Pest Control Roger

I’ll try very hard not to turn this into a rant. I’m trying to limit rants on this blog to one per year. This year it was March’s The Great Depression, and last year it was October's The Ties that Bind. So I’ll try, but it won’t be easy. Yesterday, my brother Rex asked me for another $500, making it a full $1000 that I’d be lending him in the past week. He said that he’s gonna pay me back on the 16^th of this month when he gets checks that he’s owed. My mom Rita said that she’s coming down next weekend to store some personal items in property Chi, the property that she owns but I manage. Then I went to property Alpha after work to meet the pest control guy to find out how much it will cost to get rid of the bedbugs that the Indians have. He looked at me and told me it will cost $550 plus tax. Let me tackle the bedbug issue in this post, then the family issue in the next one.

The pest control guy, first of all, was 45 minutes late and didn’t even apologize for it. He looked through the rooms, looked at the beds, then told me it would cost $550 plus tax to get rid of the bedbugs with two free follow-up visits. I wanted to punch him in the face. Seriously, I was standing in front of him and was weighing the consequences of punching him right in the face. I told him that I would “discuss it with the tenants”. Once he left I erased his number from my phone and then called Narish, the leaseholder for the Indians. I told him that doing it professionally would cost too much, so we would have to do it ourselves. I went to Home Depot and bought one of those bedbug treatment jugs that have that little sprayer. I went back to the property and sprayed through all the cracks in the bedroom floorboards, then told Narish that he has to throw two of the three beds out on garbage day (Monday). He didn’t mind since the beds were donations from Catholic Charities and they can get replacements very easily.

He then asked about getting bedbug-proof mattress covers for the new beds and when I can get them for him. I told him that the bedbugs are his responsibility since it was his dirty ass relatives that came over and gave him bedbugs… then I told him that I would chip in half. Why would I do that if he’s responsible for the bedbugs in the first place? Simple. I live in the basement. There are no sane tenants that would feel comfortable with their landlord living directly underneath them, being able to hear everything that they say and do. It saves me a TON of money not having to pay for a living space (about $6000 per year), so I have to compromise with them from time to time. When I move out of there, however, all bets are off! I’ve known that pest control guy for almost two years now, and the fact that he showed up 45 minutes late then had the nerve to quote an insanely high price for something I can do myself REALLY pissed me off. What’s funny is that he charged me much less last year when I had the bedbug problem in the upstairs of property Chi. He treated the apartment but the bedbugs were still there. It was the tenant that used roach bombs and cleaned her clothes that finally got rid of the bedbugs, so fuck him.

  

So let’s compare: throwing out the beds? Free. Buying the jug of bedbug treatment? $10 plus tax. Buying three new bedbug mattress covers? $150, $75 of which I would cover. The tenants will be responsible for throwing out & getting new beds and washing all their clothes, so I end up paying about $90 for everything. He also showed me how he tracked where the mice were coming from, and he used tools that I could get easily online! With the advent of Do-It-Yourself tutorials on Youtube as well as wholesalers selling the same products that the professionals use, that pest control guy should be grateful that he still gets business! So screw him. From now on if my tenants have a pest problem, ol’ Handyman Roger’s gonna take care of it. I guess this goes along with my pledge to start doing things myself, so I guess I should thank that asshole for forcing my hand. It’ll be worth it in the end.