A young couple from South Florida is honoring their history and culture while making a difference in our communities through a company specializing in bee eradication, relocation, and pest control.
“I got involved because of my family; my father was in the pest management industry, and he was the one, if anything, who planted the seed of pest control,” according to Jean Navarro. Navarro is the President of Mega Bee Rescues, a firm he co-owns with his long-term lover Ana Perez. Both are registered beekeepers. At one of their estates in Homestead, he showed us into his world, which is teeming with rescued bees. This property has 75 boxes, each with numerous frames of comb and millions of bees. But the vision did not originate with him.
“I want to show a lot of respect to my father. He moved here from Peru without knowing English and started his own pest control firm business. He’s traveling here to take the tests, putting you in an unfamiliar setting. “I believe it is tough to restart from zero,” he stated. “I believe that because our parents immigrated from South America and we were born here, we sometimes underestimate how difficult it was for them to get from point A to point B. That’s a lot of risk-taking.
While they are passionate about their work, this Peruvian and Cuban pair understands that being a positive representation of their culture is equally motivating. “People that support us, follow us, if anything, that’s been a big push for us to be better and better,” indicated Navarro. Their mission is to teach others what they do and how they might become wildlife stewards in their communities. However, they are satisfied by giving back to their communities.
“Having a business means more than simply that. It’s about what you can do for your community and the people around you,” Navarro explained. The duo claims their enterprise is still expanding, and they, like the worker bees, intend to keep going until their company and their parents’ heritage are well-known throughout South Florida.
