Homestead Pest Control named New Business of the Year

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Jacob Ivison stands outside his business, Homestead Pest Control, at 109 East Bank St., Albion. Homestead is the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce’s New Business of the Year.

ALBION – Jacob Ivision couldn’t be more thrilled about his recent honor of being named New Business of the Year by the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce.

“I started my company in January 2024 and to be recognized that early on is very humbling,” Ivison said.

Ivison’s introduction to the world of pest control came while he was working as a delivery driver for an agricultural chemical facility during the Covid pandemic.

“I was delivering products to the owner of a pest control business in Middleport, when we started talking about the nature of his business,” Ivison said. “I’d been spraying our house for bugs with my father since I was a tyke. The guy said I should think about getting into the industry.”

Ivison said he got busier with his delivery job, but three years later when his son was born, a light switch flipped.

“I knew I had to do something that would give him the best life I could,” Ivison said.

He started hitting the books and testing in preparation of opening his own pest control business. He already had a basic license and he added categories to it and got his full license in 2020. During all this time, he said his wife Kara was very supportive of his efforts.

“I could not have done it without her,” he said.

He began doing pest control in homes and commercial facilities to rid them of bugs and rodents.

“There is no shortage of pests,” he said.

When he was ready to open his own business, he discovered his landlord had a vacant store on Bank Street in Albion. It turned out to be the perfect place for Ivison to expand his new business.

 He soon realized he needed an addition to his business, and he hired Matthew Zaffran as office manager.

“Having someone here all the time to answer the phone has resulted in a lot of business for us,” Ivison said. “So many people call another exterminator and get an answering machine, so they call us.”

Ivison said the most challenging job thus far was eliminating an infestation of yellow jackets from a chimney 60 feet in the air on a school roof.

When the gentleman in Middleport who convinced Ivison to pursue the pest control business lost his one employee, he contracted with Ivison to take care of his customers.

“Learning from somebody with 50 years’ experience in the business is more than the knowledge he has shared, it is the confidence he has instilled in me that I can fix my customers’ problems.”

Ivison and his family live in his family’s 1800s homestead on Ivison Road in Byron, where the road named for his ancestors.

Homestead Pest Control can be reached by calling (585) 460-4663 or e-mailing protectyourhomestead@gmail.com.