Thinking of Moving to this beautiful state! (Sheridan: insurance, houses)

[PestGuy88]

Hell, my name is Zach and my family of 4 and I have been talking about moving there for awhile now. I will be having my 1 man pest control business, and this is where my question lies. I was curious if anyone of your cities, or towns could use a very friendly, and professional pest guy . I know this is kind of a weird question I guess what I am asking is if there is a demand for my profession?

Thank you for your time

[sunsprit]

Yes, there are "pest control" companies in the area. The big national affiliates (Orkin, Terminex) have branches here.
As well, there are a number of smaller independent companies around. So there is a moderate "demand" for the work you do.

But be aware that due to the dry climate here, many of the household "pests" that you may deal with in lower elevation riparian climates may not be a problem. For example, termites aren't a big issue throughout most of Wyoming, although other bugs/insects/mice may be a problem for some folk.

Seasonally, some folk may see mice, earwigs, june bugs, miller moths, flies, mosquitos, and similar pests enter their houses. Depending upon their tolerance, they may desire pest control services. Bear in mind that winters can easily be 6 months here, which greatly diminishes the presence of the "pests". You might encounter a very short business season here in Wyoming. You may find a larger marketplace in commercial food/livestock/food processing/medical facilities than in residential work.

Perhaps you might want to call on some of the current service providers and get their take on the marketplace and opportunities in your field here.

[jody_wy]

now the weed side of it if you have the big equipment , there seem to always be spring , summer , fall work there , if you have the commercial applicator license.

[Wm Jas]

here in Sheridan boxelder's are a big problem each spring

[NW Crow]

Moles, gophers & prairie dogs are the pests that are the main issues where I live (neighboring state). The mayor of the nearby town shifted from IT assistance to pest control because he could get more work in that.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by jody_wy

now the weed side of it if you have the big equipment , there seem to always be spring , summer , fall work there , if you have the commercial applicator license.

I've a friend in this business. Used to be a full service ag-spray outfit, but was using 1 C188 for fertilizer/grasshopper/insecticide/herbicide/mosquito spraying with a staff of 3 pilots seasonally supported by a ground crew of 5-6 people. Usually only a May-September business. It's not a "one-man" small biz operation to do this work, it's capital and labor intensive to achieve economics of scale where you can support an aircraft, actively Bid enough contracts to keep your crew busy. Bear in mind that you are very weather/wind dependent upon being able to do your work. Winds/gusts in excess of what you can apply in frequently present in much of Wyoming, so your working day oft-times can be limited to a few hours of work product. He would "fill in" the days where aerial applications couldn't be done with ground-based spray applications from 1-ton 4x4 truck mounted spray rigs and ATV mounted rigs. Again, very labor and equipment intensive to do this on a scale where they could be competitive and get contracts, especially county right-of-way road frontage projects.

Another ag spray outfit started to bid on the aerial contracts in this area using a turbine Thrush or AgCat. No contest for efficiency compared to a C188 or Pawnee. The smaller aircraft max out with 200 +/- gallons of product and nominal speed/distance/acres they can cover per hour. The bigger aircraft haul 500 gallons of product and can do the trip from base/return at much faster speeds. They cover far more acres/hour than the little aircraft can do. Again, it's capital at work … a decent C188 acquisition might cost $150,000, the turbine aircraft is around $1mil. Plus the pilot skills/insurance costs are much higher with the larger aircraft. The competitive edge for my friend was lost when the big equipment outfit came into the area.

IMO, this side of the application/pest control business is far beyond the scale/scope/affordability of a "one-man" small business. You've simply got to have the large capital investment in equipment, base of operations, and an adequate supply of capable/trained applicators who are available to work as few/many hours as available during a limited season of project.

While Jody mentions "spring, summer, fall" seasonal work … do put this in Wyoming perspective. Those working seasons typically last only 6 months out of the year where the 4th season (winter) can easily last 6 months out of the year. At that, early spring and late fall aren't the times when most spray applications are needed when the cold(er) overnight temps keep a lot of pests under control.

Off-topic … but a similar situation: I've invested in all the equipment to do my own haying harvest. Started out with smaller squares and after 15 years, moved up to big round bales. While my JD 4620 tractor, 1600A swather, big V rake, and JD 567 baler are pretty capable equipment … I typically can cut hay at an average of only 5-6 acres/hour. Having bought distress equipment and refurbished it enough to do my fields, my investment in this stuff is pretty minimal. For my most recent cut, a neighbor with a New Holland self propelled rotary discbine offered to cut my field for $15/acre. Let's think about that … I use 5 gallons of diesel/hour to cut 5 acres, so my fuel cost alone is over $3.00/acre. Add in my maintenance costs/oil/hydraulic oil … and I've got a nominal $6.00/acre cost to cut my field. Suddenly, that NH discbine cutting 15-18 acres/hour is starting to look pretty good. I can go do other things that are far more productive financially in that time free'd up than to sit in my tractor grinding out the hours to cut my alfalfa. Rather than days of cutting hay, my alfalfa is cut in less than a day.

And similarly, when you're in the field pest control biz … having the bigger more capable equipment yields substantial gains in operator productivity per $'s/hour. The only way I can justify cutting my own alfalfa anymore is if there's not much yield per acre for that cut and/or I simply want to enjoy the fruits of my labor doing that work.