Profile Jennifer Leggett of Lindsey Pest Services
Summer worker buys the company
By Ernie Neff

A dark blue Volkswagen Bug with vinyl termites and ants on the sides scoots around downtown Jacksonville on a hot, sunny day. Driver Jennifer Leggett points to a medium high-rise. We did a bat exclusion job on that building, she says. It was so much fun getting the bats out. I found out the bats knew the building better than I did. In north Jacksonville, she points out the house where she and eight siblings grew up, then drives to the nearby Catholic schools they attended. There was never a question that I was going to college and never a question that I would return home. I absolutely love this town! After more north Jacksonville touring, she asks, Why would I want to leave Jacksonville? Never! Leggett is equally enthusiastic about her city and the pest control business. I love baiting, she declares over lunch in a downtown diner that's one of her pest control customers. I'll bait anything. Later, she says, One of the most rewarding parts of being in the pest control industry is that every day we are able to help people. It could be solving a small ant invasion, or a complicated termite infestation, or helping collect cockroaches for a school science fair project. It is the type of service that makes us feel good every day! Leggett, 40, is the owner and president of Lindsey Pest Services in, you guessed it, Jacksonville. In June next year, she'll become president of Florida Pest Management Association (FPMA), only the second woman president in the organization's 60-year history. It's doubtful the group will ever have a more enthusiastic leader. She's a very energetic person, says Pam Mattis, a Duval County extension agent and friend. She's a strong advocate for the pest control industry.

NO CLUE WHAT I WAS GOING TO DO
Leggett may have always known where she was going to live, but not what she'd be doing. After spending a year at the University of Georgia and three at the University of Florida, she graduated with honors from UF in 1987. The work-study student had a degree in business administration but no plans, except, of course, to return to north Jacksonville. I had absolutely no clue what I was going to do.

A friend in Gainesville suggested she go to work at her old summer job at Lindsey Pest Control until she figured out a better plan. Her mother had worked for years in the office at Lindsey and once ran a pest control route. Most of Leggett's previous experience at Lindsey had been driving a termite technician who lost his (driver's) license. She took her friend's advice and returned to the pest control company. They got me an ID card so I could do pest control work, and I got this fascination for termites, she recalls. Within months, she would tell owner Curtis Lindsey, who had talked about retiring, I want to buy your business. After three years as a technician, Leggett passed her state exams for certification in general household pests, termites and lawn and ornamental in May 1990. She started running the business then and bought it from Lindsey in 1992. She has since changed the name to Lindsey Pest Services. The day she bought Lindsey, the only employees were her mother and one technician. The company performed general household pest and termite work; the only lawn and ornamental work was applying insecticides if customers had pest problems. Leggett added fertilizing and weed control. I built that up, she says. She discovered the lawn business can be rife with unreasonable customer expectations. She recalls customers grousing that the neighbors grass was greener than theirs even when it wasn't, or calling for a technician to come remove one weed. I realized it was taking up 85 percent of my time. So she sold the lawn and ornamental business in October 2000.

7 TECHS AND A BLACKBERRY
Leggett's other lines of business grew steadily, and she bought four one-man pest control operations. Today, she has seven technicians performing an equal mix of termite and general household pest work. There's also an office manager-receptionist, and her secretary-treasurer mother, who is recuperating following heart surgery this spring. We have got a great crew, the owner declares.

Leggett still leases the small, frame house that has served as a pest control company headquarters for decades. You can be anywhere in Jacksonville in 20 minutes, she says. Every morning, the technicians meet there at 8 a.m. before heading to jobs in Duval County (where Jacksonville is) and nearby Clay, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns counties.  Leggett herself is on the road virtually all day, following up on trouble calls and performing WDO (wood destroying organism) inspections. She usually takes a technician with her on WDO inspections so it's always a learning experience. She stays in touch with technicians and others via Nextel radio and BlackBerry phone complete with wireless email. The joke is, she's a strong supporter of Starbucks coffee, Mattis says. She has mapped out on her route where every Starbucks coffee is in Duval County in case she needs a caffeine fix while on the road.

INDUSTRY AND ENVIRONMENT
Leggett lives on the Ribault River in, yep, north Jacksonville, with husband Claude Thomas. Thomas, a Ph.D., is Southeast sales representative for B&G Equipment Co., which manufactures sprayers and other equipment for pest control. The pair met at a pest control workshop in 1992; he was teaching foam technology and she was in the audience. The Ribault is one of a plethora of creeks and rivers, including the giant St. Johns, that run through Jacksonville. Leggett is well aware that the pest control industry has the potential to harm the waterways. That's a major reason she served on the statewide committee that wrote the best management practices (BMP) manual for Florida's green industries. From 2000 to 2002, she made many trips to Orlando to meet with regulators, researchers and others in pest control to hammer out the BMPs. The manual provides information and guidance on turfgrass and landscape management practices to conserve and protect Florida's water resources. Leggett sold the lawn and ornamental side of her business about the same time she started work on the BMPs, but her enthusiasm for the project never waned. I'm worried about the water quality, she says. It's a finite quantity, and we must protect what we have. That is part of her whole business approach, to protect the environment and the consumer, Mattis says. But I wouldn't call her a tree hugger. Leggett laughs and responds, No, just a butterfly lover. Leggett is also interested in controlling her own destiny. That's a major reason she joined FPMA in 1989 and climbed through the trade association's ranks. I don't want someone else making the decisions that are going to rule my business, she says, explaining that many regulatory agencies affect the pest control industry. I realized I've got to be involved; there's no option.  Mom and Dad raised us where we never relied on anyone else for our existence. She says she and other younger people in the pest control industry are a different breed ... We all see a need for education, training and promoting professionalism in the industry. We're not bug people anymore.

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