Volunteer Rid a Pest 50th Anniversary

It’s another episode of the Volunteer Rid A Pest Podcast, with your host Mike Stewart and pest expert Erik Gardner. And this is an exciting episode because we have got a celebration. Now, most people know that April 1st is April Fool’s Day. But no, not this year. April 1st, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of Volunteer Rid a Pest. Now, that means that business has been successfully taking care of pest problems in the Chattanooga area for over 50 years. Well, Erik, I want you to tell us the story of how it got started. I assume your family was part of the originators and the builders of it in the beginning, and that you’ve carried on the tradition and you’re going strong today, taking care of pest problems. So let’s hear about the 50th anniversary of Volunteer Rid A Pest.

Well, Mike, it all started way back in 1970. My dad was working for the Orkin termite and pest control company, and he was a manager there and had had some good success. And he worked at Oak Ridge office at that time. And they wanted to give him a promotion. They wanted him to go and take over the Memphis office, which was probably a five times larger office. And he didn’t really want to go. I was about to enter the first grade. My older brother was in the third grade, and he said, “I just don’t want to be moving around with my kids being in school. I’d rather just stay in one spot.” They said, “Well, you don’t understand. Your job’s in Memphis or you just don’t have a job.” So he had been thinking about starting his own business for a while and that kind of gave him the impetus to go ahead and do it. So he got with a friend of his, his name’s Ed Tipton. And he and Mr. Tipton started Volunteer Exterminating Company on April the 1st, 1970, and my mom, Carolyn, was their chief bookkeeper and still is today.

Wow. Well, now, when did you get involved with the business? I assume if you, you’re admitting your age here, that if in 1970 you were starting first grade, you were pretty young and probably wasn’t aware of all the things that your dad was going through to … My dad had that same issue back when I was young. They told him, “Either move here or you don’t have a job.” And I was the reason he didn’t want to leave Bristol, Tennessee. So you’re telling me that your dad brought family first and got the inspiration to be an entrepreneur. So now let’s move forward years later. When did you get involved and when did you get become passionate about carrying the torch that your dad started?

Well, it’s funny, he started me working in the business when I was 14 years old. So he had seen me sitting around the house in the summer and said, “Why don’t you get … Come on. Come on with me.” So he got my older brother and I, and he took us to the housing projects where he had the contract to get rid of the roaches. So that’s how I cut my teeth in pest control was working at the housing projects, treating for German cockroaches. So kind of at the the worst possible job you could have. So I didn’t particularly like the pest control industry.

Matter of fact, my senior year in high school, the guidance counselor called me in, said, “Erik, you planning to go to college?” And I said, “Well, I don’t really know yet. I’m thinking about it.” He said, “Well, do you know what you want to do as far as your career?” I said, “You know, I really don’t. I’m kind of interested in construction, but I know what I don’t want to do. I do not want to be in the pest control business and I do not want to be in sales.” And here we are all these years later and I’m in sales and I’m in the pest control business.

Well, something had to change because you’re doing it so well. What changed your mind? Because you know what? You can’t really take the advice and thought patterns of a teenager. I’ve raised many of them myself, I bet as well as you have. And to quote my father, he sa