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protecting your home and family from pests since 1956!

About Killroy Pest Control

Picture of Phil

As we look back at the history of our business, providing over 50 years of pest control service, we take a look at where we began. Phil Olavarri, one of our company's founders, was a pilot in the European theater in World War II. He and thousands of other servicemen came to know well the slogan of the war — "Kilroy was here" as it was drawn by Americas upon convenient services across Europe (early graffiti!). When Phil and his wife, Norma, were looking for a name for their new pest control business in 1956, they realized the little man looking over the fence proclaiming "Kilroy was here!" was a popular and well-known figure of that time.

The Olavarri's

Lynn Olavarri-Schmidt, Richard Schmidt
Phil and Norma Olavarri

Phil and Norma retired in the late 1980s, and the company was then managed by Dennis Merrill, a Campbell native who shared Phil's interest in insects. Dennis was an entomologist, and a graduate of San Jose State University. He and Phil also had a mutual love of golf. During the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, Dennis and his wife, Dennie, shared ownership responsibilities with Phil and Norma's daughter, Lynn, and her husband, Richard Schmidt. Now the original owner, Phil Olavarri, can again be seen regularly at Killroy, as Lynn and Richard have taken the helm. The business is back in the family!

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Sensitive Solutions

Ask us about Sensitive Solutions — a special division of Killroy Pest Control which offers non-chemical, natural, or green pest control options.

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Green Pest Control

Begin your residential pest control service today!

Call now for more information, or to schedule a Killroy licensed pest management inspector to prevent or solve your pest problem right away.

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Killroy - Your Pest Control Specialists

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Welcome New Customers

Welcome First-time Killroy Customers! You can receive $30 off for general pest treatments (including ants, spiders, roaches, and more). Please mention this offer when you request service. Only one discount or coupon per new customer.

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How the Phrase "Kilroy Was Here" got Started

It was during the sad days of WWII that Jim Kilroy started chalking his slogans at a shipyard near Boston. Jim was the original Kilroy. He was "Kilroy was here!" No doubt about that.

However, in the autumn of 1948 he was just plain James J. Kilroy, a 46-year-old shipyard worker from Halifax, MA and he was trying to figure out how to get enough money to buy his nine children some Christmas presents. No matter how hard or how long a day a man may work, there never seems to be enough money around Christmas when there are nine children in the house.

"The Transit Company of America was running a contest in 1948," recalled Mrs. Margaret Kilroy Fitzgerald, the oldest of the nine children. "They wanted to locate the man who started the famous "Kilroy was here" slogan… and the prize was a trolley car!

"My father wrote a letter to the Transit Company of America to tell his story, and his claim was checked out. He was thoroughly investigated, and the people running the contest announced that, without a doubt, he was the original Kilroy."

In his letter to the contest judges, Kilroy wrote that he started to work for Bethlehem Steel Company at Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, MA on December 5, 1941. However, it was when he was appointed "a rate setter" that he was inspired to write his now celebrated slogans.

In his letter he wrote: "I spent most of my time carefully surveying every inner bottom and tank before issuing a contract. I was thoroughly upset to find that practically every test leader I met wanted me to go down and look over his job with him, and when I complained to him that I had already checked out the job and could not spare the time to crawl through one of those tanks again with him, he would accuse me of not having looked the job over at all. I was getting sick of being accused of not looking the jobs over, and one day, as I came through the man-hole of a tank I had just surveyed, I angrily marked in crayon on the tank top, where the tester could see it, "Kilroy Was Here!" The following day, a test gang leader approached me with a grin on his face, and said 'I see you looked my job over…'"