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To the many children at the pre-school and daycare accounts he services, Jim Franco is known simply as the Ant Man.
Franco works as a technician for the Vallejo, Calif.-based Applied Pest Management. Many of his accounts are childcare centers and preschools in the San Francisco area, and the children he sees often are intrigued by what he’s doing — inspecting, usually with a flashlight.
The sensitive nature of many of the accounts, Franco said, limits his treatment options to mainly inspection, exclusion and some bait stations.
“The kids always seem to get a kick out of me gong around with my flashlight. They get a big charge out of it,” Franco said.
One day a few months ago, some of the children at a daycare started following him around when he made his rounds. The 55 year-old was a bit surprised that they took such an interest.
“All of a sudden, like an ant trail these kids came,” he said. So, to help encourage them to think more about insects, Franco bought them their own flashlights and showed them where to look for ants.
Since his intervention, the children have found some ants inside their building, but mostly find them outside, but Franco tells the kids “these are the good ants.”
He also distributed flashlights to the children at two other schools he services, saying it was just a “customer friendly” thing to do.
“Some actually took their time and were able to produce results,” he said. “Who knows how far this could take some of them?”