Six kinds of work. No quarterly contract.
The industry standard is a recurring plan that sprays the outside of your house every ninety days whether or not anything is wrong. It is excellent business and mediocre pest management. We sell the work that is needed, and when nothing is needed we say so.
Services and price ranges
- $0
Identification from a photograph
Email or text us a picture. About half the time that is the whole job and we will tell you what it is, whether it matters and what to do, at no charge and with nothing to sign.
- $135
Full inspection, written up
Interior, exterior, basement, attic access. You get a written report naming what is there, where it is getting in, what is keeping it there, and what we would do — whether or not you use us. Credited against the work if you do.
- $180 – $420
Ants, roaches, silverfish, occasional invaders
Targeted baiting and crack-and-crevice placement, usually two visits about two weeks apart because most of these have a brood you have not met yet. Priced by the job, not by the square foot.
- $320 – $850
Carpenter ants and wood-destroying pests
Locating the nest matters more than the treatment does, and the nest is usually somewhere wet. Includes finding the moisture source, because treating without fixing that buys you eighteen months. MDARD category 7B work.
- $240 – $700
Mice and rats
Trapping and exclusion rather than bait wherever we can — a poisoned rodent that dies in a wall is a worse problem than the one you called about. Includes sealing the entry points, which is the only part that actually ends it. Category 7D.
- $210 – $480
Wasps, yellowjackets and hornets
Nest removal or in-place treatment, priced by access and height. Ground nests and in-wall colonies cost more than a visible nest under an eave for the obvious reason.
- $450 – $2,600
Bed bugs
Conventional or heat. See the bed bug page, which explains the difference and why the preparation is most of the work.
- Quoted
Exclusion — the physical work
Sealing, screening vents, door sweeps, chimney caps, hardware cloth. This is the part that makes the treatment permanent and it is the part almost nobody quotes, because it ends the recurring revenue. We would rather do it and lose the subscription.
Ranges are for single-family homes in Berkley, Royal Oak, Ferndale, Huntington Woods, Oak Park, Birmingham and the surrounding communities. Access, size and how long it has been going on all move them. If your job falls outside a range we say so on the phone, not after a visit.
Why there is no quarterly plan on this page
A recurring perimeter spray is sold as prevention. What it mostly is, is a scheduled visit that applies material to the outside of a building where the pest pressure has not been measured, at intervals chosen for billing rather than biology.
It has real uses — a restaurant, a food plant, a building with genuine ongoing pressure. For most houses in Berkley it is a subscription to being sprayed.
If you want us on a schedule we will do it and we will be glad of the work. We will also tell you first whether we think you need it, and for most callers the honest answer is an annual inspection and a caulk gun.
Michigan pests run on a schedule.
- Mar – May
Carpenter ant swarmers, cluster flies
Winged ants indoors in spring usually mean a nest already inside the building, not one that just arrived.
- Jun – Jul
Ants, wasps building, ticks
Nests are small and cheap to deal with now. Nobody calls, because they are small.
- Aug – Sep
Yellowjackets at their worst
Colonies peak, food runs short, and they get aggressive around anything sweet. This is the sting season.
- Oct – Nov
Everything comes indoors
Mice, boxelder bugs, stink bugs, cluster flies. The single most useful week of the year is the one before this, spent sealing.
- Dec – Feb
Rodents, and bed bugs after the holidays
Travel season is bed bug season. It is also the cheapest time of year to get an inspection, because nobody wants one.