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Our Team serves all Residential, Commercial, Industrial, and Marine properties on the Sunshine Coast BC.

Fall and winter are quickly approaching and insects, spiders, sow and pill bugs, other nuisance crawling pests and rodents are now starting to actively seek shelter indoors. It is a good time to have a perimeter spray applied or to have your home checked for rodent activity to halt this advance.

Mice have been particularly bad this year with unprecedented activity levels in all areas. Our provincial colleagues are reporting the same thing in their communities. We are anticipating that it will be a very busy fall and winter with rats. Like mice, they have had a very long warm spring and summer with an abundance of food, fewer predators, and lots of opportunity to reproduce.

If you have had a problem with rats in the past,
we would encourage you to be proactive and
have your home checked and if necessary,
a control program instituted.

We are experts at identifying how these undesired creatures enter structures and how to stop them. We also provide professional cleaning and disinfection services to combat the mess, odour and potential for disease transmission associated with rodent nesting activity.

We also understand that there could be times when you may not want your neighbours knowing about a pest issue. We naturally respect the privacy of all of our clients, and that carries over to our trucks. We don’t put our name and logo on our trucks in order to maintain your privacy.

Below you’ll find helpful information on our services, and recommendations on various pest issues that you may be encountering or wish to avoid to protect your family and your property.

We look forward to assisting you in managing any pest issues.

Residential, Commercial, Industrial, and Marine insect, spider, rodent, bird, and bat control, as well as pest exclusion, deep cleaning, disinfection, pre-treatment of new Construction, as well as Pre-Mortgage Inspections and Consultation.

Our basic service call charge is $80.00 for up to one half hour of service. Additional costs are based on labour and required materials.

On average, most of the services we provide take 45 minutes to a couple of hours to perform.

In most cases, desired results are achieved quickly unless activity is pronounced.  Long standing problems are rarely solved quickly or in a single visit.

Most pesticide applications will last from several weeks to months provided it is not degraded by human activity. The length of time it will take for animal control to be effective depends on what is done, service frequency and how much pressure there is.

On average, short-term control of rats via trapping will take a few weeks while mice can take significantly longer. Exclusion work is the only real way to achieve long term control. 

The type of pest involved will determine service frequency. Pests such as wasps, fleas, food infesting insects, and flies can often be controlled with a single service. Pests such as carpenter ants, odorous house ants, pavement ants, spiders, sow bugs and pill bugs may require biannual or annual service. Rat and mouse control on the other hand, may require monthly service.

When your tolerance for a pest is surpassed or it is causing harm to you, your children, pets or belongings or property.

To remove one of it’s three main requirements. All creatures require food, water, and shelter. We at Sunshine Coast Pest Control are experts at identifying how creatures are meeting these needs and how best to stop it.

Yes, and it may in fact occur for some time before most or all activity ceases. The safest, most effective insecticides are non-repellant, time released and relatively long lasting. Repellant insecticides are generally more toxic, short lived and ultimately less effective.

Do not damp mop, power wash, water the lawn or garden, wash windows, paint or otherwise cover or damage applied materials. Any over spray or dust should be removed from frequently contacted surfaces such as door handles, table and countertops and handrails.

Any residual odour from a spray treatment generally dissipates a few hours after application. Any persisting odours may require ventilation by opening windows and doors.

Fleas, bedbugs, mosquitoes, deer flies, horse flies, ticks, wasps, bees, midges, ants and occasionally spiders all bite humans. Despite what you may have heard, identifying a bite by its appearance or location is often not helpful in identifying the culprit as everyone reacts differently. It is better to determine when and where the bites are happening and capture the suspect.

Thorough crack and crevice vacuuming will remove 90% of these creatures from your home. If your tolerance level is zero, as it is with most individuals, you will need to enlist the help of a professional.

Unless the nest is small and easy to access you are / it is best to hire a professional. Large nests in difficult to reach locations requires proper safety gear, materials, equipment, and knowledge to be removed safely.

Significant wasp activity around your house may be the result of a nest or nests close by or attractants that encourage them to forage around your home. Wasps prefer to forage against light coloured structures or close to the ground as it is easier to see potential food sources. Since their nests are constructed of cellulose and constantly being added to, decaying wood nearby is also hugely attractive to them.

It is best not to apply insecticides while it is raining simply because rain can strike the material off the surface to which it is applied. Once they have dried however, residual insecticides are not adversely affected by rain and are in fact, broken down more rapidly by light (e.g. they are photosensitive).

The only time that you would be asked to vacate is when an application is made indoors to an area or areas that you cannot be isolated from.

Pests often enter homes through open and unscreened doors, windows, and vents. They can also gain access through inadequately sealed service lines, cracks, crevices, gaps, and holes in siding, foundations, fascia, soffits, eaves, and gables as well as disused chimneys and stove pipes. Most insects enter a house where the siding meets the foundation walls.

Vegetation that is too close or against a structure provides pests with easy access onto them, excellent harborage, and excessive water collection. Recognizing that water is the number one destroyer of buildings, it is important to direct water away from them.

Customer satisfaction is our number one priority. If the expectations we have set are not met through something within our control, we will re-service at no charge to you, our valued client.

Depending on what was applied, the average length of time required for a healthy person to remain out of a treated building is 6 hours.  We recommend that very young (under 5) or older (over 65) individuals, people who are immune compromised or pregnant, remain out for at least 24 – 48 hours.

There are several creatures that might be the culprit and although the type and level of the sound or sounds may be indicative of the cause, thorough inspection by a professional is recommended.

Light scratching or rustling sounds emanating from an attic or ceiling could be birds, bats, mice, or shrews.

Louder sounds such as thumping, banging, scampering, or fighting coming from the same or other areas may be the result of squirrels, rats, raccoons, mink, or otters. Clicking, buzzing, or chewing sounds might be caused by carpenter ants, termites, wood boring beetles, wasps, bees, or rodents.

Trapping or poisoning, improved sanitation and exclusion should all be part of an integrated rodent control program. In some cases, exclusion is physically impossible or cost prohibitive and a regular trapping or poisoning control program will be required.

Although trapping is ineffective in certain situations it is preferred over poisoning because it is more target specific, more humane, and less likely to result in the problems associated with the death of an animal in hard to access locations.

The only time that poisons should be used is when trapping alone will not reduce the population quickly enough or when environmental conditions or terrain prevent traps from being effective.

The best approach when you are trying to exclude rodents or bats is to screen, caulk, flash or otherwise seal any openings one quarter of an inch or larger with a material that is impervious to them. If in doubt, fill it!

Although a rat’s incisors are harder than steel and they can gnaw through it, they are opportunistic creatures that generally prefer to gain access where it is easy to do so. Keeping this in mind, preferred exclusion materials should be made of hard or sharp substances, not soft materials. Polyurethane foam or silicone caulking alone are not rodent resistant materials.

Any inexplicable accumulations of material in your home should be investigated as it may be the result of destructive pest activity.

Let us know how we can assist you!

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Ron Dickinson, Entomologist
Sunshine Coast Pest Control & Health Services
(604) 886-1977