Whatever got in came through something. We start there.

A single wasp nest removal is $180 to $340. A rodent job — inspection, exclusion of the entry points found, and monitored follow-up — runs $280 to $550. Raccoon or squirrel removal with entry repair is $450 to $1,600, more when there is a litter to reunite. Bat exclusion is $650 to $2,400 because it is priced off the roofline rather than the animal. Bed bug treatment is $550 to $1,900 per unit depending on method.

In spring before the pups arrive, or from late August once the young are flying, and through autumn. Between roughly early June and late August a maternity colony holds flightless pups, and excluding the adults then traps the young inside your roof. Several Ontario bat species are protected under the Endangered Species Act, so this is a legal constraint as well as a humane one. If you call us in July, expect a containment now and a booked exclusion for the end of the month.

Not far. Ontario's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act requires an animal trapped in these circumstances to be released within one kilometre of capture, so a relocated raccoon is a local raccoon that knows the way back. That is exactly why trapping alone does not solve anything — the vacancy and the hole are both still there. Exclusion and entry repair is the part that ends it.

Cluster flies. They moved into your wall voids and attic in late September and October to overwinter, and every mild spell wakes some of them — they head for light, which is your window. They do not breed indoors and they are not a hygiene issue. The treatment that works is an exterior application in early to mid September, before they aggregate. In February the honest answer is a vacuum and a booking for August.

For rodents, sealing is most of the job and a competent homeowner can do a real share of it — steel wool packed and sealed, hardware cloth, sheet metal at chew points. Expanding foam on its own is not enough; they go straight through it. What you should not seal is anything with an active colony behind it. Sealing live wasps into a wall makes several thousand insects find another exit, which is frequently the ceiling.

Not from us. Unmarked vehicles and plain clothing are standard rather than something you have to ask for. For a short-term rental operator a visible pest control van in the driveway is a business problem entirely separate from the insects, and in a town this size a private household is entitled to the same discretion.

It changes a great deal. Nothing disturbs a colony in a roof for weeks at a time, so raccoons, squirrels and bats become well established before anybody registers the noise. And a heated building standing empty from October to April is close to ideal for rodents — the worst infestations we see all year are in properties opened in April that were closed in October. Exclusion work on a seasonal property belongs in August, before you close it.

It depends entirely on what is being applied and where, which is why we tell you the product, the location and the re-entry interval before we treat rather than after. A great deal of our work — exclusion, screening, one-way devices, heat treatment — involves no pesticide at all. Where a product is used we favour targeted placements in voids and inaccessible areas over broadcast application, and if anyone in the household is pregnant, immunocompromised or has a respiratory condition, say so at booking and it changes what we propose.