Peskies Pest Control Montgomery Alabama Podcast

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Hey, thanks for checking out our video today as we wanted to go ahead and take a quick moment to discuss the official Alabama wood infestation inspection report. So what this form is, is for real estate transactions, whether you’re buying or selling a home, whether you’re refinancing a home, most of the time, mortgage lenders are going to require a wood infestation report what infestation reports are done in search of wood destroying organisms that may be affecting the home and this inspection is done so that it can be fully disclosed to the purchaser, as well as the seller. And then that way they can make an informed decision before they actually sign the dotted line and by the house. So as you can see on the this is the very first page of the report, man with the title official Alabama wood infestation inspection report, part A. And it does consist of a Part A and Part B. And then there is a third sheet, which is an addendum, but we’ll show you all that here in just a moment. So the first portion, the top part of part A labels, the company name, license number, address, and all the information for the company as well as the date of inspection and the date of issuance. It also has a spot for the sellers name, purchasers name, and it also list the inspectors name. Now another very important part to this is the scope of inspection. So this actually details what it is that the report encompasses. So you know, it lists out that some portions of the structure may be covered and not visible, list out if there’s any mold like conditions, or there’s concerns about molds and fungi in relation to indoor air quality and that it’s not covered. And then you know, you should have that inspected by someone else who’s certified in that type of inspection. So it’s really important to read the scope of inspection so that you really clearly understand what it is that has been inspected by this report. As you can see here, there’s also a list of the address of the structure and whether this report is only for the main structure itself, or whether it may include you know, some sort of outbuilding shop or shed that you have on the property. And there are some mortgage lenders that will require you to have all of those building inspected, instead of just inspecting the main structure that is for sale on the property. And then there’s also a spot for evidence of previous treatment, which is right here. And that is just going to be up to the inspector to see whether or not they found any evidence such as drill marks around the house bait stations for termites around the house and that sort of thing as well. So moving down to the next section, you have findings. So inspection reveals evidence of subterranean termites, powderpost beetles, wood boring beetles, dry wood, termites, wood, decaying fungi. And you can see there’s checkboxes to mark active or previous infestation. What you can’t see is right here, there’s a section that says remarks and additional findings. This is a spot on a fillable form where the inspector is able to put their remarks, you know, maybe they didn’t wanted to elaborate on something that they found or elaborate on what they checked. And so typically, they’ll type something in or write something in right there. So it’s always a good idea to go ahead and look at that remarks. And additional finding sections just to make sure that the inspector didn’t put something that was you know, very relevant or that might not want to be overlooked by the person who’s buying the house. Directly beneath that, there is a section for treatment. And it shows if any treatment was done on the structure. Now, sometimes this can be done in conjunction with this wood infestation report or it can be done previously well before the wood infestation report was issued. So in this case, the company that’s doing the inspection may have at one point in the past done treatment on this house and this allows them to showcase that to the new buyer. So they may have the above structure was or were treated by this company as follows and they may check this box and then you know they’ll write the date of treatment and the date that the treatment expires on these lines. And they will also note whether or not that is transferable or not transferable to a new property owner when the house is being purchased. And then at the very bottom of that is the last check box which is the above structure is are are not covered under a treatment contract by this company. This is a very important pour Part of this form. And the reason it is is because this tells you whether or not the house you are buying has coverage with the company that is doing the inspection. Now, just because this box is marked, that there is no coverage does not always mean that your house does not have termite coverage, there’s a possibility that your house could have termite coverage by a another company, and that that company is just not the one doing the inspection. But this box will tell you if the inspecting company does have coverage. And if it is marked that it is transferable to the new home buyer, it is a very good idea on your part, to reach out to that company after the closing of your home and ensure that they have updated contact information for you. That is one problem that we do run into occasionally, where contact information for the new homebuyer is not relate to us or to the other company that holds the termite coverage on this house. And if it comes time to renew, and they’re unable to contact you unable to get ahold of you, because they don’t have your proper contact information. And maybe they sent mailers and never heard back from you, then your termite coverage may actually lapse or be canceled altogether, at that time of renewal. So it’s always a great idea to go ahead and reach out to that company after closing, and just update the account information so that they have some sort of contact information for you. So right here, at the very bottom of part A, there’s a buyers signature form. And that, of course, is just going to be where the new buyer signs accepting the results of this report on part A. And then these boxes down here on the bottom are simply checkmarks were the people filling out the report, the company filling out the report can request that copies be sent to either the buyer, the mortgagee, the real estate agent, the seller and as well as the pest control company. So the next page is labeled as Part B. And part B starts off with, of course, showing the address and the date, just to make sure that this report goes along with that same address structure. And these conditions are very important to they kind of spell out a little bit more about what the extent of the report is. So it’s really definitely a great idea to read over these conditions and understand them. So that when you close on the house, let’s just say you close and that very same day, you start to move in and you walk into the house, and then you find something that maybe doesn’t look right to you. It’s a good idea to know what was either a not covered under this inspection that wouldn’t have been listed or be maybe unfortunately, somebody missed something during their inspection that should have been covered. So it’s a good idea to read the conditions governing this report just to ensure that you’re aware of what was covered and what to look for just in case something was missed. A little further down under the conditions governing this report is three checkboxes and it says inspection of accessible areas of this property indicates visible evidence of active or previous infestation as follows. Now this section should go right along with the section from part A, where the inspector was able to mark whether there was an active or previous infestation. So this should mirror whether there was anything found on part A it should mirror on Part B. So the inspector has the opportunity to say that there was evidence observed and that either control measures were performed, or control measures were not performed. And then as well as it should tell you that the evidence of an active or previous infestation exists below. And then they should be able to list that out. Now directly underneath that you see there’s more checkboxes for active and previous. And then it has the five wood destroying organisms that the report looks for. And in these blank lines to the right, the inspector should list a more detailed description of exactly where the wood destroying organism was found. So let’s just say hypothetically that there were subterranean termites found there were active ones, and the company did not provide any control measures. So they would check the boxes up here to mirror that, as well as check active by subterranean termites. And let’s just say for the sake of this video, that the termites were found in a wall, near a window seal in, for example, the living room, so the inspector may list out to the right of subterranean termites. The exact location of the activity, window seal on front side of the house and the living room. May be a little more specific than that. And so they’ll list that out. And directly below that is a diagram. So this diagram will actually give you a visual of where that activity or where that wood destroying organism was found in the structure. So this diagram should have it clearly marked. And then directly below this is a legend, or a key that shows you what the markings mean. So for example, if there were active termites found on that graph, where the termites were found, you should see something like S T, and N A, so that should stand for subterranean termites active. Now, if it was previous damage, you would see S T, with a P for previous subterranean termites previous. And then directly to the right of that key, you’ll see the construction type of the home, whether it has a basement, whether the house is on a slab, or whether the house has a crawlspace. And it does say check all that apply, because we do have some houses that have multiple, if not all three of these items, or construction types. So you may have just a slab checked, or you may have a crawlspace and a slab, or you may have all three. On the bottom of form, Part B is another location for the buyer to sign and date. And then directly beneath that is an authorized agent signature with a date of inspection, then that authorized agent signature is just going to be the inspector signature. And then again, the section that allows them inspector to check where the reports need to be sent or where copies of the reports need to be sent. The very last page which may or may not be included in this report is the wood destroying organism and best station inspection addendum. This is simply an addendum form, we typically do not include it unless there is some sort of change or addendum that needs to be done to the actual initial report itself. And it’ll allow for the inspectors name, date and file number. And then as well as any other relevant information that may need to be added. So let’s just say that the original wood infestation report showed that the house had an active termite infestation. And maybe before closing, the company was asked to treat that, excuse me that termite infestation. So maybe the company would issue a or an addendum, and maybe be able to graph out on the bottom underneath the information portion here and show that they treated. So that’s just a hypothetical as to what can be done with this. But typically, this will not be included unless there’s something additional done after the original inspection was completed. So this was just a overview to tell you kind of what the purpose of the official Alabama would infestation inspection report is, and to give the homeowner, someone who’s buying a home or a business or just any property in general in the state of Alabama, to give you a good idea of what each section means. And to give you a good idea of what you should look for. In terms of reading this report. I always tell my customers and I always tell anybody that asks, Please do not go to the closing table, and just sign the paperwork without reviewing the report. Once you sign this and you close, you’re accepting that report. And you want to make sure that it is acceptable before you sign it and before you close on your house. Know that property. homes and businesses can be the most expensive investment that a person can make. Their home is usually their most expensive investment more than cars or any other items that they may buy. So it is important to make sure that you protect your investment. If you’re dealing with any type of wood destroying organism, whether it’s subterranean termites powderpost beetles, wood boring beetles, dry wood, termites, and even wood destroying fungi. Give us a call at Peskies Pest Control. We’ll be more than happy to help you. You have a question about your wood infestation report or your existing termite coverage. We’re happy to talk about that too. Our Montgomery number is (334) 595-9055 and our Birmingham location is (205) 470-8161. We hope that you found this video helpful and if you have any other questions about this report, give us a call today.

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Hey, so today on the podcast, we want to talk about something we’ve been seeing a lot of and that is just creepy crawlies in the attic, anywhere from Asian lady beetles stinkbugs pretty much your too generic that they were getting a lot of calls on. And I think the best thing to talk about what this problem is just that, you know, homeowners always can we seal up the attic, can we still have the attic? No, you cannot seal up the attic. The attic has to live and breathe. You know, as your house is getting hot getting cold, it’s venting. So there’s really no way to completely seal up an attic. So those bugs are still going to be able to get into your attic. So Travis, talk about some treatment plans.

Well, unfortunately, like you said, we’re getting those calls and and tis the season I had a very long conversation with someone about two or three days ago in reference to the Asian lady beetles specifically, but you can kind of bundle the stink bugs into that same conversation because they’re, they’re about seeking the exact same thing. So they’re both seeking out a place to overwinter. They’re seeking out a place to just basically make home until it’s time to go and get back out, you know, in the springtime and whatnot. So, but yes, you’re exactly right. Houses need to breathe. And, and I’ll take that even one step further. Even if you have spray foam insulation in your attic, these insects will find a way to get in. I don’t care how good of a spray foam job that you have had. If you go up into your attic, you know in the late or early fall and going on into winter, you’re gonna find some form of either stink bug or Asian lady beetle, it just there’s no way to either a completely seal up your attic. And like you said, nor should you really necessarily want to because that air exchange has to happen. Or else you’re going to end up with more problems than just insects, you’re going to end up with moisture problems and everything up in that attic spaces which you definitely don’t want.

100% And another thing I’ll say to what we’re getting a lot of calls is ladybugs, ladybugs in the attic. They’re not ladybugs, they’re Asian lady beetles, super aggressive. They bite ladybugs, or just cute little, you know, red bugs with dots on them. They don’t

Well, and I’ll say this too. While we’re on the topic of that. Ladybugs are beneficial. Yes, Asian lady beetles are not

they don’t. They sorted they serve no purpose,

Other than being a nuisance. But the unfortunate thing is, is that if they if you’re seeing them if you’re seeing them in your house, if you’re seeing them in your attic, surprise they’re already there.

Oh yeah, definitely. Well, it’s funny I saw a video the other day of somebody letting an Asian lady beetle crawl on their finger and a bit them

You know, people can actually be allergic to their bites, I do have a customer that is allergic to their bites and and so you know, they, they definitely are more concerned about the Asian lady beetles than the average homeowner, and rightfully so. But like I said that they’re so small, and adapted to getting into these little tight places, and they want to go live in your wall voids and in your attic. And and if you start seeing them in your house, they’re already there. The the thing that I recommend most to my customers is being proactive, especially in that late summer, going towards fall to try to be proactive and treatment. And what little bit exclusive that you might can do around doors and windows and cracks and crevices that don’t involve completely just sealing out something that needs to ventilate. But being proactive and treatment and exclusion early on to try to keep them from getting in in the first place.

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, I know my house was built in the 70s. And we had the old style windows a couple of years ago. And every every time and this time of year, we just got stinkbugs galore. And we got new windows put in and that you know it was cut down to I mean, almost almost none coming to the windows now we still get some of the attic. And we still have to treat but that just door seals something something as simple as just replacing your door seals if your door seals are wore out, or your windows or anything like that is going to help tremendously.

Yeah, and we do have some other options too. In terms of treatment and products, I did have another customer that actually swapped over from a larger company to us under the I guess under the agreement that I would be able to take care of his stinkbugs and that was a big thing for him. That was really the only problem that they were having was stinkbugs consistently being an issue. And I went and inspected located the fact that they were coming in through around the eaves of the house and getting up into the attic and then coming down to the living space in the attic. We were able to treat that addict with a dust. And they were pleasantly surprised because they didn’t have any more stinkbug issues after that.

Oh, yeah, it’s huge. And I mean, standing behind our work, that’s just what we do. But yeah, I love how you brought that in. So I mean, when you’re, when you’re getting getting in the attic, you have to the dust is going to be the best way because you’re going to be able to get all those cracks, crevices, those voids where those bugs are going to try to enter, and that dust is going to linger. Another great thing about the dust is that there’s no sunlight in the attic. So it’s not going to break down, it’s going to stay there. Most of the time, when we do a treatment in an attic like that for stinkbugs or Asian lady beetles, or ladybugs you know, it, they don’t have a problem the next year, the next year, the next year until that product starts to break down, which takes a very, very long time and the attic or a wall void or anything like that.

Yeah, that product is definitely there for the long haul. And definitely, like you said, undisturbed by sunlight undisturbed by large amounts of moisture, it will be there and it will be effective there for quite a while.

Yeah, and another deciding factor that I’ve kind of found just from from homes with these issues. It’s always light colored homes white, light gray. So I just recommend everybody paint their house black and they probably wouldn’t have this.

Well, maybe so maybe not. I do know that especially stinkbugs to you know, if you go out on a warmer day on the side of the house that’s facing the sun that you get a decent amount of sunlight you may even catch some of these inbuilt insects sunbathing and and there’s a higher likelihood to that that’s the side of the house that they’re going to be more of an issue on you’re going to see them more often. Because of that, that heat from the sun they’re searching that warm place actively so you know they’re going to be in those wall voids they’re going to be in that portion of the attic more so than others. That’s not to say that you’re not going to see them in any other portions of the house because you will but they’re going to be on the sunny side because they like the warm

Yeah. And like said for this for this podcast I’d say the takeaway is just you know, you just if you have this issue going on, just know that don’t go up there and just try to follow them every every void in your in your attic and like, like Travis said, You’re gonna cause a lot more issues than good.

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Hey, so today I want to talk about blowflies. blowflies are disgusting. They’re disgusting fly, they come out of dead animals they come out of poop, or feces. Travis take it away on the discussing both blowflies

I like how you said that they are they are disgusting. Unfortunately, if you find yourself with blowflies, that can mean a number of different things, from the very basic of you have pets in your yard, who may use the bathroom in your yard, and you know, blowflies will use that excrement in your yard as a something to feed off of, and continue to survive. And that’s really gross, even on up to the more harsh things which they typically like dead things dead animals, dead rotting flesh. And so they’ll seek that out and they will go and they will lay their eggs on that. And the larva when they when they come out, they’ll you know, they’ll feed on that and continue to grow until they grow into adult floss so and then they want to come and they want to land on your surfaces are laying down your food, you know when you’re around your house and contaminate those items before you eat them or touch them.

And that’s how we get salmonella,

E. Coli, Salmonella. I think even cholera, just a home just a whole slew of just nasty things that you don’t want gastrointestinal problems that you don’t want. All from a little bitty, fluorescent colored fly.

Yeah. So here on the podcast, we always talk about real life events. So I’ll just tell a story about you know, last week well, right before Christmas, had a customer call, we had done a rodent job for him. She called she flies all in her basement, she had them flying around her TV at night, they were just everywhere. So whenever inspected, and she had blowflies. So we knew that we had an issue with a rodent problem. So we had controlled the rodents, one may have died somewhere around the house. And that’s, you know, that’s the whole point of talking about blue flowers today. Once again, she had 50 of them downstairs, when I had invaded took care of the problem. If we if we still would have had blue flowers coming out after treating it, then we would have known that we’d had more dead animals or potential bigger problem, but the treatment completely solve the problem. So

I even had a customer several months ago that had blowflies is like she woke up one morning. This is this kind of hotel and it but she woke up one morning. And it was just like an explosion of flies very large, all over the place inside her house. And that was what was very strange for us is that there were no dead animals. No dead animal smells. We checked the whole house, we checked the attic and couldn’t find anything. She did have a dog that lives in the house, you know, which would go to the restroom in the backyard. But it wasn’t like there were large amounts of flies that were lingering around in the backyard was just like all of a sudden an explosion of flies in the house. Which we of course, like you said, baited. We took care of the problem. And she hasn’t had any more issues like that since but if you’re experiencing these flies, just like I said all of a sudden overnight, or even, you know the dreaded inward maggots. If you find yourself, you know overwhelmed with not just flies, but maggots, you might want to check your garbage, you might want to check your your yard, you might want to check your walls or your attic or what have you. Because something has brought them there. And that’s why they’re reproducing and showing up.

Yeah, and they can fit at the tiniest crack and crevice. So just your typical window they can fit through, especially if it’s an older style window, your doors don’t have proper seals on them, you’re going in and out, you know, especially taking out the trash or something like that, you know, they can enter in. And then of course, if you have something dead in your attic, or your crawlspace not a problem at all for them to fly into your home or even the maggots to to get into your home and then turn into flie.

And they just reproduce so quickly. One female can lay hundreds of eggs, you know at one time, and where you started with, you know, just a couple over a very short time span, especially in warmer climates. I mean, it can just balloon out of control and balloon to this very, very big problem.

Well, and again, I mean, the it’s always best to find the source of your issue, whatever pest problem you’re having. There is a source. There’s a reason that that pest is there and like I said with flaws, especially with blowout loss. Typically it is going to be something dead inside or around the home. I know I’ve had them in my house before. I’ve had a rat issue at my house before so I had to seal that and get rid of it. But that’s that’s always going to be an indicator of something bigger the flies are are showing you that you have a bigger problem.

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Hey, so today I want to talk about powderpost beetles. And if you have ever experienced powderpost beetles, then you know exactly what they do they leave a fine frass powder on the floor, it’s normally white, yellow, and that is the signs of powderpost beetles.

You know, a lot of the the crawl spaces that I’ve inspected in, in older houses have been prone to having some sort of old identifiers that there were at one time powderpost beetles, and typically, you know, on the floor joist floor members inside the crawlspace, I mean, little holes everywhere. But the key thing there is that powder, that identifier that there’s activity going on, and that usually looks like a, like you said a whitish yellowish colored powder that’s kind of been pushed out of those holes. So it makes like a, almost like a rain down effect on the side of the wood. And that’s always usually an indicator that there’s activity going on inside of the wood in that crawlspace.

Yeah, that’s right. And then, you know, a lot of times people freak out about powderpost beetles, typically, they do not reinvest. So there’s really not, not really a need to just, you know, I’ve worried more about termites and I would powderpost beetles, because we see it all the time. And if they’re if you just see the holes, and you don’t see any of the powder, then that’s old, there’s really no need to worry about it.

Yeah, definitely. Although I will say this, you know, I think there’s some misconceptions out there from people. I had a customer this is back probably a year or two ago, that called us because they had had an inspection from another company. The other company said, Hey, we think you got powderpost beetles. And I assume, I guess that the other company declined to do the treatment on the house. And of course, this gentleman was very concerned about it and wanted it treated. So he ended up calling us and I went out to inspect the crawlspace. And sure enough, there were holes and powder coming out. And the The interesting part about this is the wood in question, the wood that was infested wasn’t the old wood underneath the crawlspace, it was actually new wood that they had put inside the crawlspace that they had recently bought from a big retail store. I’m not gonna say any names on retail chain, but they had just bought it and had it put in and a couple months later, lo and behold, they’ve got a powderpost beetle infestation coming out of the wood in this wood was supposed to have been treated wood.

Well, let’s talk about that. So when when the wood is brought into the sawmill, it’s not invested from from the forest or whatever it’s brought into the sawmill and then that wood is stored. That is when that wood starts to become infested. And they’re supposed to go through treatment styles, they’re supposed to put a type of bore care on it, or they’re supposed to do a heat treatment. But it’s heat treatments just aren’t as effective. And they take forever. I mean, you have to heat wood up for I think it’s 24 hours at 124 to 135 degrees. And that’s just, that’s, that’s hard to heat that much lumber. But, you know, 111 bundle at a time, I guess you’d say?

Well, and you also, you know, with wood, there’s there’s other factors to consider more so than just heat to you’re talking about heat, you’re talking about moisture content inside the wood. And like you said, whether or not the wood itself has been treated with some sort of pesticide or bore a type substance that’s going to, you know, penetrate down inside of that wood and have a long lasting effect. But like I said, I think that there’s just a common misconception that, well, if you go to a store or a retailer, and you purchase wood, well, it’s been treated. So it’s good to go, you know, and that’s not always the case, you can’t always just act under that reassurance that that there’s not going to ever be a problem.

Right. And then but the customer you had that they were emerging. I mean, there was no structural damage done to the wood, it was just a couple pinholes that were that were coming out. So I know you traded it, and typically likes that they don’t reinvest any, any beetles that are emerging out of that are going to die. So pretty easy to fix.

Yeah, and like I said, a good if someone has that problem has that issue in their house with their wood. It’s nothing that a bore a treatment cannot, you know, go ahead and take care of them. And the other good part about that is these these treatments like say with borides products, like board care, I guess or Tim bore or one of those products is that once that wood is treated, I mean that that product absorbs down inside of that wood and that product is there for a very very, very long time. And so it’s not just effect against things like powderpost beetles or other types of beetles, it is also effective in helping to prevent infestation for things like termites as well.

Yeah, that’s right. So I want to talk a little bit to about some miscommunication between people thinking they have powderpost beetles and people thinking that they have are actually having stored product pests. So I know, you know, a lot of the flower beetles and powderpost beetles can be, you know, that you can think you have one in the other.

Yeah, you know, and the other thing that I will say to differentiate is your powderpost beetles are your going to be less likely to actually see the beetles themselves. Most of the time, they’re going to be inside of that wood. They’re very rarely are you ever going to actually physically see the beetles themselves. Whereas a confused flower beetle or other type of stored product pests crawls around a lot of people will have a mis misconception that that weevils are beetles too, or some type of beetle. So you’re usually gonna see these pests. I’ve had a customer that had some confused flour beetles at one time. These things were everywhere, when I tell you the room that had them. They were crawling all over the counters. They were they were they were just everywhere. And actually, they they had bought these like wicker, some type of scent, a material baskets from a home decor store. And then they put these baskets in their house, and then all of a sudden, they’ve got confused flour beetles everywhere. So it’s kind of interesting, but like I said, typically with the powderpost beetles, you just you just don’t physically see the beetles very often at all.

Yeah, that’s right. And I mean, they’re not going to they don’t have a pupa either. So you’re not going to see that that little cocoon up in the in the corner of the pantry or anything like that. Also the powderpost beetles that come out at night so that’s another reason you don’t see the beetle.