Michael Boehmler of Buzzkill Pest Solutions on Mosquitoes, Termites, Roaches, and Smarter Pest Control in Upstate SC
A conversation with Michael Boehmler, owner and operator of Buzzkill Pest Solutions, about mosquito control, termite treatment, roach prevention, home inspections, environmental controls, and what makes a science-driven local pest control company different.
The Science Behind Smarter Pest Control in the Upstate
What really causes mosquito, termite, and pest problems around your home — and what can you actually do about it?
In this episode of the UpState Press Podcast, King Eddie sits down with Michael Boehmler, owner and operator of Buzzkill Pest Solutions, to talk about the science behind pest control, mosquito management, termite treatment, home inspections, and what makes a locally owned pest control company different.
Michael shares his background as a research biologist with Florida Keys Mosquito Control, where he studied mosquito populations, breeding sites, larvicides, adulticides, resistance testing, and environmentally responsible mosquito control. Now serving the Upstate South Carolina area, Michael brings that same scientific approach to helping homeowners understand why pests show up, how to prevent them, and when professional treatment is needed.
In this conversation, we cover mosquito life cycles, standing water, German cockroach control, termite treatment options, drywood termite gas treatment, pest inspections, corporate pest control practices, and why environmental control is one of the most important parts of long-term pest management.
If you live in Greenville, Simpsonville, or the Upstate SC area and want a deeper understanding of mosquitoes, termites, roaches, and pest prevention, this episode is packed with practical advice from someone who truly loves the science of bugs.
Full Transcript
The transcript below is separated by chapter. Click any chapter title to open that exact timestamp in the YouTube episode.
Guest Introduction and Buzzkill Overview
All right, so welcome back to another episode of the Upstate Press podcast. Um, I'm King Eddie. We usoothecally talk to local businesses of all shapes and sizes and get their story. And today I get to bring my friend Michael Boehmler in. And uh, I'm going to let him introduce himself and introduce his business, Buzzkill Pest Solutions. U, hi [clears throat] everybody. Uh, my name is Michael Boehmler. Uh, I'm the owner and operator of Buzzkill Pest Solutions. Um, I started the company last year. uh moved to the area to the upstate uh specifically Simpsonville uh two years ago with uh my wife and child. So when you moved here uh it's really
Mosquito Control Background and Research in the Keys
interesting some of the stuff you were doing before you came here. Can you tell us a little bit about what you were doing uh down in the Keys? Absolutely. So I moved up from the Florida Keys. Uh I lived all over the Keys. I mean they were they were my home. Loved it. Love the Keys. I kind of I had a I had a background in environmental science and biology and uh someone said, "Hey, why don't you uh get a job with mosquito control?" I said, "Well, what is that?" And uh I had no idea that almost every county in Florida has a mosquito control district. Um, that's not only to uh rid the public of pestiferous species because they do come off in the billions with uh tidal events or storms or rain or if you're near orchards, those can be really bad. Um, uh, but they also control uh disease transmission with uh particular species that do transmit uh uh different arbor viruses. Um, so I got a job with them and I was an inspector for a couple years and just absolutely fell in love with uh the entomology world at large. Um, uh, specifically mosquitoes. I mean, I that was our charge. That's what we did. But uh, I mean, when you're in the swamps of Florida all the time, you come across all kinds of of of bugs and pests and and all sorts of stuff. Uh but um just absolutely fell in love with it and a research position opened up. So I became a research biologist with uh Florida Keys Mosquito Control in um Key Largo. So they had three offices and they had a staff biologist on in each office. Mhm. And uh we did research on uh specific species. So we would do different tests with um the chemicals that we were using both larvicide and adulticide just to make sure that they weren't gaining resistance to that and that would actoothecally determine operational changes say hey we need to use a different chemical we're starting to see resistance here um we would also set traps to monitor the population um so we would c I had to count like 30 traps every week of mosquitoes And in some cases they would be in the thousands, you know. So we'd set a trap overnight, collect it the next day, and freeze the mosquitoes, and then I'd count uh how many males, how many females, and what species, and then log that into a database, and and we'd kind of watch the population go up and down based on what we were doing. And uh so we could make operational uh decisions based on that, too. So basically, you were like watching the mosquito stocks. Yeah. Yeah. Price goes [clears throat] up. Uh send out a truck. Mhm. Um but uh yeah, typically in Kargo it was pretty bad because we had the Evergladeses that were right there and that's uh federally protected land. So we we couldn't treat we couldn't do anything. So we had to wait for those uh to emerge out of the swamps, fly over to populated areas, and then we had to spray. So we couldn't treat them as larvae, which is far easier. So I don't know how many people know this, but mosquitoes uh need water to uh develop. So, the eggs are laid either on top of the water or just above the water line. Uh the larvae hatch out into the water and they need that standing water. And depending on the temperature and food sources for the larvae, uh it can take anywhere from uh down in the Keys it was like perfect conditions. I mean, in my lab, I basically emulated the conditions that were outside. So, it's like 85 degrees, uh, pretty high humidity. They love that. And we could get, uh, go from egg to adult in roughly 5 to seven days, um, down in the Keys. So, you have that limited amount of time to go to the water and then use a larvicide, which is very specific to mosquitoes. So, um, it's far more environmentally friendly to, uh, to get to the water where the larvae are and treat them that way as opposed to, uh, taking a spray truck and, you know, spraying a cloud of insecticide that will kill pretty much all the insects that it touches. But, um, so you're kind of bureaucratically behind the curve. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, in Key Largo especially, they when I was in Marathon, I, uh, I mapped out and found new like breeding sites in the swamps and went from like 50 sprays a year to, uh, two, um, when I was an inspector there my first year. Wow. Now, that was specifically because I found new areas and like the like the old goothecard of, you know, like the old guy that was in that area said, "Oh, that doesn't breed. Don't worry about that." And then um I go, "Well, let me check it." You know, I'd found it. And he goes, "Oh, there's never any water back there." I go, "Well, let me walk back there and go find water and and mosquitoes." And um and the two sprays that we needed was because we had a uh what we call a blowin. Mhm. We had north wind come off the It would come like 70 miles. I mean, the wind would blow all these mosquitoes off the Evergladeses and basically just deposit them onto the middle keys. Oh man, it's like dropping a mosquito bomb. Yeah, absolutely. That seems like a crisis. Oh, it it it's it's brutal. I mean, there's like no escaping them because they're they typically kind of stick to the shady areas during the day, but when you have mosquitoes just get dropped everywhere. [snorts] There's like no escaping it. They're all over the place. They're searching for their ideal habitat, but they find you along the way. And that's pretty brutal. But um uh yeah, I just I I mean I I fell in absolute love with uh that world and uh had never been exposed to it before. Uh oddly enough, one of my favorite professors in college was an entomologist, but he didn't he didn't do any entomology classes because I just went to a pretty small liberal arts college and we u I guess they didn't have the funds for it or didn't have the interest in it. Most people were premed. Yeah. They didn't really care about bucks. Yeah. So, I think most people they just don't really think about it. They don't realize you got to have a scientist for the bugs. Yeah. Yeah. Most people don't think about bugs at all until they see them. And uh that typically is part of the
Cleanliness and Environmental Controls in Pest Management
control problem is you have to stay clean to avoid these bugs. If you have if you set out dog food or cat food overnight, um you're going to get bugs. They're going to come in. They're gonna they're going to go for that food because that stuff smells good to bugs just like it does dogs and cats. Um, you spill food, you got to clean it up. I mean, some basic stuff. Pretty basic stuff. That's that's that's why a lot of pest control companies and and myself included, uh, I don't really offer goothecarantees on like German cockroaches because I can I control German cockroaches? Absolutely, 100%. But I need your help. like I need like the homeowner's help or the restaurant owner's help. Uh things have to stay clean. They just they just have to. Germans are very difficult uh because they're not uh as traditional as other cockroaches that uh many cockroaches will kind of have like a den like area. They find an ideal spot and that's where they lay their their egg sacks, their ootheca. But German cockroaches, the females will make an egg sack. the ootheca and then they kind of carry it around and then once it's kind of developed and ready to kind of hatch out, they'll just kind of drop it wherever. Um, so they're they're hard to control. Oh yeah. So you miss you miss one female and you're you're cooked. Yeah, sounds wild, man. But uh if [clears throat] you if you keep everything clean, they have no food source. I can't goothecarantee that you know the homeowners are going to stay clean. That's how you got cockroaches in they're German cockroaches in the first place. You weren't clean long enough that u you developed a problem that you had to call me. Yeah. Um or any pest control company and it's so it starts within the environment I guess is what you're saying. So the
Using Environment to Control Mosquito Populations
environment is the control and then you can provide assistance upwards from that. Yeah. So you can [clears throat] actoothecally control um the environment. That's that's like a a physical or mechanical control for bugs. So say mosquitoes, they need water. Well, you remove the remove the water, they got nowhere to breed. No standing water, no nos pools of mosquitoes. Yep. So, uh, a lot of people around, uh, lakes and stuff, they might have an issue. Um, typically with stuff like Anopheles, and those are extremely ancient ancient mosquito. They don't even have breathing tubes like the rest of them. They didn't develop that. They didn't evolve that. They lay on top of the water. And even mosquito fish are kind of confused by Anopheles. They kind of look like just little sticks. Mhm. But all the other mosquitoes kind of hang down into the water and they have like a little snorkel coming out of their their butt like um that's how they breathe. That's a cool band name. Mosquito Butt Snorkel. [laughter] Yeah. Um uh but yeah, the Anopheles are difficult to control simply because of that. And they kind of lay their eggs in single just kind of drop them wherever. And and uh minnows don't really recognize them as food until they twitch. And then they're like, "Oh, wait. What's that?" Uh, yeah. A lot of people don't know there's a mosquito fish as well. It's a Gambusia affinis or Gambusia holbrooki is the scientific names. So, you got the eastern mosquito fish and the western. They're both kind of in the lower southeast. And uh those are an amazing control measure. They're like unpaid employees, unpaid interns that they'll eat their body weight per day and and mosquito larvae and they breathe like crazy. And um so a fis is something that I uh I'm going to get a I'm going to get a tank together and and use those for ornamental ponds that people have around here. Maybe start selling mosquito fish, too, because uh it's they're an amazing control measure. You don't have to do anything for them. Uh, I know people want to feed them and go, "Hey, the water's getting low. Let me put some hose water in there." Don't do that. Just let them do their job. Just let them do their job. And, uh, they'll take care of themselves. They're fantastic. So, as I can tell, this stuff just it's [clears throat] ever growing. I mean, you can you can go from one thing to another to another. It's such a huge world of interesting facts and and environments and sitoothecations and things like that. So, let's look at you and your journey. How
Relocating for Family and Starting Buzzkill
did you evolve from where you were in the Keys and end up here in the upstate uh with Buzzkill? So, uh my wife and I um uh my wife didn't feel as at home in the Keys as I did. Keys just was my place. You know, I'm I'm I know everybody says it's really hot here, but I'm cold perpetoothecally. [laughter] Uh, I like the heat. Uh, I like sitting in the shade and sweating. I mean, that's it kind of feels normal to me. But, um, uh, we had a kid who was, uh, extremely, uh, early. So, he was he was very premature, was born at 2 lb 5 ounces. And, uh, I always describe his birth uh, very traumatic um, for me, obviously, for my wife. And um uh God, I'm I'm trying not to get choked up here, but um uh obviously you can tell I haven't deal deal dealt with it, but [laughter] it's hard to deal with those things, man, to be honest with you, especially when it changes your life, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I always describe how he looked when uh he was born as uh beef jerky with a face. I mean, just the color was not right. Um just scared the absolute Jesus out of me. and he spent uh 44 days in the NICU and uh being that we lived in Key Largo at the time uh they they didn't have the stuff equipped at the hospitals to to handle stuff. He was born in Miami and um uh so we had to go I had to drive an hour to go visit him every day in the isol and that's not that's not a a hurdle you want to have to jump every single day, right? So we started having that conversation of like uh is he going to be okay? do we might need to leave the keys to have access to things for him that the keys just don't and um without driving like an hour and a half. So, uh we started having that conversation, but luckily my kid is just perfectly healthy. He's he's great. He was just early, you know, [clears throat] just little and um but we continued to have that conversation. Do we want uh to have to drive an hour and a half to expose him to what the Keys don't have to offer every time we want to do something with him? Uh we want to access the more for him. So uh so we uh we decided to uh to leave the Keys and um uh my wife kept bringing up Greenville. I had never actoothecally even heard of Greenville. Mhm. I started looking into it and I was like I was like the growth is incredible here year after year. It's amazing. Um uh and she wouldn't stop bringing it up and I was like all right shut up about Greenville. Let's just go let's just go let's go check it out. And so we came and visited and uh fell in love with it. I mean it's just just an amazing area. You got the mountains right there. You got uh you got the coastline pretty close by. And I'm sorry guys that uh I may have brought the hurricane up last year [laughter] like or two years ago. Uh we moved uh in like July of that year and uh I was like I thought we were done with this and here comes a hurricane just chasing us up. Um so apologies about that guys. No worries. I think there's a lot of people that I've spoken to are slightly responsible for Helen. So it's all good. Yeah. I think I think something as crazy as that, we all kind of blame ourselves in some some weird way, but superstitions, man. Yeah. Um but um but yeah, I mean, fell in love with the area and we uh we decided to move move up here and um uh I mean, we love it so far. I keys are my home. Sorry, guys. I haven't really like, you know, I haven't really uh felt like I settled in here yet. Um but I love it. I mean, I grew up in the southeast. I grew up in Tennessee, so Yeah. So, it's not a foreign concept to you. It's just a little different. Yeah. It's just basically my license is South Carolina versus Tennessee is everybody talks the same. Everybody uh the community is the same, people act the same as as Tennessee. So, very uh very familiar to me.
Job Market Challenges and Industry Dynamics
Now, when you came here [clears throat and cough] and you were looking for work, what was it that you found you were up against? So, uh, I mean, I've got I've got qoothecalifications and I've got I've got knowledge base and I've got, you know, years of experience in the insect world. And I came up and I applied to um probably all the pest control and I was like, I shouldn't have a problem getting a job in pest control. Oh boy, did I, you know, I I was either overqoothecalified and not considered or they didn't answer applications or um they just gave me the the runaround. I mean, I there's one company I had uh had four interviews with just for a sales position. So like and it was a sales position. Wow. I didn't even need to like Yeah. You don't have to have certifications. I don't have to have certifications. like I I would know exactly what I'm looking at in every house I go to. And uh they ghosted me. It's like they wouldn't answer my phone calls after the fourth interview. And that drove me a little bit nuts. But so I will say I I was offered a position prior to moving to South Carolina and it rubbed me the wrong way a little bit. Um, so the first thing I told them was, I haven't moved to South Carolina yet. I'm moving this date. And it was, I won't say the company. I'm not here to drag especially local companies. I'm not here to drag anybody through the mud. Um, but um, he was really excited. The owner of the company was just like, he he said these words. He said, "I feel like I'm, you know, trying to ask the prom queen out on a date right now because I saw my resume and I've spoken at conferences and published u uh journal uh excuse me, scientific journal um articles and things of that." And I've got, you know, I could barely fit everything on one page. Um yeah, in my resume specifically just from, you know, insects. So, uh, they offered me a position and I said I said, "Hey, you know, um, and this is a they advertise as a familyoriented business and and then we started talking and and um I said, "Hey, uh, I need to I need to know that I can take my kid to daycare or pick him up, one or the other. Uh, so what's the time like?" And we can't goothecarantee that. And wow. and and I said, "Uh, well, is there is there a possibility to work something like that?" And then I got a call back and they said, "We're gonna have to take our offer back." Wow. Over taking your kid to daycare or picking them up. Yeah. Now, I'm assuming that's what it was. Maybe I asked too many questions. That's another thing. But, you know, I don't I don't really think that asking too many questions should disqoothecalify you from positions either, but No. You know, sometimes things happen for a reason, I guess, is what they say. Yeah. Yeah. So, I I just I feel like feel like that's a reasonable ask. I'm just like, "Hey, you know, I' I'd like to be able to know that I can [snorts] do one or the other. Take either take him or pick him up. You know, me and my wife can switch off, but uh that wasn't an option." Um, so, uh, I I definitely won't say who it is, but it that rubbed me the wrong way, so I did not reapply to them when I when I moved here. Nice. Yeah. Well, I mean, I wouldn't either. doesn't seem like something that would line up for you anyway. No. But at the same time, I mean, [clears throat] when you look at that, it's kind of a signal to some overarching issues with the industry itself, right? Yeah. What are some of those things that you see where I guess most people just they don't think about it? They look and they say, "Oh, there's this company and there's that company and there's this company and they're all just kind of competing for their own thing." But it's actoothecally a little bit more noothecanced than that, isn't it? Yes. So, a major issue with um uh with pest control and and now and now like HVAC and plumbing and and a lot of these uh positions that are considered like bluecollar and home service uh jobs, especially like pest control is you have private equity moving in or you have one of uh two companies now that uh that own a massive amount of pest control companies. they will they will come in and they'll buy up mom and pops or they'll buy up uh uh companies that have started to uh increase their revenue and like try trying to expand um like Gregory Pass Control um and they were purchased by Terminix which is owned by Rentokil isn't it? Rentokil. Uh so there's the the big two names are Rentokil and Rollins and those are publicly traded company. That means that those companies are not beholden to the person that they're trying to solve the problem for. They're beholden to the shareholders. So they are going to use uh probably low rates of application rates. Uh, and you don't necessarily, and I'll go off on a little tangent here, you don't want to go to the highest label rate. You don't want to do the lowest. You want to go kind of mid label rate. Um, that avoids uh, resistance issues in the long run. But that's kind of that's where I start out at as midleabel rate. And that's what we always did at Mosquito Control and we found is the greatest efficac. But you got companies like that. They're going to use as little product as possible, as little time as possible, and they're going to run their inspectors ragged and giving them like 16 stops, 20 stops a day. Um, and give them maybe one chemical to work with, maybe two. Um, I don't know. I refuse to work for companies that are owned by uh publicly traded companies. That's just kind of a little insane to me that uh that's the deal. But anyways, Gregory kept the name Gregory, but it's owned by Terminix. So, you have Terminix trucks on the road and you got Gregory trucks on the road. So, there's this false uh competition. So, you're like, "Oh, I don't want to use Terminix. I get there's bad bad juju on so I'm going to use the local familyowned business Gregory." When really you're just ser you're being serviced by Terminac. are still using Terminix. Um, so there's there's a lot of issues like that. [clears throat] Uh, they they keep the names and you have this false competition in in areas and you say, I don't I don't want to use a national brand. Uh, they're not good. Um, and I will say, why would you ever, and I won't say the name, but you know exactly who I'm talking about. Why would you ever hire somebody who needs to go into your crawl space or attic or do a a dirty job? And this is a dirty job. Um I'm actoothecally wearing the uniform that I wear. I wear dark colors because you get dirty
Uniform Colors and Professional Image
and you need to kind of look a little bit nice for for homeowners and stuff. So dark colors control uh the dirty color, whatever. Why would you ever hire somebody that's supposed to be doing a dirty job and they wear white shirts? [laughter] I know exactly who you're talking about. Yeah, they kind of look like train conductors. Yeah, [laughter] I always thought they look like train engineers. That is wild, man. Um, why don't you ever hire a company that is wearing white shirts and they show up and they're clean like at the end of the day? That they're not hitting your crawl space. They're not doing the dirty work. They're not doing it. They're not do they're not checking the boxes, it seems. No. No. So, they're they're not going to places they need to go and going to the lengths they need to go to actoothecally either properly inspect or properly control what you're dealing with. Um, and I say that I had that I had that problem in in the Keys, too. I would see one or two inspectors. They would they would show up. We wore white shirts so you could actoothecally see like black mosquitoes landing on you and stuff, but uh they would show up at the end of the day and why are you so clean? Like said you were walking in the swamps all day. But I we did have trails and stuff like that, but uh why are you not sweaty? [laughter] Yeah, it's kind of even in the shade you sweat here. Yeah. So, um, so yeah, that's the
Critique of Corporate Pest Control Practices
biggest issue I have with, uh, national companies and private equity getting into the pest control space is, uh, they're about the bottom line. They're about the dollar. They're not about solving the issue. They're not about understanding the pest. They're about getting you to sign that contract that locks you in for a year. And then they will charge you if you don't want to pay. If you say, "You're not doing a good job. I don't want to use you anymore." they will they will charge you like the rest of the contract to get out of it or more than the rest of the contract to get out of it. And that's why I don't do I don't do signup fees. I don't do uh the only time I do like a cancellation. I do a rolling three-month contract on like qoothecarterly. Um so you tell me you you don't want me there, I go, "Okay, done." But if you tell me within like a week of me going out there, I have to do rescheduling and stuff like that and kind of figure out that stuff. So I do a a small fee um to to for the admin of that. But um but you're not making it a line item. No. [laughter] God knows you don't want me there. I don't want to be there. Like I want to solve your problem. If you if you think you don't have a problem, I don't want to be there. Mhm. So, um, most of the time it was largely like in mosquito control, it was a thankless job. Um, now here I show up to a house and people are like, "Oh my god, thank you so much for coming." Like, you know, they're having a problem and I'm here I'm here to fix it. Uh, so that's great. But if you don't want me there and you're kind of looking at me out of the side of your eye and stuff like that, I don't want to be there. Yeah. Who does at that point, right? Like it gets in the way of getting the job done, right? Right. So, so I will um I let people out of contracts. I've I've actoothecally just like look, it's all right.
Business Autonomy and Decision Making
Uh you don't have to pay um on on on the cancellation fee and like you're going through a rough time. Don't worry about it. Yeah. Um I I don't want to be that type of guy. Yeah. Um but uh that's the uh that's the problem when you have when you have policies uh national policies and stuff for all these major major names is they're they're trying to nickel and dime you for every little thing whereas I' I've love doing this business from for myself because I can just say no it's fine I I can decide for myself I make my own decisions and yeah and I can assess every sitoothecation differently whether whether we're talking about bugs or people I I can I can make my own control decisions and I can make my own admin decisions and I got to I love that. Yeah, you got [laughter] to love that. So, you came here, you you realize
Passion for Entomology and Autonomous Service
what's going on here and honestly the upstate is is a place where I don't think people realize there's it's it's a large concentration here. It's a very large concentration here of that system happening. Um I don't know that people know, but you know, you and I have had several discussions. I'm surrounded by pest control and [snorts] I definitely understand the disparity in different in all the different areas and shapes and sizes in this company and that company and the renil and the Rollins and the mom and pops and and even in the positions. Um it's it's weird here. It's almost like hyper concentrated as it's going on here. So what you did was started Buzzkill Mhm. Pest Solutions and you get to offer your own style of doing this. You get to be engaged in the sitoothecation. You get to be autonomous in how you do things and you get to make those decisions that are real world decisions.
Customer Appreciation and In-Depth Bug Knowledge
Um I even read one of the reviews where somebody was just infatoothecated with how much you loved talking about bugs. like you captured a bug and were talking to them about it, telling them everything about it. Like would you say that you and and Buzzkill bring something to the table that they're not going to find other places? I think so. Um, in that I I have just an absolute uh ravenous thirst for knowledge and like I'm I'm fascinated with all this stuff. I truly every every insect is different. Um, every insect evolved differently, has a super um, tight niche or niche, depending on if you're from France or whatever. [laughter] We here at Upstate are from France, so it's niche. No, I'm just kidding. Uh so everything like you you'll have uh like a uh two bugs that look exactly alike uh except for one little structure and that allows them to to evolve differently to a different species and excuse me. Sorry. No, no worries. Um so so you have uh like what like half dozen different uh like grain beetles. They're largely all the same, but there's like there's little ridges on this one. And uh there's like a faint X on the back of this other one. And uh but they all target like different grains. Like one's one's big on rice and one's big on like wheat and one's big on like corn. And uh my my wife bought ear of corn yesterday and a cornorm on it and um and put it in a little jar for me and and uh fascinated my my kid with it. He's three and he's just he calls everything bugs and millets. So I started calling mil millipedes pets. Milit. And um but unfortunately uh if there's like a downed wasp or anything, he go, "What's that?" And I go, "No." Yeah. Not that one. Not that not that one. Uh he's he's angry. Um uh but yeah, it's it's so fascinating uh how each insect developed its own little thing and u its own little kind of world. And it likes certain things. it doesn't like other things. And when you know that you can actoothecally control things better. Um you c you can say oh you don't need to do that. Uh yeah
Mosquito and Termite Life Cycles and Timing
Google might tell you to do this. Don't worry about that. Like um trying to think of a like a a a good example. Oh u so I my son flipped over a rock in in in the back of my uh back of my yard. And I got super excited and it was just a crazy amount of subterranean termites going on in this like pile of dirt that I have in the in the back of my yard. And uh they were just underneath this rock and he flipped them over and I was like like I I picked them up and I like threw them away. I was like don't let him touch those. And I ran and grabbed a sample jar and I started like just collecting them and and um and a lot of people in the upstate they go well aren't you worried about termites? Well, of course. Yeah. You know, in the upstate, we have a lot of subterranean termites, but they're in the back of my yard. I'll I'll get to treating my house when I get to it. I'm not terribly concerned about them being back there. Uh if I saw something on my house, um be a different story. It'd be a different story. I I'd be like, "Well, I got to treat it right." Uh so knowing knowing these things pretty well, you know, uh what the urgency is, you know what to use, you know what level of control you need to reach for the problem to go away. Yeah. So it's not so much just like checking boxes off of a list. There are things that go into it. There's variables. It's there. Yeah. And and it's a bit of an art form um in some cases. So, uh, you got all these different variables that you're talking about. You say it's spring, so, uh, you're going to have a lot of swarming termites right now. Uh, and everyone says, "I saw some termites, uh, on the outside of my house." Okay. But you, you're not getting swarming termites inside your house, are you? No. Perfect. Okay. We can uh I can schedule it schedule you to do a perimeter treatment around your home in a couple months. Don't worry about it. Like uh swarming termites are trying to to start a new colony, but that takes time. That takes time. The first first year of like a subterranean termite colony, they're u picking a queen. The queen's uh laying a couple eggs and she has to take care of those. And then um and then you got a few workers and the workers take care of all of her needs and then and then she gets fed and then she starts pumping out 30,000 eggs a year and then she'll do that for what 30 years. But you got time. You got time. Now if you have uh
Termite Types and Urgent Control Methods
Formosan termites on your house, you need to worry now. Absolutely. right now just those those will get u get into colonies in millions and they just they wreck homes very quickly. It's not a major concern in the upstate to my knowledge. There's there's been a couple sightings, a couple positive IDs, but that's mostly a coastal thing um right now. Yeah, we'll see. But it's all the more important to get people to come out and and inspect your home that know that that are learning these things and that are keeping up with, you know, the sciences of the sitoothecation. Right. Right. So, uh I sold my house uh in Florida and uh the person that bought it had a VA loan. So, VA loans require uh termite inspections and uh being an entomologist, I was not allowed to check my own house and go because I'm an interested party, right? So, uh, in Florida, it's kind of the same as as South Carolina. It's not, uh, if you have termites, it's kind of wind. But they're different down in the Keys where I was at. There's drywood, so they fly. They'll get up into your attic and very small colonies, but they'll still do damage. And um, uh, so I had I had to get somebody to come check the house. And, uh, uh, so she goes up in the attic and I go, "So, you're not going to check the foundation for subterranean?" She goes, "We don't have subterraneans in Florida." I went, "What?" I, "No." I go, "No, I mean, we do." And uh I was just kind of following around and it's like I was just I was kind of a gasast at the fact that like you know well this poor guy is is buying the house that the VA loan is requiring this person to come out and they're not knowledgeable in the fact that there are subterranean termites. She didn't say in the Keys. She said in Florida and I went well that's not right at all. Um but uh but yeah, so drywood termites, you know, on the on the coast and stuff like that, a little bit different. You don't really have to worry about them as much up here to my understanding. I haven't come across them. I haven't seen them. Um and that would usoothecally mean you don't have to worry about them as much if you don't come across them. Right. Yeah. And that's that's like a if you ever go to Florida, if you ever go to the coast and you see especially in Charleston, you'll you'll see drywood termites and you'll see that uh entire buildings are tented over like a circus tent. Mhm. Um that is what they're doing. They're
Drywood Termite Gas Treatment and Safety
treating for uh because a great way to get rid of drywood termites would actoothecally gas the structure. Mhm. Um and there's no residoothecal on that. But um even if we did have drywood termites, I I wouldn't do that right now. One man show that's too dangerous with gases and stuff. And I don't even I'm not even qoothecalified to do fumigants and I I won't. Mhm. Because you you need a buddy. Yeah. And uh not at that stage yet. Yeah. A worker. Well, it seems like to me um
Passion for Entomology and Species Diversity
[clears throat] that you just have a passion and a knowledge for what you're looking for. And at the end of the day um that's what you want. You know, you want somebody that shows up and has has a knowledge of what to look for. Even if you're telling somebody like, "Hey, you don't really need to worry about this." Um, as opposed to one of these, you know, Chucks in a truck that shows up and says, "Oh, no, you need you need all of this. We can and I can spray this and we can do this." And you have your door knockers and your people that aren't really clued in on any of the science of it all. I would I would tell every single one of your listeners face to face, do not buy door-todoor pest control. Uh the person that shows up at your door is a salesperson. Um they generally work on commission which means they want to find something and if they don't find something they can trick you into thinking you need something [clears throat] or and and I'm not calling anybody a liar but they can lie and it leaves a large space for that opportunity. Yes. Yes. and and it is incentivized for them to do that because they're not getting paid per hour generally. They're getting paid on what they're selling. So when you're a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, right? So um and if that's your only tool and every problem is going to look like a nail. So they're going to try to sell you on absolutely everything. They're going to try to get you to sign long-term contracts. They're like because that's where these salesmen are making money. And um uh when we bought our house here, I had several companies show up. It's like they scrape the uh recent listings that went off the market and then they show up at your house and like, hey, you know, like do you need pest control? Nope. And I I let them go through their spiel and then I said, I'm not worried about, you know, you're not worried about termites eating your house out from under you? I went, "Whoa, buddy, calm down." [laughter] Um, I went, "No, I'm not worried about it. I'm an entomologist and I have licenses to actoothecally treat my own house." So, no, I'm not worried about it. They go, "Wait, what?" They go, "Yep, that's right. That's right." Yeah.
Addressing Misinformation and Providing Accurate Solutions
I listened to all that that you just told me and most of it was incorrect. Mhm. So, I mean, then that's got to be frustrating, especially when not even so much for competition's sake, but like I I I think what I see in you is like the pounding your fist on the table going like, why are people listening to this? Yeah. Um, when you come from what you came from, when you offer the enthusiasm that you offer, when you when you have all these things, um, it's got to be frustrating to see the industry in and of itself go away. It it is. Um, I I I think my my passion and knowledge base for all this stuff also lends to uh a little bit of uh I kind of screw myself over a little bit. I get a little too excited about finding stuff. So, I'll spend a little too much time doing stuff. That's great for the customer. That's terrible for my bottom line. You know, [laughter] I'm trying to build a business. Um uh so I need to uh I need to cool it with some of that. I'm just like I need more sample jars. I need like where are my tweezers at? Like I got to buy more forceps and I need to buy a case of sample jars so I can keep all this stuff. Calm down, Michael. Like uh um but uh it's it's it's great for the customer for me to man I do leave money on the table quite often. Um I've been called out to inspections and uh people go, "Oh, we've got a cockroach problem, man." And I come out there and I go, "No, you don't. Uh, these are outside cockroaches. Um, I can spray outside if you want me to, but they're just getting in and they're dying. Um, uh, you fixed you fixed the the weather stripping on this door door jam. Good to go. You don't need me. If you want me to spray, I will. If you want, I'll I'll protect your home, but uh, if you fix this little door jamb, uh, you're not going to have to worry about it. And I don't get a call back because they fix it and the problem is solved. And I do this quite often and um maybe I shouldn't do that. Well, I don't view it so much as leaving money on the table as flashing your integrity. I think that's what that is called. Yeah, I guess. [laughter] Um because I mean I guess it would be super easy to be like, "Oh yeah, I need I need you know what? Let me run out to the truck here. I'm going to make a checklist. I think we need to spray this time and then we need to spray again. And really, let's just put you on a six-month process here. When really, you can [snorts] just tell them, hey, fix this door jam. You're good. And I I could also I could also sell them on a qoothecarterly treatment and then uh and then also fix their door jam and charge them for that, too. But, uh, no, I don't do that. I don't do that. And I every every guy in my family is probably uh if they eventoothecally listen to this, they're going to go, "What are you doing?" Because [clears throat] they're all like, you know, businessmen and all. I'm like the only scientist in my family. Uh uh but but yeah, I I just I I think I think I want to keep doing that. I think I want to keep uh treating people the right way. Yeah. The people that respond to that are end up being the type of people that you want to do service for anyway, right? That's right. That's right. And I mean, maybe that person says, "Hey, this guy solved the problem. He didn't charge me a dime." And and I get I get a recommendation from that for for the next person. That would be great. But um I'm not willing to uh sell my soul, you know, a few shekels. Yeah. Um so, uh I don't know. I'm I'm into solving problems and not just maintaining. And that's why I that's why I name the company Solutions as opposed to pest control or pest management. Yeah. Because you're not trying to manage it or control it. You're trying to solve it. Yeah. I'm trying to solve it. And and I firmly believe that there is a there is a solution to every single problem. It's just a matter of how much will it cost. I mean, some places are built in a way that you're always going to have pest. And the solution is to continuously spray and to rotate chemicals and bait and and do all this stuff. That is the
Comprehensive Pest Solutions and Home Inspection
only solution that you're going to have unless you tear down the house and rebuild. And the and that's unfortunate, but that's just the reality of some some solutions. Some solutions are chemical based and some solutions are physical barrier based. Some are, hey, one bug is okay. Yeah. like like you're going to be okay. And unless I turn your house into a submarine that's completely watertight, you're going to get ants on occasion. Just keep your kitchen clean and maybe you will never have ants. But you leave that one like cookie crumb out and one the wrong ant finds it. They're coming in because it's almost impossible almost impossible to keep ants out. What's interesting is like there's a lot of crossover. I talked to a lot of businesses. Um, there was a guy that I actoothecally interviewed a couple of weeks ago and he did he does it's called fruitfly defense and what he explained to me is that most of the most of the deterrent that you use for fruit flies actoothecally draw them in because it's like oh this is a bait for them to d but it then it brings them in. And so he kind of had to turn things on its head and say these what you're doing to rid yourself, you're actoothecally creating a problem. Try this instead. Um, and I kind of see a similar sitoothecation for you with that where it's just like you can have any of these people knock on your door and offer you all this kind of stuff. Or you can have a public health certified entomologist come to your house and not only tell you about what problem you have, but what problems you don't have. And you know, they could ask you questions. And I'm sure that I mean if you're like any other entomologist I know, I'm pretty sure it's your favorite pastime to just enjoy a good conversation about this bug and what is a thing and tell people the joke of how if aliens had to, you know, call Earth a planet, it would be a beetle planet. Yes. Yes. Like a qoothecarter of all of all species on on Earth uh are are beetles. Mhm. And you I there I mean there's there's probably hundreds of thousands or even millions of different species of beetles that um that we have not identified and described. Um I mean there's there's there's probably fish in the ocean we haven't described as well, but but beetles are so varying and wildly different. Um beetles beetles are cool. And you get and you love having those conversations, right? You revel in it, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. My wife says a little touch of the tism. [laughter] Yeah. Um it's the right kind of have though. I kind of Yeah. Yeah. It's It's like I got the bug kind. Yeah. [laughter] Um maybe a little bit. Yeah. The right things to fixate on though. You know, it's one of those things where you use whatever you have. Um most entomologists that I've met, and I've met more than most people have met of entomologists, but um like you said, they just they are wildly on fire. to just learn more because there's no shortage of things to learn. Yeah. And it's all extremely when you when you get into it, it's all extremely fascinating. Uh like specialized [clears throat] structures like you got mole crickets. Uh my father-in-law, he had those little sonic like like mold [clears throat] deterrent. Um and I go, "You you've got to call me when before you buy these things." Like he bought a mosquito trap. And I go, "Throw that in the trash or return it. You still have your receipt for that. It's like a $500 mosquito trap." "Well, throw it in the trash. Don't you should have called me. He was like so proud of it." And I go I go, "Well, let me let me check it out." And you know, there's like no mosquitoes in it, but like sorry, I was just went on a crazy rant, wild tangent. Um, but like like uh he's got these sonic beers that like scare moles supposedly. Those don't work. Mhm. The way to get rid of moles is to get rid of uh their food. So, you have to treat the yard. So, you have to kill all of these subterranean like grubs and mole crickets and stuff like that. But mole crickets have these like crazy like like diggers, you know, that's how they kind of tunnel underneath and they're just alien looking because you and you see them, you're like, "Oh my god, what in God's name is that?" because most people don't come in contact with them. They're underground most most of the time. So, wait, are those those crickets that kind of look like spider crickets? Uh, no. No, those are camel crickets. Oh, okay. Or cave crickets, depending on where you're from. So, I see a lot of those in like crawl spaces and stuff like that. Been trying to trying to catch a live one with a sample jar, but it's really hard when I'm, you know, crawling on my belly. When you're doing the the GI Joe crawl. Yeah. Um but uh uh yeah, those are crazy looking, too. Uh and freak people out. Um you got Jerus Jerusalem crickets, huge and scary looking, but uh most all this stuff is really innocuous. Uh like house centipedes. House centipedes are something out of probably most people's nightmares. real leggy, pretty gross looking to most people. But they are great for pest control. I mean, they will eat smaller bugs all day long. They're not something that's going to bite you or irritate you. They if they come into your house, they took a wrong turn somewhere. They're going to go to the dark, dank corners and go for all the little bugs that are there. Um I mean, I'm I get bugs in my house all the time. Um, and my wife hates it and I'm I'll spray fine. U, but I I I collect them, but you'll get uh you get all sorts of things. Um, but you know, finding where they're coming in is is a solution for some of those things. But so there's multiple ways to solve the saying. Yes. I mean, it could be something simple. It could be something more complex. and based on what that bug is, what that bug's reasons are, what that bug's GPS system told it that day, this could be all the things. And so that's something that you offer when you come up. You're able to say, "Hey, these are things we know this about this species. We know that this you're fine. Don't worry about it." You get to give some peace of mind or if there's actoothecally a problem, there's peace of mind in knowing that you're telling them the actoothecal problem. That's cool, man. So bugs are simple. I mean, bugs are simple. They want one of like three things. They want shelter, food, and water. That's pretty much it. And if you know what you're dealing with, what is the main thing that that one wants? What time of year is it? All right. So, they want they want shelter most of all generally, where is that? And um uh or
Inspection Techniques and Prioritizing Breeding Sites
it's it's summer, they want water, you know, where's the damp area? Like that's going to be where I go to first. Um, I kind of helped develop a little bit of a inspection process and mosquito control. Um, so prior to uh I created a bunch of LAR maps, so digital elevation maps, so you can actoothecally see through the tree canopy. So you look for low spots and you go to low spots after rain, oh, is it holding rain or not? And look for mosquitoes. that prior to that uh prior to having access to that light LA lightar data uh when I was an inspector I would go out into the swamp and I you're walking and then all of a sudden you hit a bunch of spiderw webs and I had the thought well what do spiders want and why are they you know putting webs across they're trying to catch bugs well what what do most of the bugs in a Florida swamp want? They want shallow still water. So you kind of like follow the spiders. Kind of like Harry Potter, you know? Yeah. Follow the spiders. And so you can walk into somebody's yard and and go and they go, "Well, I'm having a trouble with Aedes aegypti, which is the yellow fever mosquito. A major thing that we dealt with in the Keys." Um, and I could just like look at their yard and go all the things that are holding water or whatever. you go to the spot where there's just spiderw webs hanging out above like a bunch of like old pot plants and stuff like that and and trivets and that's probably going to be your best bet uh because you got you got all kinds of flies coming out of there. You got mosquitoes coming out of there. No, and I don't know what you guys call them here. Punkies, no-see-ums, midges. Midgetes. So midges are that's my nightmare fuel. And I didn't realize you guys had them in the upstate until I moved here and I started getting bit last year. Oh my god, they drive me insane. Absolutely insane. They'll get onto my scalp and I was like, "Somebody get me a padded room, please." Like when when they get really bad. Yeah. Like the horse fly deal. The just Oh, yeah. That's But yeah, I can see what you're talking about, man. Being able to add that up and just say, "Okay, this is this for for this. Let's let's follow the the clues here." here. It's like Blues Clues but with bugs and pincers and things. [snorts] Um, what do you think really sets you apart? I mean, for for Buzzkill, I can I can list several things that we've had in this conversation, but I want to know what you think it is that sets Buzzkill apart when you show up at someone's house versus one of these Chucks in a truck or or maybe another company that has some credential, but you know, you can do a better job. So, um I goothecarantee most of my work uh uh for a certain amount of time. So, I don't like to be wrong and I refuse to let an insect beat me. Um so, uh if I don't if I'm looking at a sitoothecation and I can't figure it out, I will buy new chemicals. I will come back and because I am building this from the ground up. So, I'm deciding what I use best. So, I actoothecally like I went to somebody's house. I I got a brand new backpack sprayer that I wanted to test out. And I go, "Hey, would you guys be interested in a free mosquito treatment because I just got this backpack and I'm like so excited to use it." And like like I want to see if this uh if this works really well for me. And they're like, "Yeah, sure." And like I'll do that. I will test new chemicals that I haven't used before. Um, like I do research on all the chemicals beforehand, but but if I haven't used a particular product before, I will I will use it uh charge less. I'll I'll do a call back. If I get a call back, I'm like, let's let's figure out something else. Let's use a different thing. I'm I'm not willing to be wrong. I'm I want to be the best at this and I want to be uh recommended by people. And so you'll sharpen your tools at the benefit of the homeowner. All right. On every place I go, I want to sharpen my tools, my knowledge, my skill set, absolutely everything. I I I want to know everything. I want I want to do everything. And I want to uh I want to be the best. Yeah. At this. And uh you know I coming from the research side, you know, I was given a lab and I I had the opportunity to learn as much as I could about mosquitoes and all. Now I've got a whole wide world of of bugs to get to, you know, try to be the best at and and I'm so excited about, you know, all the different thing because there's a lot of a lot of tech that is not in the mosquito world. Mhm. A lot of uh a lot of different uh uh tools and kits and all sorts of different stuff that um I didn't get to use being on the research side and being in the mosquito world and um I want to use all of it. I want to see how I want to see see how all this stuff plays. I just like a dude is dude is toys, a dude has tools, you know. Um so I I want to see what works for me and um I'm willing to do a call back. uh and spend extra time at somebody's house solving the problem and being I'm I'm not about the bottom line. I don't answer to anybody which I think is right now is for me is um is is that allows me to do that is that u my only limitation is time. Um I
Mission Statement and Contact Information
I want to be the best for every person I possibly can. Absolutely. Yeah. And you service pretty much the entire upstate. You look at everything on a case-to case basis. Where can people find you? Uh, so people can find me uh on Facebook. I really got to figure out Facebook again. I had to redownload it for owning [clears throat] a business. Um uh I'm on Instagram, but um right now I've got a website buzzkillps.com. Um and you can call anytime 864-451-2564. Um, I'm available pretty much 247. If if I'm not a if I don't answer a phone call right away, it's because I'm either with somebody or asleep and I don't sleep much. Um, [snorts] so there you go. Uh, but uh, yeah. So, I mean, what's what's bugging you today? There you go. I love it, brother. That's cool. And and to see a company start here like this and offer the type of service that you offer, especially in a sea of other things. I love it. So, thanks for joining us today, man. We really appreciate it. We look forward to doing it again because there's like never ending things to talk about when it comes to bugs, and I'm I'm here for it. Absolutely. So, all right. Buzzkill Pest Solutions. They're about solutions. [music]
