Helen Follas wasn’t always known as the Bug Lady. For over 15 years, she worked in the corporate world as a Business Development Manager. But in the male dominated corporate world, she kept hitting the glass ceiling so she decided to make a radical change and start her own business in an entirely new industry: pest control.
For the last five years, Follas has been successfully operating as the Bug Lady across Auckland. “As far as I know, I’m the only woman in Auckland that has a pest control company,” Follas laughs. As a sole female business owner, she feels a huge responsibility to her clients to provide a thorough and detailed job. Her reputation is key because as she explains: “If a client said that a female came along and did this job and it was no good, it can be traced back to me”.
Thankfully her work has been made easier with BASF’s Ripcord Xtra Insecticide. Follas recently discovered Ripcord Xtra – the new and improved, high-performance formulation of the trusted New Zealand product. Ripcord Xtra provides greater control and treatment flexibility for a large variety of difficult pests.
Follas encountered Ripcord Xtra at her supplier and also investigated the product further at a roadshow. She found out that Ripcord Xtra was highly efficient at combating a huge variety of pests, a fact that was confirmed by her former mentor in the pest industry.
“I have used Ripcord Xtra for numerous applications and absolutely love it,” says Follas. With Ripcord Xtra, Follas no longer needs other products in her treatment roster. “The benefits are that it's an all-rounder. You don't need multiple different bottles of different chemicals to store,” she explains.
Due to its superior residual action and micro-crystalline formulation, pest controllers can rely on Ripcord Xtra to control a large variety of difficult insect pests. Ripcord Xtra delivers a rapid knockdown within 30 minutes for everything from ants to bedbugs and cockroaches, clothes moths, fleas, mosquitos, carpet beetles and numerous other pests. See a full list of pests that can be controlled with Ripcord Xtra here.
Ripcord Xtra also offers broad spectrum control for use in domestic, commercial, agricultural and public health applications. Follas has found this particularly useful – as her bread and butter is in commercial projects.
For Follas, Ripcord Xtra has been so successful, that she plans use it almost exclusively for her work. “It’s brilliant, to the point that I will change over completely once I use up all my existing products.”
