Meet Josh Frenette of Lead Pest Control

Key Takeaways

• Lead Pest Control is a new, local, owner-operated pest company founded this spring by Josh Frenette, a John Hardin grad with nearly 10 years in the industry.
• When you call, you get Josh — he does the inspection and the treatment himself, every time.
• He handles general pests, specialized pests (brown recluse, black widow, bedbugs), and wood-destroyers like termites and carpenter ants.
• He's licensed, insured, BBB accredited (A rating), and backs his work with a no-charge retreatment guarantee.
• The Hardin Local deal: mention the show for a free inspection and $50 off an annual plan. Call or text 270-600-8801 or visit lead-pest.com.

Summary

This week's episode was built around one question — "What's bugging you, Hardin County?" — and it came straight from the show's live guest and sponsor, Josh Frenette, owner of the brand-new Lead Pest Control. Phil sat down with Josh before the show and wove the conversation through the whole episode in three parts: his origin story, what he actually handles, and a special offer for viewers.

Josh's pitch is refreshingly simple: he's local, he's the one who shows up, and he starts every visit with a conversation instead of a sprayer. For a service built entirely on trust — letting someone into your home — that personal accountability is the whole point.

It's a feel-good local-business story with a practical payoff for anyone fighting ants and termites this summer.

Watch this segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTay4MXk5UE Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c98g4e2AHMA Read the full S2026E23 recap: https://hardinlocal.com/podcast/s2026e23-pillar/

Full Article

Every now and then a show theme writes itself. This week, Rachel Brantingham opened with a question the whole panel would return to all afternoon: "What's bugging you, Hardin County?" The man who inspired it was the episode's live guest and sponsor, Josh Frenette, owner of Lead Pest Control — a brand-new, locally owned company built on a single idea: treat your home like he'd treat his neighbor's.

Josh's story is a Hardin County story. He came up in a military family — born into the move-every-few-years life, with stops in Washington and Germany — until his dad's Army career brought them to town when Josh was eleven. His dad retired here, the family stayed, and Josh went to Bluegrass and graduated from John Hardin. "This is home to me and my family," he said. After high school he served a church mission in the Philippines, came back to Kentucky, and got into pest control — nearly ten years of it, working for a string of companies that kept getting bought up by national corporations. He worked jobs from Virginia to Chicago to Maine to New Jersey, and watched, again and again, what happens when a local company sells: "Things just start to change." This spring, with that entrepreneurial itch he'd carried since high school, he decided it was finally time to go out on his own.

What he wants to do differently is the heart of the segment. Josh has a name for the bad habit he's seen in the industry — "baseboard jockey," the technician whose every visit looks identical: spray the outside, spray the baseboards, collect the cash, gone in ten minutes. "That's just not the right way to do it," he said. "Every service has to start with an inspection and a conversation." He summed up his philosophy in the line Phil admitted he was going to steal: "I like to go to the flashlight first before I go to the spray." The "what" of the service, in other words, is guided by the "why" — and the why is whatever's bugging you.

On the practical side, Josh covers nearly everything. General pest control handles the common stuff — ants, beetles, house spiders, stink bugs. A specialized tier covers brown recluse and black widow spiders and bedbugs. And the third, most important category is the wood-destroyers: termites and carpenter ants, the pests that actually damage a home. "It's easier to list the things I don't take care of, like snakes," he joked. Right now, given how wet and hot it's been, he's getting called most about ants and termites — and he's a believer in planning a season ahead. Seal the holes before the mice come in; treat in July and August to cut down on the fall's lady beetles and stink bugs.

The owner-operator difference is the part Josh keeps coming back to, because it's the part customers feel. "When you call, you talk to me. I'm the one visiting your home. I'm the one doing your inspections. I'm the one treating." No overseas call center telling you one thing while a technician who's never spoken to you shows up to do another. He's also licensed, insured, and Better Business Bureau accredited with an A rating — facts Phil said he verified himself — and he does commercial work, too, on the logic that "if you trust me in your home, you'll trust me with your business." And he stands behind it all with a straightforward guarantee: "It does tend to get worse before it gets better for a few weeks. But if things don't get better a month or two down the road, you just call me and I'll come back at no charge."

For Hardin Local viewers, Josh put together a real offer: mention that you saw him on the show for a free inspection and $50 off an annual plan. He typically gets people on the schedule the same day — call by noon or one o'clock and he'll try to be out that afternoon or evening. Rachel, who deals with home inspections constantly in real estate, said she'd already saved his number: "Knowing that you're locally owned, knowing your roots and who you are — I'm excited. We will be calling on you."

Josh's parting ask was modest. Follow along now, before you need him. "You may not need it now, but I've lived in Kentucky long enough to know the ants will come."

Reach Josh Frenette at Lead Pest Control: call or text 270-600-8801, visit lead-pest.com, or find him on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.