Miscl.- When the customer won't

even return the call and the traps in the attic or inside a house....

I have many thoughts on this. I'd like to hear some advice from others.

I would call the local CO and explain to him whats going on, just to cover myself.

The primary reason I dont and wont set traps inside an attic or home unless I have access or assurance of access upon the initial service call from the customer or custodian.

is the home owner still alive?? knock on the door?

im with Bob J. on this one,,i never set inside a dwelling UNLESS its an empty or vacated home and I have the key. The only way I do it otherwise is to SELL them the eqpt WHEN I set it for a high enough price to compensate myself for the job. THEN if they want me to come back they can PAY me to come check THEIR trap.......if they balk at that you can always offer to buy the trap back when finished at a reduced price. I DONT

I had that happen on Monday. They wanted me to set in the crawl space and something just didn't seem right so I set outside. Well they haven't been home since.

I do have one right now that won't return calls and is about a week late on paying his bill so I will be forced to bring back his squirrels for him.

Yep me to I don't set inside attics usually its not the best place to set up anyway. Now for flyers on the other hand that is a different story.

Im with Bob J

We have been setting traps in people's homes for 22 years. We have never lost a trap that I know of. Let me ask you guys this; if the animal is in the house, what do you do? Tell them to hire someone else.

The reason people call us is because they have an animal problem and many times it's in the living area, or the garage or the crawl space or the basement.

Maybe you guys think this is profiling but if the animal is in the basement, I like to set my trap in the basement!

Very true Paul but in most of my cases the animal got in the home from the outside.

In most of the cases I see the animal still goes outside to find food, frollick around, and play animal games.

I will set inside when the job calls for it. But I am not going to set inside the home when it is a weekend vacation home and I can't access my traps all week long.

If the homeowners 30 year old son lives at home and doesn't work then I can set inside and know at least he will be around to let me in.

...and then you have the young homeowner who wants to "stay across town" half the time and not return your calls and you didn't see this going in!

I have no problem setting in a home. Never had a problem. Been doing so for 12 years. I prefere to trap in the home and catch the target animal instead of catching every animal in the neiborhood other than the one getting in the house.

I quit setting in attics many years ago. My explaination to customers is that the animal wont be looking there for food, thats why they go out.
The real reasion, I had a client who didnt call in a catch report for a few days in Calif. I decided to go by and check traps when they didnt answer the phone. I found 3 dead raccoons in my cage traps in the back yard, and found that the owner and his wife were arrested for running a meth lab.
Another reasion is that people get all wound out when there is a raccoon fighting a trap in the attic, and call 99 times in the middle of the night.

I solved the noise in the attic problem by setting a fine meshed cage on top of the insulation. Sometimes the customer is surprised that they didn't hear the raccoon in the trap. If you use a coarse meshed trap, you'll have more insulation in the cage than under it.

House keys, garage door opener combinations and lock box combinations are all part of doing business.

I got to admit, Mike has got me on the meth lab!

"...but you were the last one in here!"

So far we've been leaving the place in better condition than we found it. (No wild animals)

for me setting in the attic is a night mare. so unless I have young that can come out the attic fan or a animal is trapped because of a hole blocked by the cust or carp I will not set attics. critter in the living space You have to.

I can't meet their schedule and they can't meet mine. it takes longer to check traps and the most important for me is I have entered their safety zone which means they may become shy of not only a trap but also of my odor. Not dealing with Mice eating my baits LOL Out side I can force, back the trap off the hole, set 2 to 6 traps around the hole, and most important monitor the hole to see if the activity is active or she went shy. if there are young (Way the tape is chewed) I can most time after the first time there get a ladder up check re tape re bait and do a complete see what happened in less than 10 mins.

Plus I have have had customers tell me how they ripped off other companies by going up in the attic remove the critter put the trap back and put more peanut butter on the trudle and the tec never knew.

That is why I do not like to charge per animal or use anything other than prepared bait. LOL

The way I look at it is the customers home is a harborage, I always say they are using your home as a hollow tree, and they have to go out for food and water. I like my trap less than two feet from entry or on travel route and if animal is in attic or chimney that trap is on roof. Trap on ground for crawl spaces, porches a positive set is hard to beat. While I have and will put a trap inside home it's the same as all of you have said, access along with issues of bringing a live animal through their living area, baits used that have fruit or nut extracts or ingredients that could cause an allergic reactions in customer or their children is a issue I wouldn't want to deal with. For an animal in the living area of home I don't want to even set a trap I want to leave with that animal,catch pole, hand removal whatever is needed to end it before I leave. As far as catching every animal in neighborhood with traps set at entry point that isn't a issue and to be blunt I don't want to catch any animal but the ones in homes so we can get to the repairs. Animals trapped in attic/home due to roofers or other repair people we will set trap in interior as they don't have a way out, but we do have a waiver signed just for the possible fecal contaminates, urine, escape or issues with reactions due to bait/lure used.