Sudbury, Ont. exterminator says he's seen it all as he retires after 43 years
CBC
Twice in his 43-year career as an exterminator, Larry Bieronski was called to buildings where it turned out someone had died.
"We were asked to go into an apartment because of a very strong odour and they thought it was garbage that was left behind," he said.
"And it was two times where someone had passed away in the apartment."
Bieronski told CBC's Morning North those were the only two incidents that really stopped him in his tracks over his career in northern Ontario, mainly working in Sudbury and the surrounding area.
"I've been in areas where bed bugs were so bad that they were under the wallpaper," he said.
"Roaches where you walk into an apartment and they're just dropping on you."
Despite those occupational hazards, he said he doesn't regret becoming an exterminator.
As he prepares to retire, Bieronski said it's his customers he'll miss the most.
He's made regular visits at family businesses that have gone through three generations, from the parents, to their children and grandchildren.
Bieronski said he stumbled into becoming an exterminator. He wanted to work in forestry, but the industry was struggling when he went to school in the early 1980s.
Fleming College was priming its pest control technician program at its Lindsay, Ont. campus at the time.
"They sold it pretty good, saying that, there's all kinds of jobs that the companies are really looking for people," Bieronski said. "And it had me sold."
He started his career with a small family-owned business in Sault Ste. Marie, and ended up in Sudbury a few years later, in 1984.
Bieronski said pest control has changed a lot since he started his career.
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