Orkin Pest & Termite Control

I called them in because I wanted year round maintenance and living in the mountains I was having a problem with carpenter ants. I had them crawling all over my walls and I didn’t have any leaks or wet wood. I should have known better when the gentleman they sent out to do the original consult told me that he was called in by an elderly lady who thought she had bedbugs and they turned out to be stink bugs. He said he called his boss to tell him they were just stink bugs and his boss told him to tell her they were bed bugs and charge for that. Ok… Why would you tell someone that? So your boss is a thief??? But stupid me, I went for the contract. They sent someone out to the handle the ants and do general pest maintenance. He proceeded to tell me Ehrlich was overcharging people to treat bed bugs because they use heat to kill them. FYI… I’ve researched bed bugs extensively because I’m terrified of ever getting them. Heat is the way to go. I was told Orkin sprays for them and you should «think of yourself as the bait». You have to keep sleeping in the bed and let them bite you so the poison kills them. And really «just think of them as mosquitoes. They really aren’t that big of a deal». They are NOT mosquitoes and they ARE a big deal. So he then proceeds to spray the inside of the house for carpenter ants. I asked if he was going to take a good look around to see if he could see where they were coming from and eliminate the nest. No, he was just going to spray inside and out. This doesn’t eliminate the problem. I kept pushing for baiting. Everything I read said baiting was the way to go. You must eliminate the nest. He told me «baiting doesn’t work. I don’t even know if I have any on the truck». And according to him once he sprayed, the ants will not take the bait anyway. I told him he could spray 3 sides of the house and I wanted the one side with the most visible ants baited. He found some bait and put it in the mouse traps around the house. Within a week there were ants everywhere except the side of the house that was baited. I had him back again. I also told him I didn’t want any glue boards put down. I hate those things and I have ringneck snakes that I happen to like having around and they get caught on the boards. Inside the house I have cats and I don’t want them getting on the boards either. Not to mention that it is a horrible way to die for the mouse and even worse for a snake. Now you might not give a crap how they die, but I do. I don’t mind them outside where they belong, I just don’t want them in my home And if I have to eliminate them I want it to be the least unpleasant method possible. I open the door to the air handler room in the house, and there’s a glue board. He put «pet safe» mouse traps with poison in them in the big garage. Ehrlich used a solid bait that was locked in the traps. Orkin used little packets of poison. When the mice finished the poison they pulled the poison covered packets out of the traps and left them all over the garage. This is NOT pet safe. How is that even legal??? That is dangerous. So I got totally fed up when I opened my dishwasher and it was infested with carpenter ants. I had had enough. I ordered some Advance carpenter ant bait and some Terro carpenter ant bait from Amazon and started baiting myself. I watched these ants that weren’t supposed to take the bait because of the spraying go crazy for this stuff and carry it away. For 2 weeks I washed my dishes by hand because of the ants in the dishwasher. I also washed the floors everyday to eliminate any pheromone trails left by the ants to the source of food. After 2 weeks I had ZERO ants anymore. They were gone outside and inside. Also, I started to notice that it looked like parts of the rugs in my guest bedrooms were bleached along the walls. Then I realized that the bug spray was sprayed in those areas. So not only did I have to take care of the carpenter ants myself, my rugs are bleached out around the edges of the rugs. I cancelled my contract after just a couple of months with them and received a phone call several months later asking why. I explained why. I was told they had «fired a lot of people and if I wanted to use them again I could get a discount on my monthly bill». No thanks. I’ll do it myself. And if I need further treatments I will call Ehrlich again. Yes, they are more expensive. But they are thorough, friendly and seem to love their job. In fact, recently I had to call them. You can read my review of that experience if you like on the Lebanon Ehrlich branch.

I got a free consult with someone and they were so sweet! I have Bill coming out on Saturday to fix my problem. Pricing is affordable and I cannot wait to continue service with them.