Twenty-five points. Every visit. Before any spray.
The 25-point structural inspection is what stands behind 'Find the source.' Twelve points on the exterior shell, eight inside, five on conducive conditions. Published in full because most BC pest companies will not show you what they actually look at.
A typical pest call in the Lower Mainland follows a pattern. The technician arrives, walks the property for ten or fifteen minutes, identifies the visible pest, applies treatment, takes a cheque, and leaves. Three weeks later the pest returns from the entry point that was never identified, and the technician comes back under the “guarantee” to apply the same treatment to the same symptom. The contract pays out either way.
We do not work this way, and the 25-point inspection is the reason. Every Wild Pest visit begins the same way: a structural walk-through of the property against a fixed list, before any treatment is considered. Twelve points on the exterior shell, eight inside the building envelope, and five on the conducive conditions around the property that drive infestations in the first place. The inspection takes between forty-five and ninety minutes on a typical Delta or Surrey home. We do not shorten it for smaller jobs. The same checklist runs whether you called us for a single wasp nest or a recurring rodent program.
Each of the twenty-five points has a specific failure mode we are looking for and a specific remediation if we find it. The failure modes are written below in plain language, not industry jargon, so you can read your own photo report without a glossary. The remediations are written so a future technician — ours or anyone else’s — can verify exactly what was installed and where, from a photo, without re-diagnosing the original infestation.
The reason this list is published in full, rather than locked inside a proprietary “trade secret” binder, is that the list itself is not the differentiator. Doing it on every visit is. A national pest-control franchise paying technicians by job count cannot allocate ninety minutes to twenty-five points before the spray; the unit economics will not allow it. We can, because we are built differently. Publishing the list is the cheapest way to let you hold us to it.
The way pests get in.
Roof line down to grade. The shell is where ninety percent of structural failures sit, because the shell is what the weather has had thirty years to work on. Rodents and wasps come in through the shell; carpenter ants come in through the seam where the shell meets the ground.
- 01
Roof line + fascia integrity
Cupped fascia, lifted roof edge, gaps where shingles meet the eave. The classic Norway-rat highway in Lower-Mainland homes built before 1995.
What we do — Aluminium drip-edge flashing, screwed and sealed; if fascia is rotted, we flag it for a roofer rather than fake the seal.
- 02
Soffit returns + corners
Pulled-away soffit panels at exterior corners — by far the most common single rodent entry across Delta and Surrey homes.
What we do — 19-gauge galvanised hardware cloth tucked behind the soffit, mechanically fastened, then sealed with 100% silicone.
- 03
Eaves + overhangs
Run paths along the underside of overhangs that connect roof line to siding gaps. Rodents read these as freeways; we read them as the route to the entry.
What we do — Mapped during inspection so the seal logic accounts for the path, not just the hole.
- 04
Vents — gable, ridge, soffit
Plastic louvre with no mesh, mesh corroded out, or gauge too coarse (anything wider than ¼ inch fails for mice).
What we do — 19-gauge galvanised mesh stapled inside the existing louvre or replaced with a vent cap rated for pest exclusion.
- 05
Roof penetrations — plumbing stacks, chimney flashing
Plumbing stack boots cracked from UV; chimney flashing lifted at the cricket. Both let rodents and water in.
What we do — Replacement boot or stainless storm collar; flashing re-bedded in proper sealant. We do this even on rodent-only jobs because water failure is the leading indicator of future rodent failure.
- 06
Foundation perimeter
Hairline cracks (carpenter ants, pavement ants) and structural cracks (rats, mice, springtails). Most BC slabs over 20 years old have at least one.
What we do — Hairline: polyurethane sealant. Structural or moving: flagged for foundation review, not patched cosmetically.
- 07
Foundation-to-siding junction
Missing or peeled flashing where siding meets the top of the foundation wall. Carpenter ants exploit this seam in cedar-clad homes constantly.
What we do — Flashing re-bedded; in severe cases the bottom course of siding is removed, the seam sealed, and the siding re-installed.
- 08
Utility penetrations
Gas, electric, water, AC line set, dryer vent. Every one is a hole we deliberately put through the wall, and every one is the first place a rodent finds.
What we do — Hardware cloth + closed-cell foam + silicone, in that order, on every penetration we find. The dryer vent gets a backflow-rated pest cap, not a flap.
- 09
Window frames + weep holes
Window frames pulling away from siding (carpenter ants, wasps); weep holes in brick that mice use as front doors.
What we do — Frames re-caulked at the perimeter; weep holes get stainless weep-hole covers — passes water out, stops mice in.
- 10
Door sweeps + thresholds
Daylight visible at the bottom of the door from inside. If you can see daylight, a mouse can fit. If you can fit a pencil, a rat can fit.
What we do — Replacement door sweeps, threshold seals, and corner pads. We carry the parts. Most jobs include sweeps replaced same-visit.
- 11
Garage door seals
Bottom seal compressed flat or torn; side jamb seals missing entirely. Garages are the #1 rodent entry into attached homes in Surrey and Delta.
What we do — Replacement bottom seal sized to your door; side jamb seals installed where missing. We will not sign off a job with the garage as an open chapter.
- 12
Eavestroughs + downspout discharge
Disconnected downspout discharging against the foundation. Saturates the soil; carpenter ants and springtails follow the moisture.
What we do — Documented on the report; we do not re-route downspouts ourselves but the photo gives you the evidence to take to a gutter contractor.
Most BC pest jobs end after step three of twenty-five.
The way they move once they are in.
The shell is the front door, but most infestations live and reproduce inside chases — under sinks, behind appliances, in the crawlspace, in the attic. The interior points are about cutting the runways, not just closing the entries.
- 13
Crawlspace hatch + vapour barrier
Hatch warped or missing seal; vapour barrier torn or rolled back, exposing soil. Rodents nest under torn poly more than any other location in BC homes.
What we do — Hatch weatherstripped; vapour barrier patched or replaced. Standing water is flagged separately because it changes the whole job scope.
- 14
Crawlspace perimeter vents
Plastic louvres with the screen rusted out. The number-one mouse entry into Delta homes built between 1965 and 1985.
What we do — Hardware cloth installed inside the existing louvre or full vent cap replacement, depending on louvre condition.
- 15
Attic hatch + insulation contact
Hatch un-weatherstripped (rodents push it open); insulation in direct contact with the hatch underside (compresses flat, indicating recent traffic).
What we do — Weatherstripping installed; insulation displacement photographed for the before/after on the report.
- 16
Plumbing penetrations under sinks
Kitchen, every bathroom, laundry. Behind the cabinet, around the supply lines and the drain — almost always a finger-width gap.
What we do — Closed-cell pest-rated foam, then silicone collar around the pipe. Done in every interior cabinet we open during the visit, regardless of the original pest call.
- 17
HVAC returns
Cold-air returns staged with droppings in the bottom corners. Rodents use HVAC chases to move between floors silently.
What we do — Documented; remediation depends on chase access. In severe cases we recommend a duct-cleaning specialist after our exclusion is complete.
- 18
Exterior-wall electrical outlets
Cold air felt at the outlet face on a winter check. Cold air means a pinhole somewhere in the wall cavity.
What we do — Foam gasket behind the cover plate; underlying wall penetration traced and sealed if accessible.
- 19
Behind-appliance gaps
Fridge, stove, dishwasher. Crumbs, grease, and warmth — three of the five things rodents look for, plus a usually-undisturbed corner.
What we do — Visual + flashlight inspection of the floor and rear wall. Findings are photographed; gaps in the wall behind the appliance get the same treatment as #16.
- 20
Garage-to-house wall integrity
Drywall pulled away at the bottom plate, gaps around the door from the garage to the house, openings around plumbing in shared walls.
What we do — Sealed in the same materials hierarchy as #08. The garage-house seam is the single failure point we check most carefully on attached homes.
The reasons pests came in the first place.
A sealed shell with a wood pile against it is a sealed shell with a wood pile against it. The five conducive-conditions points are the ones competitors skip most often, because addressing them does not generate billable treatment work. We document them anyway.
- 21
Vegetation contact with siding
Cedar branches, climbing roses, bamboo, ivy — anything touching the wall. Carpenter ants build superhighways out of these. Rats use them as ladders.
What we do — Documented with photos and clear measurements. Trimming is recommended in writing on the report; we do not perform tree work ourselves.
- 22
Mulch / wood / debris within 18 inches of foundation
Wood pile against the house, mulch banked above the bottom of the siding, leaf litter trapped behind a deck. All of it harbours.
What we do — Photographed and named on the report with the specific 18-inch clearance recommendation.
- 23
Standing water + drainage
Pooling near foundation, leaking outdoor faucets, AC condensate discharge against the slab. Moisture is the silent driver of every springtail and carpenter-ant call we get.
What we do — Documented. Leaking faucets are a quick fix; chronic drainage gets flagged for a drainage specialist with a photo timeline.
- 24
Attractants — bird feeders, pet food, compost
Open bird feeder under the eave, dog kibble bag stored on the garage floor, compost without a sealed lid. Each is a rodent magnet, and each is fixable in an afternoon.
What we do — Itemised on the report with named alternatives — sealed feeders, lidded metal bins, two-stage compost.
- 25
Garbage + recycling location and containers
Curb-side cans without lids, recycling bin against the garage wall, organics with a lid that no longer seals. The single most under-reported pest driver in Lower-Mainland residential.
What we do — Photographed and called out on the report. Recommendations include relocation, lid replacement, or rodent-proof container substitution.
The inspection does not live in a binder. It lives on your photo report.
Within thirty minutes of the technician leaving, you receive a report that opens with the 25-point summary: every point checked, with a photograph attached to any failure we found, the specific materials we used to remediate, and a written caption describing the failure mode in the same plain language used above. Points that passed are listed as passed. Points that failed are listed as failed with photographic evidence. Points that fall outside our scope (roofing, drainage, arborist work) are listed as out-of-scope with a written recommendation.
The report is bound to the property address. If you sell the home, you can transfer the file to the buyer. If you call us back inside the 60-day guarantee, the next technician walks in with the complete 25-point baseline, which means we are diagnosing the gap rather than re-diagnosing the original infestation. This is the operational reason our callbacks resolve faster than the industry average — the prior visit’s work is legible on paper.