There are good bugs and some not-so-good bugs. Just ask Billy Olesen, associate certified entomologist and owner of Pest Stop, a pest management company based in Tumwater. The company serves customers along the I-5 corridor from the Portland area to south King County. They have a second office space in Longview.
“We love bugs,” Olesen says. “We just don’t want them affecting public health.”
The staff at Pest Stop takes a local and educational approach to their work. “We’re here in the community. We’re your neighbors,” he says.
Olesen’s dad Chuck, who founded the company in 1988, emphasized the importance of local knowledge, noting that national companies sometimes take a “cookie-cutter” approach to pest control with customers in Atlanta, Georgia, getting the same service as people in Seattle.
Season-by-Season Advice for Pests to Watch Out for in Thurston County
Olesen immerses himself in knowing about all things bug- and other pest-related from the seasonal nature of unwanted activity to the best way to control it.
While it’s never too late in the year to address an unwanted pest problem, he says to look out for the following activity:
During spring (March-May), carpenter ants, odorous house ants, and termites begin their first wave. “Homeowners should watch for sawdust near wood, any trails, and winged insects emerging from soil or walls,” says Olesen.
In the summer (June-September) Western Washington enters “peak pest season,” with yellow jacket and paper wasp colonies growing rapidly and becoming dangerously aggressive by August. They will nest in walls, eaves, and underground, and should never be treated DIY. In the later part of the summer, spiders will join other insects in their move to go indoors.
In the fall (October and November), mice and various types of rats begin to seek the warmth and dry conditions provided by indoor spaces, such as your house. Sealing entry points before rodents get in (exclusion) is the most effective long-term strategy.
Although Pest Stop works more with residential customers than commercial, they’ve helped hospitals, grocery stores, schools and summer camps. They’ve even provided pest and rodent control during big cat rescues. They work with other experts including beekeepers and a dog handler whose canine crew sniffs out bedbug and rodent infestations. “You can train a dog to detect just about anything,” Olesen says.
Science-Based Integrated Pest Management Combines Chemical and Non-Chemical Solutions
Pest Stop uses a science-based approach called Integrated Pest Management that identifies pests and their root causes and considers all available solutions, even if they don’t involve chemical treatments. When they do use chemicals on a home they consider the people and animals living in it.
Olesen says consumers can’t always afford to pay for professional pest control but that it’s important for them to use the right product and to make sure they’re using it correctly so they don’t harm themselves or the environment.
Besides operating Pest Stop, Olesen serves in leadership roles in statewide and national pest management groups, including as a member of the Washington State Commission on Integrated Pest Management, which brings together representatives from Washington’s agricultural community, such as potato and hop growers, food processors, the Department of Health, and Washington State University (WSU). WSU publishes research papers about topics like why ants thrive in Western Washington, as well as the prevalence of hantavirus. Olesen summarizes some of this research in blog posts on the Pest Stop website. His blog posts include topics like “Preventing Rodent Access Through Landscaping” and “Choosing Eco-Friendly Ant Control Solutions.”
The Pest Stop technicians serve as educators too. “A part of my job isn’t just spraying the home, it’s informing the homeowners,” says technician Mavrick Valentine. “A lot of people call us exterminators. I don’t like to consider us as exterminators. We’re more or less regulators. Because bugs are natural, right?”
Sometimes customers don’t want to kill certain bugs, like spiders. “I love that,” Olesen says.
He also loves bees and keeps three honeybee hives on the Pest Stop property. He notes that bees swarming around a newly planted and flowering bush near your front door do not always need to be seen as a threat. “Mason bees you can almost pet,” he says.
Olesen’s office mates include a menagerie of bugs thriving inside of containers from various arachnids and crickets to termites. He takes them to events like the Hands on Children’s Museum’s Boo Bash, as well as to conventions. He also brings along containers of dried cricket snacks to hand out in flavors such as orange creamsicle and bacon chipotle.
With a home sometimes being a person’s biggest financial investment, taking care of problems like termite infestations early will be more cost effective, Olesen says. And the earlier Pest Stop hears about infestations, the less likely those infestations will spread to surrounding neighbors.
Visit the Pest Stop website for more information.
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