Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Well, That was Certainly One for the Books!

         Last fall, my grandson started working with me with the intent of taking over my Pest Control Business ( https://www.nfpestcont.com/ ) OK, that's the commercial for this blog post. Anyway, we were out doing jobs on Monday and just finishing up when I got a call from the caretaker at a local Senior Housing project where I have done work in the past (Usually trapping and removing the raccoons with their young getting into the dumpsters in the May/June time frame! Anyway, I told the guy we'd be there shortly. Seems one of the residents had a bird in her wall and the caretaker couldn't figure out how it got into it. We arrive and go to the unit. Sure enough, coming from the wall at the head of her bed was a "chirp", "chirp", "chirp" sound. The exact sound a bird would make! The woman said she'd been hearing it on and off since early last winter, so the bird would have to be able to get in and out or it would have been dead long ago! Stepped outside to check the roof line looking for any hole where the bird might get in and didn't really see much. There was one spot, but that was a long shot. Didn't hear any chirping either. Went back inside. There was the sound again! Went into the adjoining unit and heard nothing. Now, if a bird was in the wall, wouldn't you think you'd hear it from both sides of the wall?
            Went back into the offending unit and started looking around. My grandson got down on his knees (I have trouble doing that any more), and put his head under the little table that was being used as a night stand. He said the noise was pretty loud under there, so could it be a cricket under the dresser that was right next to the night stand? Pulled out the dresser. Nothing! Pulled out the drawers. Still nothing! So I decided to pull out the drawer in the night stand and the sound got a lot louder. All three of us almost simultaneously saw the problem and said "hearing aids". The woman had put her hearing aids in a little bowl in the drawer without turning them off, and the noise was the hearing aids getting feedback from each other. Problem solved! So even though we deal with "critters", it isn't always "critters" causing the problem!