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Entrepreneur's Journal: How One Arizona PMP Taught Black Widows a Major Lesson
1 Apr, 2006 By: Michael Newhouse Pest Management ProfessionalQueen Creek, Ariz., experienced an exceptional amount of rainfall in 2005. A typical rainy season in Arizona usually consists of wet weather in February, however, last year steady rainfall started in February and didn't really end until April.
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With rain and excessive moisture come pests. Shane Buntin, owner of Arizona's Best Choice Pest and Termite Services, may know just how true this statement as well as any pest management professional (PMP) in Arizona.
"Because of Arizona's hot weather, we deal with a lot of different pests," Buntin says. "Usually, in this area of Arizona, we have some pretty heavy scorpion infestations. In 2005, we also dealt with a large number of black widow spiders.
"With all of the rain we had, the moisture was a lot higher, so once spring and summer hit, we had a bigger influx of insect activity than we typically do," he says.
But don't get him wrong. From a business standpoint, Buntin sure isn't complaining.
"All of a sudden, we got a huge influx of new business too," Buntin says. "We experienced record growth in 2005, mostly due to referrals from current customers.
"We needed to purchase nine new vehicles in 2005," he adds. "It was a phenomenal year."
BACK TO SCHOOL
In August 2005, Arizona's Best Choice was given the opportunity to bid for a pest management contract with the Chandler Unified School District. Unfortunately, all new bids were eventually rejected because there was "no consistency among them." The scope of service and prices were so broad, the school district was unable to compare any of the bids; therefore, board members decided to reject them all.
The resulting public relations nightmare taught the school district an important lesson.
"Black Widows Infest Chandler School" was the headline of one local paper, the East Valley Tribune, the morning of Aug. 31, 2005. That same morning, Buntin received a phone call.
"It was someone from the Chandler Unified School District, and they asked 'Have you seen the paper today?' Apparently, several students in one of the high schools had been bitten by black widow spiders and the media was eating the story up," Buntin says.
 When it rains it pours. Business grew so much for Arizona's Best Choice Pest and Termite Service in the 2005 — somewhat due to record rainfall — that the company had to add nine service vehicles to its fleet just to keep up with demand. |
It was an emergency situation. "They wanted us out at the high school by 5:00 p.m.," he says. "However, they also informed us that they were going to have another pest control company there as well."
The high school comprises eight buildings totaling approximately 360,000 square feet. The idea was to divide up the buildings, giving each pest control company four facilities to treat, as a way to compare services.
Buntin brought three technicians with him and they went to work on their four assigned buildings. What they found was amazing.
"We always follow the basic principles of IPM — inspect first, identify the problem and treat accordingly," says Buntin. "The first place we inspected was the drop ceiling. We popped a few tiles, got up there and shined the flashlight around.
"What we saw was a sea of crickets and black widows," Buntin says with a shudder.
SENSITIVE ENVIRONMENT
When treating a sensitive environment where hundreds of kids are present every day, the goal is to minimize chemical exposure. A carefully planned treatment strategy is essential in this type of situation.
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