Tom Whitehurst

Tick, tock: Time for kudos for pest folks

   Bless the beasts, the children and the pest controllers - especially the pest controllers, who have performed so blessed many thankless tasks lately for our beasts and our children.
   You may have noticed the news that the city's animal shelter was overrun by ticks, and you may also have noticed that members of the Coastal Bend Pest Control Association went out on their own time Monday, at their own expense, to kill the ticks. Or maybe your attention was diverted by the news that Animal Control killed 100 animals at the shelter on the same day.
   The pest control association, by the way, is the same group that killed the rats at KidsPlace, the playground at Cole Park, last year after the rat problem was discovered there.
   That time, too, the pest controllers performed the work on their own time, at their own expense.
   Those expenses, by the way, were an estimated $2,000 to $3,000 for the tick exterminations and $2,000 for the rats, said Bill Schroeder, director of the pest control association.
   And last year, after they
   finished their rat killing, the pest controllers donated $1,000 to the Junior League to help pay for rubber mats to replace the wood mulch that the rats had turned into nesting grounds.
   And they didn't stop at give-a-fish. They moved forward to the teach-to-fish stage, showing the city how to discourage rat infestations by putting out more garbage cans, this time with covers, prohibiting food in the playground and replacing the mulch with mats.
   It has been said before, but not emphasized enough: This is these people's way of making a living.
   They could have waited for the city to come asking for bids, but instead they did it for free.
   And, this may not have been said before: They didn't wait to be asked; they offered.
   "I hadn't even called my members and everyone jumped in and said, let's make it happen," Schroeder said. "I didn't even have to ask them."
   To Schroeder's knowledge, the association's forays into public service haven't resulted in extra business.
   "I didn't notice any extra business come from it," he said, "but the good will from our existing customers, and from total strangers, that happened to a lot of us.
   "The community is good to us. And we feel like we can do some good in restoring some order to a possibly chaotic situation.
   "The health of the community is our job and we take it seriously. There are those times when there are needs that you can't put a price tag on."
   In case you were wondering whom to feel grateful toward for their gratitude to the community, here's a list provided by Schroeder: Ace Pest Control, Albin Pest Control, Alice Pest Control, Aransas Pest Control, Bedingfield Pest Control, Black Cloud Pest Control, Bugfree Systems Inc., Corpest Services Inc., Esparza Pest Control, G&G Pest Control, Orkin Pest Control, Perfection Pest Control, Perma Grass, Perryman System, Pest Control Services, Pest Fog Inc., Pest Patrol, Pest Pro, Portland Pest Control, Sal's Pest Control, Town & Country Pest Control. Also, two of their suppliers, Lesco and Vopac, donated the supplies for the tick extermination.
   Generally, we glamorize those who step in and do the job that has to be done, the job that no one else wants to do, that the rest of us are afraid to do.
   The cowboys get John Wayne. The Texas Rangers get Chuck Norris. The doctors get George Clooney. The lawyers get Dylan McDermott and Lara Flynn Boyle. The lawyers' hired help gets Julia Roberts.
   And the pest controllers get Dale Dribble.
   Seems like the people who save our children from rat bites and our pets from suffering and death should stand as tall as John Wayne and as pretty as Julia Roberts.
  
  

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