Founder of Friendly Pest Control leads team into greatness

Founder of Friendly Pest Control leads team into greatness

Similar to a modern-day Huck Finn, Matt Abney grew up as a kid in Mesa, Arizona who loved the outdoors. He loved playing in the dirt, running around all year long eating off the land by grabbing oranges and pecans off trees and drinking out of water hoses with a mob of kids.“We would make forts and play until the sun dropped below the horizon. When I was young, I was interested and enchanted by all things Native American. My favorite thing was to go to the library to learn about native people’s skills like flint mapping (making arrowheads) and other things. My mom had a huge oleander bush in the backyard. It was 12 feet tall and I would cut sticks from it and make bows and arrows. I also raided mom’s yarn to secure a bowstring,” Abney said. Abney came from a big family with lots of cousins and five siblings. He grew up with a strong sense of family bonds, community pride and humble roots.

“Mesa was a good place to grow up. We didn’t get to run amok. Every adult wasn’t afraid to put us in our place. My mom was mostly a stay-at-home mom who loved learning and was always open to new experiences and absorbing new talents. My dad comes from a big family and is big on working hard and not being lazy. That was part of how we grew up. The lessons were. Always keep learning, work hard and continually serve your fellow man. When someone needs help, you go and help them,” Abney said about his father who had a building maintenance business for more than 30 years.

Abney has built his business (Friendly Pest Control) from the ground up with those principles instilled by his parents as the heart and soul of his day-to-day operation. Luckily for Abney, his people skills were also inherited from his father.

The combination of hard work, innovative thinking and people skills were the right mixture of fuel to help Abney’s Friendly Pest Control business rocket toward success. In the days when it is harder and harder to find good help,

Matt Abney

Founder - Friendly Pest Control

“When I started this business years ago, business continued to pick up. I thought I would be a one-man show and we kept having really wonderful people approach us and ask if we were hiring. I knew RJ Morris was in Prescott and was looking for a change from his chef position. We hired him and he turned around and introduced us to another chef he worked with. We kept hiring good people and we’re fortunate to be able to grow alongside the demand for our service,” Abney said with pride.

According to Abney, having team members is the best thing he could hope for. “It would have been horrible if I had continued on my own. We got really lucky with the caliber of professionals who wanted to work with us,” Abney said as he reflected on his fortunate status as a business owner. According to Abney, he is most proud of his team because of their work ethic, but a close second is how the company is careful to how they apply products. Abney’s vision for Friendly Pest Control was to revolutionize the pest control industry locally. The goal was to be safe for the environment. Friendly’s goal has been to not use any rodenticides and harness the power of exclusion and repel tactics. There is genius behind the move. Rodenticides have secondary and tertiary harms to the local environment. Other animals like birds of prey eat and share the rodents with their nest. If those rodents have poison in them, the whole bird family can die, which in turn could result in an imbalance and more rodents in the long run.

“Focusing on exclusion and repel methods is something we decided to do from the beginning of the company. I wanted to see if it was possible. It made us stretch and look for creative solutions to pest control and it worked. Our focus is on two things, being people and pet friendly and being appropriate and using pest control products in as safe a manner as possible,” Abney explained.

When asked what makes Abney get up each morning day after day and do it all over, his answer is simple. “I show up every day looking forward to the challenge of it all. We live in a forested area where there is a lot of pressure for safe pest control. We have to be creative to get the job done,” he said. “I also love interacting with all of our customers. They become friends, which speaks to why we named the company Friendly. Our customers are so great. The people we meet on a daily basis are wonderful. The techs with this company really build deep relationships with the customer. You get to really know a customer after a while. Over time you watch them go through phases of their life. You become more than just the bug guy.That is a really important part of choosing a pest control company. You want someone you can trust and be at ease knowing that they will take care of your home and treat their family right,” Abney said. 

Another aspect that most don’t realize about Friendly Pest Control is the commitment in their vision to contribute to the American workforce. “We really make an effort to use Americanmade products. We want American-made products that are made by American companies by
American workers with the best quality. It’s simple, we try to find companies that support the American workforce,” Abney explained. “We want the best quality possible while supporting the American workforce”.

Abney isn’t just about pests, he has his own personal goals outside of the company. “One day, I think I would love to learn to fly. I have had customers take me up in their planes and I am hooked. I would love to learn to fly small planes and get my pilot’s license,” he said.

While Abney isn’t at work, he can be found hanging out with his wife Amy. “Coming up on 25 years being married to my wife Amy. I got lucky, man. She’s great. She’s just supportive and she is an artist. She teaches art at the school,” he said. 

For more information about Friendly Pest Control services, products or personnel, call Friendly Pest Control at (928) 363-4232

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