Giving California's termites a taste of the frozen north - Tallon Termite and Pest Control's liquid nitrogen extermination method

Nation's Business, Feb, 1991 by Michael Barrier

Giving California's Termites A Taste Of The Frozen North

The newspaper ad is arresting. It shows a shivering cartoon termite under this headline: "We freeze their little buns off." A radio commercial elaborates: "Actually, it's their whole body that freezes, but for some unknown reason, their buns go first."

Behind the cheeky ads is a serious business: a Long Beach, Calif., pest-control company that grew tenfold, from $70,000 to $700,000 in monthly sales, in three years, on the strength of its novel termite-control methods. The Blizzard System kills drywood termites by freezing them with liquid nitrogen. Says Jay Tallon, 32, the president of Tallon Termite and Pest Control: "We saw the need for an alternative. The public was ready."

Tallon's father, Jose Tallon, started the company 28 years ago, as a termite-control firm using conventional pesticides. When he was 11, Jay Tallon started riding on his father's truck. Back then, Jay recalls, customers wanted to smell the pesticides--"so they knew you were there"--but by the time he took over, seven years ago, attitudes had changed.

Joe Tallon Jr., who lives in Bakersfield and does research and development for the company, came up with the Blizzard System in 1984. The concept was simple: Drywood termites cannot survive in cold climates; so to get rid of termites in a mild climate like California's, bring the cold to them by pumping liquid nitrogen into the wall, chilling the affected wood to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit and killing the termites. The nitrogen evaporates harmlessly.

The Tallons were not able to use their system until late 1987, after surmounting the formidable obstacles that federal and California authorities put in the way of new pesticides, and the system has not lacked critics since it won government sanction. The most serious objection is that Blizzard can kill termites only in small areas; it's not a practical treatment for serious infestations.

Jay Tallon acknowledges that "tenting" and fumigating must be done when termites have overrun a house, but he says that doesn't diminish Blizzard's utility in most situations. "We go to the termites where they are," he says. "They're not going to be in a wall without showing up."

With environmental consciousness supposedly on the rise, Tallon says that the time may be ripe for a pest-control company like his--which does not use any conventional pesticides--to make a splash nationally. He speaks of expanding across the Sun Belt soon.

Indeed, as Tallon describes his career, he has always been chafing at the bit to run something bigger. "All I wanted to do, since I was really young, was to take over the business," he says. He got his own route truck as soon as he had a driver's license, and he went to work full time straight out of high school.

Joe Tallon retired to his native Montana seven years ago rather than risk losing Jay. "He started to see me lose a little bit of interest," Jay says, "and he decided it was time for me to take over." Joe Tallon remains the titular head of the company, and Jay and his father talk frequently on the phone. What does the senior Tallon think of the company now? "He says," Jay replies, "he's glad it's me and not him."