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I'm not gonna narc on my wall buddies

Thank you!

Silver Wolfe uh. Hol up.

I don't need to call anyone. What they gonna do? Have a look and tell me what I already know? Yep you've got mice in your ceiling! No. shit. I'm trapping them already.

What is someone else gonna do besides charge me $$ for something I am already well aware of and dealing with myself?

Not everything requires a professional. Some things are just obvious and you deal with them.

We had some gaps between roof and outside walls that were patched up. Trapped the racoons and took them to a park to let loose. Smaller critters almost impossible to block out. Use the electronic screamers to keep rodents out.

What’s next? You gonna tell us that you can service your own HVAC and swap the engines in your car? Obviously if you know how to deal with it yourself then have at it. Majority of people were never taught or know where to start on how to properly deal with infestations which is why the entire job profession exists at all

Agreed. Most people don't have thousands of dollars on hand to deal with pests and cleanup. A flying squirrel got into the crawlspaces under my roof last year. I found its entry hole and sealed it up with void-fill foam. Problem solved.

Service providers hate him!

Most of us weren't taught. It's insane what some people are unwilling to try though. I used to do handyman work and got paid $50 to swap out light switch covers in a room once. Which is fine, I mean easy money. But there are YouTube videos for everything, including swapping out motors and working on HVAC.

haha

when I lived with my parents I use to hear scratching in my walls all the time. I'd call for my parents and it would go away. happened for years, they thought I was lying or something. then one day I hear like really loud scratching. I hollar at my mom to come in, and I point to the wall and I'm like "LOOK ITS REAL!" and then out bursts a fucking squirrel from the dry wall in the bathroom! it's running around scared, my mom is screaming for my dad, my cat's chasing it around, it escapes into my bedroom. everyone's freaking out!

my dad caught and released the squirrel in the end and had to pay thousands of dollars to get the wall fixed. he has burrowed through like one whole wall from a small hole in the shingles. I still remember when they opened my wall from the inside and like 20 acorns and shit fell out. lmao.

I would absolutely service my own HVAC. The only reason I wouldn't put a new engine in my car, is because I don't have access to a lift to lift the engine up, and that would likely make the price difference.

Recently a pipe burst due to a freeze, and I learned how to drill out a messed up pipe when it couldnt be cut off, and attach PVC to ABS and install a new valve. Good as new, and only cost me some time and a trip to the hardware store.

Oftentimes, you can buy the tools of the trade for less than you'd spend on the labor for one visit. And the best part is that you get to keep the tools to save even more money next time, plus you gain the knowledge to help yourself and others.

It's not about "being taught", it's about being willing to teach yourself. You don't need to go to trade school to get rid of mice or work on electronics. You just need to be willing to roll up your sleeves. It pays off in the long run.

Pays off for you maybe which is great. Others pay professionals for peace of mind

There are plenty of crappy "professionals" out there. Peace of mind is an emotion, not a fact. You would be AMAZED at the crappy jobs I've seen "professionals" do lol. In fact, I never let anyone else fix electronics for me, because I know for a fact that 90% of people do a worse job than me

The topic of bad contractors and professionals is a whole separate discussion. Im simply stating that’s what they are paying for

Otherwise you get into this endless argument of, Omg just learn how to build a house from scratch and maintain it all yourself

They don't work, if they did, poisons wouldn't exist. They have those devices for every animal known, seems a bit fishy no.

You SHOULD be able to maintain your house yourself lol. If you want to pay a premium for a random person to do your chores, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with hiring a contractor, any more than there's anything wrong with hiring a maid. If you have money to throw at a convenience, that's awesome for you! But it's not about that.

My point is that when your pipes burst during a freeze, and the plumbers are all booked out 2 weeks, you'll be screwed if you A) don't even know the basics and B) aren't willing to try. Not only will it save you a lot of money, but you can help yourself (as well as family and friends) out of tough spots like that. It's a super basic skill, and your great grandparents would probably smack you upside the head for not knowing how to do basic repairs.

It's kind of like never learning to boil water. I don't need to boil water on a daily basis, but it's a basic skill that grown up humans should have. You could say that you have peace of mind letting Olive Garden cook your pasta, but at a certain point, you're just being willingly ignorant.

Yeah, when I was still living in my dad's house we had a family of raccoons living in our roof. When he finally got around to hiring an exterminator to trap them, they had eaten multiple holes in the roof which started leaking when the rainy season came. Unfortunately, the exterminator only caught the mama raccoon, and was going to leave the babies to starve to death inside. So, my dad baited them out onto the roof, grabbed them with a claw stick, and made me hold them down while he shot them.

wtf

Boiling water is a fuckton easier than learning basic plumbing, and not everyone’s good at the same things.

Hahaha! That took a dark turn! Wasn’t expecting that ending.

How old was the home ?

we got squirrels in the attic. person in charge of the place made a very poor attempt to fix it the first time, then the second time was good but still failed. now we've just gotten used to them. it's not our house so whatever.

honestly, if they didn't cause damage, I wouldn't really care

if you own your house

If you don't, ask yourself: "when was the last time my landlord came to do repairs?"

If the answer is last year or more, DO NOTHING.

100% thought you were just hearing your parents shagging as the sounds suddenly stop when you call them.

I do my own pest control. I ended up buying cameras to track rodent activity and I trapped and excluded all the active areas.

Animals poop. And if you are breathing that in, that is damage to your body and house if you ask me. I'm not trying to live with animal poo. Have you ever heard of hantavirus? From breathing in air from mouse poo and pee in your home.

Of all the things to do in the world, out of the 2 you picked... I could actually do one. And that made me oddly proud of myself. Thank you?

This seems like stating the obvious.

I’ve had the smell of cat pee in my apartment for months. Landlord refuses to do anything about it. I don’t have a cat in my apartment…

Yup, rats can get into your dryer ducts and die. It is a smelly endeavor.

Red Squirrels. Cute as hell but fuck those guys. I had to remove hundreds of walnuts from my garage and they just filled it right back up. They are so fast shooting them with a pellet gun is near impossible because they never hold still. They also are apparently too smart for traps.

Ouch. We had squirrels invade the eaves once. Turns out the former owner's business was removing wild animals that had invaded homes. He found the ingress point and installed a little wire one-way exit-only gate, then patched up the entry point.

The ones up here must be the dumbass cousins then. The tipping board over a garbage can of water with peanut butter at the end literally catches multiple a day until my father in law finally caught the ones repeatedly digging into the eaves of his house. He got so tired of bashing their heads in with a shovel and chucking them in the back field.

I also used peanut butter in the traps. Maybe these guys knew I was after them.

Are you sure they weren't grey Squirrels? Those guys are dumb and slow but they also don't hoard and nest in dwellings so no need to get rid em.

Those tasks are out of order, you should definitely trap the raccoon first.

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As a non-American, this sounds quite weird, as 99.9999999% of all buildings ever are concrete. There is a point to consider regarding attic/roof, and maybe basement, so thanks. But hearing stuff from walls is truly alien.

He caught squirrels of every color, it was red ones that were digging and he eventually caught them with the same trap.

Come on, really? Lol

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