Rentokil Acquires Access Exterminating Service

ORANGE, Calif. – Rentokil strengthened its presence in Southern California with the acquisition of Access Exterminating Service. The deal closed on March 3, and terms were not disclosed.

Access Exterminating Service was founded by Russ Stribling who was first exposed to pest control at age 11 when his friend’s dad would pay them to crawl under houses in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., and remove all the wood debris before a termite service. Russ loved getting dirty. Throughout his early teen years, he learned more about pest control and at age 16, after obtaining his driver’s license, he got a job assist on a pest control contract for local shopping malls. Before long, Russ had his own route servicing shopping malls, restaurants, and single-family homes throughout Southern California. At age 21 he moved to Orange County and worked for a couple of pest control companies. In 1998, Russ and his wife Vicki started Access Exterminator Service. 

Russ and Vicki grew the business quickly; and as the organization grew, so did their family.  They soon identified a need to bring on more employees and a manager that could focus on building the termite side of their business. In 2002, Access Exterminator Service, Inc. became incorporated and hired Roger Sonnenfeld to oversee termite service.  The hire was so successful that in 2003, Roger became an owner by purchasing Vicki’s interest of the company.

With Russ overseeing the pest control sales and service and Roger overseeing the termite sales and service the company grew every year.  They added field personnel, admins, and other support staff along the way. It wasn’t long before Access added more services to their portfolio beyond the strong control of commercial pest related services between San Diego and Los Angeles. Today, Access Exterminator Service services the counties of Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego. Service offerings include heat treatment for bed bugs, attic insulation clean outs, and other specialty pest related services in the commercial space.