Family on Hard Times Gets Help With Bed Bug Problem
By: William Seay
Updated: November 21, 2012
(ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) Thanks to the generosity of one generous exterminator, Kelly Hubbard has at least one of her prayers answered.
When KQTV ran a story about her house's bed bug infestation, the response was almost immediate.
When he heard about Hubbard and her severely paralyzed son Mace, Darryl Franke knew that he could help them with a pest problem.
"So many times we're doing work for people or jobs for people and there's just no way they can afford it. So when you have the opportunity to help someone out who really, really needs it - with her son like he is - it's a shoo-in. It was easy to do," Franke said.
His company is SOS Pest Control, out of Kansas City.
They were not the only company to reach out to help Hubbard and her family, but they were the first.
Franke plans on getting a crew into the house some time next week.
"I want to thank everyone that offered their assistance and well wishes and prayers and advice. It's been great. I would not have expected so much," Hubbard said.
Along with her son's severe medical condition, Kelly Hubbard and her family are on tough financial times and cannot afford to pay for much more than the basic necessities.
Nine people live in her house, including her daughter, he son-in-law, and their children.
When the SOS Pest Control crew comes in, they'll use a collection of heaters to heat the house to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which will kill the bed bugs inside.
"About 122 degrees for one minute - all stages will die at that temperature in less than a minute," Franke explains. "So the idea with heat is you raise the temperature to above that for a time, and heat up everything in that environment and the bed bugs can't survive it."
There's a lot of work to prepare the house for the extermination - Hubbard will have to move a lot of clothing, belongings, and household items around to accommodate a high-heat environment.
"And we'll come home to a little bit of cleanup work. We will have to vacuum up all the little carcasses. But it will be worth it to come up to no bugs," Hubbard said.
The process is expensive, but having the service donated is just one less thing that Kelly and her family will have to worry about.
When KQTV ran a story about her house's bed bug infestation, the response was almost immediate.
When he heard about Hubbard and her severely paralyzed son Mace, Darryl Franke knew that he could help them with a pest problem.
"So many times we're doing work for people or jobs for people and there's just no way they can afford it. So when you have the opportunity to help someone out who really, really needs it - with her son like he is - it's a shoo-in. It was easy to do," Franke said.
His company is SOS Pest Control, out of Kansas City.
They were not the only company to reach out to help Hubbard and her family, but they were the first.
Franke plans on getting a crew into the house some time next week.
"I want to thank everyone that offered their assistance and well wishes and prayers and advice. It's been great. I would not have expected so much," Hubbard said.
Along with her son's severe medical condition, Kelly Hubbard and her family are on tough financial times and cannot afford to pay for much more than the basic necessities.
Nine people live in her house, including her daughter, he son-in-law, and their children.
When the SOS Pest Control crew comes in, they'll use a collection of heaters to heat the house to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which will kill the bed bugs inside.
"About 122 degrees for one minute - all stages will die at that temperature in less than a minute," Franke explains. "So the idea with heat is you raise the temperature to above that for a time, and heat up everything in that environment and the bed bugs can't survive it."
There's a lot of work to prepare the house for the extermination - Hubbard will have to move a lot of clothing, belongings, and household items around to accommodate a high-heat environment.
"And we'll come home to a little bit of cleanup work. We will have to vacuum up all the little carcasses. But it will be worth it to come up to no bugs," Hubbard said.
The process is expensive, but having the service donated is just one less thing that Kelly and her family will have to worry about.
