PCT Awards Gift Cards to Bed Bug Market Survey Participants

CLEVELAND – Pest Control Technology (PCT) magazine announced the winners of $50 Visa gift cards for participating in PCT research conducted by third-party firm Readex Research. The following PMPs completed the Bed Bug State of the Market survey, sponsored by Envu, and their names were drawn at random as gift card winners.

Winners of the bed bug market report were:

• Brian Smith, owner/executive director, BuggyBrians-Bugs, Bushes & Turf, Tyler, Texas
• Roderick Hood, owner/operator, New Horizon Pest Solutions, Apex, N.C.
• Gary Cole, owner, Cole Termite and Pest Control, Frederick, Okla.
• Trevor Oliver, owner, Premier Pest Control, LLC, Xenia, Ohio.

Before Smith started working in the pest control industry, he studied production horticulture at Texas A&M University. He then met a manager of a large national pest management firm at a CEU workshop. “After the workshop was over, he asked me to come in for an interview,” Smith recalled. “[I] got a job as a route tech, moved up to supervisor, then branch manager.” Smith started his own company because his family didn’t want to move when some of his former company’s offices merged.

Now, Smith has been the owner of BuggyBrians for 31 years. “The best part of this business is that every day it brings something new — people, treatment strategy and challenges,” he said. “The biggest new thing at our office is my daughter and her husband have come onboard to eventually take over the helm.”

Hood also had a different start to his career. He was an assistant manager and a butcher at Lowes Foods. When the store was about to change to sell pre-packaged meat, Hood realized he needed a new job. Then, in 2017, an acquaintance told Hood about a pest control company that had recently hired him and might still be hiring. So, Hood went to speak with the manager of the pest control company and landed a job.

At the time he joined the industry, Hood said he “didn’t like bugs at all.” But today, he said “it’s a great industry” that he has enjoyed.