Pat VanHooser grew up in the Washington, DC area and got her start in the pest control industry with the Department of Defense in the mid1970s. The government had a program to get women into non-traditional jobs and Pat applied for, and was accepted to, the Pest Control program. There she obtained experience in every type of pest service that included not only the "usual" rats, roaches, ants and termites, but also the more exotic bats, birds and wildlife control. There is never a typical day on a military reservation and some days it involved a helicopter ride to get to a training area to eliminate stinging insects that were keeping the troops from doing their job! This was great training to take into the private sector.

In 1990 Pat moved to the CSRA to look after her parents who had retired down south some years before. She landed a position as the first female technician with Advanced Services in early 1991 and fit right in with the Annis family tradition. She proved her dedication to professionalism and customer service and quickly was promoted to supervisor and then branch manager of the Aiken office. In 1998 she became the general manager of the entire company and remains in that position today.

Pat is always available to our customers to answer questions and solve problems. She will take phone calls about pest control and offer advice for "do it yourselfers" ...just ask the Bugbabe! And, if you want, Pat will come speak in person to your civic club, school or other meeting. This is just one more way she has become part of the family tradition of customer and community service.

Dena Thomas grew up in the Northwest – Washington, Oregon, Montana and Alaska.  After finishing high school she moved to Michigan to go to college and ended up working for a wholesale oil company.  In 1995 she moved down south to Augusta where she worked for another company in the same industry.

In 1995, she began working for Advanced Services in the Augusta office, handing the termite department.  After living in the North most of her life, she was completely unfamiliar with bugs, so she attended lots of training, and took Purdue University’s Pest Management training course.  She wanted to acquire as much knowledge in this new industry as she could, in order to become as much of an asset as possible.

In 1998 when Pat VanHooser took over the position as general manager, Dena became the Aiken branch manager.  In 2001 Jeff Annis asked Dena if she would like to become part owner of the South Carolina division of the company.  The answer was a quick, “yes”.  After having worked for Jeff for almost 6 years, she had become part of the Annis family tradition for excellence in service and community support, and was ready to take on more responsibility.

Ownership has it’s challenges, but having the support of Jeff and Pat’s wealth of experience has made the transition much easier.  Dena continues to promote the Annis family tradition to the community of South Carolina.