Going To Extremes

We live in a world of extremes. The “X-Games” on ESPN. The new 7-foot tall, 19-foot long, 3½-ton Ford Excursion SUV. Dennis Rodman.

So it’s no surprise that there are extremes in the pest control industry as well. On one side, there are fly-by-night operators who do subpar, or even illegal work. Then, there are PCOs who consistently attend industry events and work to make their companies — and this industry — better.

This winter, we couldn’t have had two more poignant examples of the opposite ends of the spectrum. The first example is a PCO who twice lit a nicotine smoke “bug” bomb INSIDE the home of a customer and didn’t even stay around long enough to discard the empty container (see Newsworthy). Then, at the other end of the scale, there were more than 500 people who made their way to Washington, D.C., for NPCA’s Legislative Day (see Newsworthy, page 12). These professionals met with their senators and representatives to discuss important legislative issues impacting the pest control industry.

These are prime examples of the diverse nature of the pest control market.

On one hand there are folks who do nothing to better their companies — they aren’t a part of industry associations, they don’t read trade magazines and they don’t attend industry educational events. On the other hand, we have people who are truly interested in bettering their industry.

This presents an interesting dilemma for the industry. How does the pest control industry improve its public image when we have a small number of people doing dishonest, destructive and damaging work? How do we convince the public that the work our industry does is important and that we shouldn’t be judged by a few rotten apples? Unfortunately, the public often views the pest control industry as a single, monolithic group. “The political process rewards those that are on the fringe,” said Mike McCurry, former White House Press Secretary at Legislative Day. I’d say that the media does so as well.

One merely has to look at the stories that draw the most attention about the pest control industry — they’re either humorous or horrific. Yes, the media reports about those that are on the fringe. We report about people who “make things happen.” What our industry needs now are PCOs who are willing to make it happen. By “it” I mean making a better industry in which to work. On March 15, the pest control industry made news in a Wall Street Journal article about our industry titled “Pest Control Companies Plan Campaign.” The article focused on the efforts of the Industry Awareness Council. That’s the kind of good press our industry needs. And who generates good press? Good PCOs do. That’s you.

The author is assistant editor of PCT magazine.