Pest Control Advice from The Homeowners Show

Craig ran a pest control company, which makes this the one topic where the show is not so much interviewing an expert as arguing with one. It also means these episodes spend as much time on the industry as on the insects.

Start with prevention, because that is where most of the value is. Two episodes cover keeping bugs out without reaching for chemicals: exclusion with wire mesh, deep cleaning, cutting the moisture that draws carpenter ants, storing flour in the freezer, and the sugar residue sitting in the bottom of your Keurig. Essential oils get the treatment they deserve. Mosquitoes get their own episode covering misting systems, pyrethrum, killing standing water, and why they seem to pick one person at the cookout.

Termites get the deepest one. Tyler Cooper walked through termite biology, baiting systems, novaflumuron, Formosan colonies, and why an annual inspection beats anything you buy off a hardware store shelf. Rodents get the practical version: exclusion, trap shy rats, where a mouse trap actually goes along a baseboard, and the bird feeder quietly running the whole operation.

Then the scams, which is where Craig gets loud. Blind Trust: The Texas Rat Scam is a real invoice, jargon written to confuse, an attic insulation upsell, and hantavirus used as a closing tool. Another episode opens a leaked email showing a pest corporation trying to take 10000 dollars from an 80 year old. Steve Spoon of Victory Insulation came on about pest companies selling insulation, unlicensed installers, and the boric acid pest resistant insulation myth.

There is also the episode where termites turn up on a houseboat, which is exactly the kind of problem that only happens on this show. Start wherever your problem is.