SMALL-BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Rapid Pest Solutions Inc.

MUNSTER | Tony and Chick Hanas welcome bedbugs and other insects for the business they provide to their company, Rapid Pest Solutions Inc.

An advertising business led company president Chick Hanas and his son to opening their original pest control company, Heat Pest Solutions, in 2012.

My father (Chick) set up a booth at National Pest Management Association conference in Boston to get new clients, Tony Hanas said. The guy in the booth next to us was selling propane heaters to kill bedbugs. He was really busy so we looked into it and set up that company on the side.

The Hanases soon learned that using just heat to kill bedbugs wasnt always completely effective to eradicate the pesky insects, he said.

Its limited and you have to follow up with a chemical treatment so we had to get licensed. From there it spiraled and we opened the Rapid Pest Solutions, Tony said.

The company works with Larry Hanks, who retired from Orkin after a long career, and with others in the industry and evolved into a more traditional pest control company, he said.

After taking classes and passing exams in pest control chemicals at Purdue University, Tony, who is the companys vice president, received a 7A license from the Office of Indiana State Chemists.

When you first get into pest control, it kind of freaks you out, but as I got more into it, Ive gotten more of an appreciation for insects and how they survive, he said. One of the things I really like is that most people can be your clients.

The company, which services all of Northwest Indiana and the Greater Chicagoland area, exterminates rodents, mice, insects and bugs, but most of its business is ridding homes and businesses of bedbugs, Tony Hanas said.

The Chicago area is No. 1 in the country for bedbugs, he said.

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SMALL-BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Rapid Pest Solutions Inc.