Gift takes Bert Dodson Sr. Urban Entomology Enrichment Fund to $1 million milestone

The Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences received a gift from Dodson Pest Control that took the Bert Dodson Sr. Urban Entomology Enrichment Fund to more than $1 million.  

“On the behalf of our family-owned company that was established by my father and one of his brothers in August of 1944, we are thrilled that the funding for the Bertram F. Dodson Sr. Urban Entomology Enrichment Fund at Virginia Tech has reached the $1 million milestone,” said Bert Dodson Jr., president and CEO of Dodson Pest Control. “For decades, Dodson Pest Control has relied on the resources provided by the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech to build our business and deliver quality pest control services to our valued customers.”

The Dodson Fund has a particular focus on research results for today while keeping an eye on what is needed for tomorrow. The fund empowers entomology faculty with a continuing source of support for a variety of projects.

“We have grown to provide our pest control services with offices in six states while being in the top 10 in relation to revenue for family-owned pest management companies in the entire United States,” Dodson said. “Dodson Pest Control could never have achieved these accomplishments on our own, and that is why we as a family with our fellow company team members take great pride in giving back to the pest management industry. My sisters Bonny Dodson and Karen Dodson Whitt, along with myself and our mother, Dorothy Dodson, feel humbled with the opportunity to support the memory of our father and husband with this gift.”

Dini Miller, a professor of urban pest management and Virginia Cooperative Extension specialist, already utilized the Bert Dodson Sr. Urban Entomology Enrichment Fund to make an impact on both her research and the community.

Miller and her Ph.D. student, Morgan Wilson of Craig County, Virginia, used some of the funding to support effective bed bug research in Virginia.

“Across the United States, we are seeing fumigation used more frequently for bed bugs because we do not have anything that is 100 percent effective on bed bugs, particularly the eggs, except fumigation,” Miller said. “We want the pest control industry in Virginia to better understand the costs, labor, hours, and how to handle items in the homes themselves.”

They are looking at the cost difference between tarping a home or using a tape-and-seal method for fumigation. They plan to to write a fact sheet and an Extension publication about results of their studies.

For the study, the researchers were put in touch with people who would not otherwise be able to afford a fumigation for the elimination of bed bugs in their homes.

“Not only are we getting the data that we need to promote fumigation for bed bug control specifically in the state of Virginia and familiarizing [ourselves] with what fumigation is, but we are also using this Dodson funding to help those that would not be able to take care of their bedbug problem,” Miller said.

The funding has been a blessing for Miller and Wilson.

Thanks to the Dodson Fund, Miller said, “we will have funding to do compelling research projects that will benefit the pest management industry and the people of the state directly.”

For Wilson, the Dodson Fund made Ph.D. research possible.

“Dodson Pest Control is a leading company in the pest control industry,” Wilson said. “Having their generous support means we can tackle urban pest control problems together. Their support made my research possible and helped people in need. I cannot thank them enough.”

Annual distributions from the fund are administered by the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in consultation with the Department of Entomology. The annual distributions are used to support applied research, teaching, outreach, and affiliated activities that pertain to the management of urban pests in the area of urban entomology and urban arthropod pest management.

The Bert Dodson Sr. Urban Entomology Enrichment Fund was made possible by Dorothy Hayes Dodson, Bonny Lynn Dodson, Karen Dodson Whitt, Todd A. Dearborn, and Bert Dodson Jr.

“The Dodson family has been extremely supportive for applied pest management and urban pest management for years,” Department of Entomology head Tim Kring said. “Their investments with faculty and infrastructure have raised the bar for applied pest management in the Department of Entomology. We are extremely thankful for their continued generous support.”