Yesterday I got a call from one of our insurance companies. ( Yes, they did raise our rate, but the call was for wildlife control )

So I went out there and set two cages for raccoons by the dumpster, two cages for woodchucks by their holes, and two traps for

muskrats on their hut. They just called. I caught a skunk. ( Oh yes, I did retaliate and raised their rate in return )

Well done Paul, local pub raised the price of beer a few weeks ago and up went the price on the pest control contract, funny how things work is it not???

You bet! It's not exactly run away inflation but that is how people earn more money. And with the price of gas staying down, people

in our line of work might actually make a couple bucks ( pounds ) more this year.

Gas jumped $0.10 higher today here

Gas is back over $3.00, we had a factory explosion or something in LA and it ruined it.

Good for you Paul. Exactly what I would have done.

Sometimes things are done just because of the principal of it. If the heart beat of the industry is feeling cost escalation then we all must adjust our rates accordingly across the board. The cost of doing business is never going to decline so it only makes sense to follow suit.

The increase amounts are an individual decision but definitely one that is needed to keep up with across the board increases that we all will continue to face in the future.

We try to compare and monitor price increases in all of our products and services that we use over the course of a year. If we note these increases then we factor their impact upon our services and adjust our overall rates in some areas of our services as we deem necessary.

Just what everyone needs to do if they are keeping track of their business operations heartbeat.

Our gas prices have been imitating a seesaw for a while now. Wisconsin has never been known for decent gas prices in the midwest so

as long as they hang around $2.50, I'll take it.

As far as pricing goes, one of the things we ask the technicians is their input on pricing. Since they get paid a percentage of every

job, we like to know if there are any facets of our operation that are priced too low. We try to make our services affordable for the

customer and reasonably profitable for the tech and the company. That's quite a balancing act.

Or, just keep even!

Gas just jumped $.27 here, was on www.gasbuddy.com and noticed it. Close to "E" anyway, so I rushed right over to the last $2.32 station and filled up! 14 gal's at $.27 saved.

You saved enough to get a roller dog while you were there!

funny that today 10 miles apart gas was $2.31 and $2.46

That 15 cent difference is quite common in southeast Wisconsin. If the average fill-up is 20 gallons that's 3 bucks more for every

car that fills up. I try to avoid the high-priced stations just on principle.

Gas dropped to $2.40 ish over night! I check www.gasbuddy.com daily to keep up on trends and watch for those nasty price jumps. Especially helpful on road trips.

Luck trumps skill again. My #1 stoploss traps for muskrats are attached to a brick in pairs. I always set them side by side so I make

sure the culprit is caught, often in both traps. Today I checked the traps at the insurance company and you guessed it; I had a

muskrat in each stoploss. That pretty much means that two muskrats walking side by side each hit a trap at about the same time.

Combine that with the huge raccoon I caught by the dumpster and my insurance premium is well on its way to be paid for by the company

that sent it. ( Last week they had a bat in the building and earlier this week I caught that skunk )