What Your House Quietly Advertises To Wildlife

A quarter inch gap sounds harmless until it becomes a front door for mice. We sit down with Jay Vincent from Smart Solutions and Tony Sorrentino from Pest Pros of Michigan to unpack what “exclusion” really means and why it’s the foundation of long-term pest control, rodent control, and humane wildlife removal.

Episode Resources
Pest Pros of Michigan
Smart Solutions Pest Control

PEST PROSpectives is a Livemic Communications production.

Transcript

Why Exclusion Matters

Richard Piet 0:08

I'm Richard Piet. Welcome back to PEST PROSpectives. From the Pest Pros of Michigan, we talk about pest control, whether it's something as simple as, I don't know, ants two, all the way up to rodents and zoonotic diseases. Did you hear our last episode? We had Tony Sorrentino here from Pest Pros and Jay Vincent from Smart Solutions. We're talking about zoonotic diseases in our last episode, and now the notion of exclusion. Welcome back, gents.

Tony Sorrentino 0:39

Thanks for having us, Richard. This is this is outstanding.

Richard Piet 0:42

You know, i it makes sense, uh I think, anyway, to uh look at a situation in which pests might be involved and say, where can we reveal an entry point and can we close that entry point? Now this seems like a no-brainer to me, but this is serious business, right, Jay? The idea that uh there's a whole approach to the notion of exclusion, and there's even uh you might say specialty focuses on this, and that's part of what you do at Smart Solutions, true?

Jay Vincent 1:24

Absolutely, yeah. We've specialized in exclusion for almost going on two decades, and you're absolutely correct, different wildlife and pests use different entry points. And so you you have to inspect the house systematically depending upon what you're there for. So first you have to identify what you're dealing with by doing an inside inspection. Um, and then the exterior exclusion is dictated by the size of the target pest and the nature of which it enters the home.

Tiny Gaps Mice And Bats Use

Richard Piet 1:55

Let's just talk about, I don't know, mice for a second. These are crafty little buggers, they can get in really small spaces. So you've got to have your eyes peeled here.

Jay Vincent 2:06

Well, yeah, you're talking about if it's field mice, uh, they can get in a quarter inch entry point. So that is very, very small. You have to be extremely methodical, or you will fail at sealing a home. So we look at anything from the peak of the house, the ridge vent, all the way down, all the components of the house, the roof line, there's different roof uh transitions. There's a lot of caulking that goes along with keeping out mice. And then the next in line would be bats. They're like three-eighths of an inch. So I mean, you're talking about teeny tiny teeny little entry points.

Richard Piet 2:42

So, Tony, when you got into this business, did you figure you would be climbing up on roofing and looking in little tiny spaces like this?

Tony Sorrentino 2:50

Nope. But um it's what it's what the it's it's what the the job requires in order to do an efficient, you know, sealing of a structure. We're looking at gaps, cracks, crevices, structural building elements where the foundation meets the siding, where the siding meets the soffit, where the corner posts hold the siding together. And like Jay was just saying, we're looking at the drip edge all the way along the roof line. We're looking at, you know, gable vents, we're looking at dormer returns. The builders don't specifically take time to make sure that everything's sealed up tight. If it looks good from 30 feet away, which most people are gonna be when you're dealing with rooftop accesses, um, 25 to 30 feet away, and you you're not gonna see that that quarter-inch gap or that three-eighths inch gap where wildlife could potentially gain entry into your home. And if it's been used once, it's like a blinking neon light to other mice and rodents that that that will use these as as uh entry point. This is a good spot, this is where we're gonna be.

Richard Piet 4:02

Come join the party.

Tony Sorrentino 4:04

Yeah.

Ridge Vents New Tools Old Myths

Tony Sorrentino 4:05

Oh, yeah.

Richard Piet 4:05

You know, Jay, I'm lingering on the notion of a ridge vent for a second just because it's supposed to be ventilation, right? So if that's an entry point, how do you approach the notion of trying to stop the entry there?

Jay Vincent 4:19

Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. That's a great question. So there there's been a some revolutionary things happening in the exclusion world in the last decade. I mean, it literally has evolved more in the last 10 years than it than it did since you know the 1980s, which is really when it started. Uh and it was very unorthodox back in the day where they were just kind of cramming screens and steel wool and and a little bit of foam. And now we've moved on to these specialty products that that are designed to fit over top of things. And so one of the very popular products that that I and I don't mind pushing these guys because they're good friends of mine and uh they're I they're in my mind, they make the best products in the industry. Uh AAC Distributing makes a product called Ridgeguard, and this stuff is it's revolutionary change the game. Because uh ridge vents are made out of plastic. So what do you what happens when uh a roof heats up to 150, 180, 200 degrees? I mean, you literally boil an egg on some of these roofs, is it warps off the roof. You need to have it by code, but the bats will be like, hey, I can get in there, that's three-eighths of an inch. Boom, in. This product allows you to be able to uh tighten it down and still allow it to ventilate. And then they, you know, it's also plastic, so if the mice want to get in, they'll chew it. You know, um, so it it it completely encapsulates the ridge and it's really changed the game.

Richard Piet 5:46

All right. And uh when we're talking about this, Tony, we're also seeing the same kind of thing here in Michigan, Jason Atlanta. Uh you both have regional perspectives uh and what's most common in in your particular areas of the country, but we deal with the same thing here in Michigan too, right?

Tony Sorrentino 6:05

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And um we use AAC products as well. There's, you know, a a lot of myths that you see online. Um, you know, put a bar of Irish Springs in there. And that's that's I've I've got pictures of bars of Irish Spring that have been chewed up by rodents. The plug-in um ultrasonic frequency generators. I don't know of any um credible s sources that say that that works. And I've never seen one work the way they said it's gonna work on the internet.

Richard Piet 6:42

Yeah. Uh we hear that in the classic car world too, about Irish Spring bars in your glove box uh to keep them uh out of there. Uh and you know, Irish Spring smells great, but I guess it's not a pest controlled device after all. Jay, what's the uh

High Risk Jobs And Craft Standards

Richard Piet 7:00

most challenging exclusion situation that you've seen?

Jay Vincent 7:06

Wow, that's an amazing question. So we do high-level um rope work. So we've done work 20, 30, 40 stories, 50 stories in the air where we're dangling off the sides of skyscrapers. Um but one of the most challenging ones we ever did was the top of an elevator control room that was a glass roof. You want to talk, and it was 23 stories in the air. You want to talk about freaky. I mean, it was uh we tied off and we were fine, but we didn't know if at any point we were gonna be going through this glass roof. The pigeons were getting in the top of the stack, um, and they had defecated so much in the top of the control room that the engineers uh said they wouldn't go in there anymore until it got cleaned out and uh until it got excluded. So there was one pane of glass that we needed to get on to repel down and replace. Um, and we actually replaced it with a with a custom piece of metal. We weren't gonna solder lead into an old stained glass um roof. So that was probably one of the most freakiest jobs we've ever done.

Richard Piet 8:17

I get to about the fourth step on the ladder and I start to feel a little shaky. What did you say? 23 stories? Yes. Oh man. Tony, you ever uh do something like that?

Tony Sorrentino 8:30

Not like that, but luckily for us, um uh there are uh industry trainings that teach that high-level rope work that teach custom metal bending and fabrication um so that we can be experts at at our craft where we have a higher level of understanding of the biology and the behavior of the the wildlife that we're trying to control. Southwest Michigan isn't isn't as big as Atlanta. Um, but we we we deal with a tremendous amount of historical housing and some of the the pitches on the roofs are are ridiculous. You need to have the the proper safety protocols in place in order to get up there and do these repairs and and complete it and make it aesthetically pleasing. Because, you know, with these these historic houses, you know, a lot of it is, you know, curb appeal and they they want it to look like nothing ever happened. So we we pride ourselves on that being being an expert at at this craft.

Richard Piet 9:36

You know, in our last episode, I asked this as it related to zoonotic diseases. I'll ask it again, uh Jay. What should folks do? What do you recommend they do when they walk around their own property and they're looking for entry points or suspicious activity that might involve the noises they're hearing in the walls or in the attic? Uh what should they be looking for as a layman just looking through our own lenses?

Homeowner Walkaround Checklist

Jay Vincent 10:08

So you'd be amazed on what you will find when you walk around your house. Um, and so the some of the places I always recommend people to look at are going to be areas where the water is draining more than it would be in other areas, like parts of the yard that don't drain well next to the house, bushes that might be up against the house, trees that are touching the house. Oftentimes animals will take advantage of these areas of shade, cover, and water because it creates food, water, shelter for them. You know, you've got uh acorns and things coming off the trees, you've got the the nesting materials of the leaves building up in the in the gutters, and then lo and behold, you've got a rotten spot and water sitting in the gutter where they just go in and out, they get the food, they go back in, and these animals are literally don't even have to leave the gutter and the attic because they got everything they need. And so oftentimes just walking around your house and making sure uh you you're spotting wood rot, cleaning your gutters, trimming the trees back, trimming the bushes back from the house is gonna be worth a lot.

How To Vet An Exclusion Pro

Richard Piet 11:15

Should we be asking our local pest control experts if they have these certifications? If we're concerned about disease and we're concerned about exclusion and rodents, let's say, what should we be asking them about their level of experience with this?

Jay Vincent 11:33

That's an amazing question. I would recommend that they do have state and national training, that also they're licensed through the state, that they're insured, they're probably insured, and that they have safety training. And one of the main, I feel like, focal points should also be that they take pictures before and after their work and that they have a portfolio to prove that they do custom high-end exclusion work because there's a difference between something being aesthetically pleasing and that is going to last for years that will also abide by code and something that's kind of unorthodox. And we're in an industry that's not regulated a whole lot. So that is up to each individual company to take the pride in to do that. And I find that less than 5% of companies do take pride in what they do. I mean, you got a plethora of people to call, and you just, as a consumer, you don't really know what to look for. So some of these things are going to be like portfolio, a track record, Google reviews, you name it.

Richard Piet 12:36

Tony, anything you want to add about that?

Tony Sorrentino 12:38

Yeah, we are also certified through the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for Animal Control. There's a whole lot that goes into safe, humane relocation of nuisance wildlife that could be trapped on your property and having a higher level of understanding of what's being trafficked into my home and what can I do to control it. And a lot of cases, exclusion is going to be your best bet for long-term

Key Takeaways And Subscribe

Tony Sorrentino 13:10

relief.

Richard Piet 13:10

Well, there you have it, folks. Uh a number of thoughts as it relates to how you can approach the notion of pests in your property and some of the things you can do in looking at your own property in terms of exclusion and trying to do your best to eliminate the opportunities for these uninvited guests to be part of your home, and as well, the things you heard Jay and Tony talk about in asking and might even say interviewing the potential pest control company who's going to help you solve that problem. Thanks to you both for this. You're welcome. Thank you, Richard. Thanks for having us. Jay Vincent, special guest from Smart Solutions, and Tony Sorentino with Pest Pros of Michigan here on PEST PROSpectives. Hey, if you haven't subscribed yet, we invite you to do that so you get a little alert. When these episodes come available, you can find PEST PROSpectives where you get podcasts. Take care.