Episodios

  • The Heat is On: Managing Alabama’s Summer Pests

    The Heat is On: Managing Alabama’s Summer Pests
    Apr 7 2026
    Welcome to another episode of the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, where we dive into the “full force” emergence of Alabama’s most annoying insects as the weather warms up. In this episode, Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin discuss everything from the “prehistoric” look of moisture-loving earwigs to the high-altitude difficulty of treating wasp nests in home eaves. Whether you are dealing with a “nightmare” yellow jacket infestation in your walls or looking for a 100% guarantee to keep fire ants out of your yard for an entire year, we have the professional solutions for whatever “ails” your home this summer. Watch this on YouTube! Podcast Transcript:Michael Wienecke: All right, so what are some summertime pests that you have seen that have just been—or coming up summertime pests?Travis McGowin: I mean, the summertime gets everything moving. Everything from roaches, crickets, silverfish, earwigs—I mean, a lot of things that we just haven’t seen throughout the fall and winter months or hadn’t had any issues with. It’s now like they’re all coming out in full force again. I mean, not even to mention, you know, mosquitoes—we’re already seeing those, and it’s only halfway through March yet, so.Michael Wienecke: I’m just glad that the Asian lady beetles are starting to kind of—kind of go away.Travis McGowin: Are they? Are they, though?Michael Wienecke: Well, you know, there’s a lot of videos out there about—about them, so I don’t know if they’re going away, but it—at my house, they’re going away.Travis McGowin: I still have a couple lingering here and there. A lot of them have died, personally, here in my office. I’ve got a couple still crawling around on the ceilings, it looks like, but I have a very large amount on the floor that are dead. So, but they’re getting annoying, still.Michael Wienecke: You know what my favorite pest to treat in the summertime is?Travis McGowin: You have a favorite pest. What’s that?Michael Wienecke: Favorite pest.Travis McGowin: What’s that?Michael Wienecke: Earwigs.Travis McGowin: Why earwigs?Michael Wienecke: Because earwigs are a moisture problem, and most people—it’s kind of crazy because like, we look in our forums and stuff off Facebook and all that, and people post earwigs all the time and they don’t know what they are because they’re—they look prehistoric, you know.Travis McGowin: Well, you know where they get their name from, though, right?Michael Wienecke: Oh yeah, yeah.Travis McGowin: Yeah, so for those listening that may not know where an earwig gets its name from, it was thought years and years ago that the earwigs would burrow into people’s ears to lay their eggs. And so there was this—this unfounded fear, which is—don’t get me wrong, any type of insect has the potential to crawl in your ear. I mean, you do enough research online, you can see where people have roaches—Michael Wienecke: Ugh, roaches, yeah.Travis McGowin: —spiders and stuff.Michael Wienecke: That was like my biggest fear when I found that out. Of like a roach just flying into your ear and like you having to go to the hospital and get it removed. I’d just be like, oh, that’s disgusting.Travis McGowin: Right, right. And from what I understand, having something crawling around inside your ear canal is not comfortable by any means. But any—any roach or earwig or whatever insect that’s small enough can go into your ear canal if it gets the opportunity to. But like I said, the—the idea was that that was where they went and laid their eggs, and they would hatch inside your ear canal, which is just not true. But, I guess the name stuck.Michael Wienecke: Well, I just think they’re cool. I mean, you know, they’ve got those little pin—pinchers on the back, and they actually do work. I mean, if you put your finger in, they can pinch you. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s just—they’re just cool little creatures, and when they get in people’s houses that—that typically don’t see them, it’s—it’s just something new to them.Travis McGowin: Well, and rarely—the—the pinchers themselves are not typically used as a defense mechanism for them. They’re actually used to hold their whatever food they have—um, to consume, is more what they’re used for, actually.Michael Wienecke: Yeah, which is really cool. So, like I said, it kind of looks like a prehistoric scorpion to me.Travis McGowin: Well, we have those too. We have scorpions too here in Alabama.Michael Wienecke: We do not see a lot of scorpions, but we do, you know, every now and then we’ll get a house, especially one that’s had a lot of—um, you know, like unearthed—like they’re doing some kind of landscaping or something like that, we’ll typically see some invasions of scorpions inside homes. What’s your least favorite pest to treat?Travis McGowin: Uh, clarify the question a little bit more for me. So when you say ...
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    24 m
  • Listener Deep Dive: Reviewing Laura’s Infestation (Part 2)

    Listener Deep Dive: Reviewing Laura’s Infestation (Part 2)
    Mar 23 2026
    In this Peskies Pest Control Podcast episode, hosts Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin assist a Georgia homeowner, Laura, with a persistent Asian Lady Beetle infestation. We explain that these “occasional invaders” swarm southern-facing walls in autumn to overwinter, often returning to the same structures due to lingering pheromone trails. To address the problem, we recommend an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy that combines structural exclusion—sealing cracks and poor door seals—with the application of insecticidal dusts in wall voids and fast-acting liquids on high-activity exterior surfaces. While Laura was previously told that vacuuming was the only solution, the Peskies team asserts that a professional protocol can achieve a 90% to 95% reduction in the beetle population. Watch this YouTube Video! Podcast Transcript:Michael Wienecke: All right, so here today on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we have got a guest—Laura from Georgia. She put a form out on our online fill-out form and said her issue, what she was having an issue with. No one in Georgia could take care of it. Saw a YouTube video that Travis and I had made, and so she came, she wants to come on the podcast and just talk about this issue, which is Asian Lady Beetles. So here she is.Travis McGowin: All right. Welcome, Laura.Laura K: Thank you! Nice to be here.Travis McGowin: So Laura, we understand that you’ve got a pretty extreme—I was about to say German cockroaches! We were talking about those earlier—but Asian Lady Beetles. I mean, who knew? Now is this your first run-in with them that you’ve ever really had?Laura K: Yes. I’ve never had them—you think they’re ladybugs until you have hundreds or thousands of them and they bite, and you know that’s not a ladybug.Michael Wienecke: Did you have any reaction to the bite?Laura K: No, just hurts. And they’re not aggressive; they just bite if they get stuck, like under a sleeve or something, but it’s still not good.Travis McGowin: Now have you been in Georgia your entire life or…?Laura K: No, I grew up in Virginia… in rural Virginia, so I’m used to bugs and rural areas. And then lived in New Jersey for 10 years, and then we got cold and it was expensive, and we moved to Georgia in 2004. So we’ve been in Georgia since then.Travis McGowin: That’s pretty impressive though that you’ve lived several different places and still up to this point haven’t really had any kind of run-ins with these things. And it feels like—Michael, see if you agree—but I do feel like now over the last probably four or five years, they’ve actually seemed to be getting worse. That’s just from my take on how many I’ve treated and seen. Would you agree with that?Michael Wienecke: 100%. Me and my wife went to Georgia, I do not know exactly where, but it was very similar to your pictures of your home—beautiful home by the way, up in the mountains and all that—but we were bombarded by them. My wife, obviously, it’s not something that… they controlled them a lot better than what was outside than what was inside the condo/cabin where we were at. So I think they were doing something. But yes, like Travis said, we’ve had such hot winters. It’s just been extremely hot winters and we normally see a much larger pest infestation or we start seeing a lot more aggregation of pests inside homes in the summer.Travis McGowin: So these Asian Lady Beetles, they fall under a category in our world of trying to overwinter in a warm place. They’re one of a couple—you’ve got Asian Lady Beetles, you’ve got the Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs…Laura K: Stink bugs are all there too, yeah.Travis McGowin: Right, absolutely. So they come into September, October, they start to look for a place to overwinter and ride out the potentially colder weather, which in Alabama we’ve had like three days of cold weather and the rest has been miserably warm or humid. And I’m sure North Georgia might be better, but Georgia itself is probably not too far off base of what we’ve been seeing.Laura K: No, it’s been a mild winter, yeah.Travis McGowin: Yeah, they creep in and they just try to take over. They’re just looking for a place to hang out and they come in droves.Laura K: They do. They fly, yeah.Michael Wienecke: Well, they’re called occasional invaders for this reason, that they come in right around that time and then they drop off at a certain time, and then the next year they come right back.Travis McGowin: Right, so, but from what we’ll discuss and from what you’ve experienced, I feel like come next season for these pests, you’ll probably be a lot more well-equipped to deal with them, especially having some understanding about what it is you’re dealing with.Laura K: I hope so. I’ve got… that’s why I wanted to talk to you guys about it, but also just to come up with a plan for the next six months to start the prevention because I ...
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    39 m
  • Listener Deep Dive: Reviewing Laura’s Infestation (Part 1)

    Listener Deep Dive: Reviewing Laura’s Infestation (Part 1)
    Mar 6 2026
    In this episode of the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin begin a multi-part investigation into a severe Asian Lady Beetle infestation at a listener’s home in North Georgia.Through a detailed photo analysis, the team identifies critical vulnerabilities in the home’s design, including its wood siding, metal roofing, and sunny exposure, which create a perfect environment for beetles to “overwinter”. The discussion highlights how specific entry points—like gaps in vaulted tongue-and-groove ceilings and unsealed double doors—allow thousands of beetles to bypass local “un-treatable” labels. This first installment focuses on why these pests are attracted to specific structures and the importance of an “ounce of prevention” before the autumn migration begins. Watch this video on YouTube! Podcast Transcript:Michael Wienecke: Hey, so here on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we are talking today—we had a listener from one of our YouTube videos about Asian Lady Beetles. She reached out to us. Travis, read exactly what she said. She’s been having this problem for quite some time.Travis McGowin: Right, and to give people just a little backstory on that, basically, we have an area on our website that allows people to submit contact cards and ask us to basically reach out to them. And so, Laura had actually sent in a contact card through our website and this is what it said:“Hello, I know we’re outside of your service area as we’re in Georgia and you’re in Alabama, but I watched your YouTube videos on Asian Lady Beetle infestations and it was the first thing that gave us real hope. We have a home here and can’t find anyone locally willing to tackle the problem. Everyone just says that there’s nothing that can be done. After seeing your approach, it seems like someone should be able to help. If you have any guidance, referrals in North Georgia, or even offer remote consulting, we’d truly appreciate it. Thanks so much for any direction you can provide. We’re desperate. Thank you, Laura.”Michael Wienecke: First off, we are flattered that somebody would reach out that far and ask about some of these problems with Asian Lady Beetles. So, she sent us a ton of pictures, so we were just going to kind of go over each picture that we see and go from there.Travis McGowin: Right, so she’s got the pictures that she emailed us. We’ve got them uploaded and we’re just going to talk through kind of one by one. Maybe anybody watching—obviously, if you’re listening, you won’t be able to see the pictures—but you’ll hear a description. If it sounds like something, maybe a condition or maybe similar to the way that your home is built, maybe it can kind of give you some insight and some guidance as to some ways that you might could help lessen the problem, prevent the problem. They do seem like they’ve been a lot worse this year than in the last couple years. We’re still having people with issues around here, and we’re almost to the end of February.Michael Wienecke: Well, it’s all about the seasons, too. I mean, we’ve had extremely hot weather.Exterior Analysis: The “Sunny Side” AttractionTravis McGowin: Right. So, I’m going to go ahead and pull us off the screen here and we’re going to look at the first picture—the outside of the house first. Obviously, a two-story house, porch, looks like there’s kind of a non-enclosed carport type area there. Looks like it may even—almost looks like a fireplace right there in the middle.Michael Wienecke: Yes, right there. The little white recessed—Travis McGowin: Right, and I see obviously the chimney has two stacks on it, so it may have an indoor and an outdoor fireplace, I’m not really sure. But, you know, based upon what we’re seeing, the house has wood siding. Go back to that other picture. So, let’s just talk about—she’s having issues with Asian Lady Beetles. With this first picture that I already looked at, I can already—I’ll bet it’s the front right-hand side of that house right there where the sun’s shining on it.Travis McGowin: Well, yeah, that’s usually point number one. The vast majority of the people that have a problem with Asian Lady Beetles end up having a problem specifically on the side of the house that receives the most sunlight. The reason for that is because these beetles are looking for a place to overwinter to stay warm throughout the colder weather, and obviously they’re going to be drawn more towards a place that has sunlight because it’s warmer.Michael Wienecke: Yep, the metal roof too. I mean, it’s going to be hot. And also, how sealable is a metal roof?Travis McGowin: Especially with the textures and the different—I guess it’s corrugated surface of it—you’re going to have gaps. It’s not like it’s a flat piece of sheet metal. So, if there happen to be any gaps underneath that metal—a lot ...
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    30 m
  • The Camper Red Flag: A Bed Bug Nightmare

    The Camper Red Flag: A Bed Bug Nightmare
    Mar 3 2026
    In this podcast episode, Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin from Peskies Pest Control share a startling story about a family who purchased a home only to find a massive bed bug infestation waiting for them. The sellers had actually been living in a camper on the property to escape the bugs, a major “red flag” that was unfortunately missed during the buying process . After the homeowners were let down by a liquid spray treatment that offered no warranty, Peskies stepped in to solve the problem using high-intensity heat. By raising the home’s temperature to 160°F—effectively turning it into an oven—they were able to pull the insects out of the woodwork and eliminate them for good . The episode concludes with a reminder to “buy once, cry once” by investing in reputable inspections and choosing companies that stand behind their work with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Read more about this in our blog post! Watch this vlog on YouTube! Podcast Transcript:Michael Wienecke 0:00 It baffles me that somebody can say they can get rid of bed bugs in one setting with a spray. So just tell me go back over that.Travis McGowin 0:14 All right, right, so we did a bed bug job yesterday. Super nice family. They bought a house. I think it’s been about eight to nine months ago. They, from what they advised to me, that has not been a full year. So they bought this house, and they kind of told me it probably should have been a bit of a red flag when they bought the house, because the previous owners of the house were not living in the house. They were living in a camper in front of the house.Michael Wienecke 0:46 You know, if there were any signs, that would have been the sign.Travis McGowin 0:52 Right, that one definitely, probably would have, would have been like a, you know, a bit of a red flag. It’s like, okay, so you have this house, as opposed to this camper. And maybe, you know, I could get that maybe, if you were doing, like, some serious remodeling or something like that, but, but evidently, they weren’t. So you have this, this house, you know, this three bedroom, one bathroom house, and then you have the people selling it, and they’re not even living in it, but they’re not renovating it, they just don’t want to be in there. So, I mean, that’s at least what I can assume. So anyway, they bought this house, and then come to find out, all of a sudden, they have bed bugs. To their knowledge, they never had them from wherever it was that they were living. So it’s very unlikely that they that they moved and brought something with them. So they move into this house, all of a sudden they have bed bugs. One of the local companies in their area where they live doesn’t touch bed bugs, but they did recommend a gentleman to come and treat them. Claimed that this gentleman is the one that they always recommend when it comes to bed bugs, and so they gave him the card. And so they call the guy. The guy comes out says, Yes, you got bed bugs. I’ll treat it for you. And apparently, from what the customer had advised us, did some sort of liquid treatment. I don’t know what the product was, or how he treated, or what he did, but I think charged them, you know, close to $1,000 and then advise them that they were not going to need a warranty, because this was going to solve the problem, and it didn’t.Michael Wienecke 2:32 I would always say, you know, talk to somebody about their warranty, their guarantee. I mean, we brought up that in the past. It’s just, it’s a really important thing, you know, it’s kind of what, what that company is going to, you know, back themselves.Travis McGowin 2:46 Right, and you’re, you’re going to want to do, and this isn’t even just with pest control. I mean, you can use this in pretty much any faucet of your life. I mean, you know, you probably wouldn’t go buy a new refrigerator if you didn’t think that for X amount of years, it was going to be warrantied for defects or, you know, I mean, there any anything you you want to know that a company that you’re hiring to do a service, or a company that makes a product that you’re wanting to buy is going to stand behind that product in the event that something doesn’t go as planned, something doesn’t work out, or something just fails.Michael Wienecke 3:25 Well, unless question to what the other company did. I mean, did they talk about washing the clothes? Do they talk about, you know, leaving everything inside the house when they were doing the treatment, you know, like with our heat, you know, we give you a full list and of instructions of how to get, you know, the house prepped and ready to go for us to have the best chance to get rid of those bed bugs for you,Travis McGowin 3:48 Right, you know, you’ll probably laugh when I say this, but, you know, it’s like we always tell our guys during training, like, Help us. Help you. Like, get the customer. You know, it’s a partnership....
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    19 m
  • Mosquitoes Are Already Back in Birmingham Alabama!

    Mosquitoes Are Already Back in Birmingham Alabama!
    Feb 12 2026
    In today’s episode of the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, Michael and Travis discuss mosquito treatment and prevention for your Birmingham, Alabama property! Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke Hey. So here today on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we are talking about mosquitoes, I feel like spring is in the air. I woke up for the last couple of days with my nose a little snotty and sniffly, and it’s just getting hot. Travis? Travis McGowin Don’t even I’m not ready. No, I’m not I refuse to give up winter. You know, no matter how brutal it actually was at times over the last couple of weeks, I’m still holding on to hope that there’s some kind of residual that’s going to come back and, you know, actually show itself again. Because I, spring and summer are not my most favorite times of the year. Michael Wienecke I am feeling that right now. I was taking my kids to school this morning, and I just, it just feels a little humid out, a little too humid for what it what it should be. Travis McGowin For February. Yes. Michael Wienecke Yes, yes. So you said we were, I know we were talking earlier. You said you saw some mosquitoes yesterday already. Travis McGowin Right, right. I had a customer whose house I went to shortly after four o’clock yesterday afternoon. And as I was getting my products ready and my sprayers to go treat their house, yes, I had mosquitoes buzzing around my head already. And like I said, it’s only February. Michael Wienecke Well, as we’ve seen them, we’ve seen them in December. You know, I’ve been deer hunting before and seen them in a climber so, you know, right there in December, so perfect. I mean, even even in February. Let’s talk about some ways to just help customers, not get rid of them, but just stop them from from being so so bad at their property, far as you know, getting the water, you know, diverted away from their house, like all that kind of stuff. Travis McGowin Right, so, you know, for those that may or may not know, mosquitoes breed in standing, stagnant water. So they, you know, they land on top of the surface of the water surface. Tension holds them so they don’t sink, and they basically deposit their eggs onto the stagnant water. And it can be, you know, as much water as inside of a tire that’s been left there and filled up with water from rain for a while, or it can be as little water as a cap full from, you know, a soda bottle. It doesn’t take a whole lot of water for them to actually be able to reproduce and so it really takes a lot of diligence on part of the customer, a lot of effort on part of the customer to make sure that they do not have standing water sources in their yard, and you and I have both seen it before, these things can range anywhere from, like I said, tires to just trash that’s holding water. Got a lot of customers that live around the lake that cover their boats or their jet skis with tarps. Yeah, the tarps just completely hold the water, and they don’t go drain the water off after a rain, and it just collects and then leaf litter, and that leaf debris that gets in there just makes it even more attractive for them. For a stagnant source, just five gallon buckets full of rain water, rain barrels. People that have rain barrels that collect water from their gutters. Clogged gutters. That’s another big one. Leaf litter and gutters clogs it and it holds water. You know. Just think about it, if you had a gutter on the edge of your porch where you like to go and enjoy yourself and sit out in the evenings or what have you, and you’ve got standing water because it’s not draining Well, the mosquitoes are just breeding right there and then coming down and eating you alive. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Like you mentioned earlier, incomplete drainage in yards. Maybe it’s also an area that not only does it not drain, but it doesn’t get a lot of sunlight, so it never dries out. French drains in yards where you’ve got the drain in the ground, some of those don’t empty all the way, and you just, I mean, you just be creating the next breed of mosquitoes coming through your property. Michael Wienecke Well, that’s what I was going to talk about, hidden, hidden places that people wouldn’t think about. I mean, we’ve seen problem accounts, or, you know, what we’d consider a problem account, where they have a bunch of basins in their yard, all that water is going in there, and it’s hidden. You don’t see all the water that’s just caught in that basin, where it’s, you know, a slow drain and all that kind of stuff. I’ve never understood why they did that. I don’t know why it wouldn’t just be a faster drain, to keep it from getting clogged, I guess. Travis McGowin Yeah, there’s, there’s just so many places that water can be, water can stay and be held in people’s property, and a lot of them can be just overlooked. You know, we’ve got some storage buildings in my yard. I don’t go...
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    17 m
  • Detecting and Defeating Bed Bug Reinfestations in Birmingham Alabama!

    Detecting and Defeating Bed Bug Reinfestations in Birmingham Alabama!
    Feb 12 2026
    Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke 0:00 Hey, and thanks for listening to the Peskies Pest Control Podcast. I am Michael Wienecke, owner and operator of Peskies Pest Control, and I have Travis McGowin. How we doing Travis? Travis McGowin 0:12 I’m doing well, how are you doing? Michael Wienecke 0:14 Great man, waiting on the freezing storm to get here. Travis McGowin 0:19 You know, I all the projections early on were completely devastating, and now it’s like North Alabama. Sorry, but everybody else, you’re going to get wet. It’s going to be rainy. So we’ll see what happens this weekend. Michael Wienecke 0:34 Well, and then they’re talking about next week. Could be even worse. So we’ll see. Michael Wienecke 0:38 Yeah, good times. Michael Wienecke 0:42 Well, today we want to talk about something that hasn’t come up very often, and that’s reinfestation of bed bugs. So we had a customer, after what about eight months of doing a heat treatment, reinfested her home? Right? Travis McGowin 0:57 Exactly. So initially, the customer believed that they brought bed bugs into their home by purchasing a quilt from a thrift store, I believe is what it was. I think her daughter had gifted her a really nice, handmade quilt that somebody had donated, and she got it home, took it out of whatever packaging was there, and just immediately laid it across the bed. And that’s the only thing that she can think of that was the reason why she was dealing with bed bugs in the first place. And so, of course, we came in, we did an inspection. She had a fairly significant infestation at that time. It’s a two story house. The, you know, the lady lives by herself, so the upstairs really not even utilized. So we, we treated the first floor. And you know, for all intents and purposes, everything was was really good after treatment up until now. Michael Wienecke 1:57 So let’s talk about the initial so you said she brought a she bought, or she thought she bought a quilt, brought it in and it had one bedbug on it. How? How bad was the infestation when you inspected the first time? Travis McGowin 2:11 So I can’t confirm or deny how many bedbugs were possibly on that quilt when it was brought in. However, I can say that when we did the inspection, it was, it was fairly significant with bed bugs in cracks and crevices on the headboard and the frame of the bed, as well as on the box springs and the mattress. So, you know, it’s, it’s possible that she may have had them and not known it prior to the actual quilt itself being brought in. But you know, it’s hard to tell, especially if you, you know, haven’t paid attention to it, or hadn’t noticed it until it was too late. Michael Wienecke 2:48 Well, I mean, they’re, they’re designed to hide in the tightest crack and Travis. I mean, you’ve seen them, you know, at the gas station, between the little pump joints before. Travis McGowin 3:00 I mean, I have seen them at a gas station, inside of the little booth where the the cashier sits, you know, and rings people up for gas and for convenience store goods there inside a cracker Travis, where a lady that worked there had brought them in her purse and set her purse on the counter, and someone had complained about getting bitten by a bed bug there at the gas station, and lo and behold, there was one bed bug in a very little crevice in the countertop. So they do get around. Michael Wienecke 3:31 Well, and that’s what I kind of wanted to talk about, how hard they are to detect. I mean, you know, one or two bed bugs within not knowing that and then a month goes by, and then you start, you’re starting to multiply, get bit all that. I mean, it can turn into a pretty quick, or I would say, a slow infestation, but you’re just not realizing it while it’s happening. Travis McGowin 3:52 Right, and so, you know, bed bugs can range in size, from the eggs, which are really, really tiny, and then the multiple, you know, nymphal stages, where they grow and then they shed their skin or molt, and then they grow again all the way up into the adult stage. I mean, so they can be a varying range of sizes, I would say, anywhere from the size of a mustard seed all the way up to even maybe close to the size of, just to give people an idea, a watermelon seed. I mean, some of these female bed bugs, especially after feeding and being engorged, can be rather large. So you could see where transferring these bed bugs, you know, from one place to the next, if you came in somewhere and sat down at a restaurant where potentially someone had sat with them in their purse or on their clothing, and they fell off in the restaurant booth, and then you came in next and sat down. I mean, it might be very easy to not even notice that you had transferred these little insects in with you and then inadvertently taking them home. So it’s fairly common and easy to get a bed bug infestation. I mean, bed bugs aren’t selective on whose house they go ...
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    17 m
  • The Farm Local Business Spotlight

    The Farm Local Business Spotlight
    Sep 22 2025
    Join Michael as he interviews Dr. Beau Beard, one of the founders of The Farm! The Farm, which stands for “Functional Athletic Rehabilitation & Movement,” is a facility located in the Birmingham/Chelsea, Alabama area that specializes in chiropractic care, rehabilitation, performance training, and functional medicine! Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke Hey and welcome to the Peskies Pest Control Podcast today. I have got Dr. Beau beard with me. He owns The Farm chiropractic business in Birmingham, Alabama, and also Chelsea, Alabama. Beau, how you doing today? Dr. Beau Beard Doing pretty good. Hope my voice holds out here, so we’ll see. Michael Wienecke Hey, all good. You sound great on, you know, on camera and all that. So both tell us a little bit about your business. Let’s just kind of, you know, go into why you started all that fun stuff. Dr. Beau Beard Yeah. So we’re, again, we’re a chiropractic and rehab center. So it’s called The Farm, functional athletic rehabilitation and movement, which can be a mouthful. So just go by the farm. But it’s myself and my wife, Doctor Sloan, who started the practice back in 2014 and like I said, it’s a mix of chiropractic. So people tend tend to think chiropractic is just coming, get your back adjusted or popped and see you later. But we both have a masters in sports rehab. We have a lot of other, you know, fancy certifications nobody want to hear about. But what that allows us to do is kind of look at your whole health from, you know, global standpoint, yeah, we have a musculoskeletal focus, but our tagline is better than before. So the goal is, you don’t just come in and, you know, get your back pain taken care of. We’re looking at how you move, how you eat, how you train, kind of, the things you do throughout your life, and really try to get you to move better than before. So we don’t see you for the same thing in our office, hopefully, again, Michael Wienecke That’s great. Yeah, I know as a firefighter, you know former firefighter, mobility is everything. Strength is everything, because you just as we age, we start to fall apart. Dr. Beau Beard It’s a natural part of life. And I did a talk this morning to a bunch of firefighters, and we were talking on the importance of not waiting for injuries to show up, but hopefully getting yourself moving better and maybe a little more often so they don’t show up at all. That would be the real goal, which is kind of a bad business model, but that’s, you know, that’s what we want our patients to work towards and strive for. Michael Wienecke Yeah, I would 100% agree. I mean, the food is almost 100% if you’d agree. Dr. Beau Beard Yeah, it’s, you know, the funny thing is, people come to us, obviously, for, you know, an ankle sprain, low back pain, a headache, jaw pain, and, you know, within a couple visits, we’re talking to all these people about, yeah, how you sleep? How do you eat? Are you exercise, not enough or too much? Should you try something different? And, you know, all the fun stuff in between. But yeah, we’re really trying to take care of your whole health to our best ability, and also just be be a part of your healthcare team, you know, which is maybe a lost art nowadays. So we’re trying to bring that back. Michael Wienecke I would agree. I think, I think health in general is a lost art. Dr. Beau Beard We can have a long conversation on that. But yeah, like I said, you know, if somebody comes to me, and let’s say it’s because of their knee pain, and I think that maybe one of the more important aspects to not only help their knee pain, but for their health, is to, you know, decrease inflammation, lose some weight, you know, we kind of say, give them what they want, but keep them around for what they need. So we want them to be on knee pain, but I also want them to be a healthy individual that doesn’t need pain anymore. So we’re to pay anymore. So we’re gonna have those hard conversations that, you know, maybe I don’t have a treatment or a tool specifically for that, but I can help you walk, walking down that path. Michael Wienecke No, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So what got you into business, you know, let’s just talk about what made you want to start and go out on your own and take that leap of faith, if you will. Dr. Beau Beard Yeah, so going way back, since I’m old now, when I was nine years old, I fractured my femur playing kind of pick up football. I still, to this day, have a titanium rod my left femur. And on the back end of that surgery, I just, you know, I was from small town in central Illinois, didn’t have the greatest, you know, post op rehab program, which meant none, and they basically, I guess, thought I was a kid and you’re going to be fine, you’re resilient. And everything wasn’t perfect, especially when I got into sports. So some things kind of came to light later. So I really got into this because I was fortunate enough ...
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  • Fire Ants Are Invading Birmingham, Alabama Lawns!

    Fire Ants Are Invading Birmingham, Alabama Lawns!
    Sep 11 2025
    Podcast Transcript: Michael Wienecke 0:23 Hey, and thanks for listening to the Peskies Pest Control Podcast. I’m Michael, and we’ve got Travis here, and we are going to be talking about the fire stinging insect that is in your front and backyard that creates unsightly mounds and just causes lots of problems. Travis, what are we going to talk about today? Travis McGowin 0:47 Well, fire ants, just to put it blatantly for everyone, fire ants is the scourge of most people’s lawns, sometimes the scourge of the structure that you know you live in. They they range everywhere from, you know, East Coast to West Coast, and you know, as far up as, say, Virginia and down towards Florida. So I mean, they’re very wide area that they live in, and that that means that, you know, a large amount of people you know across the globe are affected by these insects. Michael Wienecke 1:22 100% you know, they’ve come in from boxes over centuries, from other countries. I would say just, just like any other pests that we have in the United States, it came from Asia. Travis McGowin 1:35 Yeah. So actually, I was reading about that and the they believe that. I think the red imported fire ant was actually originally from Brazil, Michael Wienecke 1:45 Brazil. Okay, I know, I know other ants have come in from from Asian areas and all the shipping containers and all that. So another fun fact about fire ants, they are called fire ants because when they bite, it is like fire. It feels like fire. Travis McGowin 2:02 Yeah. You know, instantly, when you get when you get hit by one it’s, it’s not some delayed thing, it’s, it’s instant pain. And you know, think it’s estimated that one to 2% of the population in the United States is actually allergic to fire ants, which, when you think about the population of the United States, 1 to 2% that’s a pretty decent sized Michael Wienecke 2:24 chunk. So I’m glad you brought that up. So a couple months ago, we were gardening in the backyard, and I turn around and see my two year old rolling around in the in the grass. Well, he was covered in fire ants from about feet to waist, so ripped his clothes off, hosed him down. He was probably stung. It’s funny, I was about to say bit, and that’s something else we’re going to talk about too. But he was stung about, I would say, 20 something times monitored. Monitored him for any kind of, you know, anaphylaxis or anything like that. Did not have any issues, thankfully. But yeah, they can definitely be a safety concern. Travis McGowin 2:56 My brother has a similar story. When he was around the same age, he actually, he actually sat on top of a fire ant mound accidentally. And to this day, even as an adult, you know, in his late 30s, he is still allergic to him. If he gets stung by a fire ant, he swells up in the side of the sting. And so, yeah, that that one encounter as a child still lingers with him, even as an adult today. Michael Wienecke 3:26 Well, my son loves ants now. He tries to find him wherever he can. He hasn’t been stung again, so we’ll see how that goes. But I I certainly hope he’s not in the same boat as your brother. So let’s talk about what to look for like, What? What? What are fire ants compared to other ants color wise. So you’re looking for more of a yellowish, reddish, brownish color. And of course, the mounds. So the where they nest is going to be those unsightly mounds like we talked about. You know, I’ve got one right now popping up in my driveway between the cracks and crevices of the driveway, leaf debris, rock debris, anything that can kind of give them a good harborage area. Travis McGowin 4:05 And they will shelter up under things too. And here’s the crazy part. You know, people may not realize just how big of a problem and how invasive these insects actually are, but to put it into perspective, those properties that have a significant problem can actually have upwards of 30 to 100 mounds per acre. So that’s that’s a significant amount of ants, when you consider that the average colony size for a decent sized ant colony, and remember, 30 to 100 mounds, so potential colonies per acre and a colony size of 80 to 250,000per colony of ants. Michael Wienecke 4:54 And that’s, that’s one queen colony. Travis McGowin 4:56 Right, Exactly. So, I mean, when you, when you really think. About it, if you had it on the high end of 250,000 ants, and let’s just say you had 80 mounds, you’re talking about 20 million ants in one acre of property. Michael Wienecke 5:13 That’s that’s a lot of ants. Travis McGowin 5:14 Just, just to put it into perspective, right? Michael Wienecke 5:17 Well, that’s why I try to let people know if you have one fire ant bed. Typically, there’s going to be more, whether it’s on your property or your neighbor’s property. But again, that’s a lot of ants. And the crazy thing too, is, is that that queen is producing upwards of 1500 ants per day. Travis McGowin ...
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