Pest Control Insulation came about through a contract between Bill Turk, CEO of Hudson River Trading Company, LLC, and the Association of County Recyclers (ACR) in northeast Georgia. ACR’s focus at the time was to divert paper from landfills and process it to make animal bedding for chicken houses. Though they were able to divert paper from landfills, it proved to be tough to shift the poultry bedding market from shavings to paper. There were other challenges with equipment and processing, which led to experimenting with adding Boron to the paper in partnership with the University of Georgia.
Bill approached the top cellulose industry experts for advice on what to do with the plant. He received three answers: close it, sell it, or fix it. When Bill presented these options to the owners of the plant, he received a unanimous answer: sell it. Bill didn’t want to lose out on the potential of the projects he had worked on, so he requested the right to pursue patents on any products developed and was grated his request. Not long after, the ACR plant was sold.
Bill continued his work, focusing on two cellulose-based products: animal bedding and pest control insulation. He sold his patent for animal bedding to a company in South Korea and assisted them in building a state-of-art manufacturing facility. It was then that all of his focus shifted to a cellulose insulation that could work to control pests.
Bill collaborated with Paul Hardy of Orkin about a pest control insulation that could be sold by pest professionals and applied in the attic. The test market with Orkin using an existing cellulose insulation determined the product to be too dusty and provided poor coverage. This led Bill to develop his own cellulose insulation, TAP, using pure borates and added a liquid to reduce dust. Over the next three years, he developed and registered his new product, TAP Insulation, with the EPA and state regulatory agencies and began selling this new insulation. He officially launched TAP Pest Control Insulation with its patent in 2001, with Orkin as his first Pest Control Company to run with the program.
Seventeen years later, our innovative product still stands as the nation’s number one EPA-registered pest control insulation that bears the ENERGY STAR ® Seal & Insulate mark and is UL Classified. Learn more about adding TAP® Pest Control Insulation to your pest control or wildlife business OR locate a provider of TAP® Pest Control Insulation near you.