The Reliable Blog
Have Yourself a Merry Little Pest-Free Holiday
Reliable Exterminators shares tips for keeping pests out of your home ahead of the busy season As the holidays draw near, families will begin spending more time in their kitchens baking festive treats and snacks. This popular tradition can quickly turn into a nightmare if you find signs of pests, such as cockroaches, rodents or pantry pests like beetles and moths. Once inside your home, pests can spread bacteria and contaminate food surfaces and ingredients....
Many of the spiders we see are wolf or house spiders. They are black and hairy with a light/yellow stripe and tend to be large spiders. To the contrary brown recluse spiders are a lot less common, small, thin, and brown. Sometimes people confuse the two because they are afraid of the bite of a brown recluse. Brown Recluse Wolf Spider
Carpenter Bees are Drilling in May
May is usually when we start seeing black and yellow carpenter bees drilling holes into wood siding and eaves, trees, and fences. Carpenter bees are solitary meaning they don't live in nests or hives. In May the female carpenter bee is looking for places to lay eggs. She may return to previous holes or make new ones. When she finds suitable wood, she drills a perfectly round, dime-sized hole into the wood, turns 90 degrees...
May Showers Drive Out Ants
April started with sunshine and ended with lots of gray skies and rain. On this May Day we're getting a lot of calls about ants. Let us tell you a little about these common pests. Ants live underground year round. In the spring and fall ant swarmers leave the nest to create new colonies. This is typically when ants are noticed indoors as they look for food and water. We prefer to treat for ants...
Now Hiring for Spring
It feels more like spring today than winter so let's think about spring! We are looking for several additional service technicians to join our team including a termite technician! Service technician work can be very rewarding! You are the hero that solves our customers' pest problems! You create relationships with our customers each time you do their preventative maintenance work. You get to work by yourself and drive a company truck; but you don't have...
September Small Business of the Month Winner!
Greater Lafayette Commerce has awarded Reliable Exterminators with the September Small Business of the Month (SBOM) award! We are honored to be recognized as a quality service provider to the community and grateful to our loyal customers for trusting in us! We were judged on our level of community involvement, Greater Lafayette Commerce (GLC) involvement, and quality of responses to the application questions. Check back here soon for a press release detailing our history and community...
Now Hiring for 2018 Season
There may be snow on the streets but we are preparing for spring! We are looking for one additional service technician to join our team. Service technician work can be very rewarding! You are the hero that solves our customers' pest problems! You create relationships with our customers each time you do their preventative maintenance work. You get to work by yourself and drive a company truck; but you don't have to find your own...
It’s Christmastime at Reliable!
To thank and celebrate our employees, Reliable hosts dinner and crazy bingo every year in December. We had a lot to thank them for including 3 major anniversaries. Geanie (top left in teal shirt) has been advising our customers over the phone for five years! Jeff (top far right) has treating pests in Rensselaer and Monticello areas for 20 years; and Jim (not pictured) has been serving the Lafayette and Attica areas for a whopping...
Celebrating the Life of Phyllis Hanstra
Phyllis HanstraAugust 19, 1933 - October 8, 2017 We are mourning and celebrating the life of our dear matriarch Phyllis Hanstra. She has been instrumental in the integrity and legacy of Reliable Exterminators. Once her husband Jim Hanstra purchased the business from his uncle Charlie in 1971, she became involved, supporting Jim, doing accounting, and making calls from home after hours. It wasn't until 1982 that she became full time. After...
Employee Spotlight: Javier
Javier is our technician that is known in our office for getting the most gold stars (see this blog post about gold stars.) It's not an inner office competition but a majority of our customers that call with a compliment are calling about Javier. He's warm, friendly, caring, and still quick and efficient. Jav says he thinks customers like him because he's honest and goes the extra mile. If they have a beetle, he could...