Bug business has had its entertaining moments over the years

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Richard Fagerlund

I will share some amusing bug stories from the past this week. 2014 is my 45th year in the bug business. That is a long time and I have had many, sometimes entertaining, experiences over the years.

Pest control was $5 a month at one time. We charged $15 for the initial clean-out. When we did a clean-out, the customers were required to empty their kitchen cabinets. Then we went in and sprayed all the cabinets where the food and dishes were kept with chlordane. After that we sprayed all of the baseboards in the house with malathion because it stunk and we wanted the customer to know we werent using water. Then we fogged the kitchen with an oil-based pyrethrum using a electric fogging machine.

The roaches would come out of the cabinets and get stuck in the oil on the counters. After that we dusted the attic with DDT dust and then put heptachlor granules around the perimeter of the house. We told the people the stuff was safe and they could put their food back in the cabinets when they dried. I have no idea how many people we made sick in those days but I do know a lot of people who were in the industry that got cancer at an early age. We didnt use any safety equipment back then and we drove cars with all the chemicals in the back seat. And in those days I smoked cigarettes. It is a wonder I am still alive!

Around 1972 or so, I had to go into a crawlspace under a house in Florida. I was working for King Pest Control and needed to do a termite inspection. The house was near a canal. After I made several turns in the crawlspace, my flashlight died and I couldnt see the opening or daylight anywhere.

I started crawling toward where I thought the opening was when I heard a low growl. I never heard a noise like that and thought there was a dog under the house with me. I fished out my cigarette lighter (good thing I smoked in those days) and lit it, and discovered I almost crawled over a 6-foot alligator sleeping under the house. Needless to say, I dropped my lighter and crawled in the opposite direction as fast as I could. It only took a few minutes to see daylight coming through the crawlspace opening. I told the lady I couldnt find any termites, but she had an alligator under the house.

Actually, I dont know if she had termites as I never finished the inspection. She said the alligator lived under her house when it wasnt in the canal. She just forgot to tell me.

About 25 years ago, I was working for Orkin in Albuquerque. We got a call about a cockroach infestation in a uranium mine in Grants. I had never heard of cockroaches infesting a uranium mine so I volunteered to check it out. When I got there, they dressed me in some funny clothes and took me down the mine in a wooden box they called an elevator. It was run by pulling on a rope. We went down a very long way, got off in a dark tunnel and could only see because of the helmets we wore with flashlights attached. The took me to a break room. Imagine a break room in a uranium mine! They had some folding tables and chairs covered in plastic, I guess, to keep help keep them clean. I looked under the plastic and they were indeed infested with German roaches.

Apparently somebody brought them from home in a lunchbox and they liked the break room (stupid roaches). I told them I would send someone out there to take care of it. Then we went back up the elevator. I asked the fellow if I could smoke a cigarette. He said that was bad for my health. I said hanging out in a uranium mine is good for your health? He thought for a minute and told me to light up and then he bummed a cigarette. In 45 years, that is the only call I got for roaches infesting a uranium mine. Not a common problem.

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Bug business has had its entertaining moments over the years