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Michael Stewart
Hello and welcome to the Benz Pest Control podcast. I’m your host, Mike Stewart Ben’s is the pest expert for Port St. Lucie Stewart, Fort Pierce and Palm City, Florida. When you have pest problems, you need to call Ben Sell at Ben’s Pest Control, and Ben is here to talk today about rats. Ben, what’s going on with all these rats in the Florida area?
Ben Sell
Well, first of all, thank you, Mike.
Rats h
ave been a constant issue that we have faced here and in Port St. Lucie Stuart, Fort Pierce and Palm City. And they seem to be expanding with the growth as we seem to be putting up more homes, they seem to be pushed more and more into areas where people are living. And when they get pushed into those areas. Of course, people get more interaction with rats that they really don’t want to have. And it creates just a bad situation that it’s an all around problem for their home, their family, their pets, it’s not good.
Michael Stewart
Well, you know, I know that when we’re recording this, we’ve been in the middle of the COVID pandemic. And you know, we have experienced from some of our colleagues and customers that because the restaurants are not feeding the rats at the dumpsters. They’re coming to the people’s homes, and people are home and they’re discovering these vermin. So it seems like that with the pandemic, the rodent infestation, mice and rats are just worse than ever. And then of course, it sounds like with all the building that you’ve got going on in Florida that’s making a difference as well. is, you know, is a new home and old home. And are they safe from rats or do rats and mice know how to get in houses? I mean, is are there things that people should be thinking about to protect their homes from rats and mice?
Ben Sell
Well, Mike, what I would say is this we we have rats in brand new construction, we have rats in older houses, the rats can get into any any home. One of the biggest issues that we face, especially with new construction is in my opinion, plants are not planted in a way that makes a whole lot of sense. We shouldn’t have trees and limbs and branches touching people’s roofs and in Port St. Lucie here, we and in our area, we have roof rats, which are great climbers. So if anything that touches the house works like a bridge, it allows them access to get onto the roof. And that gives them the ability to find a spot or search for a weakness in the structure where they can get in and take up a home and make a home and start nesting and even have babies and all rats need is a hole about the size of a quarter to get into a structure. And next thing you know, you’ve got a problem.
Michael Stewart
Yeah, and and those problems are, you know, they are creating disease. And they’re leaving excrements behind and they’re doing damage, you know, give us a little bit of a detail of what roof rats and all kinds of mice and rats can do. What kind of damage and problems are they causing to the health of the family living in the home?
Ben Sell
Well, what I can tell you is, as an example, today, I was in a structure and the house wasn’t that old but we went up into the attic and when we got up there the first thing we noticed is that the insulation was very trampled down. When you have say blown insulation, I like to compare it to fresh snow up north it’s supposed to be fluffy and and soft. Then when rats get in the first thing that happens is they make paths through it like a person walking through a snow storm and they trample down the insulation and they actually make it into almost like a flat mat. And the first thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that actually affects how well your insulation works as far as controlling your heating and air conditioning costs. And that’s just one avenue. Another example is, as you mentioned, their their urine and their feces, of course their urine then gets absorbed by the insulation, their feces is all up in the attic and it creates an absolute mess and there can be diseases associated with some of that their feces being around and breaking down. And, and not to mention rats, specifically, their front teeth grow like our fingernails grow. So if they weren’t to chew, their teeth would grow so big that they wouldn’t even be able to get food in their mouth. So rats have to chew constantly to keep those front teeth small enough to actually be able to get food in their mouth. So when they’re chewing, they can chew on things like electrical wires, they can chew on water lines. And imagine a water line in your attic getting chewed through and all sudden you have a leak and waters raining down in your house or if they chew through an electrical line it could actually start a fire and your house could actually have a major issue with fire and fire damage and all that could be caused by rats, not to mention the like I said the diseases associated with having them in your house.
Michael Stewart
Doesn’t sound like there’s anything good about rats. So here’s what my question is what do Ben’s Pest Control do differently? If I have a rat problem, and I need your help?
Ben Sell
Well, what we do is we come in and we first evaluate the house, we look for all of the openings where rats could be getting into the structure. And we can put together a game plan for our customers as far as what needs to be done as far as trimming trees, sealing holes, trapping out the rats, determining whether or not rat poison is needed around the structure to keep the poison out. And then to set ourselves apart, we offer a one year guarantee. And as always, at Ben’s we have a money back guarantee. If people aren’t satisfied and we don’t take care of the problem. We will give back their money.
Michael Stewart
Well, you know, you can’t beat that guaranteed service. And you need to have a professional you know, the misnomer that having a cat and a cheese and a trap is all you need to do to take care of rats and mice. That’s not the case you need a pest professional like Ben Sell. So this has been the band’s Pest Control podcast. Your information for pest control in Port St. Lucie Stuart, Fort Pierce and Palm City, Florida. Tell us tell everybody about this podcast, subscribe to us and Apple, Spotify Google and now it will be an Amazon Music because more and more people are subscribing to podcasts. And this is one that you can share with the local residents there and Palm City and Port St. Lucie to make sure that you have a pest free home and we’ll see you next time on the Ben’s Pest Control podcast.
