Pest control contractors in the United States

The regulator is usually agriculture, not a contractor board

Pest control sits outside the contractor licensing system in most states. Federal law under FIFRA sets the framework for certifying applicators of restricted-use pesticides, and the states run the certification programmes, usually through a department of agriculture and normally in named categories: general household pest, wood-destroying organisms, turf and ornamental, fumigation, and others.

Two consequences follow for this page. The licensed share for pest control is published for fewer states than for the mechanical trades, because the file this site reads is a contractor board file. And the credential a homeowner would want to check is often held by the individual applicator as well as by the business, at an agency this site does not publish.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, pesticide applicator certification

The label is the law

Every pesticide sold in the United States is registered with the EPA and carries a label that states where it may be used, at what rate, with what protective equipment, and how long people and pets must stay off the treated area. Using a product in a way the label does not permit is a violation in itself, which is why a written service record naming the product, the rate and the re-entry interval is a reasonable thing to ask for and a normal thing to receive.

It is also why a treatment plan that will not name its products is worth a second question. A homeowner with an infant, an allergy, a fishpond or a cat has a real interest in that list.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reading a pesticide label

Wood-destroying organism inspections are a separate credential

The termite or wood-destroying organism report that a lender asks for at closing is a distinct product from a pest treatment, and in many states it requires its own certification category and its own state form. The inspector is giving an opinion about visible evidence in accessible areas on a given date, which is narrower than the question the buyer thinks they asked.

Where a treatment and an inspection are sold by the same company, the report is still the document that follows the property. Read what it excludes.

Contracts here renew, which most trades' do not

Pest control is one of the few trades on this site sold mainly as a recurring service rather than as a job. That makes the contract terms, the length, the renewal, the cancellation notice and what a termite bond actually promises, a larger part of the purchase than the price of a single visit.