I examined all the corners of our new condo for missed dust bunnies and considered scrubbing the base boards when he tapped on the door.
"Hi, I'm the pest inspector."
The husky man removed his shoes and the encroachment began. When he peered in the closets, I felt invaded and fought off feeling guilty for my hidden clutter.
"Just one cobweb in that corner." He pushed it off the ceiling with his stick. Darn! I missed that one. "I don't see any spiders, termites, or ants."
"Good." I showed him our outside crawl space and explained the previous owner couldn't find the padlock key.
"I'll unscrew the hinge, if you don't mind." I agreed. "Seen any critters hanging around?"
"No." I frowned. He heaved a sigh and ducked into the space, and then bumped his head while running out.
"What?"
"Something big is under there. Like a skunk or something."
"I haven't seen - or smelled anything."
Reluctantly, he crept through the small door.
"There are several big puddles under here."
I heard a rustling noise like a jack rabbit running through high weeds, then a splash like after a huge trout jumps. I backed up. He resurfaced.
"Biggest bull frog I've ever seen." He chuckled. I hid my giggle at his previous skittishness.
He re-fastened the crawl space door. I accepted the clean pest inspection and listened to his advice for preventing the water collection.
Soon, I said, "Goodbye," to that bullfrog. I'll explain how we encouraged it to leave in Tip Number 4.
Tips:
1. Don't clean excessively. The inspector needs to see the potential pests and their residue. Because I dusted and cleaned before the appointment I may have hidden more problems than the inspector could notice,. Remember, the inspector is not judging your cleanliness. He/she is looking for problems. Don't wipe them away.
2. Listen to his/her advice to discourage unwanted inhabitants.
3. Discuss your concerns about pesticides and request your preferred environmental friendly options.
4. How did he help us get rid of the bull frog? He recommended we eliminate the puddles of water. The rain water drains off a hill beside our property and runs across the sloped common area into our end unit's crawl space. We gained permission from our condo association to build up a flower bed on that side. This helped slow down the drainage without incurring expense for re-landscaping the common area. The pest inspector also stated our Pampas Grass was blocking one of the crawl space air vents. We've moved the plant. It is thriving, because it now has more space to spread out. The inspector recommended filling in the puddles with gravel. With these remedies, we said goodbye to our bull frog without pesticides or trapping him.
Rose Klix is a free-lance writer living in Northeast Tennessee. Her website is at http://www.roseklix.com/
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