In keeping up with new ideas and to keep the ADC forum fresh, I thought it would be a great idea to tell a funny or interesting story that has happened to us while doing our control jobs. One that others would find amusing or at least interesting. We've all had some odd or downright unbelieveable things happen to us. Mind you, this is for something that actually happened. So, why not share it with us.

Show me yours; and I'll show you mine. I only have a couple, but I am a very slow typer and wurse spelr.

Ron Fry

You gpt lots and yuo are nut thatbad of a spelr. I have red yor post befor. you aer to good. now tail us'ns sumpin a bout trapin

yur gyus are bofe tops im my buk.

I see we have some village idiots in our midst.Geez I cant hardly read much less understand what yall just said. LOL

Okay I will start, I charge a "Ring the door bell fee" and then a removal fee depending what is on location when I arrive and how difficult/time it takes to capture the problem, usually another $20 - $60 Dollars.

I had a call for an animal removal one day, showed up at the house and was greeted by a lady cracking the front door only and pointing out into the yard...

"There it is, there it is ohh its awful can you catch it please?"

I go inspect.... "My husband thinks its a raccoon, my daughter thinks its a squirrel, I think it is a bat... Oh be careful young man!"

I get a good look to be sure..."What is that terrible thing", she exclaims.

"uh, mam... its a wig" I say. "Are you sure?" she says. "Yes, quite sure" I say.

I walk back up to the front door and she still will only crack it open out of fear. She slides a $100 bill out the door and says, "For God's sake please get rid of that monstrosity."

I oblige....with a smile reminding myself why I love this job, I reach up grab the wig (it was only 6' off the ground) put it in a trash bag and head on down the road.


I have certainly had a lot of fun over the years and could go on and on but I will take a break and let some of the others tell a yarn or two and add more along as we go.

I like it!!!!

This is a story that was told to me from a friend that has a wildlife business in Connecticut. This is how the story goes as I recall.

He receives a call at 1:00 am or so from a frantic woman. She said her husband is out of town on a business trip and didnt know who else to call.

She proceeds to explain to Matt that there is some kind of creature in her sofa. She was lying down watching tv when this creature began making a noise. She jumped up and moved away from it and just listened to the noise. Then it stopped.

Then it started again. I think it is a rattle snake she shouted. Matt explained that it is highly unlikely it is a rattle snake. She pleaded with him to come over. He explained the late nite emergency fee and she explained she didnt care what it cost.

So he arrives on site and is directed to the sofa. It suddenly begins making the noise again. Now it is after 2 am or later. Matt carefully daunts his gauntlet gloves and carefully removes the cushions one by one.His snake grasping tool close at hand.

As he removes each cushion gingerly he comes to the final cushion. Suddenly the creature makes the familiar noise yet once again.It appears that with all the cushions removed that it still was not in plain sight. I appears it must be tucked down in the crevice along the back edge of the sofa.

Matt uses his trusty snake grasping tool to probe the area of the sound preparing for the worst. Just as he thinks he is ready to react to this snake it goes off again and he jumps back slightly as he feels the vibration against his tongs.

After a brief moment he has re collected his wits and he proceeds once again to remove the snake.He can see a dark object in the crevice and proceeds to grab it with his tool.Out it comes as the lady retreats to another room in the house. Screaming I dont want to see it, get it out of here please!!!!!!!

Barely able to hold his composure Matt walks to the room where the woman had retreated. He said I've got it!!! Oh my, please dont come in here, please dont.Now he is laughing histerically as I am sure I probably would have under the circumstances.

It turns out it was a pager device owned by the husband that was set on vibration. It evidently must have fallen from his belt while on the sofa and became lodged in the back seam of the sofa.
He was obviously getting some calls and of course it was vibrating which is what one of the settings does on a pager when you are contacted.

Matt collects his $250.00 and is on his way after explaining to the distraught woman that regardless of the turnout she still must pay for his services.Some women can be such......diots..LOL

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when her hubby gets home to hear this story and what she had to pay........


This is a true story from the ranks..

Thanks Paul and Bob, great stories! I had a similar incident where a Dr. from India, who by the way was terrified of snakes, called me in a panic when he had went out early one Sunday morning and saw a "rubber" snake lying on his lawn...Ha! Nextdoor neighbors kid left it there while out playing with his kid( who was still in bed asleep), as it turns out. I just charged him for the service call. Another lady doing some spring yard work, was cleaning leaves out of her window wells , when she heard the rustle of a snake. "Sounds like a rattler", she says. Turns out, as I slowly removed the leaves, a small box turtle had fallen into the window well and was trying to get out. I take it that she didn't even bother to look. But the funniest one resently was when I went on an emergency call about a "rat" or some kind of creature that was living in the basement of a brand new home a couple had just purchased. The wife was home with her two small chidren and had seen this "thing" jump into that "hole over there in the corner," as she called it. She said, "I grabbed my babies and ran upstairs and locked the door". Well, the "hole" it turns out was for the subpump and the "thing"?.....Well when I lift the lid and shinned the light, there at the bottom of the tank was a large but very, very skinny Bullfrog! Seems that poor thing had been trapped in the basement, for who knows how long and with nothing or very little to eat, had shrunk to a fraction of his former size. A skeleton in a frog suit really. I would guess he had jumped down into the basement before the house was built and had spent the winter in the subpump hole without anyone ever noticing. They just built the house righr over top of him. Well imagine this woman and her two children sitting on the couch, hands over her mouth as if she was going to let out a scream, when I come to the top of the stairs, this skinny S bullfrog! I don't know who was more embarrased . Me, to have to tell her, or her, when she had to write a check for an emerency sevice call for that poor frog! I dropped him off at the first creek I came to.

Those are both a couple of good ones. Gotta love this job.People can get into a panic so quickly. If they would only been able to watch the outdoor and animal planet channels when they were young we all would most likely be out a of job.

I helped do a "bat inspection" one time for another company in an "walk in" attic. Seems the guy had taken the call but didn't know what to look for, so he asked me to assist him and I said I would. We go out about 5 in the afternoon. Lady of the house says, "There's a light up in the middle of the room on a pull string". But we both had flashlights. As we get to the top of the staircase, I open the door and we both shine lights around the room, looking for any bats or bat sign but also the pull string for the light. Well I see the light and walk over to pull the switch. About the same time I see one little bat hanging on the vent screen. As I pull the cord I say, "There's one Gary", and as if on cue, as I click on the light, the bat flies across the room in our direction, when I hear this blood curdling scream like a some school girl and then a WHAM! I turn around and asked "Gary, What was tha...."? Gary's laying on the floor!
Gary went back to trappin' raccoons.

I have actually had 4 bee jobs this month this May 2007 alone. But one of them I want to share with you.

Well I told the customer I would stop by around sunset and do the job. So he decided he and an employee would just get some beer and wait on me. by the time I got there they were trashed. Stumbling stupid drunk.

I pull up and the first thing the employee says to me is he heard on the radio" That we have maybe 4 or 5 years and all the bees on earth will be destroyed and we will die with them. He asked if I can relocate the bees instead of a kill. When I explained what I would need to do the owner was like "F... it just kill the little buzzers."

I go set up and the employee come on back to harass me even more. He was hollering he came back to "Save the World". I asked where the owner was and he said he left hours ago! One problem it was like five minutes not two hours. He was trashed.

He threatened to wup my azz and if he did not fall and hurt his ankle there would of been more then a few dead bees.This guy was built like King Kong too!



New rule ask customers to refrain from alcoholic beverages if I am gonna kill bees.
I don't need a drunken King Kong ready to try to save the world again. Grin

I seen the guy the next day and he was so embarassed he only remembered he hurt his ankle and not the events that led up to it.

Well thats my lil story, and look out for dem bee's.

I got a call for a mole job several years back in a liberal college town, and I get out there and the lady starts asking about live trapping and humane mole control and all. And I explain to here that there really is no alternative than to trap and kill the moles. So she reluctantly agrees, as there is lots of damage on her lawns.

But she then tells me that we absolutely have to do this in such a way that her 13 year old son won't know about it. She explains that little johnny is really into ecology and nature, and he watches all the nature programs on PBS, and that he'd be upset to no end if he were to know that the moles were going to be killed. I'm thinking to myself, gee, that doesn't sound like any 13 year old boys that I know, but whatever. So the lady insists that we arrange a time for me to come and remove the dead moles when little johnny is over at a friends house, so he won't witness the unspeakable act.

I show up at said time, and sure enough there is the dead mole squashed to death in an Out-o-Sight, and I have it laying on the lawn and I'm talking with mom, when unexpectedly, here comes little johnny and his friend riding up on skateboards, home early. So I'm thinking oh man, I'm going to cause this kid severe psychological trauma, and mom's going to be upset, and I was starting to wonder if I'd even get paid.

So Johnny and his buddy ride up around the corner, right up to where the dead mole is laying, and Johnny looks over at his friend and says, and I quote.....

"Whoaaaa, dude, he's TOAST!"

Nothing so cool as your stories, but had a lady call me today to let me know there was a BEAVER living under her garage. It had dug a hole and made it's "nest" under the ground against her garage....
Do you live in a swamp?
-no
I'm gonna bet that's a groundhog...not a beaver...

Funny how many people don't know which animals are which. I had a woman call me about some moles in her yard. She says, "they're about 3 ft tall when they stand up on their hind legs". Really, I replied. You've seen them? "Oh sure", she says, "all the time, I see them eating apples and pears out in the orchard".

I got a call from a young lady very concerned about her mothers residence, seems there was an opossum stuck in the wall. When I arrived I did an outside inspection, it was a Condo type building with serveral units so it took me sometime to determine that it was sealed up too tight for any noticible opossum entry points. Once inside I interviewed the mother to find out exactly what was occuring... her answer was that the opossum was always heard in a specific location. The daughter shows up frantic and treating her mother like she is...

well lets just say I was not very impressed with the way the daughter treated her mother. The daughter started telling what I was going to do to get the opossum and what I should have already done. You know the type. This went on for a few minutes or so when all of a sudden they both jumped like they were being attacked and screamed. Of course I heard nothing but screams! the plot thickens I thought in lieu of finding any entry signs the actual animal is always good. They told me they just heard the animal in the same location again and I explained my tear out the wall and you get someone else to repair it because I am not a drywaller policy, and that I may not be able to find it even if I tear down that wall. That is when they told me that we needed to just sit quitely for 10 minutes because the opossum moves every 10 minutes exactly. I of course agreed ready for a schooling because I have never heard of any opossum that could tell or keep perfect timing. So we sat, almost with a countdown to doom settingly in over the entire room....

And then it happened... the phone sitting next to me on the desk started vibrating violently and both women screamed, and I laughed at these women so deathly afraid of a vibrating phone... Of course the young lady keeping in charactor blamed it all on the ignorance of her mother, and then complained about having to pay me for the peace of mind I provided them. What ever... I mean after all they no longer have to live in the gripping fear of the meniacle opossum deveouring them through the wall! The young lady was not nice to say the least but her money spends... I did feel sorry for the mother though.

This story of couse is along the same lines as that of the one Bob told, But I thought it was still worth retelling.

.

Be kind to the Elderly! Great story Paul. I had a similar situation, where a woman says every night around 8 o'clock, she hears something "breathing". "It's like someone breathin' real heavy", she says. When she looks out the window, she doesn't see anything. Hummmmm. I kid her, "You don't have a fellow kinda sweet on you do ya'?" She blushes. Well after an inspection inside, I go out side and look out by the window, when I notice a yellow jacket fly into a tiny crack...followed by another and then another. Turns out the heavy breathin' was the wing beats of hundreds of yellow jackets either coolin' down or warmin' up the hive. I warmed them up alright with some Ficam-D....and that was the end of that!

Ficam-D... ah those were the days. Sad to see it go.

People are funny. Ever notice it's the ones that know the least about a subject that do the most talking about it.

On that subject... I was in a farm supply store a few days ago and came across a couple guys talking "coons". One of the guys was preaching about coons and that they must dip their food in water because "they have no saliva glands". Wow, that's a classic myth, but he was willing to bet his car or house he was right. I quickly advised him to refrain from such a bet, and a little educating was in order. Coons are a likely rabies host, and the salivary system is the primary "avenue" for the virus to spread. The saliva is the first thing checked for the rabies virus when testing. Sure is amazing how many "experts" are out there spreading the wrong info.

Ron,
I was not aware that there is a test available to test saliva for rabies. Would you please provide more information on this subject. I thought that the rabies test involved brain tissue/fluids.

Ron Fry

Here's a link with info on testing for rabies in saliva:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1548802&dopt=Abstract

Also, from a rabies information site:

HOW IS RABIES CONFIRMED (DIAGNOSED)?


Clinical diagnosis of rabies in humans is based on the patient's history of exposure and development of characteristic symptoms. To confirm the diagnosis (usually not possible until late in the disease), rabies virus must be demonstrated in saliva or brain tissue. The virus may be identified on the basis of animal inoculation tests or specific staining with fluorescent antibodies. Other useful diagnostic procedures include identification of rabies antibodies in the patient's blood or cerebrospinal fluid and demonstration of characteristic Negri bodies in samples of brain tissue.

Diagnosis of rabies in animals is similar, in most respects, to the procedure in humans, but the disease is easier to confirm at an early stage, since the animal can be killed for detailed brain studies. While new methods of diagnosis in living animals are under study, wild animals are almost exclusively killed for testing. Animals that die after long periods of illness may not have infectious virus in the brain due to the so-called "auto-sterilization" phenomenon. In that event, the tissue or spinal fluid may be tested for antibodies.

Learned something new. Ain't this place great.

Lt Grey wants to hear one of my funny stories, here it is: I was investigating a hole under sombody's porch looking for the stray cat living there, so I crawled under with a coon light and shined it under and looked, only to see the south end of a northbound skunk, tail up and looking back. Left skin on the concrete getting out of there.

Got sprayed in my mouth doin' the same thing ...shouldn't have been talkin' at the time!

I bet you couldnt find any listerine mouth wash to clean up that dirty mouth. LOL

*** Fab u lous!

Someone told a story at a WCT convention years ago in Chicago that involved someone going after a coyote in a culvert. I believe it was an attempt to capture it for some kind of study. I would love to hear that story again, anybody remember it?

Great stories guys. I like to stop in here at the ADC forum once in a while. There is a lot of good info in here.

About the only ADC work I have ever done is groundhogs under Grandmas garage and coons in her bird feeder. It pays good though...Several cups of coffe and breakfast on saturday morning.

When she had the groundhog under the garage he was a real stubborn one. I couldnt get him into a cage trap for a week. Granny says "When I throw out the scraps he comes out and eats them, Why dont you just shoot him?"

So one saturday morning I go over to visit and she throws out some cantaloupe scraps within 10 minutes he was out there in the sun and scarfing down some cantaloupe. He was easily dispatched with a .22 short.

So I realized why he wouldn't have anything to do with my livetrap, she was feeding him 2 - 3 times a day with fruit and veggie scraps right bewteen his hole and my trap. I had to explain that he most likely dug his hole there because there was free food there every day.


Not as exciting as the above stories but I thought I would share.

Maybe this one belongs on the "let's be careful out there thread".
Complacency will get you killed. I was on a squirrel job and needed to check out the roofline and vent boots so I placed my ladder against the rear of the house and up I went. This was an eight on twelve so I thought nothing of walking it as in my past life I have been not only a carpenter but a roofer as well. I have been on roofs ever since Dad figured out I could get a bundle of shingles up a ladder.
I should have taken a moment to notice that this house was situated straight north/south but I didn't. I walked straight up the rear south facing roof like I was walking down the sidewalk. It was only after I stepped across the ridge onto the north facing slope did I realize my mistake. Both feet went out from under me on the algae covered shingles. A quick left handed grab caught the ridge and was the only thing that kept me off the concrete twenty feet below.
It took a half hour of perching on the ridge to get up the guts to crawl off of that one.

I bet your butt will be sore for 3-4 days from gripping it. LOL Feel like you spent the weekend in county lockup with BUBBA>:)

And the squirels chanted in ever progessive manor......Warrior....Come out and PLayaaa...... Heheheh The funniest part is the roofer in yaa...At ease untill you get freeked out.....I was one of them from 81-2002.... So yes LT...The sun did cook my noodle Aaannnddd Sir Bob.....I had Chicken for lunch......want to guess were the bone and wing tips went???????

This is a great thread. I have often thought about having a contest for the best true story by an ADC guy. I am sure they could have better stories than fur trappers

Well, I'm new here, and I've been an ADC for a few years. I live in WNC, near a community called "Bat Cave." (Honest!!)
First, I want to say that a few comments made by my customer may offend a few folks, BUT they were made by my customer and NOT me.
I was called by a nice middle-aged black couple about a bat issue in their house. I arrived, and after a brief discussion about bats, the laws concerning exclusion and when & such, I went about the process of setting up for an inspection of their attic. I was told about the access being in a closet in a bedroom closet. I got my stepladder, my respirator, and other things and proceeded. I opened the door to the closet, and the smell hit me, so I folded out my ladder, and was putting on my respirator. The guy's cell phone rang, he answered it. As he talked, I set my ladder, got my stuff, and just as I was going up the ladder, my customer said, " shut up ni^^#r, I gots Bat Man here!" HIS QUOTE!!!!!!!!!!
I like to have fell off my ladder laughing! I was glad for the respirator, and quickly climbed into the attic, where I sat down & composed myself!!!
We won't get into the prayer circle they put me in before I left that day,,,,,,!!!!!!!

Just gotta love the public.They will entertain you to no end at times.

I gotta tell about Mr. Brown. I recieved a call from an elderly gentleman about a "mole" problem. So I schedualed an appointment for the following day at 9 am. When I show up, I am greeted at the door by this old fellow, (who I later would learn was 90 years "young"). One of the things I noticed right off the bat, was that Mr, Brown had this hugh set off false teeth, too big for his thin face really, but I tried not to notice. (I mean could be me someday....) Anyway, we walked the property and I learned that Mr. Brown used to, in his younger days, wait on the "ground moles" with a shovel and dig 'em up. Well being up in years, that was no longer possible and the moles had over run the place. So, we agreed on a price and I went about my business of "flagging " runs and setting traps.
After an hour or so of setting some 25 mole traps, he had alot of fresh mole sign. I filled out his paperwork and rang the doorbell but then realized that didn't work, so I knocked on the screen door real loud. Took a few minutes but Mr. Brown fianally showed up. After signing the contract and recieving the check, I left with one final word. "Now Mr. Brown", I said, "When you hire me, you hire a complete mole service. You don't need to check the traps, or move the traps or do anything like that. If you want to see some dead moles, I'll be happy to show them to you, if not, I'll just let you know how many we catch each time. If you want the traps moved for any reason, call me. If a trap goes off, you don't need to call me everytime, as I'll be back in a few days. The only thing I want you to do is call me if you see any "new " mole sign where there isn't any traps. That's all I want you to do. But, whatever you do...don't touch those traps"! I smiled, that big ol' smile and we parted ways.... Well this happened to be a Monday morning and as luck would have it , or not I didn't get around until Friday afternoon. It had been one of those hot, dusty July days, in fact all week it had been in the 90's without so much as a cloud in the sky. One of those weeks , you just can't get enough water, regardless of how much you drink! Anyway, I show up at Mr. Browns about 5 in the afternoon and right off the bat, I notice one of my traps is missing....and then I see it sitting beside the porch... So, I think to myself, that's odd but picked it up and checked the rest of the traps. After I run all the traps I go and knock on the screen door( the other door was open). I yell, " Mr. Brown , you in there"?.... Nothing! Knock, knock, knock... "helloooo, anybody home"? Nothin'! As I turn to leave and walk down the steps, I hear that eirey...screeeeeeech of an old rusty screen door. screeeech... I turn and there stands MR. Brown. I say, "I see one of my traps was sittin' by your porch..." He just stares at me. (?) So I say, a little louder, " I SEE ONE OF MY TRAPS WAS SITTIN' BY YOUR PORCH"... Nothin'... Just stares at me...(?) Well, this is feelin' a little strange, so after one more time without his responce, I just turn and start to leave... As soon as I do I hear this raspy voice... "ai,ai, know you told me not to touch your traps, he starts..., his head hung low by this point. Mr. Brown, what did "you" do?, I ask. Well by this time he's swingin' his low hung head, side to side, as he speaks. :"I know ye told me not to touch yer traps but as soon as ye lift that one rat cheer wasa wigglin' and I watched it and watched it and then...it stopped". ( I noticed he wasn't wearin' his dentures but that's a common practice among elders so I didn't think much of it). So I say, "I told you not to touch those traps.... Mr. Brown, What'd you do" ??? Well, he start's sobbin' " well ai wanted to see if'n that mole was in that trap an' ai know ye tol' me not to touch them traps but ye didn't come back on Tuessday, so I waited and ye didn't come back. So, I waited and ye didn't come back on Wednesday and ye didn't come back Thursday, so this mornin'( Fri.) I decided to pull that trap up to see if'n there was a mole in that there trap... and when I bent over and pulled on that trap, the smell was so bad, I gasped uuuuuuuh, and then my teeth fell out and stuck right on that Son%#@*&^#$@ Mole all covered with Maggets! ...I'll never touch another trap ag'in!" Well, I tried not to laugh out loud, but told him, "Hey,I told you don't touch those traps". Well I saw Mr. Brown numerous times over that summer and not once did he ever have his dentures in. I'm often asked if I didn't want to know what ever happened to Mr. Brown dentures. Did he throw them away? Bury them? Are they soakin' in gasoline? Well, guess I'll never know as I didn't have the heart to ask him!

better not be anything south of his belt buckle...LOL...

I have an Native American friend that does the same thing. He gets up in the morning and waits. Does pretty good on at it Too. Me I probaly have a small pond dug.....Just remenberd one...

.Didn't happen to me, but to the neibor down the road.
It a nice middle class country country home that the roads and the traffic have grown around. This 60ish year old man. Thin, straw hat and bibs and hanky sitting in the front yard in a old Kitchen chair.. Norman, as we will call him, sitting there playing his violin untill he sees mole activity. Then pick up his shoot gun and shoots at the mole. Only problem was he live at a now busy intersection. He was in a legal area to poscess and fire a gun.......But, some Sillly passer buyer call the sherrif..Didn't go well!....BUT......It Was quit a sight seeing him sit there violin a playn and that shotgun over his knee.

I sure hope we get some more stories from you trappers.

So a couple of day ago , i was looking in a attic. I left the acsess open. All of a sudden the coon starts heading for the attic acsess door......luckally he vers right and head out of the house though his coon door..Fast forward to the next day.....I box a cage over the coons hole and go in to the attic again to chase him out. This time i close the attic acsess.....Well I chase the coon into the trap and get ready to get out of the acsess.....only one problem ......you cant open the acsess from the inside of the attic....I laughted......LUCKULLY I am McGivver...