Meet The Owner/Operator

I was born in Quincy, Illinois, and grew up in nearby Jacksonville.

No. Like many pest professionals, I had no clear career goals as a youngster... that’s partly why I got a job as a bug guy!

Having stated that, I love my work and can’t imagine doing anything else.

After I graduated from college in 1985, I didn’t want to live in a small Midwestern town, so I put some clothes and a sleeping bag on my motorcycle and drove to California, where I didn’t know a soul. Lacking money, I lived in a tent in the Los Padres National Forest, just outside Ojai.

For months I looked for a job—any job—and tried to get a foothold in my newly adopted state. Finally, in the spring of 1986, I got a pest control job in the San Bernardino Mountains for a whopping $5.00 an hour. My path to pest mastery had begun.

Well, I didn’t like spraying poisons, but I certainly enjoyed driving from job to job solving pest issues for customers. Being a Midwesterner, I like helping people, and I love the challenge of the work. Ridding homes of pests is like solving puzzles, and as a boy, I always enjoyed working on puzzles. I also loved working outdoors in a national forest.

In my early thirties, I became concerned that my life was going nowhere, and I decided that starting my own company would kick it into gear... which it did... and then some.

Eighty-hour work weeks... questions with no answers... “How am I going to solve this problem?”... work, work, work... what’s a vacation?... “Well, I screwed up this time and I’m going to lose everything”... more work... “Wow, I can’t believe I got out of that jam!”... brutal lessons in the school of hard knocks... sleepless nights... money problems... “Thank you, Mike, for getting those awful rats out of my home!”

It was all worth it and I’ll never work for anyone else ever again.

Be careful what you wish for!

On the day I drop dead.