Today had the second pest control company do a quote, and I won’t be affording pest control done by anyone but me, and I can’t see how anyone does frankly. Well, I do, people are suckers. I’m just really low financially. I didn’t realize how low I guess.
The first company came around and quoted it out at $14,000 to get rid of our rats and squirells.
I’d like to point out I could build a small house for that, and dig a shallow well and put in a chemical toilet and basic solar. Yes, I could get off grid with that kind of money. Shoot………. who has that kind of money laying around?! Especially that they go spend it to get rid of rats and squirrells?!
The justification was that they were going to pull out all of my insulation in my attic and replace it….
By the way I’ve had a similar quote for rewiring my whole house.
Second company comes in and I tell her my budget up front, which is $500. That seems reasonable. By the way the first companies original quote was $275 + $77 for the next year, which I agreed to. So the second companies original guess before writing up the quote was somewhere in the $700 range, which was over my budget so I told them it was still something I’d have to think about.
Then when they went to write up the quote they got to talking to their boss and suddenly it was $5000. They asked me what I wanted to do. I told them there was no way in the world I would have that kind of money. We’d talked about options and I had already told them what I would be doing; sealing the exits and entrances, poisoning the rodents and removing their dead bodies, because I can do that and no one wants to hire me to do anything else. I can be a rodent murderer and undertaker. Especially if the pay is two months of my former salary.
This is just insane though, I can’t believe that no one in this entire city is willing to take my offer of $500 to kill or capture my rats and squirrels and move them off site, it seems like a reasonable offer to a seasoned pest control worker. I’d even consider going up to that $700….. but no, it’s got to be thousands of dollars because pest control people think they’re too good for the job.
This isn’t true of other service people and jobs, you don’t see plumbers saying, well I’ll only unclog your toilet if you let me completely redo your bathroom and also your kitchen and you’ve got to mortgage your house because I’m a greedy asshole….. NO other industry works this way because competition usually puts a stop to this.
I guess after I learn to do this I could start my own company, discount non asshole pest control; put it in my byline; I’m not going to charge you thousands of dollars like EVERY SINGLE OTHER PEST CONTROL COMPANY YOU CALL….. make my money in volume.
4 comments
Well, that sounds insanely high, yeah, I’m guessing you live in the us of a, or the most capitalist country of the world, yeah?.. but then, you have the internet, just google what you need to do, order the supply, and do it yourself. Rats aren’t complicated creatures. It’ll be head and shoulder cheaper, and you’ll probably figure out the root cause doing it. I’ve been screwed around too, many times, but I had my family to teach me better and do it myself, or shop around, or a mix of both. Sorry to be harsh but, if you don’t have connections, life requires sometimes to be resilient, and smart, cause lots of people are dickheads. Many, many of them are. Looking only for themselves and screwing other people.
But, we live in a time that the information has never been as available as it is. Usually a youtube video explaining it in simple terms. No need for forums anymore.
Hell, I’ve put a japanese imported honda CRV 2.0L engine into an old 4 door 1.6L civic by myself, with no prior knowledge. Transmission, shift linkage, jack shaft, axles, converting engine from auto trans to manual, soldering my own wire harness, all with forum posts in the early 2000s, haynes books and basic hand tools. Don’t tell me you can’t trap a few rats and clean some insulations by yourself and call it a day..
I live in canada, had french european grandparents that teached me well. That’s all it took, a little push.
Be well.
Owltrex makes electeonic rat traps that work very well, about 40 bucks each. Theres also youtube, plenty of ideas involving buckets. Might be an easier route
Easiest & most logical way of getting rid of animals is to give the animals something more appealing than your home. Stake out an area for them, whether it’s a tree stump or some natural shelter, and put food there. Animals are way more logical than humans, and they’ll figure out fast that the new shelter is their safe zone. You get your house, they get theirs, everyone is happy, no violence required.
I’ve done this 10 years running in my very rural home. It’s easy as fuck, cheap as fuck, and what’s more, your soul may feel a little cleaner than if you kill them.
^ Just to add this has worked with every animal ‘infestation’ I’ve had from ants to rats to squirrels to raccoons.