Pest Pros
The LadyBug Pest and Wildlife Control Gets the Job Done
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. Im 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 like those on insightpest.com/augusta/. Who can treat for ants? Who can take care of the beehive on the back porch?
She also noticed there didnt 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, were 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 thats what made us so strong. The passion has followed. I love what I do. I no longer complain about work. Its fun for me. We both love researching and solving problems, and were 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 cant remove bats by hand. You have to channel them out because they are federally protected. The problem is, since they cant be touched or relocated, they leave one house and go to another.
The second issue is an environmental one.
Weve taken away trees and started new developments, which has created a major wildlife issue, Ricci says. They have nowhere to go. As a result, were 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 its buttoned up well, but theres 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 cant be chewed through or torn off.
Once we get them out, they desperately want to come back in, Ricci says. Its not uncommon when we do exclusion – patching 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. Weve pulled owls out of chimneys, hawks out of warehouses, and cats stuck in crawl spaces.
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. Were 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.
