Good Neighbor Podcast: Frisco

EP 329: The Business of Backyard Freedom: One Family's Mission Against Mosquitoes

• Sophia Yvette

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What makes Ross Lindsey with Mosquito Hunters a good neighbor?

Tired of mosquitoes ruining your outdoor gatherings? Meet Ross Lindsey, who left corporate America to make backyards enjoyable again as the owner of Mosquito Hunters serving the DFW Metroplex. Despite what the name suggests, this family-owned business provides comprehensive pest control solutions addressing anything that might keep you from fully enjoying your home and outdoor spaces.

Ross reveals fascinating mosquito facts that might surprise you – only females bite, and they're not actually feeding on us! These persistent pests (which have outlasted dinosaurs) seek the protein in our blood specifically for egg-laying purposes. Beyond the annoyance factor, mosquitoes pose serious health threats as the exclusive transmitters of heartworm disease to pets, making effective control a matter of family and pet health.

The success of Mosquito Hunters stems from their community-first approach to business. Rather than relying solely on traditional advertising, Ross and his team actively participate in neighborhood Facebook groups, offering helpful advice about eliminating standing water and other preventative measures without pushing for sales. This genuine engagement, coupled with active involvement in local chambers of commerce, has built trust throughout their service area. As Ross puts it, "It takes the work out of work" when clients become friends and business relationships develop naturally.

Behind the scenes, Ross's wife handles the operational side while he manages sales and marketing, creating a balanced partnership that extends to their blended family with five children. Their story demonstrates how local, family-owned businesses contribute to community well-being while finding fulfillment in service to others.

To learn more about Mosquito Hunters go to:
🌐 mosquitohunters.com

Mosquito Hunters
📞 +1 (469) 654-7999

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a pest control company? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor Ross Lindsay, with Mosquito Hunters Ross, how's it going today?

Speaker 3:

It's going great. How are you?

Speaker 2:

I'm great. Now we are excited to learn all about you and your business. Can you start?

Speaker 3:

by telling our listeners just a little bit about your company. Sure, we are. Don't let the name fool you. We do handle mosquitoes, but we are a full service pest control company. Handle mosquitoes, but we are a full-service pest control company. I've been a franchisee since 2021, serving the DFW Metroplex, trying to get rid of hundreds of mosquitoes, one backyard at a time. We focus on anything that might keep you from enjoying your backyard or your home.

Speaker 2:

And how did you originally get into this industry?

Speaker 3:

Honestly, I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do. I was kind of tired of corporate America and met a franchise consultant and we just kind of hit it off and we kind of introduced. He introduced some concepts to me and you know from family experience mosquitoes have always been a problem and they're resilient. They've outlasted the dinosaurs so I figured they're not going anywhere. So it sounded like a great opportunity and so I got connected with the local franchisor and really liked the values, the system they had in place and in their mission. And so it was. It was pretty much a no brainer for me. Within a month of being introduced to Mosquito Hunters Corporate, we signed on the bottom line and got to work, getting established here corporate.

Speaker 2:

We signed on the bottom line and got to work, getting established here.

Speaker 3:

Now what is the most common myth or misconception you come across in the pest control industry? Mosquito specific people think that we are food for mosquitoes, but in actuality it's only the females that bite. There is protein in our blood that they need to lay eggs. So the females are the only ones that bite and we're certainly not a food source. But they can't lay eggs without the proteins in our blood, or animals' blood for that matter. You know, mosquito bites are the only way that know dogs, cats, whatever can be contracted with heartworms. It's a mosquito-borne virus. So that's another one of the misconceptions there. But but yeah, it's, it's the females, they, they bite us so that they can lay more eggs and continue on with their life cycle wow, it's the females that have the attitude.

Speaker 3:

Huh I I like to tell people that mosquitoes are not unlike people at all. The women do all the work and the men. All they want to do is eat and mate.

Speaker 2:

Well, we know marketing is the heart of every business. How do you currently market your business?

Speaker 3:

We have a number of things Google, google pay-per-click, and the lsas is a big part of it. You know, people don't. Just you don't see billboards of pest control every day. Uh, typically, like a lot of other home services, if someone has a need, they're gonna. They're gonna google or get on next door or facebook, uh, community groups, um, and ask around like, hey, hey, who do you use? We're having issues with this pest, and so that's one place we're really active.

Speaker 3:

Facebook ads are one thing, but we find a lot of success just being local, being in the community Facebook groups and just being available to answer questions. If somebody has a post asking about mosquitoes, I won't go in and say, hey, use us, here's what we charge. It's more along the lines of well, here's what we do. I'm here in the neighborhood. My wife and I own mosquito hunters. We look for areas in which problems can arise. Standing water is where they lay their eggs. So if you've got, you know, a bird bath that just has sitting water, that's been there forever and then doesn't get cleaned out, there's a really good chance you've got thousands of mosquito larvae just swimming in there.

Speaker 3:

So just keep an eye out on standing water and we'll just give tips like that and hope that it's helpful and benefits the folks that need help. And then you, they want to go beyond just what you can do at home and taking that advice, then you know we'll. We'll be there to answer a direct message or take a phone call or whatever, but that's a big part of it. Networking we're in quite a few of the local chambers of commerce is very involved. There for us feel like home services it's it's more community based. So the more active we are in the community we get the most benefit for our buck and we get to build relationships along the way.

Speaker 2:

Your wife co-owns with you. Why isn't she on the interview with you today?

Speaker 3:

She is perfectly content being in the background. She, she is more of the operations, the organization, the day-to-day and handling those kind of things. I'm more of the sales and marketing and don't let me get started talking because he won't shut up. So she likes to own her area and just kind of shoo me away to do all the talking and the forward-facing things.

Speaker 2:

Now, have you ever thought of having your own podcast?

Speaker 3:

I have not. I've been on several and I've been invited to several others that just haven't had the calendar connect yet. She is very organized and handles that kind of thing. If something like that, I would be all over the place. And from the different skill sets, I'm more of the visionary where I come up with ideas, but I'm not the greatest executor of ideas, so we kind of balance each other out in that regard. So with we kind of balance each other out in that regard.

Speaker 2:

She she can help take the ideas that I come up and figure out which which we can implement and what might be for down the road. Well, it sounds like you guys are a great team and that really is a beautiful thing. Now, outside, of work.

Speaker 3:

What do you guys like to do as a family together? Well, we are blended and we have five kids, so they range from 19 down to eight, so they keep us busy. In fact, our second oldest daughter turned 17 yesterday, so we were celebrating with her this weekend. On Saturday night she wanted to go to the stockyards and and see, and be seen, and get dinner and do all the all the fun, exciting nightlife stuff. And then yesterday we kind of took it easy, went to church and then went to, went to a arcade time rift arcade.

Speaker 3:

It's one of those, you know, all you can play type places, and so the kids go, run around and do whatever, and I'll play golden tea and and we all, we all have a good time with it. But we're, we're involved in our church. We go to Compass Christian Church in Colleyville. My wife and I are on the marriage ministry and and we serve every other week, and so just staying active in the community it's, you know, having a small business, it's the the lines blur a little bit between business and personal. But you know, a lot of our clients are friends and networking partners are friends, and so it's it's, it's, it's nice because it's it's like you're always working but never working all kind of at the same time. It's, it's, it takes the work out of work.

Speaker 2:

Understood and amen to that Now. We are almost out of time today, Ross, but where can our listeners go to learn more about mosquito hunters?

Speaker 3:

You could go to mosquitohunterscom. There are well over 100 of us nationwide, so you kind of get the gist of it there and then you can filter down to zip code to take you down to the local branch. Here we are on Facebook under Mosquito Hunters Southlake, instagram as well LinkedIn, and you know, if you see us out and about, you see the van driving around and you can wave at any of our technicians out trying to make the world a safer place. You know, one backyard at a time.

Speaker 2:

Well, Ross, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much, Sophia. I really appreciate you having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfriscocom. That's gnp friscocom, or call 469-221-9345.