FROM THE FIELD
Pest Control in Action: Videos from Our Technicians
Real jobs in Beaverton and the Portland metro, filmed by the people doing the work, with a short note on what our tech found on each one.
RODENT CASE STUDIES
Rats and Mice in Real Crawlspaces
What our techs find under Beaverton homes, and what it tells them about how rodents get in.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 2026
Three Tripped Traps and No Rats
Three traps had gone off in this Beaverton crawlspace with nothing in any of them, so our tech went in to figure out where the rats were traveling, where they were spending their time, and how they were getting into the house.
The way in turned out to be a hole in the wall that was made for a pipe, with no pipe in it. Greasy marks on a covered wire showed the route they kept running, and droppings and packed down insulation showed where they stopped to rest. They were settling in near the HVAC run, likely because it’s the warmest part of the crawlspace.
These were Norway rats, and three empty traps give you an idea of how quick and careful they can be. Traps are only part of the job if the way in is still open.
A CRAWLSPACE CASE STUDY, JANUARY 2026
The Rat Job That Turned Out to Be a Squirrel
Everything about this crawlspace said rats: rat and mouse droppings, broken vents and old carcasses. The last company had already used sticky traps, snap traps and poison, inside and outside the house.
We did the exclusion work, which trapped the animal inside. The customer kept hearing noises and every rat and mouse trap came up empty. When a game camera finally went out, it showed a squirrel, which explained why the traps kept tripping.
We got this one wrong at first, and our tech says so. Next time the camera goes out sooner when traps trip without catching anything. Once we knew it was a squirrel, we pulled our traps and bait boxes and referred the customer to a wildlife company.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, DECEMBER 2025
The Rat That Made Its Own Way In
This was our tech’s fourth visit to this Beaverton home, still working out how a rat was getting in after the first holes had been sealed.
Grease marks showed the route rats were running back and forth into the shed. The way in was tiny and easy to miss, one of the sneakier ones our tech has seen. After those first openings were closed, the rat found a new way into the garage, which is why a job like this can take several visits.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, AUGUST 2026
Following the Smell to a Crawlspace
A homeowner noticed a smell that wouldn’t go away, so our tech went looking for the source. Under the house there were signs of rodent tunneling, and one of the traps had just caught a rodent. That trap can be used again with fresh bait.
If you’re noticing odd smells or scratching noises, it’s worth having someone look before the problem gets bigger.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 2026
Norway Rat or Roof Rat
A little pop quiz with a rat caught in Beaverton. Our tech holds a reference diagram next to it, and the tail answers the question: on a Norway rat, the tail is shorter than the body.
The two species behave differently around a home, so it helps to know which one you have. Our rat page covers both.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, JANUARY 2026
Four Signs You Have Rats
Four things our techs look for that usually mean you have rats:
- Holes in the crawlspace fence, which are very common near AC units
- Carcasses from past or present infestations
- Rodent tracks on the vapor barrier
- Droppings and urine stains
BEAVERTON, OREGON, FEBRUARY 2026
The Scholar: the Rat That Learned to Avoid Every Trap
For weeks, this rat got past everything in a Beaverton kitchen. It avoided bait, snap traps, piston traps and non-lethal traps, and even learned to stay out of a live trap, all while coming back to the same counter every night.
It took weeks of testing traps and watching its behavior before the “Scholar” finally made a mistake. Some rodents learn, and if you rush them you can just push them somewhere else.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, NOVEMBER 2025
Identify a Rat in Seconds
A lot of people think they caught a mouse when it’s really a baby rat. Our tech shows a quick way to tell: a young rat’s feet look huge on its small body, like a Great Dane puppy, and its tail is long next to its body.
It’s worth checking, because it changes which service you need.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, DECEMBER 2025
How Big Portland Rats Can Get
The crew caught a huge rat in a customer’s crawlspace. The video doesn’t show the rat itself, just how big it was against a size comparison: 18 inches from nose to the end of the tail.
The crew’s biggest before that was a 19 inch rat, caught years ago in an industrial setting. This one was under someone’s home.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, DECEMBER 2025
The Noise in the Walls: a Rat on the Plumbing
The noises in the wall of this Beaverton home were coming from a rat using the household plumbing to get around. Pipes give a rat warmth, height and a direct route up.
The dark grease marks you’ll see on the pipe aren’t stains. They come from the rat using that route over and over.
BEAVERTON AREA, NOVEMBER 2025
Rat Highways Along a Pipe
A walk through a crawlspace with very clear signs of rats. Grease marks show where they come up and go straight into a hole that was already loose when the crew arrived.
They ran along the top of one pipe so often that they wore away the insulation, and the nest is more pronounced than what we usually see.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, DECEMBER 2025
A Rodent Follow-Up Visit, Start to Finish
Our tech takes you through a follow-up rodent service in Beaverton, from the first step in to the last step out. The gear is booties, a headlamp and a respirator, and the work is slow, with a lot of belly crawling.
Each trap gets checked. One had tripped with nothing in it and others had caught something. The first follow-up on this job caught two rats.
ANTS
Why Ants Come Back
Where the colony really is, and why a fast kill doesn’t always help.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, MAY 2026
An Entire Ant Colony Inside the Wall
A Beaverton customer kept seeing ants near an outlet. Our tech took off the cover plate and found an entire ant colony living inside the wall.
Ants gathering around an outlet can mean the nest is a lot closer than it looks, and it’s much easier to treat ants once you know where they live.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, FEBRUARY 2026
A Store Bought Ant Bait, Tested by a Technician
One of our techs has odorous house ants at home, often called sugar ants, and tried a common store bought borax bait. At first it looks like it worked, and then the video explains why it didn’t.
Odorous house ants have multiple queens. If the workers die too fast, the colony can split into several colonies, which our tech calls ant whack-a-mole. You want ants to carry the bait back to the nest, not die on the spot. If you treat them and they show up somewhere else a week or two later, the colony usually never got hit.
If you try a bait yourself, follow the label and keep it away from pets.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, JANUARY 2026
This or That: the Hardest Ant Problem to DIY
A quick round of this or that on what makes ants hard to handle yourself. Ants all over the house are harder than ants in one room, and a trail you can see is easier to follow back to where they live.
Given the choice, our tech goes after the source rather than treating the trail.
WASPS AND YELLOWJACKETS
A Close Look at Stinging Insects
Nests in the ground, in shrubs, in walls and along rooflines, and how we treat them.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, OCTOBER 2025
Ground Nesting Yellowjackets Under a Patio
A customer called us about paper wasps, but these turned out to be ground nesting yellowjackets living under a patio. The right treatment depends on which one you have.
The nest held a lot of yellowjackets, and you can see how much bigger the queen is than the drones.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, JULY 2026
Four Places Yellowjackets Love to Nest
During yellowjacket season in Beaverton, our tech found nests in four different spots. If you’re checking your own property, these are good places to look:
- At the base of an arborvitae
- Inside a shrub
- At the base of a patio
- In a tree
BEAVERTON, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 2026
A Nest Hidden Under the Ferns
This nest was hidden under a patch of ferns, and at first the yard looked completely peaceful. About 10 minutes into treatment, that changed.
A quiet yard can still have an active nest, so if you see yellowjackets flying in and out of one spot, it’s worth paying attention.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, OCTOBER 2026
Finding a Hidden Yellowjacket Nest with Thermal Imaging
These yellowjackets were nesting inside a wall, where you can’t see the nest from outside. A thermal camera helps us find it first, so the treatment can be aimed at the nest.
PORTLAND, OREGON AREA, OCTOBER 2026
Queen, Workers and Drones Inside a Yellowjacket Colony
A close look at the three kinds of yellowjacket from one colony in the Portland area. The larger one is the queen, and the workers are non-reproductive females. The four at the top are males, called drones, and they can’t sting because they don’t have stingers.
BEAVERTON AND THE PORTLAND METRO, JULY 2026
Before You Spray a Paper Wasp Nest, Watch This
Paper wasps are one of the most common stinging insects we see around Beaverton. Our tech shows the over the counter product they recommend for knocking down an active nest, and what it can’t do. Wasps that were out foraging will come back and try to rebuild, and stopping that generally takes something extra, like dusts and liquids applied by a professional.
Before you spray, make sure they’re paper wasps and not yellowjackets, because spraying a yellowjacket nest with the same product will hurt. Follow the label and wear protective equipment. Only treat a nest if you can do it safely from a distance and you’re not allergic to stings.
SHERWOOD, OREGON, OCTOBER 2025
Yellowjacket Nest Removal in Sherwood, OR
This yellowjacket nest in a tree has already been treated and is pretty well gone. To be sure, our tech rips holes in it and applies product inside before it comes down.
Nests cling to branches, so the crew normally snips the branches and removes the nest whole.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 2026
A Nest with Several Entrances at the Base of a Tree
How we treat a yellowjacket nest with several entrances around the base of a tree. One hole isn’t always the whole nest, so when the openings are spread out, we treat around the base.
PORTLAND AREA, JULY 2026
Paper Wasp Removal and the Right Equipment
This paper wasp removal was going as planned until it wasn’t, so watch to the end. Paper wasps generally aren’t aggressive unless the nest is disturbed, and removing one safely takes the right equipment and technique.
PORTLAND, OREGON AREA, SEPTEMBER 2026
Paper Wasp Nests High on the Roofline
Our tech takes down paper wasp nests tucked high along the roofline of a home in the Portland area.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, OCTOBER 2026
Do Yellowjacket Traps Actually Work?
This trap was hanging about five feet from a very active yellowjacket nest. Our tech’s take is that it seems to be doing pretty well.
SPIDERS
Spider Season
FOREST GROVE, OREGON, MAY 2026
A Dewebbing Transformation
A before and after from a service in Forest Grove. Removing spider webs and cleaning around the home’s exterior, eaves, entryways and overhangs is part of our regular pest control service.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, DECEMBER 2025
Spider ID: the Cross Orb Weaver
People usually call these garden spiders. This one is a cross orb weaver, and the cross on its back is how you can tell.
OTHER CRITTERS
Other Things We Run Into
Opossums, raccoons, bats and the occasional centipede.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, OCTOBER 2026
An Opossum Following a Rat on a Trail Camera
Our trail camera in Beaverton caught a rat on a deck, and minutes later an opossum came along behind it. The same thing happened the next night. It could be a coincidence, or the opossum could be stalking the rat. We don’t know.
BEAVERTON AREA, JANUARY 2026
Mystery Tracks in the Crawlspace
Our tech was in this crawlspace for a rodent job when these tracks turned up. They look like little baby handprints. The likely answer is opossums or raccoons, but the creepy part is not knowing whether the animal is still down there with you.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, JUNE 2026
Field Surprises: Raccoons, Squirrels and Bats
You never know what’s going to turn up on a job. This clip has a raccoon, a squirrel and a bat, all from around Beaverton and the Portland metro.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, NOVEMBER 2025
Yellowjackets, Then a House Centipede Showed Up
We were on a yellowjacket job in Beaverton when a big house centipede turned up. They look like a spider with way too many legs.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Inside the Gear and the Crawlspace
What the work looks like from our techs’ side.
BEAVERTON, OREGON, AUGUST 2026
The Safety Features Built into a Bee Suit
This is the suit our crew wears when working on a nest, and our tech shows some of its safety features. The yellowjackets coming out will readily sting, and the popping sound you hear is them hitting the hood and the camera.
OREGON, DECEMBER 2025
When an Atmospheric River Flooded the Crawlspace
Oregon’s atmospheric river flooded this crawlspace and changed the plan. Between the water and suds that turned out to be mold, the usual route wasn’t possible, so our tech stayed on dry land and walked the drier outside line.
The rats probably weren’t swimming across to the pillars, so it made sense to look somewhere else.
OUR STORY
The People Behind the Truck
BEAVERTON, OREGON, JULY 2026
The Story of Prime Pest Solutions
Nine years ago, two friends from Idaho packed up everything and moved to Oregon. They were childhood friends who ended up working at the same pest control company, then went out on their own.
Today Prime Pest Solutions is a family owned company serving Beaverton and the greater Portland metro.
KEEP WATCHING
More Videos on YouTube
Every video here comes from our YouTube channel, and there are more on it than we’ve added to this page.
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