A homeowner in Lee’s Summit used an Unnamed National Franchise to remove bats from their attic in the summer of 2022. They received a one-year warranty. The bats were back in the summer of 2023 and when they called the Unnamed National Franchise, they were (correctly) told that bats cannot be removed during summer, and to call back in August (in the summertime bats are taking care of their young, and if the adults are locked out of the attic the babies will die for lack of care - trust us, you don't want hungry baby bats in your attic that are not being taken care of). When they called back to the Unnamed National Chain in August, they were told that their one-year warranty had just expired.

Frustrated with the Unnamed National Franchise, they called us. We found the very small hole the bats were using (top left photo) – a clue was the little specks of bat guano on the wall of the house (see photo). We installed a one-way door to seal the hole and lock the bats out. When the bats were all out of the attic we then removed the one-way door and sealed the hole. Because bat guano is a hazardous material, we inspected the attic to see if the insulation needed to be replaced – but the good news is that the homeowners caught the bat problem soon enough that the insulation was OK and did not need to be replaced.

The moral of the story here? If you do not want to hire a national franchise, contact us - local professionals who have been in business since the 1980's. We live here, we work here, and we love the Kansas City area.

A KCMO homeowner called us because they wanted a second opinion before spending $18,000 with an unnamed National Franchise having their attic insulation replaced due to mouse droppings.

First, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. $18,000 for insulating a house? We've insulated businesses and churches that cost $18,000 or more, but a house? That sounds very high.

Second, mouse droppings?! Sure, no one likes droppings, but let's be reasonable here: mouse droppings are not hazardous. When we say that bat and raccoon droppings/feces/guano are hazardous, we're not simply promoting our services or trying to scare people into calling us - bat and raccoon droppings are hazardous to humans. The CDC lists those hazards on their website. But mouse droppings? First, ok, yes, make sure you don't have active mice. Then second, sure, clean that "stuff" up where you see the mess - but you don't have to throw out thousands of dollars of insulation in your attic and bring in new insulation due to mice.

As I said, the homeowner called us because they wanted a second opinion before spending $18,000 with the unnamed National Franchise. We offer free inspections for insulation estimates only. All our inspections include entering the attic to inspect for any signs of animal or pest activity as well as evidence of damage, such as wire damage, flex tube damage (very common if squirrels or raccoons are present), etc. Our job is to protect your home. Each technician will take pictures to show the homeowner what was found. We can email or text these pictures to the customer for future reference. 

We went out and inspected the attic and provided the homeowner with a report along with our recommendations.

What did we find? Two little mouse droppings. That's it. This is not what would be considered an infestation, and even if there was a larger quantity let's not forget that, despite any type of waste being unclean and unpleasant, mouse droppings are not hazardous. You don't have to throw EVERYTHING out. Only in EXTREME situations would we even consider removing attic insulation because of a mouse infestation. 

The homeowner called us up later in the day, expressing appreciation for the professionalism and expertise demonstrated by our technician, and saying that they are ending their business relationship with the unnamed National Franchise and will only call us in the future for any type of pest or animal control need.

What's sad about this situation is that this is not an isolated instance. We've heard and seen this before. It's too bad that not all businesses choose to conduct themselves in an ethical and honorable fashion. Whether the franchise was simply being greedy and purposely trying to take advantage of this homeowner, or whether the franchise innocently thought that mice droppings were hazardous and doesn't know what they are doing - neither one of those bodes well for the franchise.

For us? What more can we do besides be here, and available. We're continuing to conduct business the way we have for over 30 years. We might be considered "old school" because we're not greedy and are not quoting high prices for unnecessary work and have spent years studying and gaining knowledge and experience in this arena, but we believe that, in the long run, this is the proper way to do business.

Here are some photos from another Lee's Summit house of an attic access hole that was missed by another company. The area had already been patched and flashed and "looked good". However, looks can be deceiving and, as you can see from the photo of our technician's hand, a significant gap was still present, allowing animals access to the attic.

While we’re all human, and anyone can make a mistake, but this is a good example of why many of our customers prefer to use us, local professionals, rather than a national franchise.

Honeybee problems are rare, but they happen. There are over 400 species of bees local to the Kansas City area, with 3 invasive European honeybee species also present. Bees can create colonies within soffits, as well as within or behind brick or stone chimneys. Any cavity within a natural or manmade structure can be used by the bees to create a hive.

This particular job was in Raymore, MO. Bees had gotten inside a brick chimney through loose mortar, and, over the course of several years, had built a good-sized hive. The bricks had to be removed so we could safely remove and relocate the hive. What!? We removed and relocated the hive? We didn't just blast the bees?! Remember, we have a biologist on staff here at Catch-It and we've said that we care about our ecosystem -- those words are not just meaningless "marketing talk". The fact is that bees are an important part of our environment and ecology --- bees are so important that life as we know it would not be the same without them. We try to preserve honeybees anytime we can. While, frankly, it is not always practical or feasible to preserve them, we do try.

Back to our story... After removing and relocating the bees our next focus was on cleanup. All remaining pieces of the hive, as well as honey, has to be removed to prevent other insects from creating more problems in the future.

Once the clean up was complete we used a special sealant to block the odor to prevent any future infestation (photo below).

The final step (not pictured, and we're kicking ourselves for not getting a photo as it looked so good!) is to seal any vulnerable points of entry to prevent a future bee infestation and repair anything necessary related to the project. One of the benefits of choosing Catch-It is that we provide repair services - which saves you the hassle of locating a contractor to handle a repair project. In this case, we reinstalled the brick to repair and seal the chimney.