The Florida State Bluegrass Festival is one of the largest and most recognized bluegrass festivals in the US, attracting more than 3,000 attendees. Voted by the International Bluegrass Music Association as one of the best events in the US — and featuring the exclusive United States Navy Band, the Country Current — the festival has become one of the most popular events in Florida. The festival is held at the Forest Capital Museum State Park in Perry, Fla., a sprawling 13-acre park that features 50-plus-year-old longleaf pines.
Unfortunately, the festival has been plagued with fire ants every year. Thousands of attendees were bitten and stung by fire ants throughout the park and complained to the festival officials for relief. As the spring festival approached this year, howevr, event officials turned to David Sullivan, one of the local chamber of commerce directors and president of local pest management company The Roach Coach.
Sullivan felt enormous pressure to resolve the problem. Specializing primarily in indoor pest management, however, he quickly realized he did not have the products, equipment or experience to treat a 13-acre state park. Sullivan began by requesting product from a manufacturer, but when the product finally arrived about a week before the festival, the label indicated that ant control could be expected over a 14- to 21-day period. Treatment over a lengthy period of time just wasn’t going to work.
Sullivan felt mounting pressure, with the start of the festival only days away and no solution in sight.
“I wanted to be the hero, not the goat,” he recalls.
Sullivan called Jennifer Morton, his trusted distributor contact at Univar. After hearing about his quandary, Morton strongly recommended DuPont Advion Fire Ant Bait, based on its ability to control fire ant colonies within 24 to 72 hours. And when the DuPont team learned that Sullivan did not have the right kind of spreader to use with Advion, the manufacturer personally shipped a spreader to him.
With only three days to go before the start of the festival, Sullivan treated the entire park with Advion and his new spreader in about two hours. When the first day of the festival passed and he didn’t receive any comments about the ants, either positive or negative, he started to wonder whether his treatment had been effective.
When he finally approached the vendors and officials, he learned that the fire ants had been completely eliminated.
“Not even one ant on the heels of their shoes,” Sullivan reports. “Everyone at the festival was thrilled. I am so impressed with Advion. I have never seen anything like it.”
Sullivan is also thinking about expanding his regular services beyond indoor pest control to include larger areas.
“This experience has really made me think about the possibilities of offering my services to athletic fields, parks, yards and churches,” he concludes. “If you are going to serve that market, you absolutely need a product that can perform — and now with Advion, I’m confident I have what I need to be successful.”
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