What should I ask a pest control company before booking?
The short answer
Ask what species they have identified and how, how many visits the job needs and whether they are included, what happens if the pests come back, what is being applied and where, and what you need to do before and after. A company that answers all five specifically is a different proposition from one that answers with a price.
The questions
- What species is it, and how did you identify it? A treatment plan that does not start with a species is a guess.
- How many visits does this job need, and are they in the price? For several pests one visit was never going to be enough.
- What happens if it is not resolved — is there a guarantee, what does it cover, what voids it, and how long does it run?
- What are you applying, where, and can I see the label or safety data sheet?
- What do I have to do before you come, and what do I have to avoid afterwards?
- Is the technician attending certified, or supervised by a certified applicator?
- What is your licence number and the entity it is held under?
- Will I get a written service report naming the products, locations and rates?
- Are you fixing the conditions that caused this — the entry points, the moisture, the harbourage — or only treating?
- Is this a one-off job or an ongoing agreement, and if the latter, what is the term and how do I cancel?
The single most predictive question is the third one. A guarantee with clear terms means the company expects to come back at its own cost if the job fails, which changes how carefully the first visit is done.
Also asked
- Should I get more than one quote?
- For anything beyond a routine callout, yes — and compare the scope rather than the number. Two quotes for a termite job can differ by a large factor because one includes a monitored system and annual renewal and the other is a single application. The cheaper one is not necessarily the worse one, but it is rarely the same product.
Read next
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General information about pest problems and about hiring, not advice about your specific property. Pest control licensing, wildlife protection and landlord and tenant law are all set state by state and province by province across the United States and Canada, so your own regulator is the current answer. How we read the data.