Promising a safe and effective way to handle everything from bed bugs to mosquitoss, the Spring-based CedarCide Industries has grown to a multimillion dollar business in the last decade and a half.

The secret to its success is cedar oil, the non-toxic active ingredient found in its laundry list of products that repel insects from people, pets and is even used in wood treatments.

“Our business is growing because of the dual-fold need of people saying, ‘I want the bugs dead and not my kids,’” said Charlie Tuft, CedarCide’s director of marketing.

The company’s biggest promotional tool has been word of mouth.

“Once people try our products they are really convinced,” Tuft said. “We had some very moving thanks of people saying, ‘I didn’t believe it would work,’ or ‘I thought it wouldn’t do what it says without being harmful.’ Those people turn around and ask if they can get a brochure for their neighbors.”

The company has been doubling its profits annually and estimates it will pull in around $10 million this year and expects to make $20 million next year.

“We primarily do business online selling our products all over the world,” Tuft said. “Our biggest request is where can I get your products? and for someone living in this community, they have access to something that is so highly valued to the people who have embraced biological pest control products.”

When people walk into the company’s headquarters, located just outside of Old Town Spring at 612 Spring Cypress Road, they will be welcomed by the pleasant smell of cedar oil, the same aroma that to an insect is like ammonia to a human and in turn creates an invisible barrier that keeps them away.

CedarCide’s hottest seller, Best Yet, was originally created for the U.S. Army to be used for sand flea eradication in the Middle East, but was quickly adopted by the hospitality industry to combat the current bed bug epidemic raging in North America.

“At the end of the day, it turned out to be the most awesome insect control formulation ever invented because for bed bugs, fleas or any of these parasites it is instant death,” said Dave Glassel, owner and inventor of CedarCide Industries.

Since the company was founded in 1992, Glassel has been touting the benefits of cedar oil, calling it nature’s own pesticide. He points out that it is the oldest insect control method known to man, dating as far back as the Egyptians who used cedar oil to mummify the bodies of their elite.

Vocal about the side effects caused by CedarCide’s harmful chemical competitors, Glassel believes that once the public realizes the contamination they are exposing themselves to they will go the all-natural route as well.

“Those products work on a bug’s nervous system. Well we have a nervous system too,” Glassel said. “If a little bit will kill a bug, a little more will kill a dog and a little more will kill a person.”

The Best Yet delivers cedar oil as a 10 percent active ingredient, triggering a response inside an insect that closes its breathing pores, immediately dropping its body temperature and killing it.

Glassel said Americans still use the harmful products unaware of their devastating consequences but most of them are banned in other countries including England and Canada.

“In Canada, you don’t spray chemicals. It’s not like it is in the U.S.; you either learn to live with bugs or use a biological product,” Glassel said.

The company aims to hit insects where they live, with a product that is intended to ward off bugs from their natural breeding ground, people’s back yards.

The CedarCide YardSafe Insect Repellent promises to repel a multitude of insects including mosquitoes, flies, chiggers, fleas, gnats and others by someone simply spraying the product over the yard and other areas where insects harbor and congregate. Repelling the egg-laying insect and its offspring will eliminate further generations of insects.

With a tentative grand opening of its facilities to the public set for October, CedarCide plans on showing people first hand how its product works in live demos. The company said it invites locals to bring dogs with the biggest fleas around and watch as the buggers die before they hit the ground.

MORE INFO

www.cedarcide.com