Stoy Hedges
Stoy Hedges, BCE, died July 9, 2023. For more than 40 years, Hedges was a pillar in the pest management industry, having worked for a variety of pest management companies across the Midwest and South. He served as the senior technical entomologist for Terminix International in Memphis, Tenn., for 25 years. Since 2014, he was the principal of his own consulting company, Stoy Pest Consulting.
Hedges’ achievements were widely acknowledged. He was a Pest Management Professional (PMP) Hall of Famer (class of 2013) and in 2019, he received the John V. Osmun Alumni Professional Achievement Award in Entomology from Purdue University’s Department of Entomology.
While attending Purdue University, he began his career in pest management at Mooresville Pest Control, in his hometown of Mooresville, Ind. After he graduated in 1981, he became a supervisor at Pest Control Services in Indianapolis, and then relocated to Houston in 1983 to be an entomologist and sanitarian for Big State Pest Control. In 1985, he became technical manager of ChemLawn-PestFree in Columbus, Ohio, and then in 1989 became technical director of Waste Management Pest Services in Oakbrook, Ill. In 1991, Hedges joined Terminix International, a legacy company of Rentokil Terminix.
His contributions to the industry as a conference educator and author have been prolific. In addition to a decades-long stint presenting at the Purdue Pest Management Conference, he was the editorial director for the Mallis Handbook of Pest Control, which was written by fellow PMP Hall of Famer Arnold Mallis (Class of 2007). He wrote hundreds of articles for industry publications, and several books including ANThology: The Best of Stoy Hedges and five Field Guides about ants, beetles, flies and spiders. He was an active member of the Pi Chi Omega pest management fraternity.
Hedges is survived by his wife, Kathryn. At press time, a memorial service had not been announced.
The staff of PMP sends its condolences to Hedges’ family, friends and colleagues.
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