PCT Awards Gift Cards to Technology State of 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. Results from these surveys were included in PCT’s State of the Technology report, sponsored by FieldRoutes. The following PMPs completed the survey, and their names were drawn at random as gift card winners.

Winners included:

• Sam Soto, owner, First Rate Pest Solutions, Inc., Mahopac, N.Y.
• Brandan Petti, owner, Barret Pest & Termite Services, Winchester, Va.
• Gil Bloom, president, Standard Pest Management, Queens, N.Y.
• James Williams, owner, Time’s Up Pest Control, San Antonio, Texas

Each pest management professional has their own story on how they joined the industry, but some, such as Bloom, said they were “born this way.” Bloom is a third-generation employee of the fourth-generation Standard Pest Management, and an associate certified entomologist.

A notable part of Bloom’s pest control career has been all the places he’s done pest control work, including the Federal Reserve Bank, aircraft control towers and on the subway tracks in New York City. “It’s amazing all the places that pests have taken me,” Bloom said.

Similar to Bloom’s familial ties to the pest control industry, Petti, whose brother started working in the industry in 1988, invited him to interview for a technician position, and, as he put it, “the rest was history.”

As the owner of Barret Pest & Termite Services, Petti focuses on internal staff and structure, SOPs and business growth. Beyond those responsibilities, he enjoys “building the relationships with both my outstanding staff and having the ability to help our valued customers with their pest issues in [a] fair, reliable, cost-effective way.”

Williams’s company has been in business since 2021. He recently hired a certified applicator to take over daily operations. His favorite part of working in the pest control industry is “coming in and solving people’s problems” and “finding issues and getting them treated.”