
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
- Adam’s Pest Control was founded in 1971.
- First year revenues were just over $3,000.
- The owners’ families didn’t eat out for the first 3 years in
business, except annually to celebrate at the Chanhassen Dinner
Theater. - The company was founded by Don Hanson and Harold Leyse.
- The company originally operated out of Harold’s Golden Valley
basement. - The title of president was decided by a coin flip. Don
won. - Adam’s subleased part of a office/warehouse space from a
veterinarian supply space in Brooklyn Park from 1981-1983. - The former Anchor Motel in Medina was purchased in 1983 and
served as the first owned property. - Part of the building was still operated as a motel until 1997
when all motel spaces had been converted to pest control use. - 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. - Todd built the first two company websites himself, starting in
1996. It has been rewritten professionally 3 more times since. - 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. - Many companies across the country have traveled to our office
to learn about how we do bed bug services. - Founder Harold Leyse held two pest control related patents. One
one was sold to B&G Equipment Company. - Adam’s has had three bed bug sniffing dogs, Hector, Marvin, and
Baxter. - Adam’s was the first company in Minnesota with four
NESDCA-certified K9’s teams. - We developed our own field management software called Blu Star
Field Service Management System. - 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. - In 2007, we moved to our current location. This was a move of
only about 200 feet, but a significantly bigger building. - In 1992, founder Harold Leyse was inducted into the Minnesota
Pest Management Hall of Fame, having served as President 4
times. - In 2008, owner Todd Leyse was inducted into the Minnesota Pest
Management Hall of Fame, having served as President 3 times. - In 1993, owner Harold Leyse won the PCT Crown Leadership
Award. - In 2008, owner Todd Leyse won the PCT Crown Leadership
Award. - Early vehicles were typically Ford F150’s, then typically Ford
Rangers, and then typically Ford Transit Connects. - Nearly all of our approximately 300 vehicle purchases have been
Fords, as we prefer to buy from an American company. - In 1999, we started using customized license plates for our
fleet. - 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. - 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. - In 2009, Adam’s acquired Advanced Pest Control and Advanced
Mosquito Control establishing our Brainerd Lakes area branch
(actually located in Nisswa). - 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”. - A later acquisition, the Milaca property which was the base for
area lawn care services, was dubbed the Milaca Mothtel. - 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. - 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!). - The original logo was sketched by Harold Leyse.
- Our original logo referenced Adam from the bible (Adam and
Eve). - The tagline in the early days was “There were even pests in the
garden of Eden!” - The National Pest Management Association named Adam’s as its
first GreenPro certified pest control company in the nation under
new, tougher standards. - 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. - Our training room currently has live Madagascar Hissing
cockroaches. - In the past there has been a live tarantula and scorpion in the
training room. Cute. - 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. - We are also heavily involved in Minnesota Professional Women in
Pest Management (PWIPM). - 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. - Adam’s Pest Control has maintained a beehive with honey bees
for the last two years. - In 2012, Adam’s transitioned the fleet to its current branding
following focus group testing. - We hired our first entomologist in 2008, Dr. Mohammed El
Damir. - In 2020, we redesigned our uniforms. Primarily to be cooler for
technicians in the summer. This was our second major uniform
change. - In 2020, part of our warehouse moved to Tower Dr just off of
Hwy 55. This location is primarily for vehicle maintenance
storage. - In 2020, Adam’s Pest Control established the Rochester
branch. - 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.