You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Before we begin, I am sure you have noticed that Gary is not on today's conference call.
He is actively rehabbing from a knee replacement operation, and while he is recovering quickly he is doing very well.
He's just not a position to physically join us today.
We wish Gary well with this physical therapy and look forward to having him rejoin us on future calls.
During the third quarter we achieved some very strong business results, and Jerry will go over those with you shortly.
In the interim, I wanted to share news of the latest addition to our Rollins' Board of Directors.
As you already know over the previous year we have enhanced and diversified that group with several new members.
I am very pleased to announce our latest addition is Rollins' President and Chief Operating Officer, Jerry Gahlhoff.
This is in recognition of his strong leadership and his deep commitment to the company's long-term success.
We are proud to have Jerry serving on our Board moving forward.
Jerry hit -- is an important part of the Rollins leadership team and his in-depth knowledge of our business and experience gained from working in our industry since 1991 adds perspective.
We're fortunate to have him assume a greater role in the direction and future of our company.
Before turning the call over to Jerry I have two items to first update you on.
The first, we'll represent a recent development in Rollins Environmental, Social and Governance commitment.
We take very seriously the responsibility that we have to the communities in which we work and live.
As a recent example, we're pleased to share that Rollins made an in-kind donation originally costing $4.6 million dollars worth of personal protective equipment or PPE items during the third quarter.
Working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and several philanthropic organizations including the Friends of Disabled Adults and Children, the Foundation of HOPE Food Bank, as well as COPE Preparedness in Los Angeles, we donated 27 pallets or 6.8 million pieces of masks, gloves and other items.
In addition to achieving a successful execution of our strategies as well as solid business results, we also have a responsibility to the communities in which we work and live.
ESG is a -- facet of our business is becoming more important to us.
We are proud to support these initiatives.
Last, as we have previously disclosed, the company has been responding to an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
In accordance with accounting standard ASC 450, we have established a reserve related to this matter which we consider immaterial.
Given that the investigation is ongoing, we cannot answer any questions during our Q&A, but we remain focused on resolving this inquiry.
With that, I will turn our call over to Jerry.
We're very pleased with our third quarter results.
Revenue increased 11.4% to $650.2 million compared to $583.7 million for the third quarter of last year.
Our net income totaled $93.9 million or $0.19 per diluted share compared to $79.6 million or $0.16 per diluted share for the same period in 2020.
Julie will review the GAAP and non-GAAP results shortly.
Revenues for the first nine months of 2021 were $1.824 billion, an increase of 12.2% compared to $1.625 billion for the same period last year.
Net income for the first nine months increased 44% to $285.3 million or $0.58 per diluted share compared to $198.2 million or $0.40 per diluted share for the comparable period last year.
For the quarter, we experienced solid growth in all our business lines with residential increasing 11.7% and termite presenting percent growth over the third quarter 2020.
Additionally, commercial excluding fumigation delivered an impressive 10.1% growth over the third quarter last year.
This is also an improvement of 7.9% growth over two years ago when we were not experiencing COVID related shutdowns.
Overall, we are pleased with our performance.
Rollins remains well positioned for the remainder of the year and into 2022.
Looking deeper at our operating results, we're attracting customers to all our services and brands.
And one area I'd like to focus on today is our continued strong growth in our wildlife service offerings.
Trutech wildlife joined the Rollins family in 2010 followed by Critter Control in 2015.
Since 2010, the business has grown 800%.
Day-to-day operations of operating a wildlife control business is quite different than running a typical pest and termite business, and we are proud to have a dedicated team focused on this much needed service.
Originally concentrated in the Southeastern United States, the business has expanded across the nation as well as into Canada.
And with and with Critter Control expansion into Canada, it's Rollins' first brand to enter an international country without acquiring another business as a platform.
The wildlife division also operates a thriving franchise system.
There are currently 84 franchises with the most recent franchise launching in Mansfield Ohio.
We anticipate finishing the year with 12 new franchises, one of our strongest years in adding franchisees.
We have also been fortunate to add nine former corporate employees as franchisees.
Employees who have an entrepreneurial drive and a passion for nuisance wildlife and customer service have multiple career path opportunities, be it ownership of the franchise or growth within our company.
We believe there is meaningful opportunity for continued growth in our wildlife business and look forward to updating you in the quarters ahead.
I'd now like to discuss Hurricane Ida.
Our hearts go out to our Gulf Coast region and those that were affected by the hurricane.
But I must admit we are inspired by our team in that area.
They implemented an amazing plan that helped our team members, and alleviate the negative impact of the storm.
Ida shut down several of our branches for days but two locations were shut down for about two weeks.
The impact to our employees in the days following the storm was far worse than the impact to our business in the quarter.
Through the Rollins Employee Relief Fund, we granted 137 emergency grants to impacted employees within the first week following the hurricane to enable employees to address their personal essential needs.
Since then, another seven employees who endured greater hardships received full grants to address their more significant needs.
Additionally, our Orkin South Central division led by Leland Morris quickly initiated a preparedness and mitigation plan to assist our team members.
This included immediate procurement of much needed supplies for our employees and their families such as generators, dual, portable air conditioners, fans, water, and other essential emergency provisions that were not readily accessible to them locally.
Our team members in adjacent areas that were fortunate to avoid the brunt of Ida's force volunteered their time and energy often after work hours to load these suppliers into box trucks and drive them to those most in need.
For weeks they continued to shuttle fuel to these employees to keep their generators up and running.
This was a total team effort and we are tremendously proud of their care, compassion and commitment to one another.
In fact, we're so pleased with our effort that we plan to expand and formalize this program in other areas of the country so that we can rapidly respond in case of a natural disaster or emergency.
As we measure our performance and think about how to best articulate Rollins' business in the future along with what routine questions we've received from the investment community, we will now be presenting three additional measurements quarterly moving forward.
The first is a measure we have referred to periodically and that is EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Due to our consistent high volume of acquisitions and hence high amortization expense related to these acquisitions, presenting EBITDA regularly will provide a clear picture of our operations ongoing financial performance.
Think about this, over the last three years we have averaged 30 acquisitions per year.
Next we will begin presenting our revenue growth through both constant exchange rate and actual exchange rate.
By utilizing historical baseline revenues for acquisitions [Indecipherable] through the due diligence process, we were able to include all acquisitions within the calculations, both stand-alone and tuck-in.
This will bring clarity and consistency to both our acquisition and our organic revenue growth measurements.
Third, we will be providing you with our free cash flow.
We believe that this will properly illustrate Rollins' strong ability to generate cash.
We have taken a simple approach to defining free cash flow, which is calculated as net cash provided by operating activities less purchase of equipment and property.
Our hope is that these measurements will enable investors to better assess our operating performance in the future and provide a deeper view of our business.
So onto the numbers.
Our third quarter revenues of $650.2 million was an increase of 11.4% over last year.
Of the 11.4% actual exchange rate revenue growth, acquisition growth was 2.2%, and organic equated to 9.2%.
For the constant exchange rate, the growth percentage is calculated within the hundreds of the actual exchange growth rate therefore presented the same.
For the nine months ended September 2021, revenue of $1.824 billion was an increase of 12.12 percentage over year-to-date 2020.
Of this actual exchange rate total revenue growth of 2.
-- or excuse me, of 12.2%, 2.7% was related to acquisitions, and 9.5% organic growth.
The constant year-to-date exchange rate total revenue growth for 2021 equaled 11.6%; 2.7% represented acquisitions and 8.9% organic revenue growth.
As Jerry pointed out, residential, commercial and termite all grew double-digits this quarter over the same quarter last year.
So, in determining my focus for today, I decided to take Jerry's lead and discuss wildlife, yet I'm discussing specifically company owned wildlife operations.
For the third quarter in 2021, wildlife revenues grew 24.1% over last year, and year-to-date wildlife has presented an overall revenue growth of 27.6%.
What makes us particularly impressive at this is that this is after their strong growth of 20.4% last year.
So similar to our residential pest control, wildlife did not feel a negative impact to revenue growth during the pandemic.
The way to go to the wildlife team.
Now onto our income.
For the third quarter and year-to-date, we are presenting adjusted EBITDA for comparison purposes due to the one-time super vesting of our late Chairman stock grants in the third quarter of 2020 and the impact of our gain on sale of several of our core properties in the first six months of 2021.
So, third quarter 2021 EBITDA was $150.9 million or 8.7% over 2020 third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $138.9 million.
Third quarter 2021 earnings per share was $0.19 per diluted share or 5.6% improvement over the 2020 third quarter adjusted EPS.
For the nine months ended September 2021, our adjusted EBITDA was $422 million or 22.1% over last year's adjusted EBITDA of $344.9 million.
Year-to-date 2021 adjusted earnings per share was $0.53 per diluted share or 26.2% over last year.
For the third quarter 2021, gross margin increased to 53% or 0.4% over last year.
Strong improvements in our materials and supplies were negatively offset by high overall fleet costs primarily from an increase in fuel of approximately $4 million over third quarter 2020, and lower vehicle gains of $900,000 compared to last year.
Sales, general and administrative third quarter margin increase over last year was strongly impacted by the PPE donations and the SEC accrual previously mentioned by John.
Travel expenses have also increased $1.3 million in the third quarter as we have begun to lift our company travel restrictions.
Amortization expenses for the third quarter 2021 increased $1.4 million due to the amortization of customer contracts from multiple acquisitions.
This was offset by a decrease in depreciation of $201,000 due to the sale of owned vehicles and centralizing of IT function.
Overall, this equated to a 5.1% increase in depreciation and amortization over the third quarter 2020.
Our dividends paid year-to-date 2021 was $119.7 million or an increase of 30.4% over last year.
We ended the current period with $117.7 million in cash, of which $73.6 million was held by our foreign subsidiaries.
So, this brings us to the final of our new three measurements, free cash flow.
For the third quarter of 2021, our free cash flow is $72.9 million or a decrease of 27.5% over the same quarter last year.
For the nine months ended 2021, our free cash flow equal $278.9 million or 13.6% decrease over year-to-date 2020.
This fluctuation occurred due to the deferral of $30.3 million in FICA taxes payable in 2020 as allowed under the CARES Act.
These associated taxes were then remitted in September of 2021.
We hope that with he discussion of these new measurements you will receive a greater clarity while reviewing our financial performance.
Lastly, I want to discuss that yesterday we were extremely pleased to announce that our Board has approved a 25% increase to our dividends.
The quarterly dividend increased to $0.10 per share from $0.08 per share and will be paid on December 10, 2021 to stockholders of record at the close of business on November 10, 2021.
Additionally, the Board also approved a special dividend of $0.08 to be paid on December 10, 2021 as well.
The dividend increase reflects our strong performance in the first nine months of the year and underscores our financial strength, our solid capital position, and the Board's confidence in our outlook for continued growth.

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q3 revenue rose 11.4 percent to $650.2 million.
q3 earnings per share $0.19.

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