Business is booming for pest control companies fighting the problem mainly in apartment complexes and extended-stay hotels.

Before an exterminator sprays any chemicals, most likely they’ll ask residents to take the cushions off the sofa, tear apart the bed, get all the clothes out of the closet, and wash or dry clean them.

Read more at News 5 Online.

I have been saying for the last couple of years that the systems have come a long way and that I thought they were much improved over what was offered originally. For the last several months I have been researching the Sentricon^® Termite Colony Elimination System with Always Active technology. I contacted and spoke with many of my peers across Tennessee and in other parts of the country to get their thoughts on this new technology. EVERY ONE of them told me the same thing, that it was the best product that they had ever used to eliminate termites from their customer’s homes!  The Always Active technology is game changing as far as the way termite treatments are performed.

I am very excited that P.E.S.T., Inc. has been certified as an Authorized Operator by Dow AgroSciences and will be offering the Sentricon® System with Always Active technology. There are very few pest control operators that are Authorized Operators and we are proud to be one of them.  I’ll be sharing more about the Sentricon® System in upcoming posts but in the interim please feel free to go to www.sentricon.com to find out more information.

If you have questions about this service or would like to schedule a complimentary termite inspection, please contact us at 382-9774.

-Andy C. Yant

andy@pestinc.net

®Trademark of DowAgroSciences LLC

“We started in June 2001 out of our home in Cheatham County with Andy as the only technician and I worked the office stuff at night,” said Julie Yant. “Within a year we secured office space, relocated to Robertson County and hired our first employee.  Today we employ 14 people.”

In 2010 the TSBDC at Vol State worked with 210 small businesses, offering free and inexpensive classes, and counseling.

“I’m honored to have been elected by my peers to serve as President.  I look forward to the opportunity to give back to the association that has given me so much.  We have a lot of opportunity for growth within our association and I look forward to helping us grow and further the professionalism of our industry” Yant said.

TPCA members and their families attended the summer conference in Chattanooga last week. In addition to the general membership meeting and board meeting, there were social and networking opportunities including a welcome reception, dinner banquet and day events.

The TPCA has been serving Tennessee for over sixty years and is the Joint State Association for the National Pest Management Association (NPMA). For more information about NPMA, visit www.PestWorld.org.

1.  Yellow Jackets in Wall – A child got stung in the middle of the night in his top bunk bed.  Turns out there was a 3 foot diameter nest inside the wall!  Andy neutralized the yellow jackets (albeit while getting stung 5-6 times) then removed the nest from the wall.

2.  Bed bugs brought home from movie theater in NYC? Last fall the media really focused on the increase in bed bugs even though we had seen them trending up over the last five years. One of the stories on the national media was that of bed bugs being in a movie theater in New York City.  A few days after that story broke we got a call from someone who had been in that movie theater and thought they had bed bugs. It sounded plausible to us too but they actually had ticks.  So it’s also good to get a professional opinion when you can and steer clear of DIY pest control methods as you might be treating for the wrong pest.  Ticks inside a home are difficult to treat and we definitely don’t recommend any do-it-yourself methods for ticks or bed bugs.

3.  Family bringing home bed bugs from grandma’s house. This one sort of makes me sad to think of but we had a family that were having some pest issues.  We determined that they were bed bugs and the source was from grandma!  Sometimes the elderly have trouble recognizing a bed bug (and other pest) problem(s) before it’s a major infestation.  Needless to say, there was treatment at both homes and some touchy family dynamics with visiting grandma until the infestation was under control.

4. Encountering hanging meat in a closet during a roach treatment. Not sure what the meat was but did understand why the roaches were so bad.  We’ve actually seen this multiple times now as we’ve serviced more apartment complexes over the years.  Enough said!

5. Rodents gone wild! The rats at a facility  were so bad they were discouraging people from getting out of their cars to bring in donations.  Not good for business all the way around.

6.  Brown recluse in broad day light. Brown recluse were so rampant in a school that the spiders were walking down the hallway in the middle of the day as if they were going to class.  Not exactly the environment you want your child learning in!

7. Don’t move – the termites have eaten me away! Termites infested a home so bad that our inspector was afraid that the floors would fall through if anyone moved much upstairs. The carpet seemed to offer more support than the joists and sub-floor.  Remember to have your home checked for termites annually to avoid a scenario such as this.

8. Snakes! We don’t treat for snakes as a pest control operator however we do encounter them quite a bit.  One time we were called to perform a termite inspection and shortly after entering the dug out basement the inspector realized that there were snakes hanging on the water pipes that he had just crawled under and another snake crawling across my shoe. Let’s just say that he exited those premises pretty quickly!

9. Taking any business we can get! Early on when it was only Andy doing all of the inspections and treatments it wasn’t uncommon to have to do termite inspections on foreclosed / vacant homes at the end of the day and sometimes after dark. On one such occasion Andy removed the crawl space door and didn’t do a preliminary glance before entering the rather low crawl space. Once he got into the crawl space he was greeted by an angry mother possum protecting her babies. Possums aren’t pretty creatures at a distance but they are really ugly at about 2 feet with their teeth showing.

10. Finding more than termites during an inspection. There have been several occasions where we’ve inspected crawl space areas in vacant (usually foreclosed) homes to find evidence of people making their homes in the crawl space area.  It’s a good reminder to for all service professionals to be safe during service calls but it’s also a good reminder to count our blessings that we’ve so abundantly been given.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing this series of posts and hope that you’ve enjoyed reading them as well.  We are grateful for our dedicated customers – internal and external .  P.E.S.T., Inc. would cease to exist without you all and we remember that daily.

Best wishes for a happy and safe rest of the summer!

Andy & Julie Yant

615.382.9774

andy@pestinc.net

julie@pestinc.net

1.  Remove and clean up any food waste, standing water or clutter around the outside of your home.  Check the outside of your home to make sure you do not have anything that may be drawing pests to your home.  Wood should be stacked off of the ground and away from the house; garbage bins should be tightly closed; tree branches should not be touching the house.

2.  You should also check for and repair any cracks or openings on both the inside and outside walls of the house.

3.  Correct moisture problems to help prevent termites. Make sure gutters and downspouts are unclogged. Water should be channeled from downspouts away from your foundation. Repair leaking pipes and don’t aim sprinklers against your house. Slope soil away from your home. Trim shrubbery blocking any vents.

4.  Clean up dirty dishes quickly; take garbage out promptly, do not keep recyclables in the house; wipe up spills and dry them; do not leave open food containers sitting around.  These tips will help with ants and roaches.

5.  Check used furniture for signs of bed bugs.  Also follow all of our tips for bed bugs (including when you travel) as found here.

6. If there’s a hornet, wasp, bee or other flying insect in your house and you have no insect spray, kill it with hair spray.

7. If your home becomes infested with fleas, vacuum rugs thoroughly before treating, and throw the dust bag out at once.

8. To keep rodents out of your house, seal every opening they could squeeze through. Some need less than 1/4 inch of space. Stuff deep cracks/holes with steel wool or scouring pads pushed in with a screwdriver. Close the spaces with spackling compound mixed with steel wool fragments.

9.  Carpenter ants are most active searching for food from midnight to 4 a.m., so if you see these pests during the day, you are seeing only a small fraction of what is happening at night. They love leaks or other moisture problems, blocked or leaking gutters, or a poorly ventilated attic or crawl space. Tree stumps, dead tree limbs, and firewood also can stimulate problems with carpenter ants, as can trees and shrubs that touch a home and keep walls more moist.

10.  Yellow jackets prefer to locate their nests in the ground, usually in an old rodent burrow or similar hole. This wasp also commonly locates its nest inside the walls of a building by entering through cracks or holes in the outside walls. To prevent accidental stings:

• When working in a garden or flowerbed, be aware of numerous wasps flying into and away from a single point in the garden or to a hole in the side of the house. This will usually indicate a colony.

• Be careful when using powered lawn equipment, such as edgers, trimmers, and mowers. Loud, vibrating noises disturb yellow jackets and may send them into an attacking frenzy.

• Stay away from yellow jacket nests once you know where they are located.

• If yellow jackets are seen entering and exiting a wall, DO NOT plug the hole. You will only forces the wasps to find another way out. Sometimes they might actually eat through an interior wall and enter the house.

Some of the above tips should be used in conjunction with using a pest management professional (PMP) treatment as certain insects such as fleas and roaches will continue to hatch eggs for up to ninety days.  However if you have minimal infestation these tips can go a long way in terms of helping achieve control with or without the help of a PMP.  If you have any questions about bugs or rodents in your home then please call us at 615-382-9774.

Andy & Julie Yant

andy@pestinc.net

julie@pestinc.net

We’ve found over the years that pest control can be helped by home owner behavior once we understand the pest habitat.  Here are some things that you as a home owner can do to help with any treatment that we would perform.

1. Throw out old tires, tin cans, buckets, drums, bottles, or any water holding containers.
2. Fill in or drain any low places (puddles, ruts) in yard.
3. Keep drains, ditches, and culverts clean of weeds and trash, so water will drain properly.
4. Cover trash containers to keep out rainwater, and drill holes in bottom of trash containers so any water can drain out.
5. Empty plastic wading pools at least once a week or store in a position that water will drain
6. Make sure your above ground or in ground backyard pool is maintained properly.
7. Change water in bird baths and plant pots or drip trays at least once a week.
8. Keep grass cut short and shrubbery well trimmed around the house, so adult mosquitoes will not hide there.
9. Keep gutters clean and free of debris and leaves.
10. Repair leaky pipes and outdoor faucets.

We hope this list will help you enjoy your time outside even more.

Julie + Andy Yant

Today we are continuing our series of celebrating 10 years in business by discussing some of our blessings.  We’ve truly received an infinite amount of blessings but we’ve listed 10 in this post.  Counting your blessings is one of the best things you can do on a daily basis and when you find yourself slipping into a place of anxiety or uncertainty it’s always critical to take a moment and take inventory of how God blesses us daily.  I’d love to hear some feedback of any other business owners and the blessings that you’ve come across in owning your own business.  Please comment on the post on the website or on Facebook.

1. Hours – As I write this I’m in the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel in Chattanooga at 9:24 pm local time so this one can be a blessing and a curse!  But on the flip side I was able to play mini-golf with my children this morning and take them to the local children’s museum this afternoon.  It’s a tradeoff that we wouldn’t trade for the world.  I’m not sure that either of us could ever go back to someone else setting our work hours!  Of course, to a large extent customer demands set our work hours and that’s okay too.  Customers write our paychecks after all!

2. Children - We’re thankful to be able to bring our children into the office and on conference trips with us.  And sometimes they’ve been known to go to networking events and meetings that were appropriate.  Our older son was demonstrating the use of mouse traps during the exhibit hall time today at our state association conference.  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

3. Meeting New People - I think most people in a service business have this opportunity and we relish it.  We’ve met so many unique, diverse people and look forward to the ones we’ve yet to meet.

4. Providing a Positive, Pleasant Work Environment – This is one we sometimes take for granted because it just suits our lifestyle but some people we’ve hired go on and on about how different it is to work at P.E.S.T., Inc.  We feel privileged to set an example that although we have a strong, determined work ethic we do it in an encouraging way with the best attitude that we can.    We definitely try to lead by example.  Of course we do fall short from time to time but we admit our mistakes and carry on.

5. Challenging Ourselves - We’ve done so many things outside our comfort zones over the last several years that we probably wouldn’t have done unless we were doing it for the sake of our business.  

6. Travel - We’ve gone to many conferences over the last ten years.  I love to travel and this has helped Andy turn into more of a traveller.  I still don’t know if he loves it as much as I do but I think he’s getting there!

7. Helping People - Whether it’s bringing someone peace of mind that suffering with the stigma of a bed bug infestation or donating services to someone in need we love to help our customers.

8. Creating an Income for Ourselves and Other Families - This is something we are grateful for minute to minute especially in the recent economic times.  We were glad when we could finally afford to pay ourselves an income and now we can help do that for other families too.  It’s something we never take lightly.

9. Contributing to Our Community – Through our working with the local Chambers of Commerce, schools and other groups we’ve enjoyed donating time or services to several different organizations in our community.  We’d rather donate something to a local school than spend more money in the Yellow Pages or some other advertising any day.  But beyond the monetary factor we relish the time to get out in the community and do something to hopefully make it better.

10. Being Able to Work with Our Best Friend - Cue the sappy music!  For some folks this might not be on their best blessing list but it’s on ours.  We work well together and on most days we enjoy working together.

-Julie Yant

julie@pestinc.net

615-382-9774

1.  Buying our first office space. We felt we had arrived when we moved out of the spare bedroom and into a real office.  This was crucial in establishing a foundation for growth.

2.  Hiring our first employee. We worked a year before we hired anyone and we’ve worked some crazy hours ourselves to keep from hiring until we absolutely had to.  We think that’s critical in trying to be fiscally responsible in a new business but you’ve also got to realize at some point you do need more help.

3.  Reaching goals (sales and otherwise). The main point about this is that we make goals.  If you don’t have a target then you’ll miss every time.

4.  Not ever laying off any employees. This has been huge for us and mentioned in previous posts in this series about trying to regulate growth but it also goes to what I mentioned in point #2 of this post.  There have been times when we’ve really needed someone for 3-4 months but we’ve just worked harder unless we felt we could keep them on year round.

5.  Being named in a national industry magazine as “one to watch” (2 times!). Pest Management Professional magazine named Andy a “Top 40 under 40″ in 2008  and “Worth Watching” in 2009.

6.  Acquiring smaller businesses. We’ve been blessed with the relationships we’ve formed in this industry to acquire some really great companies.  It’s benefitted us and hopefully we’ve helped some folks that have retired or relocated have peace of mind knowing their customers are being well taken care of.

7. Having positive growth year after year. Considering we started this business in June 2001, we are still amazed at this stat.  We’ve been through 9/11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and some of the worst economic times in this country but we’ve grown every year in spite of that.  We can’t help but say a big “Thank You” to everyone who has helped us in our journey.

8. Being elected President of Tennessee Pest Control Association (TPCA) and Region 3 Association. Andy takes over this month as President of  TPCA (he’s also been president of Region 3 TPCA) and Julie takes over as President of Region 3 TPCA this month as well.  We have gained so much from our association with these groups and we are grateful to be able to give back.

9. Mentoring. We joke that we should start a consulting business but Andy has sort of become an unspoken consultant for several of his peers.  Andy loves to share some things to avoid and what has worked well with us.  We’ve been blessed with some great advice along the way and we’re happy to pay it forward.

10. Keeping our family first. Again, we’ve touched on this before but at the end of the day it’s all that really matters.

-Andy & Julie Yant

Andy’s Top 5 Best Decisions

1.  Hiring quality people. We have been so blessed with a great team of people throughout the past 10 years.  Our motto has been “hire hard and manage easy”.  It was some great advice we got from an industry peer many years ago and it really holds true.  We have been very particular about who we hire and are grateful for the people who have come our way.

2.  Not compromising quality to try and get more quantity. This is a tough one.  Success is measured in different ways and as a business you have to figure out what type of customer you’re marketing to.  We figured it out pretty early on but it’s tough sometimes in this industry in particular to go against some of our “low price” competitors.  Again, it all works out by keeping on doing what we do best and providing our customers an exceptional service, with a pleasant attitude and arriving when we say we’re going to be there.  These seem like pretty basic tenants to us but the people that we’ve hired that have worked for other pest control companies have been blown away by the level of service we provide to our customers.  I think that’s a good thing!

3.  Being involved in networking/chamber activities. We touched on this in previous posts.  Again, be consistent and be involved.

4.  Having a website and keeping it up to date. We started a website pretty early on and have tried to keep it relevant and informative.

5.  Using social media in particular with support from Transparent Social Media. Social media can be a scary frontier but it doesn’t have to be.  It’s great low or no cost advertising.  We’ve taken it to another level and really started thinking outside the box with the help of Jason Elkins and his team at Transparent Social Media.  In particular, we now have a custom Facebook page that we use to continue our branding through that medium.

Julie’s Top 5 Best Decisions

6.  Purchasing a small business with an existing customer base. This was a huge one for me.  We had plans in motion to start from the ground up.  Thankfully an opportunity presented itself to buy a one man operation and it really helped me take the plunge in starting this business.

7.  Trying to grow at a controlled pace. Emphasis is on “trying”.  This is probably one of the most difficult things to do.  Of course, the nature of our business is somewhat seasonal as well so we go really hard for six months a year and not so hard for the other six months.  We’ve basically tried to grow by adding one new technician per year.  Our goal has been to never hire any full time position that we couldn’t keep year round.  Even though we are seasonal we didn’t want to lay off people.  So far it’s working for us and we’re grateful that our team goes the extra mile in working so many hours in the spring and summer to accommodate all customers old and new.

8.  Investing in Pestpac software. We think it’s some of the best in the industry and it helps keep us running smooth.  Initially it was a big investment for us (still is for that matter!) however it’s worth it to have a system in place that helps us in all aspects of customer service and is geared toward the pest control industry.

9.  Embracing social media. A lot of people wonder how social media fits with pest control.  Social media can fit with any business.  We’ve really embraced it over the last 18 months and it’s been one of the best things we’ve ever done for marketing/branding/engaging with our customers.  We are able to continue the relationships we build in person online as well. In addition we’re making new relationships online that turn into personal relationships.  I could go on and on about this decision but I have to give my biggest thanks in this regard to Transparent Social Media for helping us with our vision.

10. Locating our office in Springfield (Robertson County). Quite frankly, most of our business is outside this city/county but we are growing more and more here each day.  We initially came to this area because of inexpensive real estate and property taxes (see worst decision number one for more information on this).  In the process though, we moved to a home in the area and this small town atmosphere has created an environment conducive for locating great staff and really keeping us to the core of of our culture with a slower pace and family values that we might not get if we were based in the middle of Nashville.  Logistically, it would benefit us to be in Nashville and who knows what the future holds but we always intend to maintain a presence here in Robertson County and have been enriched professionally and personally for it.

-Andy & Julie Yant

615.382.9774

andy@pestinc.net

julie@pestinc.net