October is in full swing and you know what that means – spooky surprises at every corner! What better time of year than Halloween to share some of the creepiest stories some of our Clark Exterminating employees encountered on the job. Reminiscing on these old jobs certainly gave us goosebumps. Beware before you read them, they just might make the hair on the back of your neck stand up!
A Rat of Epic Proportions
The craziest, biggest rodent I’ve ever seen on the job was a huge rat. The most insanely infested job I’ve ever had to perform for a customer would have to be a bed bug job we did a while back. While treating this house we went to move the pillows and mattress but when we started to pull the pillows back, the bed bugs started swarming the entire bed. My scariest creepy-crawly story would have to be when I was crawling under a house for an inspection and when I stopped for a second to look at the wood, I looked down and saw this huge nasty-looking spider crawling up from under my leg.
A Haunted Building
The weirdest, craziest pest I’ve ever seen on the job was on none other than
October 31st (talk about spooky!) in Arkadelphia. We removed over 350 bats from behind the vinyl siding of an apartment building. At dusk, bats were coming out of the building and buzzing our heads as we were working to exclude them to keep them from setting back into the walls. The worst story I have was when I had a customer call with a snake problem. I was thinking it would be outdoors, but after talking to the homeowner she said they were inside! So I had to go through her living room. I found one copperhead and one ground rattler. I caught them, put them in my bucket, and left them to go back into the wild.
Creepy Crawly Critters
The craziest bugs I’ve seen on the job were Innumerable roaches. This was the most insanely infested job I’ve had to perform for a customer. Ok, let me start by saying that I have worked mostly on the business side of Pest Control for 37+ years, so my in-the-field experience isn’t the greatest. My Dad (we’re a family business, remember?) and our Pest Control Manager at the time thought it would be good for me to know what our technicians experience out on the job. Boy, did I learn! We arrived at a home not too far from our office that reportedly had a roach problem. As the technician and I prepared to enter and service the home, this is the advice he gave me as he handed me a hat to wear, “Tuck your hair under your hat, sleeves in your gloves, and pant legs in your boots, and DON’T SCREAM”. Of course, I looked at him like he was crazy and we went into the property. This was a rental property and when a job is sold, we give very detailed instructions for them to clean and prep for our services; however, even though those instructions were given, this place was a mess. The cabinets had been cleaned out, but not cleaned if you know what I mean. Dishes stacked everywhere, both clean and dirty. Clothes and trash everywhere! I had no idea that people lived like this! Now to get to the reason for all of his instructions before we entered the property. We began to service and back then we used flushing agents to locate the infestations and get them moving before servicing the interior of the cabinets. When we opened the cabinet doors to inspect and started using the flushing agent, roaches began climbing the walls like the scarab beetle scene from the movie “The Mummy”, onto the ceiling, above my head towards the light fixture, and out onto the floor towards my feet. Needless to say, it was all I could do not to scream, jump, and run out of the place!!! Then we began moving through other parts of the house to find similar messes and the technician showed me a place he said to always check in the bedrooms: waterbeds! Roaches were nesting under the edges of the waterbed mattress!!! Can you imagine sleeping in something like that!!! That was it for me! I was out of there!
Yikes! Don’t worry, that feeling of bugs crawling up your arm is just the feeling of goosebumps from reading these stories. But, if you’re unsure about the state of your home and potential creepy-crawly pests lurking in the dark, give us a call. No one wants to end up with tricks instead of treats this Halloween.
Don’t forget: we offer FREE in-home termite estimates, so call us today to set up an appointment. Remember, “The Bug Stops Here!”
Little Rock: 501-228-0322
North Little Rock: 501-758-0322
Conway: 501-329-0396
Benton: 501-776-1388
Bryant: 501-847-1388
Jacksonville/Cabot: 501-843-1322
Hot Springs: 501-623-2335
