A Pest’s Worst Enemy

Susan Fries has built a career on the elimination of termites and other creepy crawlies found around the home. So much so that she bills herself The Termite Lady and has the accoutrements to prove it – the four country and western style belts, the personalized license plates, and the email address. Fries can even be found under that moniker on Twitter. But don’t say that she kills termites. Instead, Fries bills the services provided by Ecola Termite & Pest Control as a protection of the most important investment a person can make – in their home and family. This protection comes in a method that eschews a reliance on chemicals and instead employs natural alternatives such as heat, cold and electricity. Ecola used these methods at a time when not many other exterminators did. “We were green when green was nothing but a color,” said Fries, sitting in her Mission Hills office decorated with butterflies – the company’s symbol – and plaques from dancing competitions she has participated in. While traditional methods – think of tenting an entire house for fumigating termites – still hold sway, the $6.7 billion pest control industry is more and more leaning toward offering alternatives that pose little or no danger to the environment, humans or pets. Some of the products offered to consumers use soybean oil or parts of chrysanthemum flowers or the element boron. As a mother of a son with chronic asthma and a pet lover, Fries took an interest in Ecola in 2000 when the two founders wanted to retire and she bought the business. Up to that time she had been working along side husband Scott at their Hydrex Pest Control franchise in the Valley. At Hydrex, Fries was the operations manager handling the front office and getting to know the customers. In those skills she was confident when she began managing Ecola but was less confident in matters that she hadn’t handled namely insurance and legal obligations. Fries hasn’t done so bad for herself in the eight years since taking over Ecola. The company has seven offices serving from San Luis Obispo in the north to San Diego in the south and has been recognized as “best green exterminator” by Los Angeles magazine and twice as “favorite exterminator” in reader polls in the Daily News. In October, Fries was nominated for the first Business Woman of the Year award given by the National Pest Management Association at their annual convention in Las Vegas. The passion Fries exudes for her profession is evident in how she is always marketing the company. In elevators Fries begins conversations by asking the other riders the last time they had their homes inspected for termites. Scott Fries admits that Susan never turns off when it comes to getting the name of Ecola and the services provided before the public. The label of The Termite Lady may come off as gimmicky but the belts are a great conversation starter, he said. “She has tremendous gift for promoting her business,” Scott Fries added. Many regulations Unlike a gardener or pool cleaner, a pest control technician cannot just easily set up shop. There are many regulations and rules they are required to follow, and continuing education classes they must take to maintain their licenses. Fries insists on having her technicians cross-trained in different methods of pest control and to have multiple licenses. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to get those licenses. She is also adamant that a professional brings the best results. “Homeowners will think that a little (poison or chemical) is good and a lot is better,” Fries said. When interviewing a potential technician, Fries won’t hesitate to say what a dirty job it can be. Technicians can get stuck in small spaces, enter attics where the temperature reaches 120 degrees, and crawl into sub areas where they might encounter a rat, snake or black widow spider. Then there are termites. Nearly three decades in the pest control industry has taught Susan Fries a thing or two about termites: how they will swarm in warm weather and after rain in search of a new colony or mate; how they will burrow into the center of wood; how the insects can be present for five years before a homeowner knows they are there; how even a new home is not safe from an infestation. That nearly 30 years has also taught her that no method to get rid of termites is foolproof and that not every customer wants to vacate their home to have it fumigated. A whole house alternative offered by Ecola is heat treatment where the ambient temperature inside the home is raised to 180 degrees. It is safe enough for Fries to have filmed a commercial in. Experimental methods While there is a great demand for non-chemical and so-called green treatments many are still in an experimental stage, said Greg Baumann, senior scientist for the National Pest Management Association. The key is good communication between the customer and the pest control company so that the customer states exactly what they want. While there are those who want pests gone as soon as possible, others are willing to use a novel approach. “People are more forgiving and not going to expect every pest will be gone,” Baumann said. “There is a trade off.” As Ecola offers so many alternatives, its customers are happy with such a trade off. When Fries took over the company nine years ago she admits there was some “cleaning up” she needed to do when it came to customer service and bringing it to a different level. Today she offers a renewal program and every customer receives a questionnaire on which they can rate on a scale of one to five their opinion on Ecola’s service. With the questionnaires coming back with high marks that leaves little doubt The Termite Lady delivers on her pledge of protecting home and family. ECOLA Termite and Pest Control Year Purchased: 2000 Revenues 2008: $4.3 million Revenues 2009: (projected) $4.5 million Employees: 49