Rodent Control in The Bay Area - What We Do and Why

A rat in the attic captured on a trap cam

Rodents in the Bay Area are rampant. There are a variety of reasons not the least of which is California’s ban on many rodenticides. This issue will get worse as time goes on. If you live in the Bay Area, it’s likely you have dealt with a rodent issue at one time or another. The primary rodents we deal with are roof rats but we also deal with mice very regularly and occasionally we’ll deal with norway rats (aka sewer rats).

When we get a call for rodents, our first step is an inspection. We want to figure out how to stop the bleeding correctly and not just put a bandaid on the issue. In my experience, most pest companies try to sell customers into a year long contract for pest control which will include setting traps, possibly baiting with poison and oh yeah let’s get a guy out to do an inspection (or sometimes the tech does a light inspection during the first service). Here’s the problem with that scenario - it works sometimes, other times it doesn’t and it definitely won’t work in perpetuity if the holes aren’t plugged. I worked for two large companies before starting my own. I’ll set up a common scene from the second company that operated very much like the above scenario.

Call comes in, receptionist is super nice and says let’s get a tech out to look at the issue and set up traps. We typically charge $350 for the initial and then $130/visit after that but he’ll go over the pricing as it could change. Customer is happy they can get out so quickly and get started and says “yes please!”. Receptionist says “oh, by the way we’ll also send an inspector out for a free inspection to see how the rats are getting in”. Tech goes out, verifies the rate, sets traps, puts a few bait boxes outside and says he’ll be back. Customer forgets about the inspection he had set up until he gets a reminder and wonders if he’ll now have to pay more, he can’t really remember exactly what the receptionist said, it’s been a week and a half since then and about a week since the initial tech came out and two rats have been trapped but there’s still some noise here and there. Inspector shows up and finds 8 holes and a couple other issues and says they will be charging $850 to seal the holes. Now the customer is upset, he kind of remembers there being an inspector coming out, it wasn’t really explained to him he’ll have to pay more than the original $350, he kind of thought that covered sealing holes, now he has to pay more than double the original quote and is locked into a 1 year agreement on top of that! Customer pays the fee, gets the guys out, doesn’t really feel the time spent doing the work is worth the $850 but he already committed. Now he’s out $1250 plus the extra $130/visit for the rest of the year.

Can you see how frustrating that situation can be for the customer? Now add to that story the fact that often times, the inspector and/or crew would be late or have to reschedule, the rats find other ways in and he has to call to get that inspector out again and the crew out again, oh and the warranty was only on the work itself and this is considered a new hole so they need to charge $150 more. Finally the last rat gets trapped but 8 months go by and another one gets in! Now he has call again and go through the process again.

Another issue we see is customers will look up rodent feces cleaning or something like that and then end up getting an insulation company that sort of is also an unlicensed pest company. They kind of live in a grey area in California law. There’s nothing in the law preventing a licensed contractor from plugging rodent holes. The only thing they can’t do is say “you have rats and/or mice” that statement requires a pest license. If they simply say “you have rodents” and don’t identify the type they’re sort of in the clear. The problem I see with most of these companies is they’re really there to sell insulation and the rodent extermination is a secondary service. They need to have the rodents out to remove and replace the insulation so why not do it themselves? What typically happens is they’ll have a crew that will do it on site or will sub-contract out a guy or a couple guys who do that work for them. The initial sales guy usually won’t be doing a very thorough inspection thus leaving it up to the crew. The crew often doesn’t do a super thorough inspection either because it’s hard to do a really good inspection and do the work the same time (trust me, I’ve tried to do it). So, inevitably holes are missed and these companies have high call back rates. I don’t want you to think all these companies are bad and can’t be trusted but just understand their expertise is typically in removing and replacing the insulation and they almost are never licensed in pest control so when they come across tough issues they don’t have access to rodenticides which are crucial on some accounts.

There is one more scenario. The licensed pest company that does do an inspection first and does recommend sealing all the holes. Most often these companies have inspectors that are incentivized by sales commission. Nothing wrong with that in general except the fact that it tends to create a situation where they want to do more inspections per day and spend less time at each house. As a result the inspections become “light/overview inspections” and they rely on the crew to do the inspections much like with the companies above. Any time that happens the results are the same, missed holes, extra call backs, unhappy customers.

So, going back to the beginning of this post, we do require an inspection first. Unlike most companies we do charge a small fee for that inspection. Typically it’s $85 but that can change with large houses. The reason we charge a fee is because not everyone will buy our service which is fine but we always provide a thorough inspection with a written report which clearly identifies the active and potential entry points. Many companies won’t provide this at all or only will provide it after the customer asking. As a matter of fact, most companies don’t even do a “report” they just take pictures and notes. We usually do waive the fee if the customer does work with us though. Now, that report we do is in our system and the crew gets to see it. We also take pictures and put notes on the account so the crew has a very good idea of what he’s dealing with before he shows up to the house. Our crew members seal the holes and depending on if trapping, pest control and/or cleaning is a part of the package the customer purchased, they will set traps and clean as well. The crew members will take the original report and check mark the items they did, then we send that to the customer. If trapping is included, we come back a minimum of two times after the initial service and more as needed. We also include a warranty with the pest service so as long as you’re on with us we’ll check traps, make sure there aren’t new holes and will inspect, seal and trap when/if new rodents do arrive. We also utilize some really cool new techniques and some tried and true techniques on hard accounts. Because we’re a licensed pest company, we have access to great rodenticides which we don’t use on every account but it’s sure nice to have them when you need them. We also use black light tracking powder which helps us find the hard to find holes and trap cameras to see inside the attic and crawlspace. We have worked really hard to change how we do business, to change the status quo, all in an attempt to provide a much better service. I believe, though we’re not perfect by any means, we have accomplished that task.

If you’ve read through this and want to have us fight to get rodents out of your house, give us a call! We’re based in Fairfield, CA and service Napa, St. Helena, Calistoga, American Canyon, Vallejo, Benicia, Suisun, Vacaville and occasionally go to the East Bay as well. We’re family owned and operated - my dad and I own and operate the company and we have great ratings on Yelp for a reason.

I’ll write about one more story I’m really proud of. We occasionally get accounts where the customer is hearing noises in between the first and second floor ceilings and nowhere else. Often these accounts turn out to have activity elsewhere and it ends up being a pretty straightforward issue. One customer in particular that lived in Vacaville had this exact issue. I went out to check out the house and really found nothing. A few old droppings in the attic, nothing in the garage, nothing in the house and no obvious entry points. She had two companies try to solve the problem and so far nothing. I told her I think the problem was that the rats were getting under the tiles and getting into a hole cut in the roof sheathing for a duct coming out (these are usually used for bathroom fans, heater vent pipes, etc). I told her I couldn’t tell for sure but that was the only option in my opinion as the vents are on the first floor roof and pretty much line up with where she’s hearing the noises. She signed up for the service and sure enough my crew called excitedly after popping the tiles to access the spot to tell me they found droppings! After we sealed those spots, she had no more issues. The funny thing about that experience is that roughly 2 to 3 weeks later we got a call from a guy in American Canyon with the exact same issue. Same fix, no more problems!