Cascade Pest Control Celebrates 40 Years

Editor’s note: Washington-based Cascade Pest Control is celebrating 40 years in business this year. Kurt Treftz, one of the company’s co-founders, reflected back on the company’s history and looked to its future in the following article.

Cascade Pest Control started in 1979 in the Redmond/Bellevue WA area.  In our beginning we performed many “pest inspections” which were a part of most home sales as home inspectors hadn’t become an institution at that time.  Our pest control emphasis was on carpenter ants, mice and rats and, continuing to this day—attention to the concerns of our clients.  Most of our pest work started in the Bellevue, Kirkland and Issaquah areas.  We quickly expanded our pest management services into Seattle city limits as well as peripheral towns such as Renton, Maple Valley, Woodinville and beyond.

Our humble beginnings were in a home-based offices in Redmond and later Bellevue.  We eventually grew our number of technicians, moved into a proper office and expanded our pest and rodent control services throughout King and Snohomish counties.  In the 1980s the pest control industry was often pitted against environmental concerns and we at Cascade Pest Control started to develop least-toxic approaches to insects and rodent control.  Eventually, we learned in and worked with a number of environmental groups and agencies until Cascade became recognized for its environmentally-conscious approach to pest control.  Cascade Pest Control earned respect from Washington State’s Ecological Commission, the Washington State Department of Ecology and EPA’s Region 10 office, among others.

Cascade Pest Control continued to grow over the years adding office staff and technicians…and all the growing pains and celebrations along the way.  As we grew, we paid a great deal of attention to the study of insects and rodents that are unique to the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest.  Certain aspects of termites, ants and other pests are uniquely indigenous to the region.  As for some other pests — such as odorous house ants and pharaoh ants — they were introduced and we watched them spread through the region.

Cascade’s history through the last decades paralleled the residential and commercial growth of Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.  We witnessed forests give way to large housing tracts—leaving many with carpenter ants problems as well as certain wildlife pest issues.  And as the communities grew and grew they eventually became interconnected allowing rat populations displace the indigenous deer mice and become a major pest rat problem that appears to now be the norm.  We now have grown to solve pest infestations in Olympia, the Kitsap peninsula, the islands of Puget Sound, and the Bellingham area.

Continuing to grow, Cascade remains dedicated to providing good working environment for employees, an ethic of service that earns respect and trust of our clients, and providing the safest approaches to solving the pest problems found here in the northwest.