Labon "Jake" Porche Jr.
February 17, 2009
Esther Marie LeBoeuf LeCompte
February 19, 2009
DA Exterminating in Houma started out decades ago like many other independent exterminating businesses, breaking off from a larger pest control company, said owner David Cherry.
DA Exterminating was founded in New Orleans in 1959 by E.J. D’Arensbourg, who had been a successful salesman for Orkin. In 1963, D’Arensbourg partnered with Ralph “Putsy” Caballero, a former Philadelphia Phillies first baseman who had a background in pest control sales.
“Most pest control businesses that are not national, nine times out of 10 they had been working for a national company,” Cherry said. “DA was no exception… They’re making all the money, you can just do it yourself.”
Bud Soignet opened the first DA branch in the Tri-parish area in the 1960s, in Schriever. The Houma-Thibodaux area seemed “the natural place to go for growth,” Cherry said, adding Schriever was situated nicely between the two towns.
Jack Oncale soon took over from Soignet and had a decades-long tenure as owner of the Schriever business.
Cherry, a Houma native, started out with DA Exterminating in 1987 as a pest control technician. He mastered the skill of controlling common household pests and moved on to termites, becoming a termite technician for the company. He was later elevated to manager, licensee, and eventually to owner in 1998.
DA Exterminating stayed in Schriever until 2000 when Cherry moved the business to its current 3,000-square-foot, Enterprise Drive location.
There are currently three DA Exterminating offices in Louisiana – in Metairie, Mandeville and Houma. D’Arensbourg’s son, Jed, owns the Metairie office. Caballero’s son, Ricky, runs the Mandeville location.
Cherry said he works frequently with the Metairie office, which services such high-profile clients as Galatoire’s restaurant in the French Quarter and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
Around 2,400 accounts are serviced from the Houma office from Morgan City to Venice, in southern Plaquemines Parish.
Surprising to many people, offshore oilrigs also need pest control services and DA services several. Without pest control servicing, rigs can become infested with mice and cockroaches that arrive on supply vessels, Cherry said.
Servicing oilrigs makes up 5 percent of the Houma office’s business.
Cherry recalled a spider outbreak following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He said the spiders were driven up by the floodwaters and began biting employees of the Shell Pipeline Company and Exxon in Venice.
Though he continues to see outbreaks of poisonous spiders, primarily the brown recluse spider, Cherry said ants and termites are the most common pests overall, followed by cockroaches. Mice and rat infestations occur primarily during winter.
DA Exterminating only uses EPA-approved products.
To combat termites, the company uses liquid treatments, such as the currently popular Termidor brand, nearly 65 percent of the time, targeting cracks and crevices. For the remainder, the company uses the baiting system Sentricon.
Termidor is a non-repellent product, which came on the scene more than a decade ago. Termites cannot detect the presence of non-repellents on other termites, causing the social insects to spread the substance to one another.
“The colony is then eliminated,” Cherry said.
Before the product’s development, the insects would normally be repelled by the other termites.
“They would just live in the tree trunk while the ones in the house would be killed,” he said.
Baiting systems like Sentricon “revolutionized” the industry.
“It gets rid of roaches completely,” he said. “Three weeks later, they’re completely gone. Roaches like the consistency and the texture of the bait.”
Termidor is a bit higher priced, so the company offers less expensive liquid treatment products. Sentricon is the top treatment the company offers.
All the pest control products used by DA have little or no odor, which is now standard in the industry. However, that has not always been the case. The products formerly gave off a strong odor of sulfur.
Cherry said many people missed the smell at first, seeing the acrid odor as evidence of the product’s effectiveness.
DA Exterminating offers monthly, alternate months and quarterly treatment plans.
Residences and businesses tend to become infested with the same types of pests. Restaurants can often have the same problems as homes, Cherry said. However, large businesses, like shipyards, endure different pests, like the brown recluse spiders.
Cherry has a bright outlook for the future of DA Exterminating in the Tri-parish area, and he said his customers would agree.
“We have really good service,” he said. “Our long-term customers become friends. We’ve known them a long time.”
David Cherry of DA Exterminating got his start with the company as a pest control technician in 1987. Today, the Houma native owns the local branch. * Photo by MIKE BROSSETTE
