Ed and Joe talk Scorpions with Tony Gonzales

Imagine a paint on product that repelled crawling insects  from the exterior surfaces of your home

Our interview with Tony Gonzales got us thinking of exactly that.  After an awful experience with his three year old son, this former attorney joined the startup Scorpion Repel after observing a scorpion unsuccessfully try to crawl out of a glass jar, that's when the founders had their A-Ha moment.   Now we want to know if this product which creates a glass like texture when applied - will keep other insects and rodents out as well. Arizona here we come!

Scorpion Repel Show Notes

[00:00:00] [00:00:00] Joseph Sheehan: [00:00:00] So Mr. America, this is Joey buns less nowadays. We have Tony Gonzales from Arizona  , he is a co-founder of scorpion repel.  Tony, thank you for coming on, we appreciate you joining 

[00:00:13] us today. 

[00:00:15] Tony Gonzales: [00:00:15] Thank you for having me. I'm a big fan of the podcast. Thank you. 

[00:00:21]Joseph Sheehan: [00:00:21] Sheehan  if you want to jump right in...

[00:00:23]Ed Sheehan: [00:00:23] yeah. My first question is how'd you get into the business. 

[00:00:27] Tony Gonzales: [00:00:27] There was a reverse way of getting into the business, but the short answer is I had a buddy that was designing a product, which is a physical barrier to keep scorpions out of his house.

[00:00:39]At the time I'm an attorney. So he was asking me to help him with building that business. But honestly, I hadn't really seen scorpions where I'd lived. I didn't know how much of a problem it really was. And then not more than maybe a week or two later, my son, who is three years old  , he had gotten out of the pool we went inside, he put a towel on [00:01:00] and a scorpion got him right on his elbow. It was the worst experience I've ever gone through.  It was terrible, he almost died. His throat closed up. He couldn't breathe. Took him to the hospital. 10 hours later after antivenom was given to him he was better, but at five in the morning, I called my buddy and I said, Hey, I'm in 100%.  I want to do this with you. I don't want anyone to go through this again. And that's how I got involved. 

[00:01:28] Ed Sheehan: [00:01:28] It's like a message from God. 

[00:01:30] Tony Gonzales: [00:01:30] Yeah. You could say that for sure.  

[00:01:32]Joseph Sheehan: [00:01:32] Thank God. Everything worked out with your son. I can't imagine,  a parent knows that feeling of helplessness when your kids in any kind of bad way.

[00:01:42] So thank God he made it through that. 

[00:01:44] Ed Sheehan: [00:01:44] Like when they break their collarbone three times on skateboard, 

[00:01:48] Tony Gonzales: [00:01:48] I don't look forward to that. 

[00:01:50] Ed Sheehan: [00:01:50] That's Joey's story. 

[00:01:51] Joseph Sheehan: [00:01:51] My childhood 

[00:01:53] Tony Gonzales: [00:01:53] right now so 

[00:01:54] Ed Sheehan: [00:01:54] I got a question. What did your family think when you went from practicing law [00:02:00] to pest control? Cause,  my mother thought I hit the bottom of the barrel when I left banking to become an exterminator. 

[00:02:08]Tony Gonzales: [00:02:08] I think in the back of her mind, she just thought maybe I was just doing it as a hobby.

[00:02:13]We've gotten to the point now where we're completely serious about it. We're a full-fledged business. We're in the middle of raising capital. But she still takes the position that she doesn't understand why I jumped into this. 

[00:02:26] Ed Sheehan: [00:02:26] Yeah, I think my mother never got over it. I remember I showed up at the house with a brand new Buick. She told me pocket around the corner.  The neighbors are going to put the hex on you.

[00:02:36]one time she accused me of selling drugs,  thank God for my father. 

[00:02:40]Tony Gonzales: [00:02:40] My parents are the same way. They're like, why are you jumping out of the law? And I'm okay with it. It's a great decision. I think if anything, building this type of business is going to have more impact on my life and on my kids and on my wife, then really anything that I could do in the law. 

[00:02:54]Joseph Sheehan: [00:02:54] Tony, why don't you tell our listeners about scorpion repel?

[00:02:58]Tony Gonzales: [00:02:58] Essentially  it's [00:03:00] a physical barrier that we created to keep scorpions out of your house. My partner, co-founder he actually was the one that thought of the idea here in Arizona  scorpions have been around 400 million years. And so in Arizona, everybody's battled scorpions.

[00:03:15] There really hasn't been an answer to it. Other than, you could use some pesticides or you seal your house. But all the experts in Arizona will tell you that  the way they have their appendages and  spurs that they walk on, they just tip toe right over the pesticide, attach themselves to the wall of your home and climb straight up.

[00:03:32] And so what seal companies have done is they've gone through, and they've tried to seal every crack or crevice in your house, but it doesn't work. Entirely. It definitely helps. I agree. But based on our experience my partner had his home sealed. They're still going to find a way inside and yes, it helps it's preventative if you seal your house.

[00:03:51] But what we wanted to do is to design something, to keep the scorpion off your house entirely. And so we went and we conducted our [00:04:00] research. We  studied the scorpion. We look to see what was out there and we couldn't find anything that would create that barrier to keep a scorpion from getting onto a home.

[00:04:09] We had a scorpion in a glass. One day. And we were like, this would be perfect, scorpions can't climb out of a glass. If we could create the same texture around the base of your home, let's do it. It took a while to figure that out. It's not something you can go and buy and home Depot or anything like that because, scorpions,  they still have these spurs, so they could still attach themselves.   But with this application that we created, it's clear it goes around the very bottom of your home and it dries. And once it dries hard. Durable and  glass like,    seriously when you touch it, it actually, you could feel the glass. And  when scorpions  try to climb onto the application. They cannot attach themselves .  Right now we've even gone to the point where  we're experimenting with other crawling insects, because with scorpions, what we found is like 98% of all scorpion stings happen inside.  [00:05:00] So if we can stop that from happening, we can stop them from entering a house. Then we've solved that problem. As far as pest control, we're proponents of pest control. We understand that our product used in conjunction with pest control, pesticides and so forth, it makes our product more effective, because of course we're going to keep them out of your house.

[00:05:21] But you got to keep them out of your yard. If you still don't want to have any exposure, you have to deal with them that way .  Most people here have these cinder block walls and scorpions climb up these cinder block walls and they hide inside with our application at the base. As long as we can get both sides of the wall and the corners, we keep them out of the cinder block wall as well. So we've done our part.  Obviously this is integrated pest management.   We have partners right now that we work with and we encourage them and our clients to continue to work together because you still got to stop them.

[00:05:51] You still got to get rid of it. 

[00:05:53]Joseph Sheehan: [00:05:53] So with your product what's, the maintenance  of the product for a homeowner?

[00:05:58]Tony Gonzales: [00:05:58] Think of a glass jar, right? If you [00:06:00] had a jar outside in the scorpion inside, what's going to help that scorpion get out of that glass jar.

[00:06:04] Sometimes if you kick mud up on that glass, that might give it a little bit of texture to climb up, but really nothing else will do it.  You could have a clear application, like an epoxy or something like that, that the sun is going to break down. It's going to fall apart, but our  product, it stays like a glass.

[00:06:21] And so as long as you make sure you keep mud off of it, then you've solved the problem. But   what we have is  a program that  we go to everybody's house once a year, because the average charge for this is anywhere between $750 upwards of $1,500. Cause it does take a lot of time and  it does  cost us some money, but. If we get this on their house, what happens is we want to make sure that they're maintaining it. So we have a residual program where we go on once a year and  make sure that , it's cleared of debris cleared of mud. It's cleared of dust any areas that we need to reapply, we reapply. The number one question we get is what happens if we paint our house?  If you have this [00:07:00] residual program with us, We go back and we'll just reapply. So you're really not paying any money, but we want them to be a customer for life.

[00:07:07] We want them to be our client for life. As long as we can get out there, maintain it for them, you could do it yourself. I do have a lot of clients, even, some of my relatives here in Arizona, like they'll maintain it themselves because they know how to do it, but otherwise we want to get in there, do that for them.

[00:07:22]Ed Sheehan: [00:07:22] good plan. And  I'm thinking, I'm sure you're doing it but you can reach out to other pest control companies that do pest control and offer this product to them. So you could have a base three or 4,000 exterminators  and you would be an add on to their service.

[00:07:43] Tony Gonzales: [00:07:43] Yeah, the crazy thing about this is, I came from the law. There are attorneys that refer other clients to you, but really if they only can not help them. And for the most part, it's not a regular thing. With respect to this product and how we've conducted this business, it would take us honestly, 25 [00:08:00] years to develop client relations with everyone here in Arizona.

[00:08:03]And maybe even longer but you're right with pest control companies, they already have those established relationships. And so as long as they understand that this is a tool that they can use as part of their arsenal to get rid of scorpions,  we had one experiment.  Where we went to one guy and we said, Hey, we're going to let you just do it yourself. We'll give you the application. We'll teach you how to do it. You do it yourself. And it has been hard for him to transition his pest control company into doing this. Because this is something completely different.

[00:08:33] What we've been trying to do is  to get pest control companies, to  work with us. We have partnerships with a few of them. Obviously you're the one that's getting us the work. So we split those costs with you. We only charge a certain amount that we need to make. The pest control company can charge as much as they want to. And  this is only started honestly recently by talking to people like you guys that are in the business that are in the industry and trying to teach us, this is the best way of getting it out there.

[00:08:58]Joseph Sheehan: [00:08:58] Did you have to go through [00:09:00] the EPA registration 

[00:09:01] and all of that? 

[00:09:02]Tony Gonzales: [00:09:02] We have not because it's not a pesticide. It's a physical barrier. The way that it's created, have any sort of repellents.

[00:09:09] So technically we have the name scorpion repel in our product and then our trade name, but it doesn't repel. What it does is it just creates that physical barrier. And if you go to our website @scorpionrepel.com or even just, Google us on YouTube. It's amazing. Cause you'll see these scorpions and when they walk up to the application, they'll touch it and they'll move around.

[00:09:32] They'll touch it and they move around and that's what keeps them off. As long as they can't get their spurs on to this, they stay off. So it's not necessarily repelling them where we would be regulated by the state or the EPA. It's more of just that physical barrier. So almost if I put glass all around your house, That's really what it is.

[00:09:50] And that's why we don't think we're competitors with the pest control industry. We're just a tool and we consider ourselves partners. And that's  why I'm here talking to you guys because, I think the wave [00:10:00] of the future is going to be this integrated  pest management, you're going to have to figure out  new ideas to  help you, but it's to help everybody.   Our product. It actually helps the pest control industry. It makes their job easier. They don't have to go back and do retreats. If there's a scorpion, who are they going to call?

[00:10:18] They're going to call me before they call their pest control guy. 

[00:10:21] Ed Sheehan: [00:10:21] I got a question. Would this work on rodents? 

[00:10:24]Tony Gonzales: [00:10:24] We haven't done efficacy tests on rodents, but we're working on that. , 

[00:10:29] It's smooth, so they can't get a grip with their teeth. 

[00:10:33] Fine. Yup. Exactly. But again, I need to work with people like you  to actually get it out there and to try it.

[00:10:40]We're testing it right now in Arizona, on everything. And again, most of that came from talking to experts like you guys, and just trying to figure out what is the best use. If you guys came to me , with an idea of structuring a business, or how do I drop a contract or a lease? I can tell you all those things, the intricacies I can give you advice.

[00:10:58] So now  I'm in [00:11:00] the other person's shoes. I'm asking, for you guys to help  and you guys have been fantastic in getting us there. 

[00:11:06] Joseph Sheehan: [00:11:06] Thank you.  You mentioned integrated pest management. I was alive when the industry started going towards that and back in the days when pesticides are taken away or people like yourself came up with innovation and old school exterminators, if you will.

[00:11:27] were mad at somebody like you. And couldn't see the bigger picture on  what you're bringing to the table and make money off of it.  When IPM first came, I remember guys complaining .   These products that last longer gonna ruin the business.

[00:11:41] And this product was the best thing for termites ever. Now, what are we going to do for termites? And look what happened? We created a recurring business model, recurring service subscription-based for termites. Whereas prior to that, Sheehan,  what warranties were you giving in 1880?

[00:11:56]How many years? Five years. Five years. And how much we get [00:12:00] paid for that warranty? Nothing. 

[00:12:02] Tony Gonzales: [00:12:02] No 

[00:12:02] Ed Sheehan: [00:12:02] next to not the 300, 400 bucks. 

[00:12:05] Joseph Sheehan: [00:12:05] I dare say that the pest management industry has embraced that more  not immediately shunning somebody like you? I hope. It sounds like you've experienced that,  back then what 30, some odd years ago. Anything new was automatically shot down anytime new innovations come in, it forces us to think out of the box and figure out a new way.  I'm glad to hear that you're having a different experience where people 

[00:12:28] are working with you.

[00:12:29]Tony Gonzales: [00:12:29] I know you    had Paul on with the buzz and I talked to Patrick  Baldwin about  the idea early on.

[00:12:36] And  again, I was sitting here thinking that if if I can prove that this can last a year then I've won. But at the end of the day , we've had this on people's homes,  for several years and they always  call us back , because we've essentially given them a small warranty, we have to go back and we have to make those corrections every year.

[00:12:56] And sometimes it's because the way that they've actually maintain the [00:13:00] product. It was Patrick that said, look, you got to go listen to a podcast on Mr. Hale. And so I went and I listened to it and I was like, okay, I get it. Because we're going out there anyway, why not go out there and make it part of a residual income?

[00:13:14] We're not asking them to give us them as a client because we don't do pest control. We don't have applicators to do it.  What we've told them is these are still your clients. We're just going out there and doing it.  But ultimately you're going to make this recurring income every single year.

[00:13:29] Every time we renew this contract with this client,

[00:13:34]Joseph Sheehan: [00:13:34] what have your challenges been this year, particularly and adjusting with COVID. 

[00:13:40]Tony Gonzales: [00:13:40] We've been designing this product since 2013.  It took a while just to get it to the point that it worked and then to get our patents submitted. And even after we do all those things, we can't even go into business.

[00:13:52] So we really started in 2018, but we're  just giving it away for free. And into 2019, we were still giving it [00:14:00] away and  were still trying to figure out ways to make money.  We were really just learning. We did a trade show in the fall of 2019. And everything just took off.  We were the most popular booth, honestly, in this show and we had this little tiny booth. What we found is  all these clients that we booked, we had to book them into the far future because we didn't have the manpower. We didn't have offices and we barely had one truck. So when COVID came, a lot of those deals, we got the phone calls, which is no, you guys can't come over.

[00:14:32] I don't want anyone over , and it just became really complicated for us because just when we started picking up traction, everything just shut down again. And we even got to do a show in March. And in March, the show is even bigger because it was at the Arizona Cardinals stadium. And all of those that were booked, all got canceled.

[00:14:51] And so we were like, how do we do this? So we started reaching out to  these clients and other clients, we start saying, look  we're safe. We're not going in your [00:15:00] house. We're going to wear our masks. We're going to wear gloves, which we do anyway. Cause the application it's hard to take off your hands. And then we just started that communication.  We wouldn't have multiple people at the property. We would have a couple, keep them distant. We'd walk the property with the client, but we'd keep them at Bay.

[00:15:16] But to be honest,  this summer, which should have been our biggest summer ever,  we couldn't get there because of that. But what it also did is it helped us to slow down and fix things. And as much as it really hurt because it hurt our pocket book to keep  this company going, it really caused us to sit there and go, okay what are we doing?

[00:15:35]And what are we doing wrong? And we figured out a lot in that summer . That summer really helped slow us down and make us understand how to do things correctly, so now we feel very confident that  we haven't had as many COVID issues so far people are still welcome to us.

[00:15:51] I know you had Tommy  on the podcast and I listened to him all the time  and he's right.  People have been a little more receptive here in Arizona, there are high [00:16:00] cases, but as long as you could be safe, then, I think  people have been open to us.

[00:16:05]Joseph Sheehan: [00:16:05] That's good to hear,  I think everybody has their, Oh, shit moment with COVID and then how we all dug out of it. Yeah. So it's good to hear that you were able to come out of it and that. That amazing summer or a month or whatever the case is just going to come and the goal now for all of us.

[00:16:24] And I imagine you're doing it. It's just to be ready for it because you had the traction already. You're not going to lose that. People are going to remember when it gets back to whatever normal becomes. 

[00:16:34]Tony Gonzales: [00:16:34] We've learned with people having and being forced to spend all that time at home.

[00:16:39]They see everything, they see these scorpions that they never saw before.  And , not that we want this trend to continue but it's really helped us to stay in business. Being that people are actually watching, when my co-founder was telling me to start this business and I was telling him, I've never seen a scorpion. When my son was stung, I go outside. And I think in the [00:17:00] first night we caught 50 in the next night, I think we caught 30. And  it's incredible that we live with them.

[00:17:06]We started finding them in the house because we were looking for them, taking these huge risks.  But now,  people are at home and they're looking for those sorts of issues.  

[00:17:16] Joseph Sheehan: [00:17:16] A lot of the people that are at home are still making money with less expenses, travel expenses, et cetera.

[00:17:22]Yeah, for the residential has market, it was somewhat of a perfect storm. 

[00:17:30] Ed Sheehan: [00:17:30] The good thing about these scorpions, they don't care about COVID it doesn't affect them. They're always going to be there. 

[00:17:39]

[00:17:39]It's it's a great industry. 

[00:17:41]Tony Gonzales: [00:17:41] , I was doing real estate  business law and , that's all I wanted to do, but I had to diversify in 2008 because the market changed.

[00:17:47] So I started doing criminal law and my wife, she's a prosecutor. So in my family, we always are pro state, we've got to keep everybody out of business and keep everyone from committing crimes.  But every [00:18:00] time we do that it makes my job harder. So we need more people to commit crime.

[00:18:04] So I have more work and that's why I have to struggle. You don't have to tell my kids like, yes, I get it. We want to be safe, but I need work. 

[00:18:12]Ed Sheehan: [00:18:12] In my days out in the field, you always met several people that you wondered what the hell are they thinking? You meet any unusual clients in your business.

[00:18:23]Tony Gonzales: [00:18:23] So we had a guy who  he was retired. His wife was a veterinarian. They're very well to do  a really nice house.  And we said, Hey, we'll go do it. And at that time we were doing it practically for free. I think we were charging him maybe $200. We'd have to travel at least three or four hours away just to go help him with his house.

[00:18:41]He would go and take stucco and he put it on boards and he'd put the paint on and he would  ship it to us. And we would be like, okay, yeah, it'll work on this. We'd ship it back. Say everyday it'll work on this thing. It's no, I need you to put the application on.

[00:18:55] Then we put the application on, we send it back and then he would send, other part of [00:19:00] his landscape. And pretty soon we're just going back and forth with his landscaping, applying this application. And it got to the point where we're ultimately enough's enough.

[00:19:09] This works, it's not like a science project, he wanted to treat it like if we could prove it on every single item that he'd send us. And the thing is every single item it worked. But we do get some people out there that have been around long enough to know that scorpions

[00:19:24] you can never keep them from out of your home. So they are very skeptical and they all like, th they question us they'll even test it but we always have them calling back and saying, you know what? It works. We found it. It works. 

[00:19:38] Joseph Sheehan: [00:19:38] That's awesome. 

[00:19:39] That's good. Is there any material that it doesn't adhere to?

[00:19:45] Tony Gonzales: [00:19:45] Yeah there hasn't been one thing that it doesn't adhere to. So that's why we were moving this into other States for other purposes. And that's why we started our testing on other crawling insects and on rodents because we know it works.

[00:19:58]Obviously, we're a company we're [00:20:00] growing, right now we're going through a seed round  of getting financing so we could actually get bigger. But we know we need people like you in a different part of the country to work with. I'm working with a guy, he was actually on shark tank and , every time  he thinks the product would work and he's on the East coast, he's in Pennsylvania.

[00:20:16] He always contacts me and says, Hey we should try it on this. Cause maybe it would help for something else. Maybe it will help for bats.  And those are unique things  that we're interested in, but we don't have all those different pests here in Arizona.

[00:20:27]So , part of getting funding too is so that I have more time to get out there to meet with you guys, to see, Hey, will this actually work? And then to continue our testing. 

[00:20:37]Ed Sheehan: [00:20:37] How do you apply 

[00:20:38] it? You paint it on or spray it on

[00:20:40]Tony Gonzales: [00:20:40] Yeah, it's a combination of both so we can spray it on , but because we're trying to build the layer, we have to go layer by layer.

[00:20:48] So we do brush on a little bit at a time, and then we come through and we spray the top coat.  All around the base and it stays nice and smooth. So by spraying it, smooths it out, if you were [00:21:00] painting a car and it's just nice and smooth. So it's a combination of both. It's not that easy to just paint it on.

[00:21:06]You still got to create that, that glass like texture, right? 

[00:21:11] Ed Sheehan: [00:21:11] So I'm trying to visualize it in my own house. So there's dirt around the house. You have to dig a bit of a trench? 

[00:21:19] Tony Gonzales: [00:21:19] No, not even. So there's multiple homes that we've encountered. So the typical home in Arizona sits on a concrete pad and the concrete pad is exposed, like maybe two inches, upwards of four inches.

[00:21:31] That's the, there's no basement. Yeah, exactly.  there also been homes where the stucco goes all the way to the ground. So we apply it to maybe one or two inches of the stucco. Then we've also have homes where there are basements and we do the same thing as long as we can get around their house.

[00:21:46] Even if they have siding, we're able to put one to two inches all around and then we get into the basement area of the windows. And  as long as we can apply it anywhere in that area, that a scorpion from the ground would attach itself. [00:22:00] As long as we can keep them from doing that, they won't end up in that basement window.

[00:22:05] And then if they do end up, they just happened to fall into that basement window. We treat this area. We only need to put , just a quarter inch. And I know that's for scorpions and maybe there's certain insects that are bigger but  we just need a quarter inch and that will stop them.

[00:22:20]Right now I have their front doors that have just little tiny step-ups and we apply it and it works. Obviously, if there's no step up, we apply it to the threshold and the the door jams . 

[00:22:30]

[00:22:30]Joseph Sheehan: [00:22:30] This is super interesting because as you are well aware, we don't, you don't deal with Columbia.

[00:22:36] Yeah. 

[00:22:37]Ed Sheehan: [00:22:37] We deal with 

[00:22:37] Tony Gonzales: [00:22:37] rats and mice. And that's I just like your poster that I'm seeing there, that's exactly what we want to do. We want to make sure we can service that too. 

[00:22:45] Ed Sheehan: [00:22:45] Oh, the rat poster here. Do you ever see that? Did you ever see that documentary? 

[00:22:52] Tony Gonzales: [00:22:52] I have not used to be on 

[00:22:55] Ed Sheehan: [00:22:55] Netflix. I don't think it is anymore. 

[00:22:57] Joseph Sheehan: [00:22:57] He's in it by the way, 

[00:22:59] Tony Gonzales: [00:22:59] really? [00:23:00] Okay. Now I definitely got to watch it. That's why it's 

[00:23:02] Joseph Sheehan: [00:23:02] on the wall. And in, in perfect view for everyone, I 

[00:23:06] Tony Gonzales: [00:23:06] noticed he signed it too

[00:23:11] in his own house. So he goes and shows people, Hey, I got the actor to sign my poster. I'm the actor. 

[00:23:20]Joseph Sheehan: [00:23:20] Do you do any work with Arizona? Pest Squad David Marshall.    He's a friend of the podcast very active in Arizona. Very active on social media might be a good person for you to reach out to that might be a good connection for you 

[00:23:34]Tony Gonzales: [00:23:34] And that's the thing, right?  Trying to show the industry that it works and that they should use it, it would be easy for us to say, we're the only ones that can do it.

[00:23:42] No one else can benefit from it, but , we would be remissed cause we use pest control at the time. And so at our own homes and our buildings and for us if they can find a way to make it part of their arsenal and their tool chest,  it's there  use it.

[00:23:55]We want them to. We don't care how much money they make off of it. We just want to [00:24:00] be able to get it out there on every home. 

[00:24:02] Ed Sheehan: [00:24:02] Did you ever try this on roaches? 

[00:24:05] Tony Gonzales: [00:24:05] Yeah. Were trying it on roaches too. It's been pretty effective. I can tell you.  We just have to start showing more of our videos, but we're in the middle of our testing.

[00:24:15]But at some point we will and we'll start putting those videos up just like we tested on different types of crawling spiders. We're working on ants right now. Yeah, that's pretty exciting. 

[00:24:25] Joseph Sheehan: [00:24:25] That is, yeah.  It sounds like a great product for scorpions and if you could go out into other pest, it would just, I think it'd be a great add on for a lot of companies.

[00:24:34] I think a lot of people listening would be interested in seeing it. 

[00:24:38]Tony Gonzales: [00:24:38]  I really want to do a podcast  because I learned from you guys.   I listened to you anyway.

[00:24:43] So I've listened to multiple episodes. I learn. But also  because I want people to know it's out there.  We go to someone's house and we do it and they're like, great. This is a fantastic product, but they can't offer us any more than that. But if you're in the industry and you can see a better use for this, that's what we want to [00:25:00] hear.

[00:25:00]So  we encourage people to reach out to us. So that way we can try to see if there's anything we can do to help each other.  

[00:25:06] Ed Sheehan: [00:25:06] When I was in that documentary, my daughter came over one of her friends and we had posters  rats all over the refrigerator. I thought it was what's this, she goes in my house. This is what you grew up with. It's not shocking. This whole was rats or something around the house.

[00:25:24]

[00:25:24] Tony Gonzales: [00:25:24] Yeah,  I get a kick out of my kids. Cause,  we have,  my son that was stung  a commercials and different advertising, we use him on his piss photo when he was in the hospital. Then we have another son  we did this whole  gimmick that says, don't let scorpions eat your kids.

[00:25:37] And it's grabbing my kid. It's  trying to eat them. And so my kids think they're celebrities and then  they're entitled. So every time we do something they're asking for their royalties, I'm like, my goodness,  you guys are little kids.  How do you 

[00:25:48] you

[00:25:48] Ed Sheehan: [00:25:48] educated them 

[00:25:49] Tony Gonzales: [00:25:49] too soon.

[00:25:50] Yeah. So it's pretty funny, but , you can find us. It's  scorpion repel.  Just type it into Google. You'll find us or scorpion repel.com. My name is Tony [00:26:00] at scorpion repel, and you can check out our.  Videos on YouTube. They're pretty interesting. And yeah.

[00:26:07] Hey 

[00:26:10] . Tony at scorpion repel 

[00:26:16] Joseph Sheehan: [00:26:16] if somebody says your email is whatever@colonypestnyc.com. There's no aol after that. , there's no Gmail after that.

[00:26:28] Ed Sheehan: [00:26:28] I embrace my age. Okay. So what it isI'm content with what I did. I did my best and now I can do whatever I want. 

[00:26:39] Joseph Sheehan: [00:26:39] I know what I'm getting you , I'm getting you dial up internet. 

[00:26:42] Ed Sheehan: [00:26:42] What is that? 

[00:26:44] Joseph Sheehan: [00:26:44] That's what it was in the nineties. You're going back there.

[00:26:46]Ed Sheehan: [00:26:46] Oh, very comfortable. , 

[00:26:51]Tony Gonzales: [00:26:51] it's interesting now, to see with me trying to get experience and contacting a lot of people in the field.

[00:26:57]This is a serious business and [00:27:00] I'm, I'm very impressed with their educations and everyone's willing to share that's, what's been pretty awesome about this industry. Everyone wants to give away free information and I'm willing to accept it, and they've been generous enough to do that.

[00:27:11] Ed Sheehan: [00:27:11] So what I love about this industry is it embraces everybody. If you just want to start a small business and you're a hustle you could do that.  Obviously the more education you have the better, but I've seen guys that I didn't think were they were okay and I dumb and they built up like half a million dollar a year business and they're happy 

[00:27:33] you can  go, your own route. I love that. 

[00:27:37] Tony Gonzales: [00:27:37] Yeah, that's awesome. 

[00:27:39]Joseph Sheehan: [00:27:39] All right, so Mr and Mrs. America, it's Joey . Currently bunless,  but once again,  Tony Gonzalez from scorpion repel  a great interview.

[00:27:48]Learned a lot, we don't know  about scorpions here in the Northeast. . It was a lot of information  because it's something that we want it to hear about and learn more about. Thank you to Tony again, Mr. America. [00:28:00] 

[00:28:01] Ed Sheehan: [00:28:01] Tony I want to thank you. This has been very educational for me. I think you have a really good product there and  stay in touch. And good luck to you and your family and stay safe out there.

[00:28:12]Tony Gonzales: [00:28:12] Thank you guys very much for having me and you guys stay safe as well. And yeah, I'm hoping that next time I talk to you, we've made some more strides and like I said, when I'm out there, I'm going to contact you guys.  

[00:28:22]Joseph Sheehan: [00:28:22] We'll apply it somewhere in New York for rodents and be able to do some kind of field testing with it.

[00:28:29] That'd be awesome. 

[00:28:30] Tony Gonzales: [00:28:30] Fantastic. Thank you guys.   

[00:28:31] Ed Sheehan: [00:28:31] Mr. And Mrs. America. and, all the ships at sea Ed Sheehan for colony confidential. Stay safe out there until we meet again.

[00:28:39] God bless you. 

[00:28:42]

[00:28:42] Joseph Sheehan: [00:28:42] Hey, this was a good interview.

[00:28:43] You know what? Listen, this is one thing, honestly, that we don't know shit about. 

[00:28:49] Tony Gonzales: [00:28:49] Yes. 

[00:28:50] Ed Sheehan: [00:28:50] I know, but it was like, it's, you get hit with all of these new products and shit, and it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.  

[00:28:57] But this one really peaked my interest,

[00:28:59]this could [00:29:00] work for Rodents too, they can't get a grip on his shit. I'm just interested. I'd like to see it 

[00:29:05] applied 

[00:29:05]Joseph Sheehan: [00:29:05] go to Arizona.  I think that it's a no brainer that I going for a little R and D session. When are we doing that? When COVID is over. 

[00:29:17]