Burrtec USA 2019
Pestec is a second-generation family owned and operated pest management company, which was started by my father in 1985. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OUR CUSTOMER SUPPORT? LET’S START OFF WITH INFORMATION ABOUT PESTEC. CAN YOU PROVIDE A HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW OF YOUR COMPANY? Pestec is a second-generation family owned and operated pest management company,
...Read MoreNPR 2019
Summer is a time of travel and fun. But with every bed an exhausted traveler falls into after a day of sightseeing, the chances of bringing home an unwanted bug increase. Bedbugs don’t fly or jump or come in from your garden. They crawl very quickly and are great at hiding in your luggage when
...Read MorePest Management Professional Magazine 2019
San Francisco, Calif.-based Pestec added SenesTech Inc.’s ContraPest solution to its integrated pest management program for use in popular locations within the San Francisco Bay area. SenesTech develops technologies for managing animal pest populations through fertility control. “San Francisco is a hub of culture, commerce and biodiversity,” says Luis Agurto, president and CEO of Pestec, in a press release.
...Read MoreSenestech 2019
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., May 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — SenesTech, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNES), a developer of proprietary technologies for managing animal pest populations through fertility control, announced today that Pestec, an industry leader in environmentally conscious Integrated Pest Management (IPM) solutions, has added ContraPest® to their IPM programs for use in popular locations within the San Francisco
...Read MoreSF Gate 2017
A rat race of sorts is happening in San Francisco, where rodent complaints have surged in the past five years. Since 2012, San Franciscans have steadily reported more rat sightings to 311, San Francisco’s official site for information and complaints. This year, the agency received around 848 calls from January through August and, if the
...Read MorePest Management Professional 2017
Luis Agurto Jr., president of San Francisco-based Pestec, and his team work with like-minded partners that take the principles of integrated pest management (IPM) seriously and want to practice pest prevention, particularly as it pertains to bed bugs in multi-family housing. We asked him six questions to learn how he does it. 1. You work
...Read MoreKQED 2017
You know when you first notice something, and then you can’t ever “unnotice” it? A year ago that happened to Zak Brazen when he noticed a pattern in several local communities. He asked Bay Curious … “Why are there colorful dots above the drainage system? And who puts them there?” The dots are located
...Read MoreSF Magazine 2015
San Francisco’s Mosquito Abatement Courier team—otherwise known as MAC—is not your typical bike gang. Clad in neon vests and Chrome shorts, toting panniers packed with larvicide and yard-long application wands, its members pedal 20 miles a day. Their mission: thwarting the spread of Indian summer mosquitoes. Exterminator Luis Agurto Jr. founded this civic biker brigade
...Read MoreUniversity of California IPM 2015
Author: Cheryl Reynolds Author: Andrew Mason Sutherland Author: Tunyalee A. Martin California requires that pest control companies providing services in schools and licensed child care centers comply with a series of laws called the Healthy Schools Act (HSA). The HSA promotes IPM and seeks to minimize pesticide exposure to children in all public K–12 schools
...Read MoreSF Gate 2014
Kristopher Brown, who you might see pedaling around San Francisco from mid-February to the end of October, has worked for Pestec for about four years, since he came to the city. If you want to know about the city’s geography, he’s the guy to ask; he knows all its streets and alleys. Kristopher rides to
...Read MoreBloomberg CityLab 2012
San Francisco-based designer Nick Foster noticed something unusual right next to his city’s storm drains — paint dots. Posted on his blog, this 40-image montage of sidewalk shots showcases the markings of S.F.’s Mosquito Abatement Courier Team (SFMAC), which works to combat transmission of the West Nile virus (although the last reported human
...Read MoreMediaShift 2011
In some ways you could say that the Dotspotting project started with San Francisco’s sewage and drain system. A few years ago I started noticing some strange dot markings on the curbs of city sidewalks, directly above the storm drains like the one you see on the left But on closer inspection, it turned out
...Read MoreRichmond Confidential 2010
Coming to a bed near you Christopher Connelly on November 5, 2010 Halloween is over, but that doesn’t mean blood-sucking creatures that come out at night should be forgotten. Bedbugs are everywhere–from luxury hotels to movie theaters to dorm rooms–and no one is immune. “My mother has them at her house,” said Patricia Negrete
...Read More48hills 2009
Pub date September 16, 2009 Writer John Eastland Section News & Opinion Issue Volume 42 Number 51 Issue Volume 43 Number 51 news@sfbg.com Editor’s Note: The writer has penned this story under a pseudonym because of concerns about social stigma and backlash from his landlord, as he discusses below. More than three weeks had
...Read MoreSF Gate 2009
When she and her husband moved into an upscale apartment in an “emerging” neighborhood near Civic Center, Katie Beckheyer may have had some concerns about crime, gritty streets and panhandlers. But she never expected what would be the real nightmare. Bedbugs. “I am covered in itchy red welts,” she said in an e-mail, “and drained
...Read MoreCalifornia Department of Pesticide Regulation 2008
The 2008 IPM Innovators Awards Back to IPM Innovator Award Winners Page The 2008 Awardees are: FreshSense, Fresno County FreshSense is building the market for sustainably produced fruit and motivating growers to adopt more environmentally friendly pest management practices. It initially sold stone fruit, but expanded to citrus this season. The Parlier-based company currently
...Read MoreEcoWise 2008
News Ecowise News EcoWise Certified Launches Exciting New Online Course! California Pest Management Professionals can now be certified as EcoWise IPM Practitioners through an Online Course. The course also provides IPM Training and 2 hours of IPM CEUs for Applicators, Field Representatives, and Pest Control Operators. Pest Management Companies can find online everything they need
...Read MoreUtne Reader 2008
Who You Gonna Call? An exterminator dumps the chemicals and gets creative by Laura Wright, from OnEarth| January / February 2008 illustration by Leah Lin Using a stethoscope in a hospital is not a strange thing to do, unless, of course, you’re in the pest control business, which Luis Agurto is. Agurto, owner of the
...Read MoreNPR 2007
Methods utilized to get rid of pests can be scarier than the actual pests themselves. In San Francisco, however, that’s changing. Instead of toxic sprays, one pest control company employs dogs, birth control and other innovative methods to root out pesky critters. For the past 10 years, San Francisco has contracted Pestec to manage its
...Read MoreSF Gate 2007
Walter has stopped hugging his friends. He is throwing out his clothes and furniture, and he rarely comes out of his Tenderloin hotel room anymore. He’s not suicidal, but darn near. He has bedbugs. Nearly eradicated in the United States 50 years ago, resistant strains of “super” bedbugs are infesting mattresses at an alarming rate.
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