So I set up a gray squirrel job yesterday. Nice little cabin on the side of the mountain. Kinda back in the toolies. The gray was chewing on his cabin. Easy gig short ladder no exclusion work. Just catch the chewer. The owner calls me today and says "Hey you didn't catch the darn thing yet. I seen it on my roof so I sprayed it with the hose!" I had to laugh and asked his as nice as I could not to do that.

My brother in law has a statement I like to use.

The cost is $X if I do it myself.

If you would like to watch or help the price is double!



I like it and it makes most folks smile but gets the point across about how much "helping" really helps!

Ha, I got ya beat, I set up a porcupine job
Where the porkies were Chewing on siding above
A window well, so I go there the next day to check
The two traps and he says all you got is a rabbit
I shot twice at them last night only found a little blood!
Lol what the heck am I supposed to say to that!
Anyway ended up catching a Porkie a week later
At least!

I have had customers dump mothballs all over my traps and put up windmills next to my mole traps. Some people just don't think, that's why they hire us.

Justin, it is truly amazing the direct opposites in people. ( Which is the main reason I still love this job so much ) I have found that the customers who take an active interest in what I'm trying to do are just about twice as helpful and get the job done in half the time of the person who hides in the house.

Now having said that, I, like everyone else, has had those customers that should have been locked in the house until the job was finished. But think about it. You talk twice as long about the lunatics than you do about the sane ones!

I like it when a customer is interested in what I'm doing. I just don't want them "Helping" me.

Like the guy who called me to get the squirrels out of his attic. I go out, set up my traps and leave. The next day I come back to check and he informs me that he bought himself a shotgun. "Between the two of us, we'll get them!" He also tells me that he had shot at one running along the peak of his roof....Right past no less than two of my traps.

Another guy who had me hired to get the snakes out from under his house. I set my glue board trap in the bushes against the house where I saw sign of it traveling in and out. I come back the next day to find the bushes are completely gone and my trap is full of dirt and lying out in the sun where they jerked up the bush that it was under.

And the lady who had me set snake traps in her attic and garage. I come back to find mothballs and Seven dust on, in and all around them. Her neighbor had told her that mothballs and Seven dust would keep snakes away.

Another man who wanted me to trap beaver on his creek and I come back to find one of my 330's wrapped up with lead pellets and him bragging to me that he "Got one" yesterday.

Oh! How about the one who buried your coon set with last weeks lasagna left overs and tells you, "It looked like your bait was about out so I added a little bit."

Here's a funny one. I had a game camera set up to watch a hole underneath a utility building so we could see what was traveling in and out. I find on film, the owner of the place, the same guy who hired me, placing pine cones in the hole to see if anything traveled through during the night. So I ask him again, "Please do not disturb the hole." I come to check the camera the next day and now I have video of his wife placing pine cones in the hole and then later him removing them again. Yeah... The possum I caught two days later was STILL laughing.

I like the sign I saw once. It read, "Shop Rates. $20 an hour. $30 an hour if you watch or $50 an hour if you help.

I do like the customers who take an active interest and some who even want to help. They're the ones you can count on to watch out for your equipment or give a call if you have a catch.

A few years ago I pulled into a skunk job I was doing and noticed a trap was gone. The customer didn't know anything about it. As I was talking to him the neighbor pulls up with my trap. Said he noticed I had a catch and figured it would be best to get rid of the skunk as soon as possible. He drove a few miles away and let it go.

I got paid and the customer made us all breakfast.

No complaints.

My two favorite helpers:
1)I set up a cottontail job and right away start catching some, after a couple days the catch drops off. I go to rebait and check traps and one is missing, lady says OH we moved it across the street to our neighbors yard where we saw one hopping around. GRRRRR but darn if they didn't catch it and double darn the budding little tree hugger 10year old neighbor boy let it go because he didn't want it hurt.
2)Go to set up a pack rat job, I knew I was in trouble when the directions included "look for the brown Oldsmobile in the front yard on blocks." What a white trash toilet of a trailer, the thing was a sieve, no exclusion here. I set several traps and explain I'll catch the rat but there is no way to stop another from entering. I go back the next day and ALL my traps are gone. She says here neighbor moved them to better spots, her tweaker neighbor. I found all my traps, loaded them in my truck and handed her back her deposit. she can have her expert tweaker catch that rat.

Yeah, that kind of thing really ticks me off.

Once I set a trap, I don't want it touched till I get back. Don't rebait it, don't take the critter out, don't move it to a better spot, NOTHING.... If the customar can make all these decisions, then why the hairy did they need to call me in the first place?

And for Petes sake! Don't shoot the stupid squirrel while he's headed to my traps!

See, here's the problem I have with that. Here, that's not legal. If I catch a skunk, by law, I have to euthanize it. That's out LAW. Not to mention, I'm not one for releasing problem animals some where else. I feel that all you are doing is MOVING the problem to a different area.

Now, what if the game warden catches Joe Blow's neighbor releasing a skunk from one of my traps with my name and address clearly tagged on it? I'm the one with the paperwork that gives me permission to be there. I'm the one with the certification card in my pocket saying that I'm trained for this. I'm the one who's had my rabies shots if, God forbid, someone gets bitten. I'm the one who is supposed to be the professional. If any body is gonna get into trouble over something like that, who do you think it will be? Even if I am free of any recourse or reprcussions, it still does not look professional for Neighbor Goody to be didling around with my traps.

And that's the biggest rub for me. Here, I see all the time, this guy or that guy costing me jobs, costing me money and making my job more difficult because they have no idea what they are doing is illegal. Even the city dog catcher doesn't know he's not supposed to be trapping racoons! But he does everytime some lady calls with one in her trash. And he certainly doesn't know that he's not supposed to be transporting them and releasing them just outside the city limits!

I could go on and on about this but I'll save that conversation for another day. That, and my spell check has stopped working.

Muddawg, that's probably why you have to pick your fights. I know what you mean and even sympathize but nothing in sqs post was illegal in Wisconsin either. I would have been proud of the neighbor too. ( Okay, I haven't ALWAYS been proud of the neighbor either )

There were a couple of violations in what the guy did but they were so minor that nothing would have come of it.

First, although he didn't steal my trap he "tampered" with it. Under the circumstances I certainly would never have complained and I doubt the GW would have done anything even if I had.

And second, you're not supposed to release animals unless you have written permission of the land owner but once again, I don't think the GWs even know that. Every GW I've talked to just looks kind of bewildered and says to let them go anywhere you want, just be discreet.

So did the guy do something wrong? Technically yes but I don't care. He's a nice guy who just wanted to help out and I appreciate the gesture.

No harm, no foul.

The way I see it is this: act like a professional and insist on being treated as a professional.
You wouldn't hire a plumber or electrician then start grabbing his tools while he's working. Same situation here. If a customer messes with my sets in any way it's a violation of the contract he signed, and grounds for closing the job. Usually I'll get compliance after a warning, but once or twice I've had to make 'em understand what a contract means ( and no refunds).

Thank you, Dave. You just said what I was trying to say only you said it better.

Guys, consider this also. What if while Good Neighbor is didling with your trap, something happens? Who's liable? Y'all are probably the same as I am. I have many different types of traps and may use any of them on a job if nessasary. But if the wrong hands start fidling with them, a person could loose a finger. Or an animal in them could bite someone.

We've all seen it just too many times. If Good Neighbor happened to get hurt on your trap, YOU would be the one in court! And you KNOW it happens all the time!

And, sadly, there is a good chance, given the right crooked lawyer, that we would LOOSE! Because Good Neighbor would say, "Your Honer, I didn't know and there was no warning sign on that trap!"

No. It's best to avoid this from the git go and politely tell 3 Fingered Flanders keep his hands off your traps!

Well, no. Actually, I've never seen it and I don't know that it happens all the time.

For me, life is to short to be grouchin' at nice people who just want to help. If what they're doing isn't helping, Paul Antczak said it well...

"I had to laugh and asked him as nice as I could not to do that."

If what they're doing is actually helpful or really doesn't matter, like I said....

"No harm, no foul."

For me, it makes much more business sense to be friendly to the customers and yes sometimes even the neighbors.

Even after the water hose deal I caught 6 grays and I charge per on a job like this. If I would have blown up I would have lost $ and he would have made a call to the pest control company that referred me. Both results from blownig up is bad for business.

sgs,

You've never seen it happen?

I had a neighbor who had a guy break into his house. The guy opened what he thought was a closet door and rolled down the basement stairs and broke his leg. Sued and won!

There was the case here in town where workers had dug a hole in a front yard. Although they left it that night with warning tape around it, a drunk dude came by and fell in it and got hurt. He sued and won!

There was the vacationers reuturning to their home on the other side of town from me. They found a body of a teen ager floating in their pool which was surrounded by a fence. The family of the teenager sued. I don't know how it came out but the pool has since been filled in.

Down near where I hunt, there was a young boy who found a ladder stand leaned against a tree. He fell from it breaking his arm. Never mind that the land was posted, the boy was tresspassing and it was in the middle of hunting season, the boys moma sued and the hunter was held responsible.

Look around you. Litsen to what's happening. There are at least two or three of these stories on the 6 ocklock news every night. Right and wrong play no part in this. Crooked lawyers seeing a chance to make an easy buck is what drives this and moralities be danged.

You don't have to be in the wrong to be held responsible. You can't see the danger of the wrong person being hurt by one of your traps or the critter that's in it? "Well that wildlife guy didn'tell me that these things were dangerous!" and now you are at fault!

I try to be friendly with everyone I meet but they still need to know where the lines are that you don't cross. I don't tell them, "Hey! Don't &*@^ around with my %*&@ traps!". But I mighgt tell them, "Please don't get too close to these traps as you might contaminate the set." Not only does that sound professional but it gets the point across that they don't need to monkey around with my job.


Here's a scary thought to consider. What if that skunk that Nieghbor released had bitten him? Not a bad bite but just a little scratch and he turns him loose anyway? I'm willing to bet that Nieghbor hasn't been vacinated against rabies. What do you do now? Do you know for definate sure that the skunk wasn't rabid?

Of course you don't. You have no way of knowing because he wasn't tested and now he's gone, probably never to be seen again. Now, do you want to be the one to tell Nieghbor that he's got to go immediately and get a bunch of very expensive shots? And since he figures he was just doing you a favor to start with, who will he expect to pay for these shots?

You see where I'm coming from?

Yes. Always be kind and curteous not just to your customers but to anyone. But business is business and just as the mechanic won't allow you under his rack while servicing your car, just as the bus driver won't allow you to sit in the drivers seat, just as the butcher won't allow you to run his band saw, just as the doctor won't allow you to play with his needles, our customers, their friends and neighbors need to keep their hands OFF of our traps.

Look at it this way, if Helpful Neighbor knew so much about traps, trapping and critters, then why did they need to call you?

Muddawg, I do recall hearing similar cases in our area years ago but public opinion got so bad that if they do still happen it must be between the insurance company and the plaintiff now. Things have kind of turned around. A guy behind us shot a cop car window out and will never do it again because he's dead.

There are a million "what if" scenarios that could, but seldom if ever do, happen. That's why we buy insurance and then never need it.



Once again, no. First off, if anything important happened (and it didn't), it would be my insurance company handling it not me and it does not happen all the time. In forty years of business I've never been sued for anything and have never put a claim into my insurance company.

I don't worry about acting like or looking like a professional because I am professional. The rest just happens naturally. lol

Fact is, there's very little in this world that I worry about and the million and one 'what if scenarios' certainly ain't it.

Suit yourself, Dude.

I still don't want my customers playing with my tools.