Pest control service, contract and all

What is pest control service?

General pest control service is a recurring plan - most often quarterly - in which a technician treats the exterior perimeter of your home, treats indoors where activity is found, and returns between scheduled visits at no extra charge if pests come back. It targets the common household set: ants, spiders, roaches, occasional invaders and, in most plans, mice. It is sold as a subscription with a minimum term, so the thing to read carefully is the agreement, not the brochure.

Signs you need pest control service

• You are seeing the same pest come back a few weeks after every can of spray you buy
• Ants find a new route indoors each time you block the last one
• You spot activity in more than one room, or in more than one season - a sign of a nesting population rather than a stray
• You have a crawl space, an attached garage or a wooded lot line, all of which generate steady pressure from outside
• You are seeing droppings, gnaw marks or grease trails rather than the insects themselves
• You have just moved in and have no idea what the previous owner was dealing with
• You want to stop reacting and start preventing - the actual value proposition of a plan

Seeing something not on this list? Browse pest control problems by symptom →

How pest control service actually works

1. 1

   Initial inspection and identification

   The first visit should be longer than the ones that follow. The technician walks the perimeter, checks the crawl space or basement, looks under sinks and around the water heater, and identifies what you actually have.

   Watch forA first visit that is 15 minutes of spraying the baseboards. If nobody looked in the crawl space or the attic, nobody knows what is living in your house.

2. 2

   The initial treatment

   This is the heavy visit - exterior perimeter, entry points, eaves and any active interior harbourage. It is usually discounted heavily to get you onto the plan, and it is where most of the actual knock-down happens.

   Watch forThe discount is the hook. A $79 initial against a 12-month plan is not a $79 job - price the whole first year, not the first visit.

3. 3

   Recurring visits on a schedule

   Typically quarterly, sometimes bi-monthly. Most of the work is outside: perimeter barrier, spider webs knocked down from eaves and soffits, wasp nests removed from the fascia, bait stations serviced.

   Watch forPlans where nobody needs to come inside are convenient - until you have an interior problem and discover interior visits are billed separately.

4. 4

   Re-service between visits

   The core promise of a plan: if pests return between scheduled visits, they come back free. This is the reason a plan beats one-off calls for a home with steady pressure.

   Watch forRe-service almost always covers only the pests named in your agreement. A quarterly plan will not send someone free for bed bugs, termites or a raccoon.

5. 5

   Documentation you should be given

   A service ticket for each visit noting what was found, what was applied and where. Ask for the product label and safety data sheet for anything used inside your home.

   Watch forA blank ticket with a signature line. If the paperwork does not say what was applied and where, you cannot check it against the label or answer a question about it later.

What does pest control service cost?

Recurring residential plans commonly run in the low hundreds per year, usually billed per visit, with a heavily discounted initial treatment. The discount is recovered across the contract term, so compare the total first-year figure rather than the headline. See the Cost Guide for how the pieces break down.

See the full pest control service cost guide - by material, size and region →

If the number is the problem, here are the ways people pay for it →