2002 TERMITE TECHNICIAN OF THE YEAR: Tim Hunt

To get the upper hand in the fight against termites sometimes experience is the best tool a technician has at his or her disposal.

You would be hard pressed to find a service technician in Utah with more experience than Tim Hunt, the 2002 PCT/Syngenta Professional Products Termite Technician of the Year.

For the better part of the past century, residents of the Lehi, Utah, area have turned to the Hunt family to protect their homes from pests, and for the last 24 years the termite technician they have come to know and respect for his expertise has been Tim.

Tim, along with brothers Rob and Randy Hunt, run one of Utah’s oldest and most highly regarded pest control businesses. Each brother plays a critical role in the company’s success — and for Tim, that role is termite technician. Tim averages 100-plus termite inspections per month, and thus has become one of the state’s leading experts in the identification and treatment of termites.

Additionally, Tim is a skilled teacher who trains and motivates new employees to watch for termites as they perform services.

IN HIS BLOOD. The name Hunt has become synonymous with pest control in Utah for good reason. In the 1940s, Tim’s uncles Levi, Roscoe, and Arnold Hunt, started Columbia Pest Control, one of the first pest control businesses in the state. Tim’s father, Elwood, was a full-time schoolteacher who also worked part time for his brother’s company to supplement his income. Tim was able to "cut his teeth" on pest control at an early age, assisting his father in the field.

"I would help dad with hose pulling or whatever needed to be done," Tim recalls.

In 1973, Elwood broke away from his brothers and opened up his own pest control business in Lehi. (His brothers’ business was located 50 miles from Lehi.) At this time, Tim and brother Randy came aboard as full-time technicians to help out Elwood, who was getting older and having trouble dealing with some of the physical demands of pest control.

By 1977, Elwood turned the business over to sons Tim, Randy and Robert.

"It was an opportunity to run my own business where I could schedule my own times," Tim says. "Over the years, I’ve been asked by a couple other people if I wanted to work for them. I say ‘No, I like being my own boss and doing things my way.’"

Currently, Rob services the Utah County area, while Randy and Tim do mostly commercial accounts and termite inspections throughout the entire state, with most of their work concentrated in Salt Lake County.

When Tim began working for Hunt’s Pest Control, he estimates he only serviced about 25 to 30 accounts per month. Today, Hunt’s Pest Control services between 400 and 500 routes per month regularly. Tim says referrals are the biggest reason for the company’s dramatic growth.

"We’ve been around a while, so our name is known throughout the community," Tim says. "Oftentimes, a (homeowner) who needs a termite inspection will call a friend and ask who did their inspection and they will say ‘Hunt’s Pest Control.’"

Tim also cites steady population growth in the region and changes to FHA laws in Utah (which made termite inspections a requirement), as reasons for the company’s growth. Tim says that of his 230-plus monthly service visits, 75 to 100 (or about 25 inspections per week) are termite inspections.

PREPARATION IS KEY. Tim says preparation is one of the keys to being a good termite technician. He constantly educates himself by reading industry magazines and viewing training videos as well as attending training courses and manufacturer- and state-sponsored seminars.

Tim devotes significant time to organizing his busy schedule so that he is punctual.

"A good termite inspector has to show up on time," he says. "He also has to be very thorough and knowledgable and also friendly and communicative."

Being flexible and able to work well with various entities are also important traits, according to Tim. For example, home builders have come to appreciate Tim for his punctuality and dependability. When Tim performs a termite pretreatment on a construction site, he is often one of the first to arrive because the pretreatment must be completed before the concrete slab can be poured.

Additionally, Tim has gained the respect of real estate agents who will often call upon him to provide a termite inspection. His work is critical because during real estate transactions between two parties, it is commonplace that the deed will be delivered in escrow, meaning it will be put into the hands of a third party until certain conditions are fulfilled. Oftentimes, in order to close out the escrow, the property must receive termite clearance.

It is Tim’s job to inspect property and determine whether or not it will receive termite clearance. Real estate brokers depend on Tim to do a proper inspection and provide them with his recommendations in a timely fashion.

"Sometimes (real estate agents) will call and say they need a termite inspection in the next few minutes," Tim says. "What happens is they will be slow on getting their paperwork done and expect me to drop what I’m doing and take care of them. For the most part, I’ve been able to accommodate them."

Tim says going the extra mile and doing things such as last-minute inspections has paid off in numerous referrals.

COMMON ENCOUNTERS. Although Utah’s official state nickname is the "Beehive State," that does not mean the state is without its share of termites.

"A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that we have termites, but we do," Tim says. "We have subterranean termites throughout the state and even some drywoods in the southern part."

Tim recalls how a Lehi homeowner found out the hard way that the state indeed does have termites when her termite-damaged floor was unable to support the weight of a piano, which had crashed through her floor and into a crawlspace below.

"The homeowner thought that our town had just had an earthquake," Tim says.

But other than the spider web encounters and tricky maneuvering in tight spaces, being a termite technician is a job well-suited for Tim, an avid outdoorsman and active community leader (see story below). For the last 10 years, Tim has been a member of Lehi’s volunteer firefighting crew (see related story, page 9). He is certified as a forest commercial applicator and has been called on by the U.S. Forest Service to treat trees for pine borers and has helped to save thousands of trees in national forests.

Tim shares his love of the outdoors with his family, which includes Tonya, his wife of 23 years; daughter Kandess, 21, currently serving a mission in Argentina; and sons Devan, 19, Chad, 18, and Cody, 13. He takes his family, as well as church youth groups, on boating, camping and snowmobiling excursions.n