Zika virus has phones ringing at pest control, travel firms
The virus often produces either no symptoms or mild ones like fever in adults, but an outbreak in Brazil has been linked to a rare birth defect that causes a newborn's heads to be smaller and brain development issues.
Pest control companies in Texas are getting a surge in business because of concerns that mosquitoes bearing the Zika virus will arrive from neighboring Mexico.
Grace, CEO of InsureMyTrip in Warwick, Rhode Island, estimates his sales of these policies are up between 15 percent and 20 percent from last year because people are on the fence about vacations or business trips to affected areas.
During the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa in 2014, companies that sold protective clothing like hazmat suits had increased sales because of demand from customers like medical facilities.
On the flip side, companies that arranged safari tours to Africa lost some of their business because would-be travelers were afraid they might catch the disease.
[...] the trade group American Society of Travel Agents says its members aren't losing money to the virus so far — they're reporting few outright cancellations, where people, concerned about the virus, cancel trips and don't pick another destination.