Getting their hands dirty: A look inside unusual, dirty jobs in Midland County – Midland Daily News
Midland resident Audrey Mills works to clean out trash bins at Grove Tea Lounge as part of her new business, Better Bins, Wednesday in Midland. (Katy Kildee/kkildee@mdn.net)
Midland resident Audrey Mills works to clean out trash bins at Grove Tea Lounge as part of her new business, Better Bins, Wednesday in Midland. (Katy Kildee/kkildee@mdn.net)
Midland resident Audrey Mills works to clean out trash bins at Grove Tea Lounge as part of her new business, Better Bins, Wednesday in Midland. (Katy Kildee/kkildee@mdn.net)
Midland resident Audrey Mills works to clean out trash bins at Grove Tea Lounge as part of her new business, Better Bins, Wednesday in Midland. (Katy Kildee/kkildee@mdn.net)
Getting their hands dirty:A look inside unusual, dirty jobs in Midland County
Whether they are entrepreneurs making a living or county employees, several people within the Midland County area work their hardest to keep the community safe and sanitary by getting their hands dirty and picking up the jobs others would not.
One man's junk is another's treasure
When Dave Schuder, of Clare, tells people that he collects junk for a living, most people are surprised such a service even exists.
"I've been an entrepreneur all my life doing lawn businesses and landscaping - it just didn't pay as well as I wanted it to," Schuder said. "At one point, I was injured in motorcycle accident and had to give up working for several years. Once I was able to start working again, I started doing scrap on the side and then it just slowly morphed into this."
Since April, Schuder has been operating his own LLC, Junk Dragons. Through the company, he offers a junk removal service for a plethora of places such as basements, sheds, foreclosed homes, offices, retail stores, storage units and more. In addition, Junk Dragons offers demolition of small sheds, playgrounds, above ground pools and hot tubs.
Depending on the job, Schuder will recruit help from his two adult sons or use a temp agency to get a few more hands on deck.
"The best part of the job is when you show up to the person's house and they've got it all basically in one room and they say 'this is it' and you have one doorway to go through and maybe down a couple stairs -- those are the best jobs," Schuder said.
"The worst jobs are the basements that aren't walk-out basements and you've got half a dozen stairs and maybe two turns - You know, you get those houses in the bigger cities."
Despite the logistics of a pick-up, sometimes they can be quite "dirty" jobs and aside from hazardous waste, there is little Schuder will not do. Since he does a lot of clean-outs for private and bank-owned properties, sometimes they are rental units and can be left quite a mess.
And sometimes, if renters leave on bad terms, they intentionally deface a house using their own feces, Schuder said.
"Some of the jobs they do it intentionally - I mean, where there will be poop in the house and it's not canine poop - it's people poop," Schuder said. "I mean, they're mad; they'll just smear it on the walls."
Schuder said he does not take care of that type of mess, but it is something he encounters when removing other things from a residence.
"It does get nasty - if you want to talk about dirty, that's probably the nastiest," he said.
However, Schuder said the worst encounters are with bugs and animals. While he never gets used to the critters, roaches and mice got nothing on bed bugs in terms of their fear factor.
"There's been a couple jobs where you need to wear the disposable suit because of bed bugs and stuff like that," he said. "We wrap the mattress in a mattress wrap or box spring, or both sometimes. I charge more for that because it's more labor intensive and we don't want to bring that crap home -- if it gets on you, it's coming home."
When working on outdoor projects, such as dilapidated sheds and barns, wildlife can pose a threat as well. Schuder said sometimes animals like opossums, foxes and raccoons will make dens where he needs to clean, and they become territorial to their space.
"There's been a few times that we've actually had to do the job after we've disturbed their home well enough. We would leave the job and come back the following day and they would be gone," he said. "Or you get the occasional bees' nest or hornets' nest that we usually take care of that right there on the spot. But, we don't like doing that either because that hurts."
However, despite any dirt, danger or crawly critters that might come with the territory, Schuder said he loves what he does. He said he truly lives the philosophy of "one man's junk is another man's treasure."
Once the junk is collected, Schuder takes care of it - whether that means hauling the lot to the landfill, recycling what he can, repurposing and even selling items when feasible.
Schuder said one time, a Midland woman hired him to remove a nearly new exercise bike from her home, which he was able to turn into a win-win-win situation: The woman had the bike gone; Schuder sold it for a couple hundred dollars; and the person he sold it to had just left the hospital and needed it for physical therapy.
While Schuder was told winter is the slow season for junk removal business, he said he was happy to find that was not the case this year. Traveling all over central Michigan, Junk Dragons services Clare, Gladwin, Isabella, Mecosta and Midland counties.
Those interested in junk removal service can call Schuder at 989-330-8423 for a free estimate.
Cleaning up the trash
While junk removal business is booming for Schuder, another Midland resident has found her new business, Better Bins, is hitting a lull in the colder months.
Audrey Mills started a trash-can cleaning service in September. A wife and mother of three, Mills said it is her solution to making the best of a very hectic schedule.
"I was sick and tired of sitting around at home - I'm sure a lot of mom's feel the same way," she said. "I needed to find something that works for us."
However, the trade-off of a flexible schedule means Mills is doing some pretty dirty work, cleaning trash cans. She said she will clean any kind of bin, from residential outdoor bins and kitchen bins to commercial dumpsters.
Cleaning a trash can is something Mills said most people probably do not think about, but can be important for sanitary and health reasons. Now that she has seen how bad they can get, she said she wishes more people did think about it.
"It's one of those things - people don't like cleaning out their garbage cans," she said. "They don't generally want to find maggots in there and when you do, you generally just kind of pour some hot bleach water in there, close it and maybe it will go away with the garbage."
In addition to maggots - which Mills said are the worst - she's also come across materials stuck to the bottom of bins.
"Sometimes you have to get a scraper and get in there and it's not pleasant when you see poopy diapers stuck to the bottom of a bin and you know it's not coming out," she said. "So, you better put some gloves on and suit up and get in there."
When asked about the worst part of the job, Mills said it would be easy to complain, but really, she's just thankful to have a job.
"I just tell myself every time when I get out there and encounter maggots or dirty diapers that are stuck to the bottom of the bin; oils or paint spills; or whatever it might be inside that bin 'I'm thankful for the work I have,'" she said. "There's a lot of people who don't have any jobs, and I'm just honestly so thankful that I can get out there and do it and that's what I tell people; that's the icing on the cake. I'm actually happy to get into your nasty bin."
Mills is dreaming big, with the hopes of eventually expanding her service to do several houses in each neighborhood throughout the entire Tri-City area, and someday even franchising. She said at the end of the day, she just wants to give her kids' a better life, and this is her way of doing it.
"All parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles - they want to see their nieces and nephews, grandkids; kids have a better life. They want a better life for themselves," she said. "And sometimes, that's worth working for and worth the sacrifice."
Pest patrol
Entrepreneurs like Mills and Schuder are not the only people sacrificing their time and cleanliness for the sake of communal health; agencies like the Midland County Mosquito Control department also depend on determined men and women getting their hands and clothes dirty.
During the peak mosquito seasons of spring and summer, up to 27 Mosquito Control employees equip pressurized backpacks full of larvicide to treat areas that could become mosquito breeding sites, often working on a daily schedule doing work that takes them off the beaten paths in wooded areas.
"We all do our time on foot treating for mosquitoes in the areas where you'll find their larval habitats, and those can get pretty remote -- there can be a lot of brush you have to fight through to get to those," said director Carl Doud. "That's the nature of some of the work that we do that people don't see as much -- they see the aircraft and the trucks fogging down the roads, but we do a lot of on-foot treatments trying to get to the areas where mosquitoes come from."
Though it only takes place two days every season, Doud said the department's "tire drive" is likely the single dirtiest undertaking on Mosquito Control's agenda.
"We take in about 1,000 tires from individuals that drop them off -- we have to stack them in a trailer in a certain way to maximize the use of that space," Doud said. "If you've had a recent rain, (the tires) have a whole lot of muddy water in them, and it gets pretty dirty that way."
Though they can be a hassle to dispose of, scrap tires can be among the most potent breeding grounds for mosquitos due to their ability to collect and hold water.
See more here:
Getting their hands dirty: A look inside unusual, dirty jobs in Midland County - Midland Daily News
- The Office: The Best Episode Of Every Season, Ranked According To IMDb - Screen Rant - January 14th, 2021
- The cicada's deafening shriek is the sound of summer, and humans have been drawn to it for thousands of years - The Conversation AU - January 11th, 2021
- Afraid Of Rodents And Bugs? 2021 May Not Be Your Year - PRNewswire - January 8th, 2021
- Disinfection exercise has minimised bedbugs in schools in the Northern region---Regional Education Director - Modern Ghana - January 8th, 2021
- Guelph Public Library wants you to stop (literally) cooking the books - GuelphToday - January 8th, 2021
- Judge orders probation and treatment in cancer scam case - Daily Local News - January 6th, 2021
- Released Inmates at Durham's COVID Motel Say It's Just Another Prison - INDY Week - January 6th, 2021
- How to Get Rid of Silverfish in Your House, According to Pest Control Experts - Prevention.com - January 4th, 2021
- Insects and the cold - Plainview Daily Herald - December 31st, 2020
- Bed bugs: The smells warning of an infestation including a marzipan odour - TechnoCodex - December 31st, 2020
- The Road: 100 Days of Travel in Pandemic-Ravaged America - Rolling Stone - December 29th, 2020
- Europe pest control market Outlook and Opportunities in Grooming Regions - LionLowdown - December 25th, 2020
- Python-sniffing dogs are Florida's newest weapon in fighting invasive snakes - ABC News - December 23rd, 2020
- Sniffing Out Pythons: Dogs Being Used To Track Invasive Burmese Pythons - CBS Miami - December 22nd, 2020
- At least we don't have communal bed bugs - The Chatham News + Record - December 17th, 2020
- 'The prison's message is: Cooperate or you'll go back to the cell and be eaten alive by bugs' - Haaretz.com - December 17th, 2020
- Immune and circulatory systems are functionally integrated in all insects, Vanderbilt biologists demonstrate - Vanderbilt University News - December 17th, 2020
- Light of Life Rescue Mission opening two facilities on the North Side - NEXTpittsburgh - December 15th, 2020
- Family worries as shelter strained by virus outbreak - Midland Daily News - December 13th, 2020
- Roxy the Bed Bug Dog: The End of Secure Property Rights in Working Animals? - Reason - December 11th, 2020
- Co-op and Condo Annual Bedbug Reports Are Almost Due - Habitat magazine - December 11th, 2020
- Tenants of Rabbi Shulman Apartments in South Bend being relocated - 953mnc.com - December 9th, 2020
- How To Determine The Type Of Termite Infestation - KHTS Radio - December 9th, 2020
- How often you should wash pyjamas and the nasty health risks if you don't - RSVP Live - December 9th, 2020
- Bed bugs reported at Edgewater apartments - BayToday.ca - December 4th, 2020
- Bed bug bites: Signs can be found close to blood vessels - key locations to look for - Express - December 4th, 2020
- The 12 Best Steam Cleaners, According to People Who Really, *Really* Love Them - PureWow - December 4th, 2020
- A one-stop solution for all crawl spaces and attic related problems by Diversified CrawlSpace Services - Press Release - Digital Journal - December 1st, 2020
- A cleaning expert has warned about making your bed first thing in the morning - FM104 - November 28th, 2020
- Bed bug cases on the rise since 2010 | AgriLife Today - AgriLife Today - November 27th, 2020
- Early Detection, Topical Steroids, and Antihistamines, May Be Helpful for Combatting Bed Bug Manifestations - Dermatology Advisor - November 27th, 2020
- The immune and circulatory systems are functionally integrated across insect evolution - Science Advances - November 27th, 2020
- No regulations for bed bugs in South Carolina, victims left with few solutions - WBTW - November 25th, 2020
- Enjoy the comforts of home, pest-free - Greenville Daily News - November 23rd, 2020
- Our Top 10 Methods to Handling those Annoying Pests in Your Home | Happy Healthy Food & Play It Again Sports - EndZoneScore - November 23rd, 2020
- Thanksgiving in America: Massive food lines and evictions as benefits expire - WSWS - November 23rd, 2020
- Bedbug infestation is requiring entire Tennessee legislative office building to be treated - Tennessean - November 21st, 2020
- Bed bugs creep into part of Tennessees legislative office building - WKRN News 2 - November 21st, 2020
- People vow to stop making their beds first thing in morning after mum's grim warning - Mirror Online - November 21st, 2020
- All-American Rejects Interview | "Me Vs. The World" - Alternative Press - November 19th, 2020
- 'Chicago Med' Season 6 Episode 2 Review: Will and Ethan clash in the ED but who is really in the right? - MEAWW - November 19th, 2020
- Nine of the Weirdest Penises in the Animal Kingdom - Smithsonian Magazine - November 17th, 2020
- Things constitutional and evidentiary - The Baxter Bulletin - November 17th, 2020
- Bedbugs at Ottawa isolation hub alarm guest covered with bites - Nunatsiaq News - November 14th, 2020
- Bedbug infestation, I-94 construction workers killed by suspected drunk driver: Top Ann Arbor headlines Nov. - MLive.com - November 14th, 2020
- Bedbugs: Smells that tell you if you have an infestation - and how to get rid of them - Express - November 12th, 2020
- Bedbug infestation reported at Ann Arbor public housing complex - MLive.com - November 12th, 2020
- Family sues North Myrtle Beach resort over bed bug infestation they say spread to their home - WBTW - November 12th, 2020
- Delivering a clean night's sleep with SleepAngel - Cruise and Ferry - November 10th, 2020
- Pest Control Expert Provides Tips On How To De-Web Thorough And Effectively - KHTS Radio - November 8th, 2020
- Living with cockroaches a symptom of too few houses - APTN News - November 8th, 2020
- Update from your neighbor: Goodwill in Eagan is a disaster. Came home with bed bugs on... - Patch.com - November 5th, 2020
- Complaints about vermin in Brighton and Hove council flats - The Argus - November 3rd, 2020
- Spotta puts bed bugs to the test - Hospitality Net - November 3rd, 2020
- Two women sue North Myrtle Beach resort after they say they were bitten by bed bugs - WSPA 7News - November 1st, 2020
- Homerton students wake up to bedbug infestations - Varsity Online - October 31st, 2020
- Two women sue North Myrtle Beach resort after they say they were bitten by bed bugs - WBTW - October 31st, 2020
- article image The top 10 most threatening pest species at home - Digital Journal - October 31st, 2020
- From blankets to backpacks to key fobs, Shawna Gilleland wore her love for the Iowa Hawkeyes - Des Moines Register - October 31st, 2020
- Be aware of bed bugs as you travel - Norfolk Daily News - October 29th, 2020
- Students have left campus but the bugs are here to stay - N.C. State University Technician Online - October 29th, 2020
- Pest Control Without Poison: Removing Unwanted Bugs From Your Home - E/The Environmental Magazine - October 27th, 2020
- First Coronavirus Hit, Then They Got Bedbugs - The New York Times - October 27th, 2020
- Inside 'horror' council flat mum and baby forced to live in with 'silverfish and bed bugs' - Mirror Online - October 25th, 2020
- Iowa Mourns: From blankets to backpacks to key fobs, Shawna Gilleland wore her love for the Hawkeyes - Southernminn.com - October 25th, 2020
- 9 Types Of Household Bugs (And How To Get Rid Of Them!) - E/The Environmental Magazine - October 23rd, 2020
- 5 Best Waterproof Mattress Protectors - Healthline - October 23rd, 2020
- Investigation continues into Augusta personal care home where 2 found dead. Heres what we know. - The Augusta Chronicle - October 23rd, 2020
- Khalid and Zo Decide Everything: Rodent Rampage The Oberlin Review - The Oberlin Review - October 23rd, 2020
- News of the Weird: 5 Odd Topics in News this Week - The Scarlet - October 23rd, 2020
- The Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office Is Dealing With a Bed Bug Infestation, If You're Wondering Why Things Are Taking Longer Than Normal There -... - October 22nd, 2020
- Brit mum separated from family and locked in filthy room with bed bugs after testing positive for Covid on C - The Sun - October 22nd, 2020
- 'It's an ongoing battle in here': COVID-19 has halted building-wide spraying for bedbugs in Toronto's community housing. Tenants feel helpless -... - October 22nd, 2020
- Lincoln Manor property manager responds to bed bug issue WBKB 11 - WBKB-TV - October 19th, 2020
- Defeat Bed Bugs With Eco-Friendly And Organic Heat Treatment - KHTS Radio - October 19th, 2020
- Bed bugs: A home remedy could deter the creepy crawlies from infesting your home - Express - October 19th, 2020
- Police Reports: Bed Bugs, Bar Fights, and Stolen Bicycles - OnFocus - October 17th, 2020
- Bedbugs: Main signs to spot warning you may have an infestation according to expert - Express - October 17th, 2020
- Egan: The creeping, hidden menace of home takeovers - Leduc Representative - October 17th, 2020
- Pest Control Market Size, Development Strategy, Key Players Analysis, Emerging Technologies, Future Prospects, Regional Trends and Opportunity... - October 17th, 2020