PEST PROS

The Ladybug Pest And Wildlife Control Your Bug And Animal Experts

Writer / Melissa Gibson

Photographer / Laura Stroup

Four years ago, when Boone County resident Jaclyn Ricci found herself counting change to buy groceries, a light bulb went off.

“I thought, ‘This is ridiculous. I’m smarter than this. My husband is working overtime all the time. I want better and we have to change things up,’” Ricci says.

Ricci had noticed the number of posts on social media in which people were looking for pest control. Who can treat for ants? Who can take care of the beehive on the back porch?

She also noticed there didn’t seem to be any local companies in the Boone County area.

“I started doing some research and learned of courses at Purdue to get certified,” she says. “I convinced my husband Johnny to do it too, and we both earned our license.”

They created a website for the LadyBug Pest and Wildlife Control, bought insurance, and were ready to officially launch the business, when the Riccis discovered a raccoon in the attic.

“Johnny was super excited,” Ricci says.

“He set traps and got the raccoon the next day and released it. We realized in pest control, a lot of it is animals - raccoons, squirrels, birds and bats. So, we contacted the Department of Natural Resources and became certified for the animals too.”

In the first 10 months of business the Riccis earned more than $500,000, and by then had both quit their full-time jobs.

“Today, we’re a multimillion-dollar business and we have 12 full-time employees,” Ricci says. “We did this not out of a passion for animals and bugs, but a need to better our lives, and that’s what made us so strong. The passion has followed. I love what I do. I no longer complain about work. It’s fun for me. We both love researching and solving problems, and we’re on the brink of something big for LadyBug.”

Along the way, it became apparent that the issues with animal control were much bigger than ants and bees on the back porch.

“There are two big things happening here,” Ricci says. “We have a major bat problem in central Indiana. We just recently filmed a short documentary for our YouTube channel where we removed 1,000 bats from a historical church in Zionsville. You can’t remove bats by hand. You have to channel them out because they are federally protected. The problem is, since they can’t be touched or relocated, they leave one house and go to another.”

The second issue is an environmental one.

“We’ve taken away trees and started new developments, which has created a major wildlife issue,” Ricci says. “They have nowhere to go. As a result, we’re actually humanizing these animals. They are eating our human food out of the trash. Most raccoons have one liter per year. If you have 10 raccoons in your neighborhood, that can quickly become 50.”

The team has a few solutions. They relocate every animal they can, releasing them back into wooded areas with access to water. Secondly, they specialize in sealing a home to ward off additional critters finding a space in the residence.

“We do inspections and take pictures of any entry point the circumference of a pencil eraser,” Ricci says. “We are very diligent and provide a report showing the customer the entry areas. A lot of people think this is interesting because you look at your house and think it’s buttoned up well, but there’s actually some weaknesses there that need to be closed.”

In fact, Ricci says she has more construction team members on the staff than any other specialty.

The company is a family-run and operated business with two sets of siblings that also work there. LadyBug Pest and Wildlife Control does a great deal for its employees, too, always making sure their team is well taken care of. Last year the company took its team to Vegas for Pest World and the other trip was a side-by-side retreat. All 12 employees live in Boone County, and LadyBug is also looking for more people to join their team.

The team is routinely preventing animal entry and re-entry by patching holes and sealing spaces, with materials that can’t be chewed through or torn off.

“Once we get them out, they desperately want to come back in,” Ricci says. “It’s not uncommon when we do exclusionpatching openings - that birds or squirrels will come up to the guys and chatter at them.”

Due to new home construction, team members have noticed rodents on the rise. Since rodents are on the rise, so are snakes.

“We found a house in Brownsburg that had nine snakeskins at least 10’ long,” Ricci says. “We’ve pulled owls out of chimneys, hawks out of warehouses, and cats stuck in crawlspaces.”

As Ricci says, the company is on the brink of some big things.

They were voted the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year in 2022.

“There is a huge demand for wildlife control,” Ricci says. “We’re currently working on franchisee packages and we hope to expand throughout the state in the next few years.”

Find more information at calltheladybug. com, and call 317-601-2873 for additional details. Also be sure to like their Facebook page and check out their YouTube videos.

Beasley’s Orchard Has Been a Homegrown Favorite for More Than 75 Years

Writer / Melissa Gibson Photographer / Amy Payne

Since 1946, three generations in the Beasley family have been bringing fresh fruits, vegetables and a ton of fun to families in Hendricks County and across the Midwest.

What began as an abundance of garden produce and a little red wagon on the side of U.S. Highway 36 has resulted in a major agriculture and agritourism spot within the county.

In the 1970s, the Beasleys transformed their Civil War-era barn into a retail market, apple packing facility and cider mill.

By the 1980s, families were taking trips there each fall to enjoy a traditional hayride and U-pick pumpkins in preparation for Halloween. In 1986, the first Heartland Apple Festival was held on the farm and quickly became a community tradition.

Today, Beasley’s Orchard sits on 165 acres and offers more than many people may realize.

“We’re looking at any improvements we want to make and talking about new things to try,” says Owner Calvin Beasley. “There’s a lot going on behind the scenes, but very important because our season has been extended. We start U-pick strawberries in late May and it

doesn’t stop until after October.”

When the youngest generation of Beasleys came home from college in 2015, there was a huge shift to invest in agritourism. In fact, the family was one of the first in central Indiana to adopt the agritourism business model.

“It’s not viable to not invite the community to your farm,” Beasley says. “You can’t make a living selling produce in a wagon. That business model has evaporated. However, agriculture and agritourism work holistically together. You can’t have one without the other because it’s the business of the farm that attracts the people who don’t live here but want the experience.”

By inviting guests to spend the day on the farm and taste the sweet, fresh fruit off of the plants or trees, the traditional hayride in the fall has resulted in many more options.

By adding a variety of U-pick events from strawberries to raspberries, sunflowers to pumpkins, visitors can enjoy an event nearly six months out of the year.

Even the annual fall trip to the pumpkin patch has been expanded to a full day including a corn maze, apple cannons, Barnyard Bonanza (children’s activities), and a festival nearly every weekend throughout the season.

Though Beasley and his staff are always looking for ways to offer new and improved experiences for their customers, currently he’s turned his attention to infrastructure needs on the farm.

“We’ve planted over 40,000 apple trees since 2019, and in the next five years we’ll triple our apple production,” Beasley says.

Currently the market barn contains fresh produce, fresh baked goods, locally sourced items, and Beasley’s Orchard merchandise. In the back of the barn they still run a bakery, cider mill and fruit packing operation.

Beasley is hoping to build a new facility for efficiency and storage in the next few years, creating additional retail space in the market and making more room for customers throughout their visit.

In addition, the work behind the scenes is paying off.

Beasley’s Orchard just brought home first place in the 2023 Indiana Horticultural Conference and Expo Cider Contest with their fresh-pressed, homegrown apples. Running a successful business doesn’t come without making tough decisions. A few years ago when Beasley made the move to general admission in the fall, he felt he lost some of the multigenerational families that held the tradition since the 1980s.

Popularity had grown to the point that staff were turning people away at the road. Guests were waiting two hours for access to attractions, and Beasley felt the general admission process would make everything run more smoothly.

“Going to general admission wasn’t easy but it’s all about balance,” Beasley says. “Honoring your past is a wonderful thing but business has to continue to move forward. We have to evolve.”

Regardless of some tough decisions made, Beasley says the relationship with his customers is incredibly important.

“It’s everything to us,” he says. “We don’t do anything without first thinking about the customers and how they will perceive those changes. Ninety percent of what we grow on this farm is sold right here, directly to our customers. That’s why we decided to plant additional apple trees. The demand for fruit was outpacing the supply we had.”

That’s why Beasley continues to work on adding events that allow customers to enjoy life on the farm.

For the second year, the Easter bunny will be on hand for scheduled photos in early April. Visit the Beasley’s Orchard website to reserve a time slot.

From late May to early June, visitors can pick strawberries on the farm, officially kicking off the growing season. In June and July, U-pick raspberry season leads directly into U-pick sunflower season.

In September and October visitors can enjoy picking a variety of apples, which ties into the fall pumpkin-picking season and festival events, all of which have been met with excitement and enthusiasm from the community.

In December Beasley’s Orchard offers Christmas at the Orchard, including scheduled photos with Santa.

The amount of work that goes into growing enough fruits and vegetables to accommodate the U-pick seasons may surprise some, but Beasley has it down to a science.

“There really has to be a perfect combination of factors,” he says. “Apples and strawberries can be super risky. The strawberries bloom early in the year and there’s a risk of frost. I’ve been able to determine a five-degree difference on our own farm, so if you look at the forecast and it says 34 degrees, when you get down lower to the ground where your strawberries are growing, it could be within freezing temperatures.”

After shaping the beds, covering them with straw each winter, removing the straw in the spring, planting, cleaning up foliage, and other detailed work, losing 50% of the strawberry yield can be quite expensive. This process of production is what Beasley finds most rewarding.

“I love it,” he says. “It makes it really rewarding when you make it through the ups and downs of the growing season. I’d do this for free but it’s not easy. There’s a lot of things out of your control and it’s not for the faint of heart. You can do everything right and still fail. I don’t know that there are a lot of professions that are like that.”

He has big shoes to fill but has carried on the family tradition on the farm since 2018. Those who know the family and have visited over the years can see the positive changes Beasley has brought to the business.

“I think my parents would be overjoyed with the growth,” he says. “They seized opportunities when presented to them, starting festivals back in the 1980s. I hope I’m making them proud.”

Beasley’s Orchard is located at 2304 East Main Street in Danville. Like the Beasley’s Orchard Facebook page to stay up to date on U-pick and other events, or visit beasleys-orchard.com. Hours are subject to weather and other factors.