'Urban hunter' fights the bedbugs

When the bedbugs bite, Aardvark Pest Management President Martin Overline is there to take care of it.

Overline, a self-proclaimed "urban hunter" whose company takes care of about 85 percent of Penn's pest problems, said the bedbug is a growing threat in the pest world.

The parasite -- which resembles a tick and feeds on human blood at night -- has reappeared in New York City, and there was even one case at Penn last year.

But the bedbug is only one of many types of pests that Overline has dealt with in the Philadelphia area over his 28-year career in pest management.

He learned the trade in the military as an "engineering etimologist" and started his own business in Northeast Philadelphia upon returning home from three and a half years of service in Frankfurt, Germany.

Overline does not actively recruit employees, and he does not advertise because of the "unlimited supply of work" his job entails. He has stuck with the profession largely because he enjoys helping people and solving problems.

Aardvark Pest Management currently employs six full-time workers and two part-time workers. He exterminates for Penn, Drexel, the Philadelphia International Airport and some hospitals in the area. Yet he considers Penn his most receptive customer in implementing ideas to reduce pest presence.

For example, he said, the drop in the Quadrangle's mouse population can be attributed to the University's decision to build trash chutes to replace the trashcans that used to be stationed outside every door.

Overline said that students are not proactive in learning how to live pest-free. He has offered a "Mouse Management" lecture open to students, but only two people attended.

"Everybody's looking for the magic bullet," Overline said. "I don't have the magic bullet."

Overline would like to see more emphasis put on living standards at the University because Penn students have "no life experience as far as cleaning their rooms."

He also offered the cautionary quip that"if you see light, it ain't right," in reference to space beneath doors, which he said is an entrance point for about 80 percent of pest problems.

Someday, Overline might like to try hunting alligators in Florida. In the meantime, he entertains himself by occasionally going to Led Zeppelin concerts. The father of three teenagers gets his fair share of pop music too, particularly Ashlee Simpson.

When asked what he wants for his kids, Overline responds that "the money's not really nothin' anyways; it's your health and happiness. ... I just want them to smile."

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