Evan in Toronto

Thanks guys I simply had to let your landlord know exactly what he was up against. Rats are complicated because they tunnel into structures. I've had to gut whole basements in order to stop rat entry. Just this last summer two basements were opened with both showing open access. My competitors on this page have no idea how many of their dead and poisoned rats we pulled out along the way. One job was particularly interesting. Early last year I was called upon to investigate a rat issue which was downtown in Toronto. The discussion took place as I was going away for a weeks vacation. This client wanted somebody quickly and I recommended another company which could help. Six months later I received a call from this individual and he wanted me to help him since he was still having issues. The rats were out of control now and my referred company which had offered a 1 year warranty had already been there 11 times to simply bait and bait. This client felt sorry for the initial company because he still had many more months to lose even more money on this job based on his unlimited 1 year warranty.
Enter company number 2 which loves to bait and only bait and even says guys that close access points like myself are an embarrassment to the industry. This guy comes in, offers a 6 months warranty,strings his bait together with wire and negatively comments on the first companies work altogether. The second company also came back numerous times and baited and baited. The second company probably still feels that they were successful only because this client never called them back. Instead we took over the job and resolved the issue.
Dominick and I made several cuts to rule out normal entry point areas before it was decided that the only other course of action was to remove the entire interior wall in the basement leading up to the stairs. We could feel the air temperature difference and knew the insulation was compromised.
Imagine an opening in between two semi's that spanned the entire length of a homes mutual ( or so we thought ) foundation wall. The houses had two separate ( looked like a semi ) foundations with a gap in between. These rats tunneled up the open gap between both houses at will and simply chewed through the hidden rim joists. The walls were removed, we filled in the entire 50 foot gap with large boulders,cement,wire mesh and shards of glass. This job took a week to complete and we have not heard of or seen one rat since which was 6 months ago. Nothing was going to stop them permanently from entering this clients house because the area has an established subterranean network of tunnels underneath it which they could access at will at any time.
In the end maybe my client should have waited for me to return from my vacation. Rat jobs are not cut and dry and simply throwing $300 towards at a rat problem doesn't always solve it. I hope this is helpful to anyone out there which is faced with rats. Rats should be taken seriously and I feel as if they are one of the worst possible pests to potentially encounter. Houses have been sold on this one issue alone. Next time you bid on a home take note that if there air fresheners in the basement going off, run!!

Thank you Evan for taking the time to post your review for us.