This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Florida woman gets paid to remove poisonous frogs. You heard right, listeners. Welcome to Side Hustle School. Chris Guillebeau, your host here in this riveting feature. A high school science teacher earns an extra $3,000 a month removing an invasive species of toads throughout Florida.
And this is a blast from the past. This year, once a week, we're bringing you some remixes of our early best stories, especially those early years from 2017, 2018. Each story is being rerecorded. We'll also include some new updates in some cases. And in the first year or so of the podcast, we had this interesting focus, which I did not predict.
It wasn't really a focus. It was more just like a recurring segment that came up featuring unusual animal side hustles. For example, we had the live cricket drop ship hustle. Maybe I'll bring that one back for you at some point. A worm composting empire that brought in extra money for somebody, a protein shake lover who chomps crickets for a six figure side hustle.
I should definitely bring that one back. That guy's doing really, really well. And then something about flesh eating beetles, flesh eating beetles that work for free, earn an Oregon woman $3,000 a month. I'm not even sure what that's about. That was episode 291.
If you want to go back and listen to it, I'll scope it out at some point. But today we're focusing on poisonous frogs. This high school science teacher decides to start a very interesting, unusual, yet ultimately helpful side hustle that's bringing in, as I said, a lot of money. Let's hear the story, all right? Give a little shout out to our sponsor, and then I'm gonna bring you this story.
You're gonna enjoy this one. Her name is Janine Tilford. The story's coming right up. [Music]
If something rivets in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? Well, you're gonna call Toad Busters.
More specifically, Janine Tilford, the owner of today's side hustle, after spotting a dangerous shift in her local environment, this high school science teacher decided to take matters into her own hands and earn an extra $3,000 a month because of it. As I said, high school science teacher, but also herpetologist by trade, Janine had noticed a long, slow change in the native ecosystem of her local Florida area. The diversity of the local reptiles, animals she loved to collect and study, had begun to dwindle. And the rate of dogs dying from eating poisonous toads was on the rise. All thanks to one particular and nefarious species, the Bufo Toad.
Bufo, not sure I'm saying that right, but it's a toad, who knows what that is. The system of getting rid of these toads was effective, but expensive and damaging to the flora and fauna that was subjected to the pesticides. There was no way to get rid of these villains without making the rest of the area sterile. Unless, well, unless someone went out each night to collect the toads and remove them one by one. And that is where Janine found her side hustle calling.
She felt that if she could be the one to go out and collect the toads, it would be the perfect part-time evening job to boost her low teacher's salary and a way to use her herpetological skills. I had to work on that pronunciation as well. Okay, let's keep going. Janine's initial startup costs for toad busters came in at around $2,000. It was kind of expensive to start because a pest removal company like this, that's basically what it's categorized in terms of business licenses, comes with a certain amount of red tape.
The basic license was about $100, but then she needed insurance, which was $800 for a year. She also needed high visibility jackets and work shirts, as well as gloves, headlamps, carriers, and advertising for the side of her vehicle. That's right, she got it wrapped. That's pretty cool. And some postcards, all that kind of stuff.
Anyway, $2,000. The job itself comes with a lot of perils. It's an active role. It requires climbing into areas where there are mosquitoes, spiders, venomous snakes, poltergeists, I'm not sure about the last one, but also alligators. There are definitely alligators, it's Florida.
There's also some explaining to be done to the police, Janine found, about why you're walking around someone's property late at night with just a flashlight and a big stick. Not to mention these strict regulations that Janine has to adhere to. All frogs, I'm not making this up, by the way, all frogs and toads have to be euthanized to University of Florida standards. This involves rubbing a 10% benzocaine solution onto their belly to put them to sleep and then freeze them. I don't know, does it sound a little sad?
They are an invasive species. It just has to be done, okay? Janine is an animal lover herself. She's looking for other ways to deal with or somehow reuse the toads in the future, but there are no viable options right now. Okay, that was a lot, I know.
Despite these perils, Toad Busters is averaging around $3,000 a month. That's right, she gets paid for this. Janine gets paid to do this. The state and local areas recognize how important this is. So Janine has paid for her work.
And unlike many side hustles, we feature people who are struggling with marketing. Janine's marketing is mostly done offline. She goes out of her way to attend trade events, to network with people. She has gone to veterinary offices in her local area. She's even been featured on the local news and on TV for the work she's doing.
Looking ahead, Janine would like to expand into new areas and regions of Florida. She's also putting together a pitch for a TV series called "What's in My Yard?" which she hopes will help educate people about the native and invasive species in their backyard and the environment costs. Until then, when there's something strange in your neighborhood and it hops, give her a call and get ready for a visit from Toad Busters. [Music]
All right listeners, I hope you enjoyed that story. It was fun for me to go back and read these notes.
I had almost forgotten all about, when I was first starting the podcast and looking for these fun stories and I would find something like this and I would be like, oh my gosh, nobody is telling this story. Every side hustle story is about internet ads and such. And here we've got this woman in Florida who's earning thousands of dollars a month, removing poisonous frogs, helping the ecosystem and so on. Do I want to go and do this myself? Absolutely not, but that's okay because there's something out there for everybody and that's the whole point.
There's something you can do as well. Coming up on the podcast, we're gonna talk about virtual garage sales. We're gonna talk about podcasting in 2025, a Miami divorce planner, like a wedding planner, but for divorces, just so much more, so much more. Thank you for being out there. Thank you for being around.
If you are new to the podcast, welcome. I'm so glad to have you. New episodes drop every day. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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- From the Onward Project.
