We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brannon Swygert a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brannon, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

During an operational deployment to West Africa, we saw firsthand the effects of malaria from mosquitoes without preventive control measures have on a society. It was devastating to see a village completely infected with malaria and kids suffering. As Special Operations Civil Affairs, we would partner with the Peace CORPS and USAID to assist with small projects to put up mosquito screens on houses and build family bed nets for the family as they slept. We would deploy multiple times after that to east and west Africa where we would see the same problem as before. Years later, my toddler was outside playing in the yard and got several bites from mosquitoes. He immediately started having a bad reaction and started to swell and get a rash near the bites. We realized he has a mosquito allergy which is common amongst children. I started looking for a company to come treat our property for mosquitoes. The problem I found was there were no local businesses that were fully all natural. There were only large companies offering a very expensive option for an all-natural treatment. That drove me to start researching all natural, environmentally friendly options to treat the yard myself. During this research and testing on my own property, I decided to offer my services to friends. At this point, I had decided that I was going to retire from the military and start my own all natural, environmentally friendly, kid, pet and plant safe mosquito, flea, and tick control company. I also wanted to make sure we used a product and process that was safe for bees, butterflies, and fish. The all-natural aspect of pest control excited me and I knew other people would be just as excited. I pitched the idea to a fellow soldier and friend (Jay) and asked him if he wanted to partner with me. That day, Zapper Mosquito Control was formed.

Brannon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Zapper Mosquito Control is an all-natural, environmentally friendly, kid, pet and plant safe company that uses a safe process and products to protect our bees, butterflies, and fish. We are a veteran owned and operated local business in Pinehurst, NC. We provide a safe option for yard treatments to protect against mosquitoes, fleas and ticks. Due to the demand from our customers, we have expanded an outdoor barrier service around the house or office to deter spiders, wasp, roaches, and ants.

We are the only fully all-natural company in our area and are extremely proud that we are not using poisonous and harmful chemicals on our properties.

Our motto is “Our Customers are also Our Neighbors”, we truly believe and live this motto. We believe good customer service is a lost art and if we treat our customers as our neighbors, they will be happy with our service for years to come. Neighbors do neighborly things, and we try to do this when we are on our properties. Things like picking up the newspaper from the street and placing it on the porch, pulling the trash cans from the curb while we are there, taking down a wasp nest they didn’t know about or letting them know of issues around their house that they might not be aware of. We do these things because we care about our customers and community.

Prior to Special Operations in the Army, my business partner Jay and I were Combat Engineers that were SAPPER qualified. This is where our logo comes from. We use the SAPPER tab replacing the S with a Z for Zapper.

Our Background and Education:

Brannon – Military Experience: 25 Plus Years (17 years in SOF), Brigade Command Sergeant Major, 8 Deployments, Combat Engineer, Special Operations Civil Affairs

Education: Bachelor of Science in Communications, Master of Science in Management, Harvard Manage Mentor Program

Jay – Military Experience: 25 Plus Years (17 in SOF), Two Time Battalion Command Sergeant Major, 8 Deployments, Combat Engineer, Special Operations Civil Affairs

Education: Bachelor of Science in Diplomacy

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Jay and I met in 2004 at a course called Master Breacher hosted at Camp Lejeune North Carolina. We clicked immediately and became neighbors, then roommates, then neighbors two more times. While I was deployed to West Africa in 2008, my daughter was born three weeks early while I was on a mission. I was able to get back to my team house in time to watch her birth. I was able to watch her birth because Jay drove to the hospital with his computer and went into the room to skype the birth to me in West Africa. We have a good understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I oversee the financials, scheduling, marketing, and the vision for the growth of the company. Jay oversees product ordering, distributer negotiations, equipment maintenance, continuing education, and certifications.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

HUSTLE!!! When we first requested to start setting up a marketing stand at the local dog festivals and small business pop ups they were wondering why a mosquito control company wanted to be a part of these events. We attended every single local pop up we could to get the word out that Zapper Mosquito Control was operating and operating as an all-natural, environmentally friendly option. We delivered flyers door to door, mailbox to mailbox, business to business for 6 months on the weekends and after work. When we started, we were still full time in the military as Senior Command Sergeants Majors. I was running a Special Operations Brigade of 1400 soldiers deployed in over 40 countries and Jay was running a Special Operations Battalion deployed to 5 countries. We would get up at 4am to workout then go do properties prior to driving to Fort Bragg. After work, we would do more properties or work on marketing. For 4 months we worked 7 days a week preparing Zapper for when we transition out of our leadership positions. When I would wake up at 4am, the first thing I did everyday was post to Instagram and Facebook. We grew to over 700 followers quickly using satire and marketing our all-natural approach. Community and Veteran support are very important to us. Sponsorships and charity support were very influential in gaining new clients. Our goal is to give 10% of our net income back to the community and veteran charities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zappermosquito.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zappermosquito/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Zappermosquito/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brannon-swygert-99a6558b
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/zappermosquito
• Youtube: brannonswygertzappermosquitoco