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It’s not what homeowners want to hear.
Whether it’s the sound of buzzing coming from your walls or the faint scurry you hear while cooking your pasta at the stove, these sounds all point to one thing: Pests.
Shawn Sherwood of Poulin’s Pest Control explained there are various methods to handle these creatures and the nests they create.
Wasps
When dealing with the dreaded wasp nest, it is important to identify where the opening is. It will either be a paper nest or the entrance to the nest will be under a step, going into a crack in the ground or in your foundation.
“You’ve got really two choices that are safe, comparatively,” Sherwood said. “You can either pick up a powder which is fantastic for pumping into a crack or crevice that they’re going into, or you can pick up one of the long-range blasters.
“That way, you can stand back eight to 10 feet and aim it right at the hole. Pump it in there, they’ll come pouring out, they get (the chemical) on them (and) they die pretty quick. It takes (courage) to be able to do that when you’ve got a giant nest, but it’s doable.”
In Saskatchewan, an untouched and unchallenged wasp nest can grow to the size of a medicine ball by the end of the season.
“Those can be very challenging because (wasps) like to put them up in attics or they put them in crawlspaces,” Sherwood said. “So your ability to get to them is a challenge, and then if you make a mistake, your ability to get away is an even bigger challenge.”
Bees
Poulin’s Pest Control handles bees in a different way than wasps.
In some cases, Sherwood and his crew run into situations where a bees’ nest fills an entire joist space inside a wall.
“Bees’ nests can get incredibly large because bees don’t die off at the end of the year, and a bee colony goes on year after year after year,” Sherwood said. “In this day and age, we don’t kill off bees anymore.
“We have a beekeeper that we call and we let him go and harvest the bees and put them in with his colonies because bees are becoming assumed to be an endangered species if we don’t smarten up.”
Mice
Since the spring, mice have become a growing issue.
“I think a lot of it has to do with all of the food and the grain that’s been knocked on the ground by all of the hailstorms that we’ve had,” Sherwood said.
“We’re doing an awful lot of them and we’re going through a lot of rodent bait on a monthly basis — probably three times what we would normally use at this time of year.”
For those concerned about mice getting into their houses, Sherwood recommends going around the perimeter of their homes.
“Now is a good time because there (is not) four feet of snow up against your foundation,” Sherwood said. “Every opening that you can find that is bigger than your little finger, get some metal in there.
“Copper mesh is best because it doesn’t rust like a ferrous metal does, and then cover that over with either caulk or with spray foam.”