Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

A few years back when I was still teching I went to a customer home in Georgetown, Texas to do their regular service, as I was walking around the back of the home I noticed what looked like blood along the pavement I as moved further around I came to find out their dog was bleeding. I immediately did all I could to reach the customer finally getting a hold of them thanks to a neighbor of theirs. The Mrs. was able to get home in time to get the dog to the vet and save the dog.  When I came back for the next service she explained to me that the dog had been bitten by a rattle snake and thanked me for trying everything to get in touch with here and not just leaving, during that entire service I was scared that the snake was going to bite me, so it took me 40 minutes to do a 20 minute service because I was so cautious. Then when I went to get the ticket signed she commented that it took me longer than normal so I explained why that was.  Then she told me they had already killed the snake as they found it in the dog house. Doing what I did that day is a direct action taken by me due to the influence of my managers and the owners of the company.  To be honest, since I have been at bulwark exterminating I feel that I have grown in ways I never imagined due to the way the company treats its employees and its customers.

Robert Morales Jr

Austin TX

A couple of months ago we had a customer call in to schedule an interior service. He let me know he had just left town, and was going to be gone for a while, but that he had noticed some bugs inside before he left. He said he felt comfortable letting the technician treat inside without him being home. He gave me the alarm code for his house, and the code to unlock the front door, and just asked that the technician relock and reset the alarm when he was finished. We chatted for a bit, and he let me know that he had some steaks in the refrigerator that he wasn’t able to cook before he left, and they would go bad before he was home again. He asked that the technician please take the steaks out of the fridge, and he can keep them if he wants. He let me know they are really good fat steaks, and he would really appreciate if we helped him out with this. When I asked the tech to get the steaks out of the fridge he just laughed, but said they did look good and he wanted them. I just thought this was one of the oddest requests for pest control.

Jamie
St. George, UT

My name is Luke and this story is about my first day on the job 2 years ago. I was an eager young lad ready for some hard work and had just been hired by the Atlanta Branch as a field technician. Like most employees on their first day out in the field, I was both nervous and excited. One of my advisors, Ben Montez, had just taught me how to drive a stick shift and I was ready to conquer the world. Picking up my paper work, I read through for the challenges of the next day so I could make sure I had everything I needed. A couple exterior sprays, a couple of ant mounds, and a German Cockroach account in Cumming. Sounds easy.

The next day went pretty smoothly – I was a new face for the company so there plenty of people to meet. The day went by very fast – it was relatively hot outside and was around 4 p.m. before I arrived at my last home, just on time. I walked up to the door and knocked when a young woman and her husband answered the door. “Hi! I’m here to help with the cockroach problem!” They smiled politely and welcomed me into their home. I took off my shoes and they proceeded to take me into the kitchen. A warm and curious smell entered my nostrils.  Mmm, I thought to myself…chicken.

They offered me a glass of juice and began to tell me a little bit about their problem. “I see a lot of roaches around the sink area, and if I wake up in the middle of the night to grab something, they are like everywhere, you know?” I nodded to myself. That would make sense, the kitchen is an area with heavy moisture and most roaches are nocturnal. According to my manual, roaches need moisture to survive and it’s likely they have infiltrated the cabinets. I pulled up my sleeves and prepared for an inspection. Armed with a flashlight and special bait formula, I decided to check under the sink first. Between the brillo pads and Windex bottle, I saw the yellow orange glow of what appeared to be some sort of shell. Being new to the job, this was a discovery the likes of which only Sherlock could have appreciated … my first egg capsule! I was getting closer to the source …

After I was done reviewing the immediate area around the sink, I had to stand up and stretch. I reached for my glass of juice and took a sip. What is that wonderful smell? As I set my glass down I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Standing between the sugar and some coffee filters was a tiny little cockroach staring back at me – I felt my heart skip a beat. If I can follow this thing, I’ll know exactly where they are coming from. As I moved in closer, the little guy scuttled behind a blender at the edge of the counter top. Happy to follow, I slowly picked up the blender and was surprised to find five more underneath. I was about to explode with excitement when all of them took off the counter and onto the wall behind the fridge. “Aha!” I thought to myself. I recruited the woman’s husband to help me pull out the fridge and grabbed my flashlight. What I was about to see has haunted me in my dreams ever since.

I couldn’t understand what was happening at first, but I’ll try my best to explain it. I poked my head behind the fridge and pointed the flashlight down. A large black vibrating mass began to scatter as about a hundred or so cockroches looked back up at me. In absolute shock and horror, I took a step back to catch up with my mind. That was when the walls started to move. I thought I was hallucinating at first and wondered if the family had put something in my juice. The lights began to flicker and to make matters worse, the woman began shouting nervously in her native language which really freaked me out. I took a couple steps back and heard a thick series of ‘crunches’ beneath the weight of my foot. I looked down to find previous white socks now covered with roaches. The woman continued to yell and started scooping up her crying children from the kitchen table as I looked around nervously for something to grab. I found a broom and began sweeping furiously against the flow of roaches as they made their way across the kitchen floor. Eventually the strength and size of the mass dwindled, as they began to scuttle back to various hiding places throughout the kitchen and cabinetry. The family had began to calm down and the blood was slowly returning to my face when I decided to step out and call some of the other technicians for advice.

Long story short, I scheduled a free follow-up visit after treating the residence and the family’s problem was solved. I however, have a harder time sleeping at night and can no longer stomach the smell of the chicken.

I was in San Antonio Texas to do my Thursday termite route. I went to a customer’s house at 10 am to do his free termite inspection. I rang his doorbell and proceeded to ID myself as Randy with Bulwark Exterminating and that I was there to do his free termite inspection. He asked me where I was going to start and I told him I would do the outside then come back and do the Interior.  He asked me if I brought a ladder because the home didn’t have a pulldown and that’s where he was hearing a chewing sound coming from. I told him I did indeed have a ladder and I would bring it when I was coming inside. The home was a two year old two story, xx home. I drew a diagram of the outside as I inspected it. After I finished I knocked and then went inside. I inspected the inside and then went into the attic to see I what he was hearing.

I climbed into the attic with my flashlight and could see a lot of mouse droppings but no termites. I climbed down and went to find the customer. He asked me if I found anything and I told him I had good and bad news.  What’s the good news he asked. I told him, you have mice in your attic not termites. He said that’s great, what’s the bad news. I told him” You don’t have any Insulation in your attic.”

He said “You have to be kidding me.”

“I’m being 100 % honest,” was my reply.

He climbed up the ladder and looked around with my Flashlight.  “Someone stole my insulation out of my attic!” he exclaimed very loudly as he came dome. “How am I supposed to pay to fix this?”, he said to himself.

I informed him that since there wasn’t a trace of insulation in the attic that it most likely was never done. He said “But they have inspectors to check that.”

I agreed with him and told him “Sadly, it must have been missed.” I suggested that he call the xx office in the subdivision (they were still building in the neighborhood) and tell them about it. He called and they told him all homes were insulated when they were built and that if his was missed then they would insulate it and set up a time for their inspector to come look at it. The customer told me that his electric bill was always really high and he couldn’t understand why but now he knows why,… thanks to some mice.

He was a happy man when I Left.

Randy Schulle

San Antonio, TX