FEATURED COVER STORY
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Volunteer Rid A Pest
olunteer Rid A Pest LLC is a locally
Handyman services through their Handyman
owned termite and pest control company
Hotline division, crawl space moisture control
that was founded by Billy and Carolyn
through their Moisture-Guard division and they
Gardner on April 1, 1970. The company has grown from a “1 man with
provide crawl space encapsulations through their Encapsulation Kings division.
a spray can” operation, to a regional company
“I enjoy this business because it involves
with twenty-eight employees and a 10-county
solving our customer’s problems and protecting
service area.
their homes from damage. We go into a situation
Billy and Carolyn operated the company for
with an upset homeowner with a termite or
thirty-three years until Billy’s death in 2003. At
fungus problem, and when we leave, we have
that time, their son, Erik assumed the day-to-day
handled the problem and made their day better. I
operation of the business.
get a lot of satisfaction from that,” Gardner stated.
As the business grew, more services were
“But more than that, I feel job creation is
added, such as home insulation services
vital to our local community,” stated Gardner.
through their Energy Miser division, mosquito
“Each year, we have thousands of young people
control through their Mosquito-Guard division,
graduating from high school and college that need
26 // January 2022
