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Learn more about the Sleep Soundly Sweepstakes! Click Here!

Michael Wienecke
Hey, so today on the podcast we want to talk about something we’re doing kind of a Christmas giveaway. It’s called the sleep soundly sweepstakes. And what it is, is it’s a free heat treatment to anybody that applies, wins the contest, and they are going to have a bedbug free home. So come in hate, hate the house and get rid of any bedbugs that you might have.

Travis McGowin
Yeah, I’m excited about this. I really, really am. I’m excited about putting it out there to somebody in need, because let’s face it, bedbugs Okay, let me start off by saying I wouldn’t pick any insects to live with. Okay. I mean, roaches, ants silverfish earwigs. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t pick any, any insects to share my home with but if I was forced to pick, I definitely wouldn’t pick bedbugs. You know, whether it’s the fact that they are literally using you as their food source or the stigmatism that surrounds bedbugs. They’re just something that I don’t want and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody else.

Michael Wienecke
Well, it’s funny you say that I’ve actually I had a customer the other day asked me you know what’s worse, German roaches are bedbugs. And by far bedbugs. I mean, really, at mites. In other things I can think of parasitic, you know, insects, fleas, anything like that bedbugs are worse. I mean, there’s, there’s nothing worse than, you know, the, the horror stories we’ve heard where customers laying in bed, and they can just feel these things munching on them, or they wake up and they can, you know, see him crawling in the sheets, or just just the, the stress that they that they bring on.

Travis McGowin
Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people limit their view of the problem that bedbugs cause to only to only really thinking about the physical aspect of it and in terms of like, like you said them feeding on us and, and maybe the allergic reaction calls from their bites or, or that sort of thing, but really, there’s just a whole other. There’s just a whole other problem with bedbugs. More so than just the baits. Like I said there’s the social aspect the stigmatism around having bedbugs. And then there’s also a mental aspect of it too. You know, bedbugs. They don’t, they’re not limited to just one socio economic class there. They’re not limited to one group of people, people who own a million dollar home can have on people who own a, you know, $90,000 home can have them and everything in between. And so if you end up with these insects, they can affect you mentally from affecting your sleep. That can make it harder to sleep because you dread laying down in your bed or dread laying anywhere in your house because you feel like you’re going to become a meal. And then that can affect your your day to day, you know, at work or with your family. I mean, it’s just there’s just a lot more than just the physical feeding aspect.

Michael Wienecke
Yeah, you definitely don’t want to like go over to your your family’s house for Christmas if you got bedbugs because then potentially, you know, you could bring it to them so, and

Travis McGowin
Your family’s not gonna want to come hang out with you either. Especially if they know!

Michael Wienecke
Exactly what and you know, we’re joking about this. But But really, I mean, we’ve seen it so many different ways that people get bedbugs. I mean, we’ve had, you know, somebody’s mother in law stayed with them. They they she had bedbugs at their house. They had no idea. They were infested. We had a lady that was traveling really nice hotels, all throughout Louisiana and all that and she got bedbugs brought it back to her condo. We’ve had Travis you’ve had some that

Travis McGowin
I had a good friend of mine, same thing. He in his previous job. I mean, he traveled three, four or five nights out of the week, sometimes in different states. You know, working for a national company, and ended up bringing them home to his own house. And you know, it he didn’t stay and nasty hotels either.

Michael Wienecke
Yeah, and I think the biggest thing too, is once you get them, people don’t know what to do people just they think that they can treat them with these, you know, store bought products that really don’t work. I mean, they’re gonna kill the one you spray. Just like roaches. They’re gonna kill the one you spray but they’re not going to take care of the problem bedbugs can get in cracks and crevices. I mean, I remember you telling me a story Travis and you were at a gas station and you saw one between the crack and crevice of like a sign. We’ve seen them in firearms. We’ve seen them just all kinds of the tightest little crack they can fit into.

Travis McGowin
Well, I did an inspection a couple of weeks ago at a house and they they had initially somehow gotten the bedbugs back and I want to say June or July of this year. And they went bought a whole bunch of like you said over the counter products labeled, you know guaranteed to kill bedbugs. Bla bla bla bla bla I sprayed everything down, sprayed everything down in the bedroom that was affected, and then thought they were in the clear, you know, didn’t see any more, didn’t seem to have any more problems. And now, you know, all of a sudden here it is November into December, and they’re back. And what I tried to explain to the customers, they never left. You know, you have bought these over the counter products. They’re they’re over repellent nature. So like you said, they’ll kill on contact if they contact. But, you know, what they didn’t understand is that bedbugs can go a long time in between feedings, they can survive for a long time before they need to feed again. And so if they had to go and hunker down and hide because of an over the counter product that was treated in there, they can they can wait it out.

Michael Wienecke
That’s right. And so I went to a CEU class and I remember the teacher talking about a boy’s home, and the boy’s home all the beds were metal tube style, you know, they’ll bedframe that we’ve all had his kids just hollow on the inside, and they infested with bedbugs. And that’s why we chose hate because he is going to penetrate everything. So they could not they had to throw all these beds away because they were doing liquid treatments. They’re these boys, these boys homes, and they had to throw all the beds away because the bedbugs were so deep inside the cracks and crevices of the tube metal frame, they could not get the product in there. So that’s why we chose heat because heat is going to penetrate the walls, it’s going to penetrate all cracks and crevices the bed pretty much anywhere that bedbug can hide.

Travis McGowin
Well and a lot of people have a common misconception. So you know, we go and we meet with people, we do inspections, people that have bed bugs. And I would be willing to say the majority of the time, all of a sudden you’re looking in the room where they’re having the problem. It’s like where’s the mattress? Where’s the box springs? Or the or the headboard? Or where are these items that are supposed to be in the bedroom? John? And you know, so there again, the one that I went and inspected a couple of weeks ago, they had just bought the lady that lived at the house a new mattress? Well, you and I both know that didn’t solve the problem. And yes, these insects are called bed bugs. But the mattress is can only be just a small portion of the problem. Usually people don’t realize how far these insects will crawl away from you and then back to you to feed on you. And while yes, they can live in a mattress and live around the seams and parts of the mattress and even the box springs to the headboard but you’re also talking about living under baseboards living in nightstands, behind wall plates for plugs and light switches and just all these other cracks and crevices so they’re not just limited to the bed. And I hate to see people go and throw away a perfectly good mattress, or headboard or or whatever article that they’re away thinking that they’re helping. When realistically one you just moved that item out of the room that was infested or that is infested. So now you run the risk of investing another room in your house. And then God forbid somebody picks your furniture up off the side of the road or or the mattress or you give it away or what have you. Because now they’re probably going to have bedbugs too. So you’ve just spread the problem, when if you just leave everything in that one room, leave it in that place. And let a company like us to come in and treat you get to keep all your stuff. So you’re not out money trying to buy, you know, new items of clothing, new furniture, new anything like that. And we we can guarantee to get into every spot like he talked about the boys home because the heats not gonna miss or neglect anything.

Michael Wienecke
That’s right. So let’s let’s dive into the sweepstakes. So, again, you know, we’re putting on Facebook, but on Google, we’re putting it on all these platforms that we we can because we really want to help somebody that’s in need. And, and there’s having this issue and doesn’t know where else to go?

Travis McGowin
Yeah, definitely this. This is something that we’ve been talking about now for several months and being able to give that gift to somebody. And that’s really what it is. It’s it’s us here at passkey. He’s giving somebody the gift of a bedbug free home. And you know whether that individual has one or two rooms that are infested, whether that individual and their family have a whole house that has issues with them. These heat treatment that were given away can can remedy that situation. And in in one day, and I can’t think right, exactly, you know, going back back and laying down in your bed that very same night and knowing that the problem is gone, the infestation is gone. And then being able to anticipate those family gatherings and and having company over as so many of us do during the holiday season, just being able to give that peaceful sleep. And that ability to believe that you can get together with your family and not have an issue with this insect. I mean, I think that’s huge.

Michael Wienecke
Yeah, I agree. And, you know, I’d also like to just kind of get rid of that stigma of, you know, just that that common Oh, well, their house must be disgusting, that, you know, they’re living in filth, you know, all that kind of stuff. I mean, I brought back fleas to my house, a couple of months ago.

Travis McGowin
Inherent risk of the job by the way!

Michael Wienecke
Luckily, I know a guy. So, and bedbugs are no different we worry about that. When we when we do services. I mean, we have to, we have to take our clothes off, you know, right outside the garage or around the back the back of the house and, and take, you know, really, really high precaution on that so

Travis McGowin
Well and I hate that because I think as a society. I think that there are a lot of people out there who, like you said have this negative connotation or negative view on someone with bedbugs, but all of the cheese, all of the heat treatments that we have done so far, have not been in some stereotypical house that’s unkept and not clean. I mean, like I said, it’s so easy to acquire an insect like a bedbug. You don’t have to, you know, have a filthy house or what have you. I mean, it can it can literally happen to anybody. And just knowing that there’s kind of this societal stigma about it, where people just think that someone is lesser than because they had bedbugs is just completely not true.