Getting Rid of Pests Around Our Home

Where do I even begin with this post? Getting rid of pests around our home with Catseye has been our saving grace. We are so grateful to Catseye for finding a humane and permanent solution to our pest-nightmare. Nine weeks ago, we moved into our “new-to-us” house. Our house is the complete opposite of new as it is actually quite old. Built in 1929, our house has a ton of character. With that character, there are tons of teeny crevices in which pests can hide. Upon closing on the house, we knew that there were most-likely field mice in the basement. (In another post, I will talk about how Catseye took care of that problem for us, too.)

We also knew that the lattice around our deck was broken and that potentially animals could make a home underneath it. We also knew that there were two crawl spaces on either side of our house and plenty of open-space under the top-portion of our deck. When our contractor was fixing the lattice on the deck he had a “holy *&*% moment” where he yelled for us to “Come and look at this!” He found a massive tunnel underneath our porch, and it appeared that the tunnel went all the way down to the foundation and also continued on to the backside of the house. He was sure we had a nest of raccoons, which instantly caused me to freak out.

Learning the sad truth about pests

We immediately called a local wildlife exterminator who came out to our house the next day. This exterminator was NOT associated with Catseye, and I’m only mentioning our work with him as it became a huge waste of both time and money. He set traps and caught a raccoon and a feral cat. It bothers me to have to admit this, but the raccoon had to be euthanized. We later learned that many animals that are trapped must be euthanized- it is a law in Connecticut. I was really distraught by this and knew there had to be a better way. To top it off, this exterminator charged $250 for his initial visit and then an additional fee based on what was caught. His visit cost us over $400, and the he didn’t even touch on the real problem. He also explained that there was no way for him to assure we would be able to get rid of pests around our home.

We stopped him after one night as we did not want to continue to have these animals trapped and euthanized. We also knew we had to stop them from digging at the foundation of our house. What struck me about the first exterminator was that he never actually went under our porch. He shone a flashlight, saw the burrow, and just set traps. We really wondered how this was a solution, especially after he told us he had been out to this house several times each year over the last five years. At $200+ per visit, it seemed outrageous. We knew there had to be a better company out there, and we were committed to finding them.

Finding Catseye and learning about a true solution

After another quick Google search, I found Catseye, our saving grace in the pest department. We knew that getting rid of pests around our home would be challenging. I was able to to connect with the president, Joe, on Instagram. We had a phone call where he kindly listened to me babble about my strong desire to find a true solution to our pest problem and ‘save the raccoons’.

Fast forward 24-hours and Dylan, who works for the company, was at our house helping us develop a plan to stop these pests from invading our outdoor space that we love so much. During our initial visit, Dylan removed the lattice from our deck and was able to tell us that we were most likely dealing with a vacant groundhog burrow. That was good news as it means the burrow was no longer active- no nest of raccoons…yet. That being said, other animals; like raccoons, were passing through and there was really nothing stopping them from nesting in that ready-made burrow. He was also able to determine that the burrow went very deep towards the foundation of our house.

We sat down with Dylan, and he explained to us a true-solution that would be best for our safety, the safety of the animals, and even our wallet over time. Prior to speaking with Joe and Dylan, the only pest control I was aware of was reactive. I didn’t know that there were permanent solutions that would prevent pests from invading our home.

We decided to have Catseye install their protective Catguard around the perimeter of our porch, deck, and crawl-spaces on the outside of our house. We learned that a carpenter would come out and dig 2-foot trenches around any open spaces on our house. Then, he would install galvanized fencing to keep the pests out. This way, no pests would be able to find their way in.

A few days later a CatsEye carpenter, Lauren, arrived to install our Catguard. Lauren cleaned out the area underneath our porch as it looked like it hadn’t been touched in a decade. There were animal skeletons which led him to believe we even had coyotes or bobcats living under our porch at some point in time. Talk about frightening and totally gross!

Installing the Catguard system

Lauren worked tirelessly for two-full days to install the system around our house. Each part of the fencing was spray-painted to match our house and lattice. Every crevice of our deck and house is protected against unwanted visitors. Catguard is a permanent, environmentally-friendly solution to a very common problem.

While you might not be bothered by the occasional pest-sighting under your porch, they can do some significant damage to your home. Burrowing pests can cause cracks and damage the foundation of a house or chew through wires. Did you know that raccoon droppings carry roundworm and rodents can carry diseases such as Lyme and Hantavirus? (So gross, but true!)

What really set Catseye above the rest was the people who work for them. They offer free in-home estimates and inspections. Catseye also develops a customized treatment plan. It was so easy to talk to everyone on their team, and they answered every question with a detailed response. They explained the entire process to us, and we really felt comfortable having them work at our home safely during these socially-distant times.

Our experience with Catseye

It sounds absolutely outrageous to say that we genuinely enjoyed spending time with the pest-control team at Catseye, but we really did! Every person we’ve spoken to has gone above and beyond our other experiences with pest-control companies. (As I mentioned above, we interacted with others in the pest-control business before we found Catseye) As odd as it sounds, we actually enjoyed getting rid of pests around our home. We can say with confidence that Catseye is the absolute best in the field.

Catseye services Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida, and New Hampshire and collaborated with me on this post.