HY-C had the opportunity to sit down with Bobbie Terry, the Founder and CEO of Women in Pest and Wildlife Control (WIP&WC), leading up to the group’s annual conference in July. Terry shares how the group began, more about the conference and what the group offers, and future aspirations.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Honestly, it came out of frustration. I was in a group — on Facebook, actually — having a conversation, and there was this guy who was just being an outright jerk to me. There was another woman in the conversation, Lisa Myers-Botts out of Houston, our former COO. I went to her and said, "I'm going to start my own!" And that's exactly what I did.
We started the Facebook group in May of 2017, and people just kept joining. Eventually we had to put restrictions in place since we realized men were getting in, and the group wasn't for them — it was for women. Once we figured that out, we set up screening questions. If you don't answer, you don't get in. And if I can tell someone is related to the industry, I'll send them a personal message letting them know they need to answer the questions to be considered. About 90% of the time, they come back and answer. I like that approach because it's not a hard no, it's "here are our standards, and we'd love to have you."
In January of 2019, we had about 380 members and I posted in our Facebook group asking how many women would want to get together for a meeting. My Messenger — and Lisa's — immediately blew up. I remember I was talking with Lisa at one point and we realized, "This is turning into a conference."
To take in sponsors and money, we needed to make it a legitimate business. At the time, it would've taken 18 months to get a 501(c)(3) in Texas, so we just formed an LLC. I found a venue in Austin and we planned the first conference for late August 2019. The hotel gave us the rooms at half price since August is slow for them, which helped a lot.
We had over 110 attendees, all women. Every speaker was a woman. Every caterer was a woman. Every vendor was a woman, and we had 14 of them. I even made sure the limo driver I hired to take the vendors to dinner was a woman. It was a fully all-women event, top to bottom. We made history, really.
The biggest challenge has been reputation. Because it started as an all-women conference, some people assumed we hated men, which was never true. That reputation followed us for a while.
By our fourth conference, I made the executive decision to allow male vendors and male speakers. Once we opened the door, our reputation started turning around. We've been actively working to show people we're not against men; we just started as a safe space for women.
We couldn't hold the conference in 2020, so we came back in 2021 with about 40 in-person attendees and 50 on Zoom. This one was held in Houston. The third conference was originally planned for Vegas, but once we saw what it was going to cost, we worked our way out of that deal and brought it back to Houston again. It was a quick turnaround, but we made it work.
It started when a woman at the Austin conference came up to me and asked what she could do to help bring more women to the conference. I thought about it, brought it to my team, and we created the EmPowerHER program. I wanted to name it after the woman who inspired it — Ashley Cormerfield — but when I called to ask, she said she'd love for us to use her middle name: Evelina. It's just beautiful, and it really does roll off the tongue.
The fund lets anyone donate whether they’re members or not. The goal is to help bring women to the conference who otherwise couldn't afford it. We currently have $1,500 in the fund. We also give the humanitarian award winner $500 to put back into their community. Last year's winner, Sheila Patterson, put her $500 right back into the Evelina EmPowerHER Fund.
A lot of them see articles in trade magazines like Pest Management Professional (PMP). Word of mouth is huge, too. Actually, that's how our current COO, Nanette Rota, found us. She saw a big article about the first conference in PMP and her reaction was, "Oh my God, there are other women in pest control? I thought I was the only one!"
When a woman shows up to do a pest control job, homeowners sometimes open the door and immediately ask where "the guy" is. Little do they know, she’s the tech — that's why she's standing there. The same thing happens at industry conferences: Vendors will look right past the female business owner and talk to her male spouse, even if he has nothing to do with pest control. We're working to change that, and I genuinely think we're making a dent.
A few things. We do what we call Educated Eats, and these are for all genders. Originally they were called Lunch and Learns, but we changed the name because not everyone can make lunchtime work. The format is simple: Get six or more small pest control businesses interested, find a manufacturer rep willing to sponsor the meal, and create an intimate sit-down where the rep can present their products one-on-one with small business owners. Manufacturers actually love it because they rarely get that kind of direct access; they're usually focused on the big accounts.
We also have a SUB program for startup businesses. If you're starting a pest control company, you can partner with us under a two-year agreement, regardless of gender. We'll help you financially with up to $3,000 for assistance with insurance, chemical, equipment, and more, and you pay it back at 10%. In return for our services, you pay us a small percentage of your gross sales quarterly for two years, and we provide consulting to aid you in building your business.
Additionally, we offer one-on-one training packages: Three-month, six-month, or one-year options, depending on need.
Get past the “ick” for bugs. That's step one, and I say that from experience. Once you do, it's a genuinely great career. If you love it, you'll get passionate about it, and that passion drives you to do phenomenal work. A lot of people end up opening their own companies, which is a natural progression. It's also a career path that doesn't require a college degree, which is becoming more important as tuition costs keep rising.
The industry is still growing and there are still so many women who don't know we exist. When they find us, the reaction is almost always, "Wait, you've been here the whole time?"
We're also in the very early stages of developing a youth program. The idea is to partner with high schools, bring students in for hands-on experience with speakers from the industry, and help them see pest and wildlife control as a real, viable career option. Eventually we'd love to offer certified training so that, by the time a young person turns 18, they can walk into a pest control company with credentials and get hired more easily.
We have 29 advocates across roughly 24 states right now, and we're working toward having one in every state. That kind of reach could make the youth program national, and further, allow us to make a difference in the lives of pest and wildlife techs all over.