This may be the dawning of the Age of Design, move-up buyers are in their seventh house, and urban chic is aligned with sophisticated elegances, but I have an admission to make. My clean-lined interior had mice.
The first sign was a subliminal blip on the household maintenance radar — half the fringe on my lovely wool Berber seemed to be missing and not in a typical pattern of wear and tear.
Next were the not so subtle pellets, bits
of compost appearing mysteriously in odd places, and abstract drawings etched in potatoes with tiny sharp teeth.
I thought about my options — borrowing a cat, buying some poison, or moving — and ultimately settled on mousetraps, the humane kind with a spring lock and a trap door. They were kitted out with cheese for several days, but each morning, the cheese was gone. So was the mouse.
I asked around. Try peanut butter suggested one friend. Try jelly beans said another. Try the real mousetraps said a third, making a throat-cutting motion with his right hand.
Since it was around the same time that rats started showing up on my, um, lush exterior, I gave up the DIY efforts and called an exterminator. Several actually, since not everyone does mice and rats, and most specialize in either insects or animals.
True to its name, All-Pest Control ( www.allpest.ca) handles everything and owner Kim Bryson admitted he’s run off his feet lately; he’s definitely noticed an increase of pests in the past few years, including hornets, carpenter ants and spiders. It has nothing to do with personal hygiene and everything to do with global travel, apparently, which introduces critters from other countries through the lowly suitcase. And climate change, which has brought increased humidity. Bugs love it warm and moist.
Unfortunately, these changes occur while governments grow tougher on pesticide use, thereby limiting the tools to effectively wage war on pests. Take termites, for example. They are rampant in Toronto but you can only use permethrin, which pushes the pests away from the house, but doesn’t kill the colony, according to Aetna Pest Control’s Richard Murphy ( www.aetnapest.ca). There are termiticides in the works, he says, expected to be approved by Health Canada in the next year. But for now, it’s permethrin — and altering the environment of the home.
“Termites love moisture, so you want the driest basement foundation you can make for yourself,” Murphy says. “No wood to soil contact, so don’t stack firewood next to the house. Windows below grade should have cement sills, and decks should be elevated with cement tubes according to code.”
A structural approach reducing the environment’s attractiveness to bugs and animals is the one Bryson favours. He recommends watering the garden only when it’s dry, otherwise humidity levels soar and create a perfect insect breeding ground. And keep night lights off to deter insects.
Bryson also blames house construction. About 85 per cent of his rodent business comes from homes 35 years old or less because they’re not built as well and animals can enter more easily. In older homes, maintenance is key. “When a house is in poor shape, leaking roof, or weak and punky soffits, squirrels can chew their way in and racoons rip and tear.”
Certain materials are pest magnets, like cedar shingles and stucco, which animals can scale and birds can wiggle into. Given that Toronto is the raccoon capital of North America, and they have to live somewhere, chances are good they’re choosing your address.
But when I told Bryson about the pitter-patter of little feet I kept hearing at night, he said it was probably squirrels on the roof, not in it. “If they’re inside, it will sound like a bowling alley when they roll their pine cones and nuts around. And raccoons are even noisier.”
But back to my mice — and rat — problem.
“Don’t even waste your time on the traps,” says Michael Haralampopoulos of Budget Pest Control ( www.torontobudgetpestcontrol.com). “So you catch one every couple of days — that will never keep you ahead of the curve since they have litters every few weeks.”
You can try sealing the house, but “the truth is no house is impenetrable to a mouse,” Haralampopoulos says. “They can scale walls, like Spider-Man, and can get in through a hole the size of a dime.” One thing he says helps is cutting back any overgrown landscaping. “Mice, like most of the animal kingdom, prefer cover.”
Whoever you call, make sure they bait the attic and the exterior since mice and rats are part of the urban landscape, Bryson says.
Professional Solutions
• Rats and mice: These call for pesticides stored in heavy plastic “stations,” which can’t be broken into by cats or dogs and are placed near where the rodents are, either inside or out. A one-time treatment might do the trick, but many companies offer a package that includes a monthly or quarterly inspection, which costs $500 and up per year. It includes checking to see how much bait has been eaten, the amount of feces and, if there’s no activity, moving the station. “If more people did this maintenance thing,” Bryson says, “the rodent population would drop immensely.”
• Raccoons and squirrels: These guys are removed, not killed. Once the entry and exit points have been determined, and closed up, the company installs a one way door so that once outside, they can’t get back in. In the case of a litter left inside, Haralampopoulos says the parent returns to the one-way door screaming, and babies follow the screams and get out. Bryson says that vulnerable areas of the house must be further addressed because animals can smell where others have lived and will try to again occupy the area (attic).
• Lice: These may not go under the category of household pests, but they are a reality of life, and incredibly difficult to get rid of, especially since they are growing immune to the chemicals in commercial lice shampoos. After weeks of going through your child’s hair every night with a (literal) fine tooth metal comb, and dousing their scalp with chemicals, you will probably conclude, as I did, that it’s time for professionals. Lice Squad (around $250) is money well spent and saves time and aggravation.
• Bedbugs: Declared a pandemic in 2011, with Toronto an epicentre, there’s a huge amount of info available. Bed bugs travel with humans and their belongings, says Bryson, so the entire premise needs to be treated after an “extensive preparation by the occupant.”
• Spiders: This year’s infestation — due to high humidity levels attracting more insects — has made me look like an even worse housekeeper than I already am. Not only are there webs in every corner, but small dropping dots that look like small tobacco stains, which Bryson says are almost impossible to remove.
• Termites: Telltale signs include mud “tubes” on drywall and basement walls. Since they eat every bit of wood in sight, act immediately and call in a professional. Murphy says treating termites depends on the level of infestation. “If it’s really bad, you will have to open up the drywall and see if structural repairs need to be made.” He wants to know how the house was built and insulated; insulation like spray or rigid foam, either inside or outside, are real termite attractors. Because termites live in the soil two to five feet down, you need to dig around the foundation, fill any holes, and put chemical into the soil around the house. If the house has moisture problems, waterproofing will need to be done as well.
Alex Newman writes a weekly column for www.yourhome.ca on design and decor. You can contact her through her website www.integritycommunications.ca.
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