Getting Into Wildlife Control With Gerrod Walker Of When Nature Calls Pest Control Florissant Colorado - a podcast by Franklin Hernandez: Certified Pest Control Operator & Horticultural Specialist, CEU Trainer, Entrepreneur, Marketer
from 2019-08-26T06:34:12
Stephen Vantassel here. Wildlife control consultant. Another episode of Living the Wild Life. Hey, I’m here with Gerrod Walker of oh, what was the name when nature calls pest control out here in Colorado? Welcome to Pest Geek Podcast, Gerrod. Say hello to the crew. It’s a pleasure to be here. Hello. All right. Well, I’ve been out spending some time. Gerrod
been good enough to let me hang around with him for a few days, was doing some
work, learning some stuff, seeing his methods and getting a bunch of facial
photos. So I thought I’d take the opportunity to interview him and have him
talk a little about his business and how he got started in this. And so hope
you all find it interesting. So a little bio, a little bit of information that
you could maybe learn something from his experience. So certainly he’s had some
big challenges and big successes within this industry. So when we get started.
20190719-GerrodWalker-vantassel.mp3
So my first question for you, Joe, is what made you get into
this business a wildlife control?
You know, believe it or not, I. I started out in social
services early on. I worked as a case manager and a counselor for a mental
health organization.
And I got kind of burned out. I needed a change. Pay was low
and the results were oftentimes even lower. I got an opportunity to study
through a correspondence course. Purdue University study got my license in the
state of Illinois and quickly took a contract working overseas for the U.S.
Army. I was back in 2004. I worked for them for two years, killing, killing
pests in and a lot of rodent work, lot of insect work and a little bit of feral
dog and cat control in the desert of Kuwait.
When did you when did you start? Doing wildlife control, wildlife control started in Kuwait. My had the opportunity to two to meet a challenge that other operators had been unable to resolve. I had the opportunity to be tasked with catching feral cats on Camp Doha in Kuwait. And when was that? That was back in June of 2004. Four through. I worked on Camp Doha for about three months, trapped over 200 cats in that time. Wow. So I guess you’d know some how to catch some cats. No kidding.
All right. So you’ve been in the biz in the industry now. So is 2019 started since 2004. So it’s really about 15 years you’ve been involved in this. So you started your business. What was your biggest challenge? Starting your business? You got back to the States? Yeah. So I came back from from the government contract and I
opened I actually worked for Winnebago County Animal Control in Illinois for a
little while. Got some experience there. And then realized the great need for
wildlife control in the state of Illinois. The demand for wildlife services was
was incredible in my area.
Lots of calls that the government couldn’t handle.
And so in the beginning, you know, it’s just a challenge as far as getting customer base to getting your word out. Back then, the Yellow Pages were my my go to. And so that’s where I started my advertising. I mean, I actually work quite well back then. When you started your company, now that you look back. What
do you wish you knew then that you knew now that you know now?
Yeah. You know, it was a huge learning curve. Back then, there
wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t as much involvement on a state or a national level
as far as training and so. It was a whole learning curve. You know, you had to
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