TL;DR
Mosquito Joe is experiencing high demand for its services in Texas due to the Zika virus outbreak. The company's Houston location, owned by Darryl Nevins, is fielding an abnormal amount of calls from worried residents, including schools and commercial customers.
With the ongoing Zika Virus outbreak, many businesses have been fielding an abnormal amount of calls from worried residents. This especially holds true for Texas pest control companies, where new cases are being confirmed almost daily.
Darryl Nevins, who owns Mosquito Joe in Houston, normally wouldn't open for the season until the Spring, but instead is fielding more calls per day than he would at the height of the season during the summer.
"It's not just residential customers, what we primarily had in the past," Nevins says. "Schools, day care, commercial customers with a park nearby are calling and asking, 'What do we do to protect outdoor seating?'"
He has opened his office early and plans to double his staff to accommodate all of the requests.
While the Zika virus produces mild symptoms in adults, the mosquito-borne ailment has been linked to a brain defect in infants that affects brain development.
In this story
This story was originally published in 1851 Franchise on February 12, 2016. Burnaze summarizes and links to the original reporting.
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