NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS

LATEST AND LEGACY

A LOOK AT THE PAST AND PRESENT OF LAKE HIGHLANDS’ BUSINESSES

LATEST: Andy’s Frozen Custard’s sugar high

Since it opened this summer, Andy’s Frozen Custard has become a neighborhood juggernaut. Its front stoop is usually crowded with kids, while its drive-thru is packed with sweet-seekers. The chain was birthed in Osage Beach, Missouri, in 1986. It grew from a single family-run store into the world’s largest dessert-only franchise, with more than 50 locations in 10 states. When it opened in our neighborhood, it found itself on the delicious corner of Walnut and Audelia, alongside the likes of Shady’s Burger Brewhaha and Resident Taqueria. It is the first of its franchise in the City of Dallas.

Do you know of a noteworthy, long-standing Lake Highlands business?

Email editor@ advocatemag.com

BY

LEGACY: SafeHaven Pest Control saves the bees

Twenty years ago, when people found a hive of bees tucked inside their wall, fumigation was the only answer. They were pests, something to be gotten rid of swiftly and chemically.

But today is a new day.

Colony collapse disorder, in which all of a hive’s worker bees disappear, has become a hotly discussed phenomenon that experts say could leave our food crops at risk. Some areas have lost over 50 percent of their hives, stirring a global movement to protect honey bees.

“When we do find a beehive, now people want to save them and not just kill them,” says Michael Bosco, president of SafeHaven Pest Control. “If we find it’s honey bees, the homeowner can decide to open up the wall to save the bees.”

Bosco says they adapted to this growing trend by becoming bee experts, taking classes in how to safely handle the hive for relocation. While they’ve offered green pest services since 1991, he’s seen a shift in his customers in the past decade.

“People’s mentalities have changed and they want safer products,” Bosco says.

Another change, he notes, is that people are far less willing to live alongside insects than they once were, and he should know, having been part of the family business since he was 12 years old. The sight of one roach leads to a full pest treatment, which is just fine for the Bosco family.

His great uncle Paul Turner opened RID-ALL Pest Control in a small corner of Lakewood in 1955. The business was later rebranded as SafeHaven Pest Control and relocated to Lake Highlands in the early 1980s, where it has resided ever since. Michael Bosco learned the industry on the job, crawling under houses and spraying down houses as a child working for his dad, Larry Bosco, who took over after Turner retired.

Michael Bosco also raised his family in Lake Highlands, and gives back by supporting the Moss Haven Farm, both financially and with pest services.