We were lucky to catch up with Ryan Ridgley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

For over a decade and a half I have been a part of an industry that is automatically hated by 33% of the population. Those are tough odds when just about everyone who has ever owned property needs help with wildlife issues in their home at some point.

For the longest time our industry has been plagued by the image of a backwoods hermit who is coming to your home to catch/kill/dispose of the animals causing you stress. We are often seen as uneducated, unrefined, and “rugged” people.

After 14 years I saw what was lacking from the public image of our industry and decided that was the time for me to make my mark. Compassion (for the client AND the animals), professionalism, and expertise were always present in the work that Nuisance Wildlife Operators do each day, but there was no public face to that, no way to squash the ugly stereotypes.

When I started Huntsman Wildlife I was (and still am) passionate about not just resolving the current conflict property owners are having with wildlife, but giving the client’s the knowledge, tools, and executable objectives to ensure this does not happen to them again. I say over and over, “I am not a trapper, I resolve human and wildlife conflicts.”

Ryan , 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?

I started my journey in the industry as a commercial technician for a large regional company in the upper midwest. I was responsible for keeping farms, factories, warehouses, and other commercial properties free of the pests/animals that caused damage to the property, products, or materials, or were a threat/danger to the people that worked at, lived on, or visited those properties.

I quickly became thirsty to learn more about the ideas and principles of not just trapping, but the importance of structural changes to keep animals out (exclusion), cultural changes to keep from attracting animals to the structure (deterrents), and environmental changes to achieve a natural barrier between the animals and the asset needing protection (materials, property, people).

As time continued, our industry shifted more of its focus into the exclusion work and started developing new methods, materials, and techniques to help protect property and ensure the safety of the people in those properties.At some point in 2018 I realized the time had come for me to make my imprint in the Nuisance Wildlife Industry and Huntsman Wildlife was born.

Property owners in Cincinnati call Huntsman Wildlife when they have animals in the property because most have no idea where to start. So we remove the animals, clean up the mess the animals made, and repair the damage that may have been done.

Everything we do, from the ways we are discovered by new clients online, to the initial inspection, to the work being executed and the project being finalized is designed to not just solve the conflict, but ensure it never happens on their property again.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

One of the distinguishing differences between Huntsman Wildlife and other wildlife operators in Cincinnati is our three immutable laws: 1.) The safety of our clients, ourselves, and the animals in our charge is NEVER to be compromised.
2.) Everything we do on a client’s site is with the intention of solving their problem. We do not apply bandaids.
3.) Be good.

When it comes to our safety law. We take no risks to accomplish a task. Causing further damage to a property, putting ourselves in a dangerous or precarious situation, or risking the quality of life of the animals is never justified. No job is worth our team going on an icy roof in February. No job is worth an animal falling off of a three story roof because the cage was not able to be secured. No job is worth the risk of water damage because of how or where we place exclusion devices.

Our second law is our commitment do doing EVERYTHING necessary to solve the client’s wildlife issues. Our clients do not call us for quick or temporary fixes so we do not provide them.

Third law is the simplest. Just be good. Treat everyone and everything fairly, ethically, and with the respect that it deserves.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

The genesis of Huntsman Wildlife was October of 2019, that was the date the paperwork was filed with the state, the bank accounts were opened, and the website domain was purchased. It was not until late December until we were ready to service clients. In December we served two clients. In January we helped 5. By February of 2020 there were murmurs of a nasty virus spreading over seas, and by March, Cincinnati was shut down. For the first few days of the shut down I was losing my mind. I was constantly thinking how stupid I was to risk my family’s security over the past 5 months only to have EVERYTHING come to a screeching halt. On the third day of the shut down I realized that all of the technology solutions we integrated into our company at the start up made for very easy “no contact” experiences for our client’s. I called a few other companies in the area to see if they were still running and realized many had put their operation on hold, so I threw a crud load of money into Google Ads, Facebook and NextDoor ads, and posted sometimes 4 times a day in neighborhood and community social media groups. By the end of March we had serviced 23 new clients, and by the end of 2020 we were $60,000 over what we had projects for first year revenues. When other companies were dissolving and selling off assets, we grew, and even today, we continue to grow. We have a team of four currently, and by the beginning of 2023 will be up to seven team members. Resilience and adaptation are why Huntsman Wildlife survived and still runs strong today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.huntsmanwildlife.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/huntsmanwildlife
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/huntsmanwildlife/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/huntsmanwildlife/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HuntsmanWildlifeLLC
• Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@huntsmanwildlife Etsy Store – https://www.etsy.com/shop/HuntsmanBoneYard