Need custom Filter

Building custom reports using VBA to pull Access (or SQL Server) data and create Excel Worksheets. Office 2007
example - bold and light data jpg2.jpg Attachment has numbers cut out to protect customer specific data.
On one column - the Well Name is listed in this format:
Critter 22-12
Critter 64-128
Johnson 2-122
Johnson 2-233
Johnson 2-665
Smith 1-442
Smith 1-455
Smith 4-8

The Auto Filter - list each instance of the above with a check box to turn on / off
The customers wants the Auto Filter to only list Critter, Johnson and Smith
More like an Advanced Filter "begins with" - but with the names (not the numbers that follow)

At first glance, I could ue a Left & Instring, to create a very skinny column with a filter for only the left part of the string (i.e. Critter - and exclude the 22-12).

Just wondering if the filter has any way to be programmed with VBA?