Coming home to bugs or rodents in your home is never fun, to say the least.

The Island County Health Department has a brochure on how to help prevent animals like rats getting into your home, but prevention tactics don’t always work. When it comes to getting rid of pests, they recommend contacting a pest control service.

There’s a new name in Whidbey Island pest control that can help with prevention and removal of unwanted visitors.

Owner Robert Coleman opened Absolute Pest Control in Oak Harbor in February.

He returned to Oak Harbor, where he grew up, after leaving the Army. After taking “a few jobs here and there,” Coleman said he fell into pest control.

At the time, Coleman explained, his parents, small business owners themselves, worked next door to a pest control company. The owner of that business offered Coleman a job on the spot.

“It was one of those now or never moments, and it really, really worked out for the last seven years,” Coleman said.

Now, Coleman said he realized he preferred to do things his own way and left to open his own business.

The company, owned and operated completely by Coleman, provides full service pest control to Island and Skagit counties. He doesn’t have a store front, but works out of his home. He can be reached at 360-720-2695 or absolutepestcontrol@hotmail.com.

“We do anything from rodents to fleas to ants,” Coleman said, “initial services and maintenance services and just about everything in between.”

Joining Coleman on most jobs is his dog, Reinna.

“The running joke is my dog is my chief financial officer,” Coleman said. “She kind of runs the show, too.”

Coleman said he hopes to expand his business.

“I want to be able to hire people. I want to be able to provide jobs that provide for the future,” Coleman said. “I like the idea of giving back to the community.”

Coleman and his family moved from Naples, Italy, to Oak Harbor in the mid-1990s. He said that being an immigrant has “instilled a drive” in him to accomplish his goals.

Future plans also include an office in Oak Harbor and a satellite office in the Skagit County area, but Coleman said he aims to never lose focus of the main priority — customer service.

“We aim to please,” Coleman said. “That’s our motto, and that’s what we’re going to be.”

A graduate of Oak Harbor High School, Coleman says he is “very, very eager to please,” and that his company “definitely has something to prove to the people of Oak Harbor and, of course, Island County.”

But more than just providing good pest control services is important to Coleman. He said he plans to give back to the community through charity.

“I would love to give back by donating to a local scholarship fund for families in need (of) assistance,” he said, “and help local outreach programs for children who may not have all the opportunities in life.”

Meanwhile, Coleman said he plans to focus on aspects of his job he enjoys most.

“I love coming to somebody’s home and introducing myself and hearing them out, hearing their problems and understand what needs to be done,” he said.

“And I love to be able to provide a solution for them. I love to say, here’s your problem, this is what’s going on and this is how I’m going to fix it.”