BWI Customer Profile: The Bug Master in Austin, TX

customer profile | The Bug master | austin, tx .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

By Ashley Gardner

Critters and pests are a part of life, especially in the heart of Texas, but luckily there’s help. The Bug Master, headquartered in Austin, Texas, provides pest control, rodent trapping, and wildlife removal to residential and commercial properties throughout the region. The Bug Master also has locations in Houston and Temple, Texas.

Whether it’s an apartment complex plagued by roaches, a hotel where bed bugs are free-loading, or a home that has a family of mice squatting, The Bug Master can help. Ants, termites, wasps, fleas and ticks, rats, raccoons, and squirrels are no match for the company’s highly trained pest removal experts. The Bug Master strives to provide a fairly priced and quality service to the region it serves.

“I think our business means a lot as far as keeping places pest-free and keeping residential properties pest-free. Roaches, spiders, fire ants, rodents, and wildlife can close businesses down and termites can damage structures. Pest control is extremely beneficial to businesses and homes,” said Joe Cantu, vicepresident and director of operations for the company.

Working in pest control is an adventure and technicians come across some interesting situations from time to time, especially when it comes to wildlife re-

Photographs by The Bug Master

customer profile | The Bug master | austin, tx ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Below: The Bug Master employees participate in the Operation Blue Santa parade in Austin, TX.

Joe Cantu Vice President and Director of Operations moval. Wild animals, often driven by temperature extremes, excessive precipitation, hunger, or opportunity, can make their way from the outdoors to inside homes and businesses. It’s often more of a problem than can be handled by the average person. That’s where The Bug Master comes in to save the day. The company’s technicians remove squirrels, raccoons, skunks, and around the Austin area, ring-tail cat removal is common and although it’s called a cat, ring-tails are actually a mammal of the raccoon family.

“We have three guys in central Texas and wildlife removal is what they do every single day. It takes a different kind of guy to do what they do, running into some of the things those guys run into. Crazy ring-tailed cats are common in certain areas of Austin. Skunks are always interesting. Normally skunks are more frowned upon than anything else for obvious reasons,” Cantu said.

Bees are another situation The Bug Master technicians are occasionally faced with.

“We have a couple of people that are beekeepers that we will call if they’re normal bees and they will come in and relocate the hive. If they are a threat, if they are Africanized, then we eliminate them,” he said. “While both types of bees look alike, you can tell quick if it’s Africanized or a regular bee by how aggressively they act. Africanized bees are very, very aggressive.”

The Bug Master also provides mosquito elimination that is safe for bees and pets, free quotes for pest control, residential package, disinfection services, prompt next-day service, and a service guarantee.

The excellence The Bug Master strives to achieve starts with hiring the right people, not always an easy task in a competitive industry.

“One of the challenges we face is finding the right people first and foremost. In this day and age with COVID-19, hiring people is always a challenge. This basically is amplified because we have to find people who want to do this kind of work and are okay with being out and about in general public,” Cantu said.

“Also, hiring in this industry has gotten more competitive over the years.”

Training employees and equipping them with the necessary knowledge to provide the best possible pest control service is a focal point for The Bug Master. Quality is the company’s calling card.

“We spend a lot of time training because we want to deliver the best service we can,” Cantu said. “When we send someone out for a service call, they are probably the best in the country at what they do. They’ve gone through an extensive classroom education program and on-the-job training beyond what is required of us by the state. There are state requirements we have to meet but we go way above and beyond that. We will go out and address the customers’ need and then try to expand on that depending on what we see.”

“We try to train our technicians to give value every time they provide a service. Sometimes things get tough on customers as far as finances. We give value so if customers do need to make some changes, we want to be the last people they change,” he said.

There are times technicians face challenging situations and that’s where their extensive training comes into play. “Once we’re out there, most situations we’re able to handle no problem but over the years there have been some places that have been a little difficult depending on the severity of the problem,” Cantu said. The Bug Master strives to provide a fairly priced and quality service to the central Texas region it serves. “We try to stay competitively priced. Being in businesses for as long as we have, our customers know they can count on someone answering the phone and addressing their needs in a timely manner. I do Above: Ring-tail think that adds a lot of value cat removal is common in the to people purchasing pest conAustin area. trol,” he said. For more than a decade The Bug Master has been listed as a Top 100 company, something Cantu attributes to the quality of the company’s employees and their hard work and dedication. “Actually the last 12 to 15 years, we’ve been listed in the Top 100 companies in the country and it’s a testament to the people we work with. I think it’s important that they know that. I tell them all the time that CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

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