Page 15 - May/June 2019 W.C.T. Magazine

just didn’t see it making us much money.
One of my clients had mice and squirrels entering into her house and detached garage, going up through the corner posts of her siding. We could have used the hardware cloth and the foam, but this client was a very impeccable person. One stray blob of expanding foam and she would have been all over us! WCS’s free sample came to mind.
This little piece of injection molded plastic is formed to fit 2 3⁄4, 3 1⁄2, and 4 inch corner posts on houses that have siding. It will stop mice, chipmunks, snakes, bees, and most anything else that wants to use that open freeway into the attic. Once you have the opportunity to look up into a corner cap, you will see how easy it is for a mouse or red squirrel to scurry up there.
I ordered a dozen Kritter Caps® and installed them. To be honest, it was a test. I still wasn’t sure about these things. We’ve been using hardware cloth and foam. The foam often expanded and required a bit of trimming and was, in reality, a pain to keep off the exterior siding.
After I had the first three Kritter Caps® installed about five inches up into the corner post, I called my technician down from the roof
(where he was installing Ridge Guard) and had him install the fourth one. He fumbled through it, as the Kritter Cap® was bigger than the corner post hole. I showed him how the tabs break off, thus allowing this dandy device to fit just about any hole that a builder or siding installer could throw at it. After he installed the Kritter Cap®, he shuffled to the next corner post and had that one installed in a fraction of the time. Each one, just like the first, installed snuggly and out of sight, while only using a pair of channel locks to snap off the excess tabs!
Earlier, I had mentioned that I didn’t think we could make any money selling this product. Well, I watched as my technician netted us $100 profit in about twenty-five minutes. I was amazed.
These things are money makers, but how do you go about selling them? Each pack of six Kritter Caps® comes with a little mirror. I joked with my technicians that it would be good for when they put on their makeup. It is not a cheap little mirror. I used it to look up into the first corner cap and instantly knew that each of my techs would own one of these mirrors. It was a sunny day and I used the reflection of the sun to shine up into the corner post.
The mirror showed the fastest route a mouse or red squirrel could take into someone’s soffit and attic! That little mirror that I made fun of is going to sell Kritter Caps® all by itself. Once a homeowner sees what I saw, I’m sure that no words will even have to be spoken – except for the amount of cash we need to install them.
The genius that invented the Kritter Cap® now produces a pro
version that AAC Distributing sells. The Kritter Cap® PRO is a new black unit, produced specifically for the wildlife control industry. A new formulation of plastic combined with glass deters chewing, improving on the original design. I haven’t tried the new PRO design yet, but I’m hoping that I get the opportunity in the coming months.
We live in exciting times when it comes to Wildlife Control. The new ideas are exciting. They make our jobs so much easier and so much more effective. I marvel at the thinkers in our industry and envy their successes. I’m looking forward to more ideas in the future.
For now, I’m on red alert looking for the next super idea for the Wildlife Control Industry. It seems that I missed out on Kritter Caps®, and have been missing out on selling them for quite some time too! I held an extra Kritter Cap® in my hand and studied it at the end of that mouse exclusion. After a minute or so, I muttered, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” and without missing a beat, one of my technicians shot back with “Well, first you have to be smarter than a mouse.”
That’s adding insult to injury!
If you’re not installing Ridge Guard onto warped ridge vents, sinking Dig Defense into the ground to stop burrowing animals, or permanently stopping rodents from accessing attics with the Kritter Cap®, you’re losing money. n
MAY - JUNEn13
www.wctmagazine.com