PCT Awards Gift Cards to Survey Respondents

CLEVELAND — Pest Control Technology (PCT) magazine announced six winners of $100 Visa gift cards for participating in PCT research conducted by third-party firm Readex Research. Results from these surveys were included PCT State of the Market reports on small flies, closed crawlspaces, ticks and cockroaches.

The following pest management professionals (PMPs) were each awarded a $100 gift card via random selection for completing the survey:

1.)    Mike Murauskas, owner of Independent Pest Management, Wilton, N.Y., winner of the small fly/ closed crawlspace survey;

2.)    Russell Rusiski, owner of Complete Pest Control Services, Pittsburgh, Penn., winner of the small fly/ closed crawlspace survey;

3.)    James Molluso, technician for Northeastern Exterminating, Brooklyn, N.Y.C., winner of the tick survey;

4.)    Amanda Nipper, winner of the tick survey;

5.)    Caleb Bales, business development specialist for American Pest Control, Athens, Ga., winner of the cockroach market survey;

6.)    Gregory Agapie, managing member of Roman’s Pest Management, Lawrenceburg, IN., winner of the cockroach market survey.

Molluso is a second generation pest control technician and said he has been a part of the family business “for what feels like forever.”

“My father Joseph started the business and now it’s in my hands,” Molluso said. “The reason I chose to do pest control is beautiful [because] I am a people person and love meeting new clients, their cute pets and just making new friends while I eliminate their bug problems!”

Molluso hopes one day to pass down the family name to his two children, “but no pressure,” he added.

American Pest Control has been locally owned and operated for more than 50 years, Bales said. He recently got his Associate Certified Entomologist (A.C.E.) credentials and became an approved instructor through the Georgia Structural Pest Control Commission.

“I started as a technician and worked my way into marketing and business development, and I am continuing to develop and keep working forward,” Bales said.

Bales started at a young age playing in the woods and becoming familiar with different pests, adding he’s always been an “in the woods kid.”

“My mother had an accounting job at a place that did studies on beetle and larva in chicken houses,” Bales said. “During the summer, I would spend a lot of time at work with her and I would make beetle traps or count the beetles and larva samples from the beetle traps that had been set in the chicken houses.”

Rusiski said what makes Complete Pest Control Services unique is its wildlife control services.

“We are licensed through the state to perform nuisance wildlife control,” he said. “We have found our niche in the market by being a family business that offers a variety of services and can accommodate quick appointment turnaround times.”