Environmental Stewards: How Pest Control Operations Secure Healthy Homes

Zeus Martinez, chief operations officer at Newtown Termite & Pest Control, seems all too happy that “exterminator” is being, well, exterminated from language used in the pest control industry.

"It makes us seem like we're merchants of death," Martinez says, "like 'he's going to show up and kill all my ants.'"

Rather, Martinez considers his company and industry colleagues stewards.

"We maintain clean environments," Martinez says. "We maintain safe environments for pets, people, for babies and Grandma."

Eliminating wildlife and insects from a home, and preventing them from being there, helps them to thrive outside, "where they belong," Martinez says. 

"I wish people would think of us more in that way, rather than 'I'm here to just destroy every single ant that ever existed,'" he says.

If that sounds like a change in how pest control is perceived, Martinez has been engineering change since he joined owner Glenn Borochaner's company in Newtown, PA. 

Martinez, a Missouri University of Science and Technology graduate, has put his logistics and analytics skills to work, moving a company operating with pen, paper, and notecards into an era powered by technology and now seeing growth over the last three years totaling 377%.

Martinez joined Pest in Class podcast host Amanda Salvatore to discuss his career and Newtown Termite & Pest's success. Among the topics they covered:

• [2:00] Martinez’s pursuit of an engineering degree

• [4:19] His start at Newtown Termite & Pest

• [8:51] The reasons they’ve achieved high growth

• [12:35] The importance of a company’s data

• [17:31] Leaving things better than they found them

• [27:12] Newtown’s push for community involvement

• [33:12] Stewardship of the environment

To hear more stories from the pest control industry, subscribe to Pest in Class on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Amazon Music, or subscribe on YouTube to watch episodes. And as always, we welcome your review and rating.