How Bite Back Started: A Manalapan Backyard, a Bug Problem, and a Better Way

A Yard Full of Kids, Dogs, and Worry

Years ago, Laurie hired a conventional pest control company to deal with the ticks and mosquitoes in her Manalapan yard. The crew showed up wearing respirators. Her kids played outside. Her dogs brushed up against the bushes and licked them. And Laurie stood there with a knot in her stomach, wondering what her kids and dogs were ingesting.

She worried about more than the lawn. The property backed up to a water supply and a brook, and she did not want toxic chemicals ending up in the water. She also knew those broad sprays do not discriminate: they kill the ticks and mosquitoes, but they also kill butterflies, honey bees, lightning bugs, ladybugs, and other beneficial life. She told the Asbury Park Press she had always wanted to do her part to help the planet, not harm the ecosystem.

The Kitchen-Table Experiment

Rather than accept the trade-off, Laurie and her husband Ron took matters into their own hands. They contacted friends who were chemists and asked for help creating a natural spray for their own use, one that would target unwanted insects without harming beneficial insects or plants.

The result was an essential-oil based formula built around a simple idea: kill and repel ticks and mosquitoes where they live and breed, and leave everything else alone. No synthetic pesticides. Nothing the family had to fear when the kids ran barefoot across the grass twenty minutes later.

The Backyard Proof

Then came the test that mattered. They sprayed their own property and watched. The ticks and mosquitoes, Laurie says, disappeared from their yard. The bees, ladybugs, and butterflies stayed. The rose bushes, Laurie said, never looked better. For the first time in years, the family could sit outside at 9 p.m., the hour they would normally get eaten alive, without worrying about the dogs or the kids. It was, she said, a big relief.

And it was too good not to share. If it worked this well in their yard, other families, households, and gardeners deserved the same option.

From Neighbors to a Business

Laurie did not waste time. In late summer 2020 she held a soft opening for friends and neighbors, with Ron spraying their properties for free. Everyone agreed the spray worked. That December, Bite Back Tick and Mosquito Control officially launched.

The Asbury Park Press picked up the story in March 2022, under the headline about a company born from love of a Manalapan backyard, but not the bugs. What started as one family’s worry had become a local business with a clear mission: give New Jersey families a way to enjoy their yards without the chemical anxiety.

What Still Drives Us Today

Years later, the founding idea has not changed. Every Bite Back treatment still uses all-natural, essential-oil based formulas with no synthetic pesticides. Our technicians still target the habitat where ticks and mosquitoes live rather than blanket-spraying the whole property, because the pollinators matter as much as they did that first summer.

The company has grown from that first neighborhood to serving families across central and northern New Jersey, but the standard is still the Manalapan backyard test: would Laurie let her own kids and dogs play on it? If the answer is not yes, it does not go in the tank.

Laurie’s field note: People ask me when I knew this would become a business. It was not the soft opening, and it was not the article. It was an evening in our own backyard, sitting outside at nine o’clock with no bites, watching fireflies over the bushes we had just treated. That was the moment I knew other families needed this feeling. Everything since has just been sharing it.

FAQ: The Bite Back Story

The Takeaway: A Company Built on a Mom’s Worry

Every company has an origin story. Ours is a mom in a backyard, watching respirators and wondering what was landing on her kids. That worry became a formula, the formula became a neighborhood experiment, and the experiment became Bite Back. If you want the short version of why we only use natural treatments, that is it. We started this for our own family, and we treat yours the same way.

Trusted sources: Asbury Park Press / USA Today Network: Bite Back born from love of Manalapan backyard, but not the bugs (March 2022).