Ty Jean Plans to Take the Sting out of Mosquitos

“Dang mosquitos!”

For us southerners, that phrase is as much a part of our vocabulary as “Grillin’ and Chillin’” and “Pass me another cold one.”

But if Ty Jean has his way, you won’t be cursing those mosquitos for long.

Jean, who recently moved to Bossier City from Magnolia, Ark., is the owner of Shreveport’s new franchise. With locations in 36 states, Mosquito Joe’s mission is to get rid of – or significantly decrease the number of – those pesky, irritating, flying insects.

“This is our specialty,” Jean said. “We’re not doing indoors, ants, cockroaches or termites. We focus on mosquitos, fleas and ticks, and kind of help people take their yard back and be able to enjoy the outdoors.”

The Southern Arkansas University graduate (agricultural business) also enjoys the outdoors. That’s a big reason why he bought not only Mosquito Joe’s Shreveport territory (covering Northwest Louisiana), but also the Monroe territory (covering Northeast Louisiana), which will begin service in 2021. After years of working in sales – and spending most of his time stuck in a car or office – it was time to breathe some fresh air.

“I love to be outdoors,” Jean said. “I can do only a certain amount of behindthe-steering-wheel or sitting at a desk.

I like to interact with people, and I love to be outdoors. Whether it’s 100 degrees outside or 30 degrees outside, I would much rather be doing a project or working outdoors, as opposed to doing anything else indoors if possible.”

The pandemic, which delayed Jean’s scheduled spring opening, has shown that many of us share his sentiment.

“People who have gotten away from spending time outdoors in years past – whether it be video games, television or things like that,” Jean said. “With school being out, and a lot of people canceling their summer vacations, people have really gotten used to where they are enjoying their own yard more. There’s been a little higher demand this year, I believe, as opposed to just your regular summertime. That’s helped a lot with making the phone ring – people who are spending more time outdoors due to some of the restrictions we’ve been facing.”

Unfortunately, more people being outside has resulted in more people being bitten by mosquitos – some of which carry the potentially deadly West Nile virus. In recent weeks, cases have been reported in Caddo and Bossier parishes. Jean says even though the dog days of summer temperatures are a thing of the past, the threat of being bitten by a mosquito – and getting sick – is not.

“They are absolutely still active,” Jean said. “It stays warm for quite a while here in Louisiana. You’ve got to get to where the temperature drops to about 50 degrees and stays there or lower for a number of days – four or five days really – before you can count on mosquitos not being active. In this part of the world, even when you get three or four days like that, it will warm back up into the 70s or so.”

Even though Mosquito Joe is a national company, Jean takes a personal approach with each customer.

“What we do is a custom barrier treatment,” Jean explained. “Each property is unique and different, with different areas that are problem spots. When we go and treat a property, we don’t approach it with a one-size-fits-all treatment. We do an assessment of the property and talk with the customer on what their needs are, whether it’s mosquitos, fleas or ticks, and where their problem areas are.”

If you use their service, Mosquito Joe won’t guarantee you will never have a mosquito join your family and friends for that backyard cookout. However, if mosquitos do show up – uninvited, of course – they will likely be few and far between.

“What we tell customers is that they can expect about an 85 percent decrease with the first treatment,” Jean said. “Our approach is to break the breeding cycle with the mosquitos. Yes, we want to get rid of the adult biting mosquitos, but for the treatment to be most effective, you’ve got to take the approach of breaking the breeding cycle.”

To learn more about Mosquito Joe and to schedule an appointment, you may visit www.mosquitojoe.com.