5/5 stars for ultimately being right and having the right approach, 1/5 stars for communication. We were referred to Tom Olander by a local pest control company for what we thought was going to be bat removal. He charged $150 for an inspection which involved listening to my description of the problem and locating excrement in the rafters and paw prints in the basement. I had read the previous Yelp review and when he determined the problem was flying squirrels I was skeptical. Does this guy tell everyone they have flying squirrels? I had never heard of this problem before. I asked reasonable questions, trying to learn more about flying squirrels and the rational for his diagnosis, but he was hostile and condescending in response. He quoted $2500 to perform and exclusion (locate the entrances of the squirrels and tactically cover them with one way doors so the critters can leave, but not return). After he left, I was so insulted by his demeanor that I thought he was a scam. There was no way we would spend that kind of money with someone we couldn't trust. I went on Amazon and bought a infrared sensing hunting camera by Bushnell and set it up in the rafters with a spoonful of peanut butter in front of it. The next morning I had (poor quality) pictures of none other than a flying squirrel. We will try to perform an exclusion ourselves, by buying some one way doors, and perhaps some more tactical cameras to locate the entrances. Ultimately, I'm hoping we won't need to call Tom Olander again, but he was correct in his diagnosis of the problem. read more
