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BELTON STAR HERALD
(Business Section)
At some point in your life, you will have a close encounter with a nasty creature. They surprise you when you open the cupboard, frustrate you when you open the cupboard, frustrate you when you find them in your foundation or irritate you when you are trying to sleep. Pests: roaches, termites, mice, bats bees; no matter what kind, they can all make life at home miserable.
Fortunately, you can call Belton's version of Men In Black, Mason's Exterminating. They may not wear dark sunglasses. but this family operation always get their bug. Mike Mason, who began the business in 1978 out of his home in northeastern Kansas City with his wife Terry, we started. with nothing. "We started cold calling and going door-to-door." Mike said. "It was real tough. We started with zero customers and worked our way up form there. When we moved to Belton in 1982, I worked out ofthe house until 1999, when we got too big for the house."
Now located at 608 Main street, Mason's has continued to grow while retaining the trust of past customers. "I started working at this one apartment complex when I was 16 years old,"said Mike "We still service them now. That's been 32 years." Mason's is a family operation; he employs his two sons, Michael and Roy, along with his son's longtime friend Heath Shroyer. The younger members of the organization go out on calls during the day, leaving Mike, Terry and Debbie to work on paperwork and over-the-counter sales of pest removing chemicals for the do-it-yourselfers "Locally." Terry said "there are very few other companies that sell chemicals and do exterminating."
The majority of their business, though, is for customers with less interest in getting up close and personal with the little nasties. ("We take care of roaches, rodents, silverfish, termites, bees, squirrels, pigeons,rats, bats, possums") Mike said "We also do pre-treats and post-construction work. Any kind of pest control, we take care of it." The first step in getting rid of home invaders is to diagnose the problem.) "We get a lot of calls on Box Elders," Mike said, "which looks like roaches but they have orange on their back. I can usually tell on the phone right off the bat because of my experience, but if I can't we'll go out and get a sample, identify it, then give an estimate."
Mason's also has microscopes on hand to identify any rare insects that are brought into the store. Most jobs deal with termites and roaches, however. Termites are a big problem," Mike said. "they do billions of dollars of damage every year. In this part of the country, they are subterranean. They have to go down in the ground where there is moisture, unless there is moisture in the roof, which would be a secondary infestation. If there is a crack in the concrete, they can come up through the crack. "We use Termidor, which is the best chemical in my opinion on the market." We've treated hundreds of houses with Termidor and we haven't had a call back yet." Part of what makes the operation so successful is because it is so close-knit. "we all get along great, Roy said. "We all run our own routes, and if I am finished up I call my brother or Heath and help out" Of course, exterminating requires people skills.
Mason Exterminating does Residential, Commercial & Industrial Pest Control Services. Our Retail Store/Main office is located at 608 Main Street, Belton Missouri. We service Kansas City, south to Butler, north to Smithville, east to Buckner, west to Desoto Kansas and all areas in between. |
