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Hearse Drives Business for Houston PCO Esposito

A hearse is a vehicle for taking bodies to their final resting place, right? Not if you are Tony Esposito, owner of The Bug Reaper, Houston, Texas.

Esposito has revamped and refashioned two (soon to be three) of these vehicles which serve dual purposes: (1) as a service vehicle large enough to carry equipment; and (2) as a catchy marketing tool that is a perfect fit for the company name/logo: The Bug Reaper.

"It turns heads everywhere I go," Esposito said. "Anyone who sees it says 'It's genius' or 'I'm a genius for doing it.'"

Esposito says he dreamed about having a hearse service vehicle since the day he started The Bug Reaper (in 1994) but it wasn't until three months ago that he bought his first hearse. He uses eBay to locate and buy the vehicles.

But are they functional? "They work great as service vehicles," Esposito says. "Mine have 50-gallon rigs and 300 feet of hose. It has plenty of room. The rollers and everything inside the hearse are intact."

Esposito said he mounted the rigs on plywood so they roll freely and it's very easy to use. "I am having coffins made as tool boxes to hold B & G sprayers and chemicals," he said.

A former employee of New York City-based Abalon Exterminating, Esposito started The Bug Reaper in 1994. He currently has three employees and offers termite, pest control, and wildlife removal and exclusion. He services apartment complexes, restaurants, residential homes and nursing homes. "Bed bugs have been huge," he said. "I offer a one-year guarantee on treatments which no one else does. With the bat and bird exclusion work we do, we give a 5-year guarantee. I stand behind all of my work and that's what is growing my company."

— Brad Harbison

Doc's Revenge!

Throughout his distinguished career Dr. Austin Frishman has been a big proponent of Integrated Pest Management and the vigilance required with this methodical approach. But it appears that "Doc" would change tactics should Earth ever become invaded by enormous, mutant bugs. As he showed at Syngenta's PestWorld booth in October, "Doc" would be ready to fire away!
 

Insect Dining is Better for the Environment

Have you ever found yourself sitting at your local steakhouse, wishing you could trade in your thick juicy steak for a nice, crunchy cricket, or your big plate of ribs for a sweet and slimy meal worm?

Well your dreams might someday become a reality.

Scientists at Wageningen University have concluded that insects produce much smaller quantities of the greenhouse gasses methane and nitrous oxide per kilogram of meat than both cattle and pigs. This means that insect meat could form an alternative to more conventional types of meat and that's good news for the environment, since cattle farming worldwide is a major producer of greenhouse gasses.

For example, a pig produces between ten and 100 times as many greenhouse gases per kilogram compared to mealworms. Pigs also produce between eight and 12 times as much ammonia per kilogram of growth compared to crickets.

So the next time you sit down to enjoy a meal composed of your favorite insects, take comfort in the fact that your atypical eating habits are not only preparing you for a stint on the next season of Survivor, but are also potentially saving the environment.

— Hallie Moreland