Pest Control in Shirley, MA

Two counties, one visit

Shirley sits on the Middlesex side of the county edge, with Leominster to the west. The visit does not change because of the line. The building is walked the same way, and the record shows the town and the ZIP code under which the work was done.

A caller who lives near the line should give the full address, so the technician can confirm the lot and the access before the visit.

The house and the attic

The walk starts at the roof line and the attic, because that is where UMass places the overwintering insects in homes. The eaves, the gables and the vents are checked from outside, and the attic from the hatch with a light. The sealing list follows the same order, so the next check can start where this one ended.

Sheds and outbuildings

A shed or a garden building on a Shirley lot is walked as a building in its own right, because UMass names sheds among the overwintering spaces. The door sweep, the vents and the stored items are checked, and the items moved where that is needed to reach the corners behind them.

A shed with a shared wall, a window or a door to the house is checked at that joint as well as on its own.

Booking and the licence

Ask for the business name, the technician's name and the licence details, which should be given on request by phone. The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources is the body named for the licence. Check the details with that department on mass.gov.

Old wiring, new wiring and the entries they leave

Cables and pipes that come into a house through an outside wall leave an opening that has to be sealed, and the sealing lasts only if the material is matched to the wall. Where the wall is old, the technician checks the opening for movement before choosing the material, since a sealant that works on a new joint can fail on a wall that moves. The sources give no Shirley housing data, so this is a method point and not a statement about the town's buildings.

Where a pipe or cable has been added after the house was built, the new opening is listed separately from the original ones, so the next visit can tell the two apart.

Shirley and the wider area visit

A Shirley visit is one of a set of visits across the north of the two counties, and each is recorded under the town on the address. The walk is the same from one town to the next, and the differences come from the building. Two houses on the same Shirley road can get very different lists, because one has a shed and the other a detached garage, and the list follows the building, not the street.

The page does not give a Shirley count of calls or of infestations, because the sources do not give one.