Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

@Thos003

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Thomas: Well it’s been a fun month, all kinds of fun things are happening. We’ve got Jerry the Bug Doctor set up for a Blog Pest Control interview today. Despite his title as the Bug Doctor, Jerry isn’t working to make the bugs feel better. No,  Jerry stays busy doing pest control in Ocala. There are a lot of bugs to keep you busy in Florida.

@pestcemetery

Jerry: Busy is an understatement but it beats the alternative…lol

Thomas:So let’s not waste anymore time here…How many years in the bug business?

Jerry: Started pest control in 1984 with Terminix in Baltimore. I worked my way up from residential to commercial tech and then into sales. I eventually made it to commercial sales and National accounts Rep. before changing companies. I’ve worked for 5 other companies as everything from tech to region mgr. before finally striking it out on my own in 1993–technically 91 as a franchisee but ugh what a waste.

Thomas: From 1984 to present… That’s a lot of years! I think in 84 I was probably just starting my first roach collection, my mom didn’t let that last very long. So over 25 years of experience now.  Impressive.  And after big company headaches you moved on to a family pest control operation? So… who wins your heart a family employee or a non-blood?

Jerry: My wife and I have built this business, The Bug Doctor Inc., from zero and although we’re not huge we are a strong force in the area.  She is a Registered nurse whose paycheck got us through the first few years but now she works Bug Doctor full time. She’s my favorite but Kevin is also special. He’s been with me 8 years and has yet to miss even one day. He’s not perfect but he is faithful and I admire him for that.

Thomas: Hard to beat the wife for your heart I guess, so good response. And having loyal employees makes all the difference.  It is wonderful to have employees you can trust your company and name with.  How do you find and keep good exterminators?

Jerry:

Family Owned Pest Control for 17 years

I guess I break  a lot of rules. They say don’t hire people you know because you can’t be their boss. Kevin for example was a customer and friend long before I asked him on board. We played on the same volleyball team for years. I’m not a micro mgr. at all and there are whole weeks that go by that I don’t even see him. Because he’s a friend I just know and trust that he gets the job done. Diane also was (and still is) a customer, she’s worked out real well. I tried two guys in the last year that I did not know and neither lasted very long and I didn’t feel comfortable leaving them to their jobs & firing them was an unpleasant experience.  I want my people to like me and be motivated by that, not out of fear as so many bosses operate.

Thomas: Good employees are important in setting yourself apart. What other areas set you apart?

Jerry: I’d like to think I am the best commercial pest specialist in town and we handle some larger accounts but WDO (as in wood destroying organisms) inspections is something even other pest companies call me for on a regular basis. We service 5 counties in North central Florida and my favorite bug is the termite WDO.

Thomas: Termites are your favorite bug? Very cool.  They are an interesting lot and the damage they cause each year is unbelievable. I like how active you are online.  Seems like it comes pretty easy for you as a social pest control guy.  How is the bug blog life?

Jerry: I’m building www.PestCemetery.com to be a ‘real go to’ resource for pros as well as DIY and also have an entertainment value–we’ll see.. blogging is a long hard road

Thomas: Yes. But a hard road don’t mean it can’t be a fun road…. And just for fun do you have a favorite author or book?

Jerry: My favorite book was ‘Escape to Witch Mountain’ –The movie stunk.

Thomas: Typical. Why ruin a good book? Thanks Jerry.  Glad to have you doing good things for our industry and the overall exterminator image.

Be sure to check out Jerry’s great blog: The Pest Cemetery

I am in a class yesterday some what bored by the simplicity of the course, when I hear the instructor mention something about a “Green Server”.  My ears perked up…

“… this server option is considered green. Versus your traditional server options, a shared hosting plan or shared server leaves less of a carbon footprint and for many of us that are in this industry the greener the better.”

Rewind… “A Shared server is considered green?”

So like a good student I did my research on Green Servers, Green Hosting and Green Websites.  Here is what I found:

Garner Research – http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=503867

According to Garner the IT industry is responsible for 2% of energy consumption worldwide.  Some have said this is nearly as much if not more then the aviation industry, but I could not confirm that rumor.  Further Garner is including much more then just PCs and servers in this equation.

Gartner’s estimate of the 2 percent of global CO2 emissions that ICT is responsible for includes the in-use phase of PCs, servers, cooling, fixed and mobile telephony, local area network (LAN), office telecommunications and printers. Gartner has also included an estimate of the embodied (that used in design, manufacture and distribution) energy in large-volume devices, namely PCs and cell phones. It also included all commercial and governmental IT and telecommunications infrastructure worldwide, but not consumer electronics other than cell phones and PCs.

This information sounds great if you want to point fingers and pass blame onto the IT industry for adding to the carbon footprint, but what about the benefits that IT is providing?  And streching this all the way out to telecommunications and government infrastructure???

I did find some useful information on how to be a little greener. Here are a few tips on a “Greener Server”:

1- Newer equipment is considered more energy efficient, and therefore green. FYI, Dell is coming out with servers that are designed to be energy conservative.

2- Cooling.  Servers require cooling measures.  Fans, A/C, ventilation, etc.  Perhaps your floor fans are overkill or just placed ineffectively to optimize the cooling capacity.

3- Hosting on your own separate server/ dedicated server may give you more features, options, and speed, but like the Dodge Viper that out performs your smart car, your Dodge Viper only gets 8 MPG.  (i.e. your performance comes at a cost that may not be worth the extra performance.)  Shouldn’t everyone be content with a GEO Metro? … Of course, I would be tempted to take a Dodge Viper if you gave it to me.

4-Websites.  Not only should you consider the servers you are hosting them on but the computers that are visiting your websites…??? Sorry this is according the the ECOfriendly approved site stamp.  Essentially the best ways to have an ecofriendly website is to control the number of visitors to your site and to limit the size of your website.  So just consider all the waste that one or two extra images could add up to on your site.

GOOD NEWS FOR BLOGPESTCONTROL.com !!!

Our servers are hosted and since we are running a blog the website is much more efficient and smaller!  We qualify for a green website and green hosting!… My life is now complete.

Bulwark’s Pest Control, Green and Getting Greener.

FYI, This article does not give enough credit to the thousands of trees that we are saving by going digital, which should offset the 2% of consumption as trees saved should equal more CO2 eaters. Unfortuntely I don’t have the time or energy to spend quantifying the total offset… sorry, just conserving some of my own energy and putting it to better use.

TIP# 5

In red, because its the most important… It’s estimated that 2/3 of PC use is waste, WHY? Because people don’t turn them off.  So if you really want to help and be green then TURN OFF YOUR PC.

Thanks.

BlogpestControl.Com.  Pest Control and Bug Exterminator blog.

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KT

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