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The Customer is Always Right (AKA: Sure....)
Sometimes pest problems are relatively easy to manage. One or two visits, some targeted treatments, sanitation, and exclusion recommendations, and presto! Problem solved! Then there are the times it isn’t so easy. Particularly when it seems the customer is working against you. The other day, I was at a location, let’s say it was a bookstore. (It wasn’t, I’m trying to protect the innocent here!) Now, as I was browsing through the bookstore, out of the corner of my eye, I saw

Chelle Hartzer
Nov 43 min read


Itsy Bitsy (AKA: Crawling past summer)
It’s October and that means it’s my favorite season of the year: spider season! Living in Georgia (USA), we are still under siege from the invasive Joro spider . It is actually a very pretty spider that builds big orb-shaped webs. While these are beneficial (I am pretty sure we had next to no mosquito issues this summer because of all these webspinners), they are very abundant. People don’t like them near their structures, and there is the “ick” factor of walking through one

Chelle Hartzer
Oct 143 min read


Bring Out Your Dead (AKA: Blame the humans)
The Black Plague ravaged Europe starting in the 1300s, with some estimates of 60% of the population being killed. It’s a great history...

Chelle Hartzer
Jul 294 min read


Resistance is Futile (AKA: I’m in a bad mood)
I slept like crap last night. I overslept this morning (aka hit snooze too much). I’m going to be in the field most of tomorrow so I’m...

Chelle Hartzer
Jul 82 min read


What Have You Done Lately? (AKA: I got bugs!)
This episode marks my five year anniversary. That’s officially five years of weekly (ranting) writing about all things urban pest related...

Chelle Hartzer
Jun 172 min read


It's Not a Joke (AKA: Flying off the handle)
I’m probably going to get some pushback from this, but I don’t like birds. I admit that birds of prey, like raptors and owls, are very...

Chelle Hartzer
Apr 12 min read


Who’s Got a Dictionary? (AKA: Translators wanted)
My friend and I were having a conversation the other day about the disconnect that can happen between science and people in the field. It...

Chelle Hartzer
Mar 254 min read


Seeing the Light (AKA: Pollen season)
Many of our pest species have seasonal trends. Even if you live in southern climates without much of a temperature shift during the year,...

Chelle Hartzer
Mar 183 min read


Second Mouse Gets the Cheese (AKA: Stirring up shit)
I wasn’t going to do it, but since it’s hit the headlines, and there’s been plenty of …. dubious info….let’s science this, pest control...

Chelle Hartzer
Mar 113 min read


We Didn’t Start the Fire (AKA: Feeling the heat)
I do not live out west where the devastating fires are continuing, and that doesn’t mean I’m not impacted. All of us will be in some way...

Chelle Hartzer
Jan 143 min read


Here’s the Silver Bullet (AKA: They did their research)
Sometimes pest problems are relatively easy to manage. One or two visits, some targeted treatments, sanitation and exclusion...

Chelle Hartzer
Nov 12, 20243 min read


Are You Protected? (AKA: This has been plaguing me)
Rodents have been around for more than 10,000 years. That’s right, we are talking back to the Stone Age when mammoths and saber toothed...

Chelle Hartzer
Aug 20, 20243 min read
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