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Who's the boss?
July 1, 2007 By: Brian Richesson LPGasWhen a career in the medical field didn't materialize, Ed Meyer relied on his "entrepreneurial spirit" to carry him into the business world.
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"It just happened," he says. "It was destiny."
The 35-year-old started his own company, Meyer Industries, and manufactured a product that helps put an end to burrowing pests. Growing in popularity around the world, the Rodenator Pro is "The Boss of the Burrow."
"People bust their butt making a living, whether it's farming or putting in a flower garden, and then you have something coming in and trying to destroy what you've been doing," Meyer says. "It's frustrating to people. They feel like their hands are tied and there's no way to get them."
Meyer has targeted the agricultural market as well as the turf and sod market, golf courses, municipalities and the equine market. Anyone who owns land can be affected, he says, by gophers, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, woodchucks, ground hogs, badgers, rats, foxes, moles, voles, rabbits and other pests. According to the company, the Rodenator Pro is effective in eliminating all of them from the ground.
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The device injects a mixture of oxygen and propane into the burrow and then ignites it, creating a shockwave that eliminates the animal and its tunnel system. The process, from discovery of the hole to detonation, can take an average of 1 1/2 minutes, the company says.
Propane comprises only 3 percent of the mixture with oxygen, but as Meyer says, "We couldn't do it without propane." One 20-pound cylinder of propane will provide about 1,000 applications of the Rodenator Pro, with customers varying their usage.
"Propane is the most beneficial fuel to add with oxygen because of the density of it," Meyer says. "It's heavy. You don't have to cover the holes because the gas settles at the bottom."
The customer must supply his own propane and oxygen, while the Rodenator Pro comes with hoses, regulators, safety equipment and training and instructional materials. Meyer says safety is as important to him as customer service.
Business venture
Steve Bloomfield found the Rodenator Pro so effective that he started his own business, Burrow Busters, in Boise, Idaho. Bloomfield bought the device for personal use but was having so much positive feedback while working for friends and neighbors that he took things a step further.
"A lot of people are doing poisons and trappings, but a lot of folks in Idaho want more than that," he says. "They want tunnels collapsed, and you can't do that without using the Rodenator."
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Bloomfield and his company of five work from February through November, eliminating "anything that lives in the ground," he says, most of which are gophers. They shoot three guns five days a week, totaling about 1,000 applications, and must replace a 20-pound propane tank every three to five weeks. Every job differs in time depending on infestation level and type of ground cover, but many of his 1/4- and 1/2-acre jobs take 60 to 90 minutes, Bloomfield says.
"I'm totally enchanted with the way it works," he says. "My customers call me and want to know how effective it is. Time and again I seem to kill 90 to 92 percent of what we're going after on the first pass."
Danny Morrison's Rodenator Pro sat in his shop for a year before he learned how valuable it could be.
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