First Impressions

If you have a store or business, you might be interested in our new STOREFRONT SPECIAL.

As a small business owner himself, Ross knows how important the entranceway to a business is to customers. He also well remembers how tough it could be sometimes to bring in more $$ than you put out.

Which is why he will spray your small business' entranceway and signage to prevent spiders from ~decorating~ them for the rock bottom price of only $25 for a typical entrance.

Make a clean first impression by calling Cottage Country Pest Control at (705)534-7863 now.

Current pests

Hmmm...we have moved on from spiders and mice this week and now it seems that people are stopping by to look for solutions to geese and cockroaches in cottage country Ontario.

Personally, I'd rather have the mice!

....than cockroaches anyway. Cottage Country Pest Control is able to help you with either of those issues though.

Cockroaches are fairly straightforward - they need to be treated as soon as you notice them (after all, who wants to live with them?!) so that they don't get too busy making more cockroaches and become more difficult to treat. Partly, that's just good management - but if you need any more motivation to call sooner rather than later, also keep in mind that fixing emerging problems is a LOT cheaper than dealing with pests once they are entrenched.

Geese are rather more complicated to deal with ... but hey, at least they stay outside. That's definitely a good thing, considering what a mess they make. And usually, it's that mess that people really are perturbed about. Geese are protected in Ontario - which means that Ross will not do anything that will harm them.

He can and will clean up the mess they leave for you, though. And he is also very knowledgeable about how to create a less attractive environment (for the geese, not for you) so that the geese will eschew your particular property and go elsewhere.

I can attest to the fact that his approaches work - our waterfront attracts the odd blue heron and red winged blackbirds. The only geese we see are usually feeding at our neighbours'. We like it that way. We did used to have some issues with goose poop on our dock, but now Ross has solved that one too.

As soon as I'm done my summer school courses - next Friday, FINALLY - I shall get back to work on the website and put up pages for roaches, geese, and whatever other critters I haven't got done yet - oh - I still have the bedbug page to post too. That one is all but done but not yet up. I need more hours in my days - or more days at home; that would work too.

One more week in Peterborough and then I'll head back to Victoria Harbour for the rest of the summer. I can't wait.

Cottages: Spiders & Mice

Judging by the search terms that are showing up both here and on the Cottage Country Pest Control website, the big issues in cottage country these days are spiders and mice.

They seem to be about tied for the number of searches.

This is a good time of year for spraying for spiders - by having your first spray done early, you get them under control BEFORE the start making hundreds or thousands of babies, and before their make your cottage LOOK messy by ~decorating~ it with their webs. All of which can mean that you will be more likely to only need 2 sprays rather than 3 to keep them under control all season.

If you wait until they've had time to procreate, you're more likely to need an extra spray. Why wait? The early bird gets the savings!

If you have specific questions, please do feel free to ask - either here in a comment, or via email. Or you can call Ross at (705)534-7863.

Off to Victoria

Well - the blogger half of Cottage Country Pest Control is flitting off to Victoria BC in the morning .... I'll be gone for a week..... fortunately, the pest control half is staying home in Victoria Harbour ON and will be around to handle any pest control problems in Huronia, Simcoe, Muskoka....

Our main website can be found at ccpestcontrol.com - if you are in Central Ontario and have bats, roaches, bedbugs, spiders, rodents or any other undesirable critters that you'd like relocated or eradicated, please do call Ross at (705)534-7863.

Why the heron?

A couple of people have asked why 'a pest control company' (you can imagine the tone and probably be pretty close) would choose to use a heron as a logo.

Do we consider them pests that we want to get rid of?

Of course not! The heron in the picture is OUR heron - it flies in to feed on our waterfront almost every evening. Unlike many of our neighbours, we leave a buffer zone between the lawn and the water ...which means we get the heron and they get the geese (and copious amounts of goose poop). We much prefer the heron.

Ross has been interested in environmental issues since long before going green became popular. He has spent a lot of time reading, researching, experimenting.... and yeah, when he was first offered a job working for a pest control company, he had some concerns about that.

But the thing is that when pest control is done properly, it does not have to be damaging to the environment. In fact, using a pest management company like Cottage Country Pest Control can be less damaging than the do it yourself approach.

Insects develop resistance to pest control products - repeated use of ineffective DIY products is a lot more likely to facilitate that than professional products applied by professionals.

The key, in Integrated Pest Management (IPM), is to use the least intensive product or technique that is available. A lot of pest control companies use the buzzwords - and it is highly unlikely you would find one, these days, that doesn't claim to be "environmentally responsible".

Truth is though, that for many of them, that means they'll tell you that the product they use is safe because it is "made from chrysanthemums", spray, and be on their way.

For Ross, that's just not good enough. When there are nonchemical approaches that can be used to minimize pest infestations, he will happily recommend those.

He's working, right now, for example, on developing good strategies for convincing geese to go elsewhere - no chemicals involved at all. He is also specializing in bat management, because that is another area where he can make a difference without chemicals.

Of course there are times when spraying is the best line of action - spiders like to be near water, for example, and to control them generally means spraying. But he will NOT allow spray to end up in the lake/river (unlike some companies I could mention). And he will NOT spray if there are other alternatives, nor will he sell you on 5 sprays per season when 2 or 3 will do.

Well established infestations of critters like roaches, fleas and bed bugs often require spraying to
get them under control - and Cottage Country Pest Control will provide those services. But then we'll also let you know what you can do to avoid further problems.

Why use our heron as the logo for Cottage Country Pest Control?

Because we love living on Georgian Bay.

We love our heron.

And we are committed to managing our business - and your pest problems - so that the heron will be around for many years to come.