Headquarters: Fridley
Inception: 1915
What the company does: Extermination of rodents and bugs, plus wildlife services for removing squirrels, bats, and raccoons
Type of ownership: LLC
Principal owners: Stacy O’Reilly, William O’Reilly
Employees: 825
Family members in the business: 4
Family members on the board: 4

When John O’Reilly began talking about retirement in the early 2000s, a big question loomed over Plunkett’s Pest Control: Who would lead the family business into the next century?

At the time, the Fridley-based company, whose core business is exterminating rodents and bugs, generated about $10 million in annual revenue and employed roughly 100 people. John picked his daughter, Stacy O’Reilly, but there was just one complication: She knew little about the pest-control industry.

After many conversations with her parents, she decided to join the company in 2001 as a service technician. She spent a year learning the business in the field before moving into a supervisory role. In 2003, in her late 30s, she became owner and CEO, representing the third generation of O’Reilly family leadership.

Since Stacy took the helm, Plunkett’s has grown from a regional company into a Midwest powerhouse with 850 workers across 22 states. The company manages $125 million in revenue and, per Stacy, has never experienced a year-over-year decline in revenue or contract volume.

“We’re on a pretty good run here,” she says.

The business’s roots stretch back more than a century. In the early 1900s, Stacy’s grandfather, Bill O’Reilly, worked as the sole employee of founder Tom Plunkett. When Plunkett died in 1923, Bill purchased the business from his widow, beginning family ownership that continues today.

Bill ran the company for 45 years before passing leadership to his son, John, who led Plunkett’s for another 35 years.

Since Stacy took over, the business has seen its most significant period of growth. But, Stacy says, the values that shaped the company in the 1920s still guide it today: integrity, quality of service, and investing in employees.

“We do this to the highest extent we can,” she says. “We don’t have summer interns or anything. We have professional, full-time career employees with real pay and real benefits so we can be as professional and responsive in the moment at someone’s need.”

To measure success, Plunkett’s looks at net contract growth, as contracted clients make up 75% of its customer base. The revenue Plunkett’s generates from its contracted clients in the food industry comes in handy during the winter slow period, since food manufacturing plants are vulnerable to pests yearlong.

In the summer, Plunkett’s pays special attention to its oldest client: the Minnesota State Fair. The company has served the Fair since 1972. “I would suspect the public would be surprised to learn that the Minnesota State Fair uses a pest control company at all,” says Cory Franzmeier, State Fair operations director. “Fair guests don’t really encounter pests on the fairgrounds because Plunkett’s does such a good job of anticipating and treating potential problems before they become an issue.”

“We don’t have summer interns or anything. We have professional, full-time career employees with real pay and real benefits.”

—Stacy O’Reilly, Owner and CEO

Stacy expanded the family business to wildlife services—including removing squirrels, bats, and raccoons—in 2017, when Plunkett’s purchased Columbus, Ohio-based Varment Guard Wildlife Services.

“There’s such a need,” she explains. “It’s a difficult service, and more difficult than pest control. It’s all ladder work, roof work, and repair. Raccoons leave decent-sized holes.” The company benefits from heightened demand for these services, since fewer companies do it. Since buying Varment Guard, the O’Reilly family has expanded to seven Midwestern states. In 2025, Plunkett’s posted $110 million in revenue, while Varment Guard generated $15 million.

The business’s expansion has caught the eye of investors—most notably, private equity, which is common in the home services industry. “When people ask if I work at a pest control business, they ask, ‘Is that a franchise?’” Stacy says. “No. It’s just a plain old ordinary company. People are like, ‘They still exist?’ Yep, it’s just one family with a few people and hopes to pass it on to the next generation.” Stacy says Plunkett’s is approached weekly but has never been interested. “I just don’t reply anymore.”

The O’Reillys are already looking to the fourth generation. Stacy’s only child, Will O’Reilly, a sophomore business student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, is working as a service technician at Plunkett’s. Like his mom, he’s learning from the bottom up. “If I’m ever going to run it, I’ve got to understand being a service tech and [being] in the warehouse, in the office here, and just getting everything,” Will says.

Stacy says it will be years until it’s time for her son to take over, but the family talks about succession often, including at the dinner table.

Plunkett’s will continue to prioritize slow and steady growth, the hiring of long-tenured employees, and the quality of service that has allowed the family to maintain operating growth for more than 100 years, Stacy says. “There are no conglomerates in my vision.”

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