Partnerships in pest control: The UGA and Orkin connection

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Emily Davenport: 0:01

Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we get down and dirty with the experts on all the ways science and agriculture touch our lives from what we eat to how we live. I'm Emily Davenport.

Jordan Powers: 0:12

And I'm Jordan Powers, and we're from the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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Jordan Powers: 0:21

In this episode, you're going to hear a new voice from a different Emily. Our colleague, Emily Cabrera, is guest co-hosting this episode.

Em Cabrera: 0:28

Hey listeners, my name is Emily Cabrera. I'm a writer for CAES and UGA Extension and I'm excited to be invited to co-host this episode.

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Jordan Powers: 0:39

We are recording this episode from our UGA Griffin Campus where we are here with Dan Suiter, who holds the Orkin Professorship in Urban Entomology as well as being our Extension entomologist and Glen Ramsey, the director of Rollins Entomology Department Technical Services. Dan and Glen, thank you so much for joining us today.

Dan Suiter: 0:56

Glad to be here.

Glen Ramsey: 0:56

Glad to be here as well.

Jordan Powers: 0:58

As we kick off, we're talking about pests and pest control. And we know that you all have decades of experience between you. Tell us your best, or maybe creepiest, pest-related story.

Dan Suiter: 1:09

Well, I started doing this in 1987. Working with the pest control industry back in '87, there's so many stories because we do a lot of work in housing where we have extreme German cockroach problems, but I think my creepiest had to do with American cockroaches. When I was in school at the University of Florida, there was a sewage treatment plant on campus.

Jordan Powers: 1:29

Oh no.

Dan Suiter: 1:30

And it was a 1950s era sewage treatment plant and it was infested with American cockroaches. So we would go out there at nighttime, there had to be literally a million American cockroaches out there. And we would go out there and trap them, and at nighttime fill up a five gallon bucket of American cockroaches and take them back to the lab. They were research insects that we would take back to the lab. Oh, you would gag. We would put these paint cans out and fill them up and then dump them into the five gallon bucket. By the end of the evening we would have five gallons of American roaches, it was quite disgusting.

Glen Ramsey: 2:01

We had a similar account that it was a high rise building wasn't like family housing, everything it was office buildings, but the basement floor of it had a sewer pit where all the sewage from the building ran in to go into the sewer of the city and it had this metal cover over it and when you lift the cover like it would just pour out American cockroaches but mine I would say that actually doesn't it isn't the worst. So the worst I would say is it was bedbugs infesting in a assisted living facility and they were so bad that when you walked into the room, they were all like up at the ceiling junction trying to hide. And they were so underfed that they would drop off the ceiling onto your head and

Dan Suiter: 2:39

they smelled you

Glen Ramsey: 2:40

they smelled us, like the the CO2 that we were releasing and breathing out everything would alert them and they would try drop off for a meal. So that was pretty creepy. You did a little bit of checking before you went home and...

Dan Suiter: 2:51

How many bugs you think were in that place?

Glen Ramsey: 2:52

Oh, millions. I mean, it was there were probably thousands in each room. I mean, it was just unbelievable.

Dan Suiter: 2:58

Some of the German cockroach places we'd go into you'd open the cabinets and they would rain down onto you like we had open a door and they were all around the door you know the door jamb they just fall on to the German cockroach it just rained down and you're brushing them off your your jacket.

Jordan Powers: 3:12

This is where I wish people could see this recording session because for our audience, Gle n and Dan are like laughing and smiling and having this conversation. And at the other end of the table, Em and I are aghast.

Dan Suiter: 3:22

That's hilarious.

Jordan Powers: 3:25

Just an average day in the life.

Glen Ramsey: 3:27

It's just part of the job.

Dan Suiter: 3:28

But those American roaches are there's a smell about them, that is just... Oh, it's just so disgusting.

Glen Ramsey: 3:33

Roaches and rodents definitely have an odor. There's restaurants that we'll go into as a family and like "hey, let's try this new restaurant" and you walk in the front door and you're just like...

Dan Suiter: 3:43

"no"

Glen Ramsey: 3:44

And my wife just won't let me talk about the why, it's just like "I trust you. Let's go." You know?

Em Cabrera: 3:49

Okay, I do need to know, what does a cockroach smell like? How do you know what that scent is?

Dan Suiter: 3:55

You can almost taste it too, can't you Glen? Yeah, it's a bitter, it's just kind of a bitter... yick.

Glen Ramsey: 4:00

Yeah, it's just one you come to learn I mean bedbugs have an odor.

Dan Suiter: 4:04

Yes they do.

Glen Ramsey: 4:04

That you can walk into a place and I equate that almost to like a metallic, maybe the iron or something?

Dan Suiter: 4:09

You can taste it, can't you? Yeah, it's almost like the iron because of the blood.

Glen Ramsey: 4:12

There's just something and they have to be in you know a massive quantity of really any of them to really get that odor but you know rodents, you're smelling the urine and the feces and stuff that's a little more like what you would feel or smell in any other mammal when you start talking about like bedbugs and cockroaches and stuff it's it's a different odor but you learn it.

Dan Suiter: 4:31

I have learned through the years we go into a place and I sniff and we'll sit down I'm like man really uneasy about this I start looking around. Typically don't see anything but you know that there's something there this just on the back here you're like "ugh."

Jordan Powers: 4:44

This could be its whole own episode because now I want so much more detail.

Dan Suiter: 4:48

Those are the two biggies, though, roaches and bedbugs have got to take the cake.

Glen Ramsey: 4:52

Absolutely.

Dan Suiter: 4:52

Gross.

Em Cabrera: 4:53

And so this kind of gets into maybe what is urban entomology? We have insects everywhere, but what makes urban entomology its own area of expertise?

Dan Suiter: 5:03

Well, that's a good question. So my own specific area of expertise is things that generally that are associated with the house, right? So you could really extend that explanation or that definition of urban entomology into the yard, people that are in turfgrass, pest control and ornamental pest control and things like that. But my expertise and Glen's expertise are moreso associated with things that are in the structure. So you think about termites and bed bugs and cockroaches and creepy crawlies that are around the outside that might get in like ants and things of that sort.

Glen Ramsey: 5:32

Yeah, I would say the same. The interesting thing you know, Dan's on more of the research, but applied as well, from the Extension side of what Dan does.

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Jordan Powers: 5:42

UGA Extension provides statewide outreach through CAES, the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, and Georgia 4-H with a mission to translate the science of everyday living to foster healthy and prosperous communities.

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Glen Ramsey: 5:57

In the business of we get a lot of things lumped into urban entomology, that aren't entomology period. We get like I said, rodents, wildlife, all this other stuff. I equate it back to like, if nobody else wants to deal with it, it becomes like a pest control...

Jordan Powers: 6:14

Those guys deal with cockroaches, they're surely fine with our squirrels.

Everyone: 6:18

[laughter]

Glen Ramsey: 6:18

But it is you have to get a little more rounded in what somebody might call about because we cut down all the trees and put a house in it. So we're really moving into their neighborhood.

Em Cabrera: 6:28

Well, and this is kind of interesting, because what I'm hearing is, and it makes complete sense, but urban entomology, we call it urban, and we think maybe it's just centered in this one place, but really it touches every single one of our lives. We all sleep in a bed. We all live in a house, we all go to hospitals and grocery stores and all around the world.

Jordan Powers: 6:47

I want to take a quick step back because we just dove straight into urban entomology, which is incredibly important. Can you give us the 15 second overview of the Rollins/Orkin etcetera relationship and what that looks like?

Glen Ramsey: 7:00

Yeah, so Orkin is the first brand that the Rollins family acquired when they purchased that from the Orkin family in 1964. That relationship was actually very unique one, the Rollins family was in all kinds of other stuff, Rollins broadcasting, they did radio work, they did billboards, they did all this kind of stuff. And they kind of leveraged that, I use the term leveraged specifically because that purchase of Orkin by the Rollins family was the first leveraged buyout in history where a smaller company buys a larger company and pays it off over time. That's still studied by like the Harvard Business School today as a leveraged buyout example. They then expanded into a lot of other things, from wall coverings to security systems, they really broadened their focus just from specifically pest control. And then chlordane was restricted by the US EPA, it pinched the business a little bit. So they divested a lot of the other stuff. It's kind of ironic, they kept the one that was being restricted the most, because it was the one that had the best future. Out of all the other businesses, they actually voluntarily stopped using chlordane before the EPA took it from them, which I think is a noble act because they went from something that was extremely inexpensive to use to things that were more expensive to use before they had to. So I think the family has made decisions over time to be as environmental as we can be.

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Jordan Powers: 8:26

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, chlordane was used in the United States from 1948 to 1988, as a pesticide on agricultural crops, lawns, gardens and homes. Because of concerns about damage to the environment and harm to human health, the EPA banned all uses of chlordane in 1983, except to control termites. And then in 1988, it was banned entirely.

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Glen Ramsey: 8:53

Then they decided that pest control was where they wanted to stay. And they started acquiring other pest control companies to put under the Rollins umbrella. There's several of them out there. There's several in the Atlanta area. There's several in the United States. I think there's 13 or 15 brands that fall under that Rollins umbrella. Orkin is like half of the company though. They're a massive piece of what we do, and we're really proud of them.

Jordan Powers: 9:16

Absolutely. As you should be just having that kind of inside glimpse that we're hoping to further show here. It's a really incredible thing and a really incredible partnership.

Em Cabrera: 9:23

You mentioned that Rollins is sort of the larger umbrella and then Orkin is under that. Is Orkin just found in the U.S.? Where has Orkin branched out now?

Glen Ramsey: 9:32

Orkin is all over the world. It is a worldwide company. They franchise operations outside of the US and a lot of the world there are some company owned operations. We have Orkin in Australia. We have Orkin in Canada, we have various other company-owned operations. And then we do have those franchises scattered out in 80, 90 countries around the world that still come in and do training still work with the main company to do all of the education and everything to train their people. So we get that same level of consistent service around the world.

Jordan Powers: 10:06

Glen, can we talk a little bit about your role in entomology, from the business side of things? And how did you transition from getting your masters to working for one of the largest pest control companies in the world. I'm nodding because even though I have this

Glen Ramsey: 10:16

I got into the business after my master's degree. I worked with Brian Forschler up at the University of Georgia and got my master's degree focusing in integrated pest management for subterranean termites. I had done a lot of much experience with the pest control industry, that's what I work in Brian's lab with the industry. I had done some internships with the National Pest Management Association, I had met a lot of people in that area. It was a little bit of a dark time for finding a job when I got out. So there was like a hear time and time again with UGA Cooperative Extension is the year period after I got out where it was just it was 2009, and was kind of tough. But I was working on a family farm, raising some goats and saw an advertisement for a bicycle ride, charity bike ride at a pest control company, and went out road met one of the owners along the course, just struck up agents that come up that they've done the work as an agent, and a conversation. And they said,"You know, I think we want to talk to you." They were more of like a medium-sized regional company. So we had a few interviews, we talked a lot, they had kind of been burned by an entomologist before, they couldn't relate to the technicians as well as they had then they move up within Extension when whatever hoped. They were just too technical. So we talked a lot, they felt comfortable with it, I took the job with them, obviously. The best thing they ever did for me is they put me direction they take because Extension can go so many ways, in the field and I ran a route, I dug termite trenches, like I did back in college and dealt with customers resolving customer complaints, I worked on the sales side, you know, they just put me through the paces of the everyday life of a technician. It was the most valuable thing that I've ever it's a very similar thing that you gain this understanding that done, because now I can relate to what it's like to run a route, what it's like to do this what it takes to make that life easier for the technician. And that's what I feel my role is at Rollins now is to make the life of the technician easier every day. you can't get in any other way, which is awesome to hear that that's also translating to industry.

Dan Suiter: 12:19

It's really important that you be able to walk in somebody's shoes. And I tell my students that if they're contemplating going into the industry, I said you need to be the first one in the crawlspace with the light, you need to lead the charge in that crawlspace and don't be afraid to get dirty because it lends credibility. When you're talking to people, you've got to have walked in their shoes.

Glen Ramsey: 12:37

And I would say if there is an entomology student listening, I hope there is, that is going to transition into the industry, almost demand it when you take the job. Don't feel like you want to go straight into teaching or you know ID-ing bugs or whatever. Go get dirty as Dan said, you get a lot of respect from the others when you get in the crawlspace first with the light, find the mummified dog or whatever you find out.

Jordan Powers: 13:03

Ew.

Everyone: 13:03

[laughter]

Jordan Powers: 13:03

And that's another whole separate episode.

Em Cabrera: 13:08

Well, Dan, thinking now also about your career and academic journey. Can you kind of give us an overview of take us back in time and bring us to present.

Dan Suiter: 13:17

Yeah, I grew up in Florida. I grew up in West Palm Beach, went to a small junior college down there. It's a sizable junior college now Palm Beach Junior College and I knew I wanted to study biology. You know, I grew up was one of those kids in South Florida fishing and hunting with my dad and my brother. So you just gain an interest in the little things. And I was one of those kids that we would be in the woods and you would always kick over the log and my dad was hunting and I was looking at stuff in the logs. You know, you never, you just don't grow out of that. I guess what an entomologist is. I took all the biology courses I could at this junior college. And this is the influence of a teacher. So I went to a teacher. She was a retired from Duke. She was teaching a course in invertebrate biology at the time. I said, you know, I don't know what to do with a degree in biology. So she said there's this field called entomology and I remember spelling that in a spelling bee in high school one time, but I didn't know what entomology was. She said this school right up the road, University of Florida, has a great program you need to look into it. This is one conversation. That's why I'm sitting here today is that one conversation with that teacher. I got the catalog and looked at all the prerequisites. I took all those prerequisites at this school and then transferred to the University of Florida. I got a BS, a masters, and a PhD at Gainesville, was there nine years. I left there, went to Purdue for five years and came to UGA in 2000 and I've been here 24 years. But I tell this story all the time. Teachers have really huge influence on people. It just one conversation can influence somebody's life.

Glen Ramsey: 14:41

I would say mine was maybe even similar. It was not as direct as that but I was studying to be a pediatrician and took "Insects and Man" with Karl Espelie.

Dan Suiter: 14:51

No kidding. See?

Glen Ramsey: 14:52

And you know, I had a pet scorpion when I was little I found it in the garage, you know, and I'm like, "Look, I put it in a fishbowl," that type thing. But never knew what entomology was and I took that entomology class with Dr. Espelie. And this is a, you know, 350-person lecture hall where basically he showed videos all day and you took a test every couple of weeks. But I was just like, "you mean people get paid to do this?"

Dan Suiter: 15:15

That's really cool stuff.

Glen Ramsey: 15:16

That's really cool stuff. And it came easy to me. And I literally, like halfway through the semester, walked down to the entomology office and changed my major.

Em Cabrera: 15:24

Wow.

Glen Ramsey: 15:25

It was a completely different college. There were different requirements. I lost some credits, and the call home to my mom didn't go as I planned.

Em Cabrera: 15:36

Mom, I'm gonna study bugs.

Everyone: 15:37

[laughter]

Glen Ramsey: 15:37

She's much happier now. But it was really that passion that Karl Espelie put into that class that made me realize that it was something that you could be passionate about. You could enjoy, you could enjoy your job and play with bugs and stuff like that.

Dan Suiter: 15:54

It's not hard to find an entomologist with that story, Glen. Yeah, you go to the Entomology Department now and professors that are there will have a similar story: "You know, I was studying I didn't know what to do, like, took a course in general entomology and I was hooked." Yeah. And that changed the direction of their life.

Glen Ramsey: 16:09

We say the same thing about the pest control

Dan Suiter: 16:11

Yeah. industry.

Glen Ramsey: 16:12

People will take a job in pest control industry. They're like, "well, I'll do this until I find something better."

Dan Suiter: 16:18

That's right.

Glen Ramsey: 16:18

And 36 years later, they retire.

Dan Suiter: 16:21

Put three kids through college.

Glen Ramsey: 16:23

I mean, it's a sticky industry. People fall in love with it. They fall in love with the people interactions, they fall in love with what they're doing, and

Dan Suiter: 16:31

It's different. Every day is different.

Glen Ramsey: 16:33

Yeah, it's just a neat job.

Jordan Powers: 16:35

I mean, I'm not gonna lie. There are days where I go back and I'm like, "I don't have a master's yet. Do I need to go back to entomology?"

Glen Ramsey: 16:41

Yes.

Everyone: 16:44

[laughter]

Dan Suiter: 16:44

You would love it!

Everyone: 16:45

[laughter]

Jordan Powers: 16:45

Hmm, things to think about. Well, we know that last year, Orkin partnered with CAES to develop an endowed professorship in urban entomology - I will be sure to link to the story in the show notes for that - but the relationship between the two of you and between the two organizations has developed over many years. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of this partnership and how it came to be what it is today?

Glen Ramsey: 17:07

The Rollins family has had a connection with the University of Georgia for decades. They have provided some funding to the urban entomology program at UGA campus in Athens for at least a couple of decades. The connection with UGA is strong. It's right down the street from us either direction, we're like a little over an hour and we're at the Griffin Campus or the Athens campus. Dan and I go back to Dan being on my committee when I was getting my master's degree.

Dan Suiter: 17:32

That's few years ago.

Glen Ramsey: 17:34

That has been a couple of years. But you know, this urban field in general is small, smaller than it should be. But we all kind of know each other and a previous president of Orkin - Freeman Elliot - sits on a group at UGA up in the College of Ag. He's on the

Dan Suiter: 17:52

Dean's Advisory Committee.

Glen Ramsey: 17:53

Dean's Advisory Committee. I knew you could fill in some information there, and he's a UGA grad, a UGA fan and wanted to try and establish something to make it a more permanent lasting thing.

Dan Suiter: 18:04

The idea for that endowment has been kicked around for probably a decade. The partnership has been strong for multiple decades. It's just we swim in the same pool. Me and Brian Forschler and other urban entomologists, we all attend the same meetings, we see Glen, and we're catching up, and it's just a logical partnership. Really, the endowment formalized it.

Glen Ramsey: 18:22

I think it's wonderful. Like I said, we've worked with Dan, we've worked with Brian for all of these years. And it's nice to have almost the recognition in the industry that Orkin and UGA are partnered together formally, that may not have even been known because you know, I'm a little biased to having a degree from UGA entomology but I think it's one of the best programs in the country, it's, you know, I'd say it's a top five at least. And to attach our name to that formally, I think is is amazing for both of us.

Em Cabrera: 18:51

So I've kind of got a double barreled question. We've touched a little bit on it. But how does the industry benefit specifically from this partnership? And how does the public benefit? Is that what this partnership ultimately is hoping to serve?

Glen Ramsey: 19:04

It's a fairly new endowment, but we've utilized the relationship for many years. We have a great team of entomologist at Rollins and Orkin and all this but there's every once in a while, there's like, "hey, we aren't really sure what this larval insect is" or whatever, and we'll send it to Dan or to Lisa or whoever down here in Griffin and get a second opinion. We've utilized the resources that this Extension office has provided with insect ID guides for homeowners for how to UGA termite and structures and all of this we've utilized that to even hand out to customers. We've used it internally to help train our people and we have a lot of plans to continue that you know have have Dan on our podcast sometime and you know, all of these things. So the benefit, there may be some trickle down. We utilize more of it probably internally, but then it gets to our people who then use that information to benefit their customers.

Dan Suiter: 19:58

Academia provides a different perspective on things, right? You're more than the pragmatic perspective on things. And so we'll bounce ideas off of each other on a particular technique. And I have access to the peer reviewed literature, can go to the literature and in look at what that says, and having spent a life of 40 years in academia, I'm kind of in tune with that kind of thing. So if I don't know the answer, I know where to go to get that answer. And it's more of a technical answers to questions that might arise from the technical team.

Glen Ramsey: 20:25

Yeah, and I think one of the benefits of Dan specifically is that because he has this whole side of Extension in his career, he has the ability to communicate with us in a way that our people can understand. And it's a unique talent, not all academics have it. But you know, the ability to write in a way that our technicians would understand. We've had him on what we call"Tech Topics," which are continuing education broadcasts, we've had Dan participate in those. So in that he's speaking directly to our employees, you know, it's always well received because of that unique ability that Dan has.

Dan Suiter: 21:02

It's critical to be able to communicate with people. That's what Extension is all about, right? So you have to be able to take highly technical information and communicate it to people that they can take something away from, that's what Extension's about.

Jordan Powers: 21:13

The number of times, I mean, Em and I, our whole roles are about that, right? Talking to researchers and breaking it down for a general audience. And the number of times I've had to say during an interview, talk to me like you're talking to your aunt at Thanksgiving, you need to break it down for us. This is a perfect segueway into the next question. There's so many benefits to the industry and then trickling down to the general public. But Dan, what does this partnership do for your program in urban entomology, for your students, and for UGA Cooperative Extension, like we were just talking about.

Dan Suiter: 21:39

The mother's milk of academia is money, right? You've

Glen Ramsey: 21:41

I'd even add that having, in essence, a lab. You got to raise the money for graduate students. Some of the listeners may not know that, when you have a graduate know, we're the entomologists that support the organization. student, a graduate student means that you're pursuing a degree past the bachelor's degree, past a four year degree. But we don't have all the time that we would like to be able to So you go on to get a master's degree or a PhD. When you do that, you're becoming really specialized. And you pay that student, graduate students in the College of Agriculture are sit down and say, "Well, what if we tried this on Argentine on what's called an assistantship. And so the professor has to come up with funding to pay that individual ants?" Number one, we'd have to go find Argentine ants, number student and you gotta raise that money. So this endowment will allow me to fund a graduate student or two and in two, we'd have to set up some kind of trial. And this consultation with the technical team and Glen and others address needs that Orkin and their technical team might have to relationship allows say, number one, Dan, have you already done solve problems that would benefit everybody, the student, myself and the technical team, so it's highly beneficial to graduate education. that? Because you know, he might have. Number two, it's not a major project, you know, that would take multiple years or something? Hey, Dan, don't you have some Argentine ants down there on campus? Could you try this on them? And that relationship, we can usually get data, more scientific data than us trying to utilize our people internally, that their job is really to service people's homes, we want to protect their homes, but we also want to do this research. So now we have this way to do that.

Em Cabrera: 23:20

It seems like a really organic way of continuing to push and stay on the cutting edge of research just to have this partnership. So thinking about that, you know, staying right at the cutting edge of what is the next question, what is the next research question? What is the future of urban entomology? What is that next thing that is the most pressing in entomology and specifically urban entomology?

Glen Ramsey: 23:46

Yeah, we're looking like, you know, what's it going to be like, in five years? What's it going to be like in 10 years, and this relationship does help us try to address that.

Dan Suiter: 23:54

The relationship is more and the needs are more pragmatic. There's fundamental research that is incredibly important in understanding systems. But this relationship is more of an applied nature, I think. Immediate answers to questions that they might have, the technical team might have. Most of the endowments are not in that vein, this is the first Extension endowment that I'm aware of, at least it definitely is in urban entomology, I have a 90% Extension appointment. All the other endowments are research-based endowments, and that research is incredibly important from a long term perspective. And again, an understanding systems but this is more of the pragmatic side.

Glen Ramsey: 24:31

We call it ready to use. You know, it's like, you don't have to let it percolate. You don't have to mix it. You don't have to do

Em Cabrera: 24:40

Yeah. whatever, you can just apply it. And it's ready to use research

Jordan Powers: 24:43

Truly, though. that we really need now of, hey, we've got this invasive pest. What can we do about it? And this is that type of relationship.

Dan Suiter: 24:51

And it's not just the technical team. There are others within Rollins that we work with as well to open their eyes to other areas of entomology that they may not have thought of. That we're aware of on the academic side, maybe we see new pests coming, that kind of thing that are a little bit different than maybe not applicable to the technical side, but might be important for others to learn about.

Glen Ramsey: 25:10

We've covered a lot of bases of the partnership of the industry of the research, if you could each leave our audience with one pest control-related takeaway, what would it be? Big, big questions at the end of the interview. Wow, one pest control-related takeaway, I don't have any problem with somebody trying to take care of something small by themselves. But be aware that things can get out of hand[laughter]. And they can balloon into something that you can't handle. And we're happy to handle anything from the smallest to the largest. The challenge comes in is that there are some things that people can do that make our job harder, applying something that may scatter ants all over your house, because you read something online that can make the job harder. So I would say if you're having any kind of pest issue, ask for somebody to come out and take a look at it. Because it may be something that's not going to be expensive to fix, you don't have to worry about it, you don't have to buy all the stuff to control it, we already have all that stuff. And it will be cheaper than if you try and do something and then it gets worse. Typically, inspections are free across our industry. I mean, whoever you call will typically come out and take a look and give you some advice. And you can take it or leave it at that point, you know, make your own decision. But I would say don't hesitate to call somebody out to take a look, get a professional opinion and get some advice before you try and make a mistake on your own.

Everyone: 26:32

[laughter]

Dan Suiter: 26:32

We must be sharing a mind meld. That was my exact thought is that you know when you do something day in and day out, you get better at it. Yeah, you know, if you're doing some that's your job, people who don't do that typically hire people who do do that. Right. It doesn't matter what you're doing. But in it's the same in pest control, you can try to do things yourself. But there's a reason why you hire people is because they're trained to do it. They're licensed and they're better at it. You're right. There's some things you can try to do yourself. But there are two things that I've tell county agents, I tell homeowners never ever tried to do yourself in his termites and bedbugs.

Glen Ramsey: 27:08

Absolutely.

Dan Suiter: 27:09

You can call me now or you can call me later. That specifically for bedbugs and I have found I get this call all the time of people who found they have bedbugs in their house. And "I'm going to solve this myself because I'm embarrassed by it" or whatever the reason. And four months later, the problem is raging and it's expensive now to get rid of it's hard to get rid of when if they had acted and called somebody prior to that they could have solved the problem.

Glen Ramsey: 27:35

Bedbugs and termites are like bad news. In one way, they're bad news because you have them, but in the second they don't get any better the longer you wait. Take care of that bad news right away. Yeah, you know, and stop it early.

Dan Suiter: 27:47

Yeah.

Jordan Powers: 27:48

Well especially in hearing this partnership and the research and the information that's being shared back and forth. Just have the experts help you right away. That's my takeaway. That's my main takeaway since I moved to Georgia, especially because the pests down here are their next level bad.

Everyone: 28:03

[laughter]

Jordan Powers: 28:03

Nope, it's out of my league. I can't do it. Dan, Glen, thank you both so much. We know you are both very busy traveling all over. And we very much appreciate you all taking the time to come in and talk to us today.

Glen Ramsey: 28:14

Wonderful to be here.

Dan Suiter: 28:15

Enjoyed it.

Em Cabrera: 28:15

Thanks, guys.

Sound Effect: 28:16

[music]

Emily Davenport: 28:17

Thanks for listening to Cultivating Curiosity, a podcast produced by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. A special thanks to Mason McClintock for our music and sound effects. Find more episodes wherever you get your podcasts.