Advanced Maintenance and Pest Solutions LLC
Bryan Nichols, operations manager
Chicago
pestcontrolexpertschicago.com

Advanced Maintenance and Pest Solutions LLC started out in Florida and expanded to Chicago about six years ago. Angie’s List members rewarded their efforts in 2010 with a nearly perfect record and their first Super Service Award.

by Paul F. P. Pogue

When Angie's List member Vince Samford of Chicago needed help exterminating drain flies from a three-unit condo, he turned to a company with experience in multi-unit housing. "[A national company] had told us we would need an expensive initial treatment and monthly follow-ups for a year, but Advanced Maintenance's remedy worked perfectly in only one treatment," he says.

Operations manager Bryan Nichols says Advanced started out as a maintenance and repair company and branched out into pest control. He says the combination is a big help when clearing out condo or apartment buildings, which present unique challenges.

"The pests don't know there's a difference in multi-unit housing," he says. "They just think they've hit the jackpot if a building has three dogs and six kittens. You have to go through the whole place and treat the whole building. The maintenance side of the business is a big help. Pests are only a symptom of a larger problem, which is usually a structural issue that really needs a maintenance contractor to take care of it."

The company's workers frequently meet, update each other on their jobs and offer advice on tricky situations. "The left hand always knows what the right hand is doing," he says. "It's important to get into the job, see the problem and analyze what needs to be done. We try to stay right there with our customers.

"You educate them on what caused the problem to proliferate, showing them things they might not have even been aware of. Pest control is very satisfying, because you're directly solving someone's immediate problem by getting rats, birds or pests out of a house."

He says the last few years have seen great change in the pest control field, particularly on the safety side.

"The industry is moving toward green chemicals," he says. "For instance, our ant pesticides don't even turn toxic until they mix with an ant's enzymes. This is a highly evolving industry, and the main safety tool we use is our brain."