50 Years in Business

At Adam’s Pest Control we are so excited to reach our 50 year milestone. It would be impossible to get to this point without our customers, distributors, and hard working employees. We often don’t take time to look back at where we’ve come from because there’s always somewhere new to go, but today we thought we’d share 50 facts and pieces of history about Adam’s Pest Control.

50 History Facts

1. Adam’s Pest Control was founded in 1971.
2. First year revenues were just over $3,000.
3. The owners’ families didn’t eat out for the first 3 years in
   business, except annually to celebrate at the Chanhassen Dinner
   Theater.
4. The company was founded by Don Hanson and Harold Leyse.
5. The company originally operated out of Harold’s Golden Valley
   basement.
6. The title of president was decided by a coin flip. Don
   won.
7. Adam’s subleased part of a office/warehouse space from a
   veterinarian supply space in Brooklyn Park from 1981-1983.
8. The former Anchor Motel in Medina was purchased in 1983 and
   served as the first owned property.
9. Part of the building was still operated as a motel until 1997
   when all motel spaces had been converted to pest control use.
10. When Todd joined Adam’s, the computer system was a couple of
    computers connected by “sneakernet”, meaning you wrote files to a
    diskette and walked it to someone else. He connected the computers
    to the first network and to the Internet.
11. Todd built the first two company websites himself, starting in
    1996. It has been rewritten professionally 3 more times since.
12. We were the first company in the state of Minnesota (and one of
    the first few in the country) to use heat to treat bed bugs
    pioneering the modern bed bug service for the state.
13. Many companies across the country have traveled to our office
    to learn about how we do bed bug services.
14. Founder Harold Leyse held two pest control related patents. One
    one was sold to B&G Equipment Company.
15. Adam’s has had three bed bug sniffing dogs, Hector, Marvin, and
    Baxter.
16. Adam’s was the first company in Minnesota with four
    NESDCA-certified K9’s teams.
17. We developed our own field management software called Blu Star
    Field Service Management System.
18. Adam’s operated without a computer system, then with Pest
    Control Systems until 2001, buying a used server and hard drive the
    sizes of dishwashers from Griffin Pest in Michigan, with PestPac
    until 2013, then with cloud based Blu Star.
19. In 2007, we moved to our current location. This was a move of
    only about 200 feet, but a significantly bigger building.
20. In 1992, founder Harold Leyse was inducted into the Minnesota
    Pest Management Hall of Fame, having served as President 4
    times.
21. In 2008, owner Todd Leyse was inducted into the Minnesota Pest
    Management Hall of Fame, having served as President 3 times.
22. In 1993, owner Harold Leyse won the PCT Crown Leadership
    Award.
23. In 2008, owner Todd Leyse won the PCT Crown Leadership
    Award.
24. Early vehicles were typically Ford F150’s, then typically Ford
    Rangers, and then typically Ford Transit Connects.
25. Nearly all of our approximately 300 vehicle purchases have been
    Fords, as we prefer to buy from an American company.
26. In 1999, we started using customized license plates for our
    fleet.
27. Adam’s has a heat chamber allowing us to study more about bed
    bug heat treatments. The heat chamber also allows customers to heat
    particular furniture items or luggage after returning from
    travel.
28. One of our founders, Harold, alongside cartoonist Cliff
    Johnson, released a book called “Pest Jests”, a compilation of
    their 8 smaller books published in the 1980’s. The books contained
    cartoons, trivia, and jokes related to the pest control
    industry.
29. In 2009, Adam’s acquired Advanced Pest Control and Advanced
    Mosquito Control establishing our Brainerd Lakes area branch
    (actually located in Nisswa).
30. One of the buildings at the Brainerd branch location functions
    is a house allowing technicians from the Twin Cities to stay there
    a couple of days during our busy season. It has been dubbed the
    “Pest Western”.
31. A later acquisition, the Milaca property which was the base for
    area lawn care services, was dubbed the Milaca Mothtel.
32. Founder Harold Leyse worked 40 years at Adam’s Pest Control
    before retiring. He worked, but his time in the pest control
    industry goes back even further. In total, a 48 year career in pest
    control.
33. Our company was not named after a person or thing, but to rank
    highly in the phone book (which was a big deal at the time!).
34. The original logo was sketched by Harold Leyse.
35. Our original logo referenced Adam from the bible (Adam and
    Eve).
36. The tagline in the early days was “There were even pests in the
    garden of Eden!”
37. The National Pest Management Association named Adam’s as its
    first GreenPro certified pest control company in the nation under
    new, tougher standards.
38. Adam’s is recognized as the 55th largest pest control company
    in the United States, according to the PCT Magazine’s 2020 Top 100
    List.
39. Our training room currently has live Madagascar Hissing
    cockroaches.
40. In the past there has been a live tarantula and scorpion in the
    training room. Cute.
41. The primary charities we are currently involved with are Toys
    for Tots, The Animal Humane Society, and Nothing But Nets which
    provides mosquito nets around the world to help prevent deadly
    malaria.
42. We are also heavily involved in Minnesota Professional Women in
    Pest Management (PWIPM).
43. Adam’s donated $25,000 to the Sara R. Leyse Memorial Fellowship
    Fund at the University of Minnesota and influenced two other
    organizations to match. These $75,000 help graduate entomology
    students.
44. Adam’s Pest Control has maintained a beehive with honey bees
    for the last two years.
45. In 2012, Adam’s transitioned the fleet to its current branding
    following focus group testing.
46. We hired our first entomologist in 2008, Dr. Mohammed El
    Damir.
47. In 2020, we redesigned our uniforms. Primarily to be cooler for
    technicians in the summer. This was our second major uniform
    change.
48. In 2020, part of our warehouse moved to Tower Dr just off of
    Hwy 55. This location is primarily for vehicle maintenance
    storage.
49. In 2020, Adam’s Pest Control established the Rochester
    branch.
50. In 2020, sister property management company Jan-Har, LLP got
    approval to build a new office building west of Willow Dr on Hwy 55
    in Medina.