottom of the AC or the top of the AC to prevent things from getting into the house. And then going around, we also saw multiple cracks around the structure, and trees that were touching the roof. These are all situations that should be addressed and taken care of to help prevent from having pest problems. so in this situation, let’s take the softened fence. Now, I wouldn’t say that, necessarily rats might be able to get into those soffit vents if unless something was touching close by. But in Florida, we do have real issues with bats. Now, bats are actually beneficial creatures that help keep the mosquito population down and are actually protected at certain times of the year. So if your structure ends up getting bats, bats fly into these holes, and they make nests up there. And if you get bats at the wrong time of the year, they’re actually protected and you cannot do anything about them until they go through their reproductive cycle and their babies are old enough to leave the nest. And then you have to then you have the ability to have your building. remediated where they can seal it up, prevent the bats from getting in, and then hopefully start addressing the issues with the feces left behind from the bats. So there’s an example where just some screens put over the vent holes would prevent a potential bad issue later on. Now, the AC duct line that I talked about, when you look at the AC lines, there’s this rubber or foam insulation that runs up from the outside unit into the building that goes into your air handler. And that foam line is actually a perfect situation for rats to jump on and climb up and get into the attic. So just like the holes, if that vent is closed off or got some kind of seal around it, we usually use hardware cloth, which is like a fine wire and seal up the bottom that can prevent rats from getting in your house or your office or anything else. so in this situation, just a few dollars for some hardware cloth assembled at the bottom of the AC duct could prevent major rodent problem. We talked about the cracks in the structure. While those cracks are actually entry points, this structure was blocked. So if those cracks have anywhere where they get through to the center of the block, it is possible in some cases where that the creatures ants, roaches, they could find their way in through these cracks and get into the structure and then possibly find their way inside of the house. And so something as simply as sealing up those cracks and making sure that there is no space there. It is very beneficial to every homeowner. It’s it’s a positive and it can greatly prevent you from possibly having insects that just come through that area and then those insects end up inside the block and they’re almost in a place that can’t be treated in some instances by pest control. We also talk about we mentioned the tree limbs, so the tree limbs. As I’ve probably mentioned in other episodes, the tree limbs work like bridges. So if the creatures are in the trees in the bushes are away from the house. Or even if you spray the structure around the base of the structure, you’ve created a barrier. But if those tree limbs are touching the house up higher, now you’ve got a bridge so they can bypass that treatment and get around it and find their way into your house. And that would go for things like, again, ants, roaches, rats could use the tree limbs. Any kind of insect really could come off that tree limb onto the house and find their way into the house. Now, when I say this, you know, there’s some people who might say, Well, you know, that’s doesn’t always happen, and they’re correct. But, you know, to me, it’s like taking your car to the oil change place in the oil change places. Well, you have, you have yourself a very small leak in your radiator fluid. And you might want to address that, well, the leak that starts out small today may take a long time to become major, or it could take a short time to become major. Nobody has a crystal ball to say when that little leak could become a major problem. And if you’ve ever had to have your car repaired, the one thing you do know is that when it becomes a problem, if you catch it and you take care of that problem, right now, maybe you just have a hose that’s leaking, it might cost you 25 or $30. Or I don’t know what a hose cost maybe 50, maybe I’m out of my mind with the lower price. But that’s a lot less than having to possibly put a new engine in your car, or a new water pump in your car, having your car overheat and having to have it towed. So if you can deal with the problem when it’s small, as in with pest control, you leave yourself a hopefully from having a major issue that requires a lot more work and a lot more time and a lot more effort to get the problem cleared up. So going back to pest control now when I try to explain to people is in a lot of cases, if a person calls us up and hires us for pest control, and they’re not having a problem or we go out and inspect the house, and the house appears to be in good shape. A lot of times it’s it can be much more reasonable to start up a service at that point in time than when you have a major Roach problem. Or you have a major infestation of ants or rats. So now all sudden if you neglect it, and you allow that infestation to develop. In a lot of cases, people will call up and they’ll be like, well, I’m hoping I’m saving money or I want to save money here. And what they end up getting is a rate that’s higher because now the company has put a lot more effort into getting rid of the problem than what they might have had to if they were trying to maintain it all along. So again, leave you with this ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So if you do have any of the things that we mentioned today or anything we said strikes a chord with you. If you’d like we offer a free 58 point pest inspection and analysis, please give us a call at 772-878-1972 or please check out our website at Ben’s pest stop is Thank you and have a great day.
