Residential & Commercial Pest Solutions with Taylor Bramwell

Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE:
Welcome back. And thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show home of the guaranteed sold program. We’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne and I’m Attilio. And if you have any questions, you can reach us at 7999596 or check us out online at Teamlally.com.

ATTILIO:
Well, hey, our gues today is Kailua native and graduate of Brigham Young University Hawaii with a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sports science

ADRIENNE:
drawn by the people and the opportunity to work with a local growing business. He joined Kilauea Pest Control where he now serves as the marketing director. Please welcome back. Our guest Taylor Bramwell.

ATTILIO:
Hey, Taylor.

TAYLOR:
Hey, thanks for having me.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, so let’s hit the ground running. PEST. Are we talking about? Ungrateful teenagers? Are we talking about termites? Which pests? Well, there’s lots

ADRIENNE:
of other pests.

TAYLOR:
go either direction.

ATTILIO:
About that neighbor who had the car parked on the street from 1979 with the grass growing underneath the tires? No, not downwards. That’s

TAYLOR:
one kind of pest for sure. Yeah. So

ADRIENNE:
well, let’s let’s talk about like, what are the main ones that we see here in Hawaii, and also, you know, during our real estate transactions of, you know, buying and selling, you always have this termite inspection termite report? Let’s just, you know, let’s talk about termites first,

ATTILIO:
yeah, in the in the nature of the real estate transaction, we have a termite report, what’s a termite report? Taylor?

TAYLOR:
Your inspection report is something required by by lenders, right? Yes. And so its official name is the TC nine or the WT o the wood destroying organism report. And so it’s like a it’s a form that has specific boxes and, and lines and so most realtors have probably seen this and look through it if they’ve ever been through escrow transaction. And, and so there’s there’s a few certain things we have to go by. But essentially, it’s an inspection for wood destroying organisms. So really termites and why there’s a couple other types of pests that can be classified on that form like powderpost, beetles and a few other ones, but really, for termites in Hawaii, which we have a lot of both grinds to ground and dry with termites. And so, for a realtor, I would say that the main things is get it scheduled early, because we all know the hustle and escrow can be it can be a lot. And so trying to get it done ahead of time, there is a small window of about 14 days that usually the lender requires to have it with before closing. So there’s a little bit of a small window, but getting it done early, or anticipation when you list if you know there’s termite droppings, just get someone in there and get the ball rolling. So and then there’s going to be you’re going to get a diagram of the property with markings on where the termites were found evidence of termites make the sound. And then we’re gonna list what’s recommended for treatment, and then you take it from there essentially. So

ADRIENNE:
Taylor, with the Kilauea Pest Control, termite inspection, you guys offer something that’s pretty unique. I’ve not seen any other companies do this. Tell us about this, this warranty that you guys offer?

TAYLOR:
Yeah, it’s something we’re super proud of. Because there’s, there’s a lot that goes into buying a home and people buying home, they’re spending a lot of money. And so we do our best to be helpful in that transaction, make sure they know exactly what’s going on termite wise. And with that, we try to add extra value, which is to give a warranty to that buyer coming in. And so if it’s a clear report, we do a one year drywood termite warranty for that buyer coming in. So if they find termites throughout that year, we’ll come back and treat it for free. And furniture, bringing it in, they brought termites in it will still just treat it we honor that. And so we just like to offer that I think that makes the realtor look good. helping them find a company that will get them a little more bang for their buck. Yeah, cuz

ATTILIO:
that’s helpful for a garage, the species called the Garage Sale termite and swap meet termite or side of the world side of the road. Oh, I saw this piece of furniture side of the road termite and you brought it home to the house. That’s cool. You know, I want to share with you and experience directly what your company and I just I have to issue a correction from a review that I typed into your system. Because I said, and by the way, James was awesome. James is this short Filipino guy about five feet tall? No, he’s he’s big Hawaiian kid. They came to my house super, super polite. Very professional. I was having issues with I don’t know what they are. But they’re little ants and little teeny teeny ants, like tiny ants. And then he’s like He and I said, oh, so what we do for that I thought it was gonna nuke the whole house. But he put like this, it looked like drops of glue. Like I like I have glasses. I couldn’t even see it. I put my glasses on. But it was really tiny. It was like bait, and they said, Oh, in about a week those those tiny ants will go away. And sure enough, they’re all gone. And so it was like the biggest, biggest killer whale pest control person ever seen. To help take care of the tiniest problem I ever had. But after issue correcting statement, because when I feel like you guys review I put James’s the pest. I wasn’t wearing my glasses go look for real it says James was the pest. He was the best. But he was the best pest again, five stars. And then I posted it on the Google Photos. Awesome. That’s great. Yeah, I’m glad you see him next year. Oh, James, go Stan. So yeah, tell him James was the pest.

ADRIENNE:
So So Attilio brought up you know, Dan’s on to our next topic, we will know we’re talking about other services and the the technician so you kind of jumped ahead and was about to jump in these little tiny ends, like what are their kind of paths? Do you guys service Taylor?

TAYLOR:
Yeah, I mean, of course, we start with termites always with realtors and stuff like that. And swarming is here, we’ve seen some swarms, but other type of pests. You know, with all the rain we’ve had through the winter and the spring, we’ve actually been getting quite a bit and we’ve talked about this before on the show, I think but with birds, we’ve been doing a lot of bird exclusion events. And then also underneath solar panels has been a big one. Yeah, a lot of solar panel netting and protection. And then with this in the same vein, we’d be getting a lot of rodent exclusion to for similar reasons, when it rains like that is driving test wear indoors, right. And so they’re looking for cover for harborage areas where there can be protected, especially in at night when they’re sleeping. And things like well, birds. Rodents will be up at night running around. Yeah. I mean, you guys have been kind of a lot going on. You guys

ADRIENNE:
helped me with a bird problem. It was it was pretty helpful. Human put some little spikes on my roof. Yeah. And then they headed over to my neighbor’s house. Yeah, sorry, neighbors.

ATTILIO:
So, maybe you gotta, you gotta you know, you got to put one sign in the front yard. We just finished up another happy client with with and then put like, like a picture of bird poop with a circle with a slash through it. No more bird poop over here. Sorry went to your house.

TAYLOR:
We do referral bonus refer a friend or family and they sign up for a pest control we give you 50 bucks off your next service. Maybe your neighbor might need some some bird spikes as well bird exclusion is

ATTILIO: 
yeah, you know, I gotta get you guys out to my house because I just painted it. I’m like, I gotta have you guys go do that. Because what they do, like I had the downspouts that come from the from the rain gutter and it makes like an L thing. And then goes, but that’s where they like to perch. And just you need some spikes there. It’s like it’s like when porta Potti for birds is all my downspouts on my house. And the common spot. Yeah, so I gotta get you guys out there to put those things up. And, and then we talk about it too, like a lot of people would like the vent holes in the roof line right below the roof line. Those are all open and we remodeled. I helped the homeowner remodel a home and we went up in there and pulled out. There was enough bird nests in there like the size of a small car. Like serious we piled it up and took a picture of it. I couldn’t believe how much burden is burden this material is up there fire hazard. Well, what else? What else? Taylor Yeah, those

TAYLOR: 
little those big bird nests along those are from Java finches. They’re the smallest bird but they make nests that are so big. Over time, they just keep building it. And yeah, we’ll pull out some big nest. Yeah, but just just to touch on the bird exclusion there too. I know we use bird spikes in your property Adrienne, and that can be really effective using those that kill away, we always try and like I was trying to keep up to date with the best technology the best products to use. And so bird spikes or run bench like you mentioned, Attilio open cubbies aluminum bent, so they’re depressed and not gonna rust, they’re not going to wear out, they’re more durable. So birds can’t pick through and pick the nest inside, we’re using other things. There’s another one called up a bird gel disc. And it’s essentially it’s a small disc, either magnet, or we can zip tie it or if there’s a couple other options we can do to attach it. And depending on how much activity you put them in space department different measurements. But what it does is it has a gel on there that reflects light that looks like the area’s on fire. And then also it has a uses a certain type of essential oil that the birds don’t like so candied tears by the smell, too. You can’t smell it too. Well, unless you’re right next to it. Yeah. But there’s just those are kind of a cool option too, because you don’t see them as much right? They’re kind of more flush with your downspout or whatever bird spikes are great can be really effective. But sometimes you don’t want to look at bird spikes, right? So yeah, just throwing that out there with that. And then another thing we’re using to keep up with technology trying to be effective and efficient and safe and use the best products is we’re using drones a lot in our in some of our projects to our jobs. And what that does is instead of having getting on ladders all the time for inspections, which anytime you’re on a ladder, save injury, right? Like you try to be safe, but it’s mythical it can be dangerous. And so we’re using drones to build to inspect areas for rodents, for birds, for lots of other different things. Especially for like condos downtown, we do a lot of big bird jobs for condos, or warehouse stores, or like airports or other big government projects or facilities. And so using drones and things like that, and those birds discs, there’s a lot of options out there. And so we’d love to show up and problem solve with you what’s what’s best for your your area your home to figure out how to deter those birds or rodents.

ADRIENNE: 
So Taylor was like all of these different kinds of pests. You guys offer different kinds of services that you will come out you like monthly quarterly, like Pest Control, yeah. shares with us about stop

ATTILIO: 
by once a quarter. Give some good advice to the teenagers on how to be more grateful and then take care of all the centipede and cockroaches. What’s that? What is that about?

TAYLOR: 
Love it. Yeah, we have a few different pets packages are most common isn’t every other but service. And that’s what we recommend in Hawaii. Nice. It works the best and what that will look like if you’re never had pest control before you call us up we’ll we’ll get you a quote for your home. And it’s usually an initial service, which is like a little bit longer of a service. And we’ll talk with you kind of give you a walkthrough of your home and what we’re going to look look at doing to take care of whatever particular pest you have, what your hot button test is and whether it’s an ant or roaches centipede or all three the trifecta right? And we’ll have a very good flush out initial service. 30 days later, we’ll start your regular first service. And so you get to services back to back to the beginning just to kind of get off on a good foot. Because that first service is going to draw you actually might see an increase in bugs for the first week or two because they’re getting pushed out of their nest and that means it’s working right and they’re just going to overtime is going to get rid of them. And then after that, follow up after 30 days we’ll switch to every other month and that’s going to be interior next Here’s all included. It’s going to cover ants, roaches, centipedes, millipedes, we do some rodent trapping for you spiders, all the general types pests.

ADRIENNE: 
What about what about fleas free resurfaces about fleas? This? Does this the product people have pets? Yeah. Do you have anything for the pet owners with the fleas?

TAYLOR: 
Great question. Because yeah, we love our pets. Fleas, fleas are a thing, I think the first thing to do, as any pet owner knows is get your pet on, whether it’s a dog or cat on a Flea Treatment kind of thing. Because as long as there’s fleas on the pet, or ticks, it takes another one week to host them not really going to go away. Many times you keep treating that home, but a flea or tick service, it’s a little different, we just use something called an IGR. We add it to the product or add it to your service. And what that does is it it’s an internal growth regulator, it’ll, it’ll kill the the adult fleas, and then it will make it so they can’t, the next generation can’t delay eggs. And so it kind of stops the generation so it stops them able to breed and and start over and over again. So it’s a little different service, you might have to do monthly for a few months, have us come out every month for a few months. But after that you switch to regular every other month service. And that should help keep them at bay if you get a weird tick, or flea on your property from from somewhere else.

ATTILIO:
But it’s a partnership. So you got to take care of the pet too.

ADRIENNE: 
Oh, yeah. That’s like that’s, that’s good to mention. Because I know a lot of your clients including me, you have pets, you know, like my cats are inside and outside?

ATTILIO: 
Well, when you sell a house to the head, nine dogs, and then the next people coming in don’t have any Exactly. They don’t they buying the house. They don’t want any extra occupants called fleas. That’s right, coming with the house when they

TAYLOR: 
run out. So we do a lot of pet move outs. And that’s something we can offer with our TIR termite inspection reports. Termite inspectors are equipped to do a pet move out at the same treatment. If you’d like to, you can add that on, we’ll do a little discount for you. Since we’re already there. And we can do a pet move out at the same time. That was scheduling a time and you

ATTILIO: 
know, we’ve been doing business a long time recommending Kilauea Pest Control for a long time using

ADRIENNE: 
them personally for our you know, quarterly and monthly fee.

ATTILIO: 
And then Shane, our transaction coordinator is getting you guys scheduled to come to our office, because we saw some ads they came in. And you know what? I think they followed you from your house. No, no, these are bigger ones. And they really like to have a cup of coffee every morning because they’ve got all inside the coffeemaker Oh, so we cleaned it out to everybody no coffee for a while and then I was trying to do like my fat Big Fat Greek reading I was just spraying windex everywhere but that didn’t work. So we need the pros out there. And then I also noticed some union is concrete floor but there was there was like these pests coming through the cracks you know like the crack that the saw through the concrete to direct the settling. And so we’re gonna have you guys check out that spot. And then we noticed too that there’s some plywood over us like when when strip of plywood over the drywall in the back area. So maybe they had a previous pest issues. So we’re gonna have you guys check that out and then get us on a schedule. Well get us on a schedule, because we are pet friendly, but not tech friendly. So

ADRIENNE:
residential. Commercial. Yeah. You know, they do it all.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, possible. Yeah. So you guys just finished some large Sentricon job. What does Sentricon 30,000 something? I’m glad

TAYLOR: 
you asked. Yeah. Sentricon. So there’s two types of termites, drywood termites and ground termites up for them totally differently, right? So fumigation is really for thrive with termites, most people know about fumigation or spot treatment, ground treatment. Most of the time, there’s a couple of weird cases where they’re not entirely in the ground, and it’s a different treatment. But yeah, generally you’re going to be treating the ground. So that’s either a liquid barrier. treatment or another option is bait stations. And we implement a product called Sentricon, which was partly actually it’s kind of cool, had some ties to Hawaii. Yeah, it was developed in University of Florida and University of Hawaii and I are shipped with University of Hawaii because we have so much termites here, like we’re interested and so we actually have a pretty robust program over there you h on helping with this stuff. But Sentricon it’s a bait system with an always active bait in there and always active technology. So Termites will actually prefer that over a piece of wood and how ground termites migrate. They’ll migrate and colonies of 10 million at a time sometimes right? And so those the underground you won’t see them and they’re looking for food and they they send out scouts and foragers, and a big star like pattern all over like a forest area or a neighborhood or whatever wherever they’re at. And when would they like they’ll send off a pheromone and bring that whole colony of 10 million termites to like hey, let’s go here and we’ll set up shop right so that could be your home. Now Sentricon How it works is It’s every 12 feet around the perimeter of your house. And so those foragers will hit that. And they prefer that over the piece of wood. And they’ll bring that whole colony with them. And one or two of those stations will knock out an entire colony of 10 million termites, which is a big deal because those things can cause damage pretty quickly. If they’re eating your house instead, right? Yeah. So that you know, Taylor Intercon is

ATTILIO:
we have a recording of these termites. So let me play it back for you. Come over here. Check out this wound is this bug of his own? Oh, wait, get this l&l over here? This is better. That’s your bait station. And then oh, wait. You know what happened to Jerry. I don’t know. He went to the l&l. We never heard from him again. We gotta go check it out. Oh, let’s keep going over there. Oh, stay away from that house though l&l is, you know, like, it just I’m saying in a good way because everybody’s like, Ah, I gotta have me one plate lunch go to l&l. We even look for it in the mainland. We’re like termites looking for plate lunch. We’re looking for it in the mainland. But that’s how with the Sentricon is you’re baiting them with something that’s better that they like better, like you better and it’s true. Taylor, I’ve heard this before that termites, you know can be responsible for more more real estate damage than like fires and hurricanes. Across the country, in a year and yeah, yeah. So anyway,

TAYLOR: 
quite a bit. Yeah, off the steel that l&l plate wrench. Yeah, reference.

ATTILIO: 
And then we’re making these underground lnl places all the way around your house and they’re going around a goal to l&l then have like, you know, leftovers.

ADRIENNE: 
So, so Taylor, we just want to as we’re kind of wrapping things up. We want to just give a big shout out. We we heard that you guys three years in a row have been voted best places to work. Oh, nice. And you know, a big part of it is the company culture environment. And are you guys hiring? Because hiring I know our team is hiring. Are you guys looking for any new pest tech

ATTILIO: 
savvy? Always right. And then you get to go have lunch with John, the owner. Does he take you to Elena? Yeah. We’re

TAYLOR: 
super proud of it’s been three years we’ve won the white business magazine. I think I saw you. I didn’t go this year. But I went to the event last year at YouTube or there maybe? Yeah, you know, you’re dressed really nice. I mean, we had a nice, nice, nice dress.

ATTILIO: 
John takes you to l&l, he gets you the big boy, big boy big milk special. And then you’re going to kind of like a little bit of a food coma. And then we’ll come back to the office. And that’s part of the onboarding. Right? So Exactly.

TAYLOR: 
Yeah. Yeah, that’s the thing. So John, he’s very involved with the business. He’s the owner, John speed and his wife, Jenny, they business over 20 years ago. So yeah, we’re definitely hiring to answer your question. We’re growing. There’s a lot of great opportunities within the company to grow with a company. And what like you said, every time a new hire, someone’s hired John, has lunch with him within the first month, can you like sit down one on one, and a group with with all those new hires, and so he’s very involved, he teaches a leadership class for anyone interested in growing within the company. That’s really cool. And we always try and get people’s license. And in fact, one thing that we noticed over the last few years, especially as we’ve grown and is that we have a lot of friends like well hire will hire someone and end up doing that saying, hey, my, my job or my auntie, my cousin. Yeah, and we have a lot of families and friends because people come work here and they’re like, oh, like, I know, someone needs someone in my family needs a job, they should come here, they’re like they’re proud of where they work. You know, that’s really nice to hear that you know, we have

ATTILIO: 
a culture that attracts people you got so business we talked about, in business, we talked about, you know, a lot of business are constantly recruiting. But if you want to make your life easier, get into the attraction mode. So that’s how you guys are as a business, you attract people to you. You really, you know, you’re still recruiting but recruiting maybe now 10% and 90% 80% is the referrals and friends and family that saying, Hey, I work at an awesome place. You should come work here too. Yep. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So and well thank you so much. If you’re a realtor out there you just starting in the business you know make killer whale Pest Control Party your team because how they interact with the transaction and the clients and the whole thing and reflects on you and I’ll tell you we’ve had some some blow ups not necessarily not in se anything you guys fault. But what I really liked about killer whale is not how things went smooth. Obviously we like that. But when things went sideways, I personally witnessed you guys just going the extra mile to make it right.

ADRIENNE: 
Yes. So. So thank you. Thank you, Taylor. Taylor, for being a guest back on the show. Yeah. And we’ll be looking forward to hearing some your some of your tips of the week in some future show.

ATTILIO:
Oh, one last thing when you guys spray the perimeter of the house, I love the fact that you guys moved the doormats away. It’s the little thing It’s the little things that we try to get rid of out of the house. But moving the doormats is also one of the little things that we like. Yes.

TAYLOR: 
So we got some great technicians. They’re also

ATTILIO:
they’re all very courteous, very kind. The experience with you guys has always been awesome. I’ve never had a bad experience at my own personal home, we kill away. So always pleasant. And my family is very happy. They don’t see 119 inch centipede crawling around, because I saw wasn’t the beginning. And then you know, that’s how I That’s the way. So anyway,

ADRIENNE:
thank you, Taylor.

ATTILIO: 
Thank you, Taylor.

TAYLOR: 
Thank you so much.

ADRIENNE: 
Right, so, Kilauea Pest Control. If you go to experts, we trust you under the Resource tab on our website. You can see all of the experts and including Kilauea Pest Control.

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