A guide first, a phone line second

Why the guide is organized by problem

Most people search for an exterminator the moment they see something, and the word covers jobs that are licensed, priced and scheduled very differently. A cockroach problem in a kitchen, subterranean termites in a sill plate and a raccoon in an attic can end up with three different specialists, and in many states wildlife trapping is permitted by the state wildlife agency rather than by the office that licenses pesticide work. Each guide on this site starts from what you are looking at, explains what a professional visit for that problem normally includes and lists the questions worth asking before anyone treats the house.

The facts on each page come from public sources: state licensing boards, the EPA, the CDC and university extension services. Every guide lists its sources at the bottom and shows the date it was last reviewed. There are no star ratings, reviews or rankings of companies on this site, because we have not inspected any company's work and could not honestly rank one above another.

How the phone line works

The number on every page is a call-tracking line. When you call, a short automated step may ask about the problem and your ZIP code, and the call is then connected to an independent local provider that serves your area and handles that kind of work. That provider, not this site, gives you an assessment, a price and a schedule, and you decide whether to hire them. If you do, they bill you directly.

The site is paid by a marketing network when a call from this site reaches a participating provider. Callers do not pay this site anything. Which provider answers depends on who serves your ZIP code and who is taking calls at that moment, which is also why no page here promises a particular arrival time.

Who the line is set up for

• Homeowners who make the decision about their house, condo, apartment or family home.
• Ants, cockroaches, spiders, crickets, earwigs, silverfish, clothes moths, centipedes, millipedes, termites, mice and rats.
• Nuisance wildlife: bats, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, skunks, birds, snakes and moles.

It is not set up for businesses or other commercial buildings, for mobile homes, or for bed bugs, bees and wasps. If you rent, the landlord is normally the person who books and pays for pest control, and the usual route is a written request to them.

Photos and diagrams

The house diagrams are drawn for this site to show where a problem usually starts. Photographs, where they appear, are illustrations: the people in them are models, not technicians or companies you will reach through the line, and the houses are not real addresses.

Contact

Corrections and questions about the guides go to admin@compareexterminator.com. A correction to a fact on a page is checked against its source and, if it holds, the page is updated and its review date changes. To reach a provider about a pest problem, use the line.

Call (844) 307-8876