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Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement to your truck.

Trusted source for home improvement tips and tricks, I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

This is our midweek special.

This is that update that we do that doesn't talk about the stuff that we did last weekend or the stuff that didn't fit into this weekend show.

And we've got a lot to talk about today.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com well, I was surfing through the interwebs today and I was looking at some stuff and I saw this come out and it's pretty interesting.

Orkin, the big rodent control company came up with their top rattiest cities.

So who is America's rattiest city?

For the first time in over a decade, Los Angeles now has taken the top spot, beating out Chicago and New York.

So in true Hollywood fashion, LA has taken center stage on this one.

Pretty interesting.

Rodents are so nasty.

They create so many problems.

They just chew up everything.

So they went from August 20, 2024 to August 21, 2025.

And while Chicago sits at number two, it still continues to buy to to battle those high levels of rodent activity across its urban landscape.

Coming up on a close third is New York City.

Fourth is San Francisco.

This year, California has the most represented state with four cities in the top 50.

You got LA, San Francisco at number four, Sacramento at 19 and San Diego number 24.

Notably, two of those, LA and San Francisco are in the top five.

So if you look here, you got LA, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Hartford, Connecticut, Washington, D.C. hartford, Connecticut is up eight.

Wow, guys, you guys are climbing up the thing.

Detroit, Michigan is up 1.

Philly at number 8 is down 1.

Minneapolis is plus 2.

Denver, way to go down on the list, down 4.

At number 10, Tom.

Now, I don't know if Denver is doing a lot with that or these other people are doing little and it's getting them up there.

But wrapping up the top 20 here, 11 is Cleveland, 12 is Baltimore, 13 is Boston, 14 is Indianapolis, 15 Dallas, 16 Milwaukee.

Number 17, Seattle.

They're actually down three.

Dallas is up seven.

Watch out, Dallas, 18 is Atlanta.

19 is Sacramento.

Tom.

And number 20 is Pittsburgh.

Now, if you go down through the list, the notable ones here that are growing, you got Hartford, Connecticut at plus eight on the list.

You've got Tampa at plus 13.

They're a rising star.

Cincinnati is plus eight.

Portland, Oregon, way to stay in the game at plus seven.

Orlando plus six.

Kansas City plus nine.

And you see where we're going with this.

Now, some of the ones that have made the biggest differences out there, gotta say, Albuquerque and minus 13, Albany, New York, minus 18.

Way to go, guys.

So you're seeing some really interesting stuff.

Tampa, of course, has gone up, but it's interesting to see how we look at this and see where the rodent problems are.

Many times these rodent problems are part of a cleanliness area in the cityscape.

And I tell you what, like in Portland, if they don't keep it clean in my area here, it gets brutal.

Now, the problem with rodents, you can get structural damage, health concerns, of course, when they start growing, boy, do they.

They have fast reproduction.

So things you can do for that is to.

They have an acronym for this.

That orchid has no G NAW guard entry points, ceiling cracks, holes and gaps.

Never leave food unattended outside for pets or wildlife.

A avoid clutter.

That could create nesting spots.

And w watch for signs like droppings now marks, rub marks, burrows, or scampering noises in your home.

So brutal.

That one's nasty.

That one is.

Oh.

Tells you what.

There's a lot of cities out there that need to do a little bit more work.

And it's a.

It talks about a bigger problem that we're seeing around with the Just absolute messes in some of our urban blight and stuff that we see going.

Some cities have been doing really well.

Think of where Detroit was 15 years ago, where you could buy a house for $500.

In Detroit, that was pretty well beat down.

So it's getting interesting with that.

Tom.

I'm seeing a lot of stuff out there, and I think some of this is regional.

You're seeing some areas are busy, some areas for construction are slow.

New construction here is really slowed down.

I am talking to many people in the Pacific Northwest just with the brutal layoffs that you're seeing from people, not even counting this whole shutdown stuff.

But really, we're seeing banks like Wells Fargo close here.

They're closing up many of their operations.

In Portland, they had a high rise.

Wells Fargo had a high rise in downtown Portland that is nearly empty.

You're seeing Amazon laying off 30 plus thousand people in the US lots of stuff heading out where people are downsizing and doing that.

And they're not really making it easier to do business here.

So that's getting interesting.

So we'll see if we see some turnarounds with that.

Companies like Sherwin Williams are doing well.

They had a great third quarter, I saw.

So we're seeing a mix of what's going on out there and it makes it interesting.

It does.

So what I would do right now, I think we're seeing it's 7 o' clock in the morning here on Wednesday morning.

So we're doing this about as live as we can for you on the podcast, if you're just catching it when it came out.

But we've got China in the US Government, the president talking about tariffs this afternoon.

That could be interesting.

Don't know how that's going to go.

I think we're going to see more information on that.

So it's going to be an interesting time right now.

So sit tight.

It's the holidays.

I wouldn't go planning a big project right now.

I would.

Unless you have to do one, knock it out.

But pay attention to see what you got going on out there.

It might be time just to hold your cards until the new year.

Usually I would say, hey, it's not going to get less expensive, but right now it could.

So let's see what happens out there.

We're heading into that new product year and I think we could see some things change as far as tariffs and stuff.

Hopefully that stuff goes down.

We'll see how we do with all these agreements.

But it's going to be interesting to see what happens with that.

So stay tuned.

As far as recalls is going, I don't see a ton out there.

They are still, you know, doing things over at the Consumer Product Safety Commission Here in the US notable recalls this week, 3M Company recalls thermal laminators due to overheating.

There's about 1300 13,000 of those.

Lots of drawers and dressers and stuff that weren't tied to the walls.

Another one is scepter fuel containers.

Recall due to risk of serious injury or death from flash fire, violates mandatory standards for portable fuel containers.

Only about 1500 of those.

And I tell you what, I'm not really impressed with those things.

I would be taking a look at some of the better fuel containers out there.

Really.

That's about it.

Not too much.

We've got some sauna 360s recalls, the Tylo Homestead and on a hybrid saunas due to fall hazard.

Not too many of those, about a thousand of them and that's pretty much it.

Not a lot of stuff going on there.

I think they've been doing their due diligence on continuing to look for those bad products.

But lots of dressers because people didn't put in the the brackets to anti tip which happens every time that we see those come out.

And I'm really seeing a lot of more of that stuff here that we're seeing.

Get caught and be really careful guys.

I tell you what, I've learned a lesson this week and it was an interesting one.

And my girlfriend's got a Dyson one of those, I guess I would call it a cordless stick vacuum.

Her battery was dying, jumped on Amazon, bought one, put it in new battery.

It lasted for 60 days before it died.

And the lesson learned is when you're buying replacement batteries and I, I knew better and I did anyway.

So it's up to me.

I own this one.

But I tell you what, I would stay away from those off brand cheesy batteries when you see them.

I haven't found one.

I've been starting to look now they all about have the same reviews.

So you're better off finding the manufacturer's one from the manufacturer.

And yeah, it's so tempting to pay 25 and get a brand new battery when they're a hundred dollars from the manufacturer.

But there's a reason why they're a hundred dollars.

They're using quality pieces and putting the right parts in there.

And I can tell you what I am just about guaranteeing you, if I was to tear that thing apart, you would see substandard or even worse, rejected little lithium ion batteries and that could be its own fire hazard.

So you want to be careful with that and make sure that you don't have that issue out there.

So be careful.

I learned my lesson.

I'm not doing it again.

I'm going to buy the right battery for it instead of the Amazon knockoff and get the right one put in there.

Because worst case is on something like that you're going to have a fire and nobody wants that.

All right everybody, we have a great show coming up this weekend with Johnny and I that I can't wait to share with you.

It's going to be a lot of fun and we have a lot of banter back and forth.

I can tell we both had a lot of coffee before that one.

It's going to be a great show for you to catch this Saturday and that'll be Aaron at the normal times as we always see it.

And we're going to have a great if you're listening in Portland, Oregon, Tom, we're gonna have a huge announcement, if you're a radio listener out there, coming up here with some exciting new stuff coming up in the coming weeks.

So stay tuned for that.

It's a big deal and I can't wait to announce it when we're ready.

So I'll tease you with that.

All right, everybody, have a great rest of your week.

Happy hump day.

Happy Wednesday.

Happy end of the month.

And enjoy.

And have a safe Halloween this weekend.

So enjoy it, be safe with the family.

Have some good time with the kids.

And remember, if you're giving out those candies, make sure you got something for the parents too out there.

Maybe they need a little top off of their wine canister or some hot water for their chocolate or who knows what the weather's going on out there.

Maybe something just to wipe the rain off.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning into around the House.

We'll see you Saturday.

Make sure to follow us on social media.

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We will see you next time.