An Essential Service

Controlling fruit flies, drain flies and phorid flies doesn’t account for a huge slice of revenue at most pest control companies, but it remains an essential service.

“We don’t get a lot of it, but we do have customers that expect us to know about it,” said Lucas Geer, technical director, Walker Pest Management, Greenville, S.C.

Small fly jobs at Walker Pest Management typically are “few and far between, but when it does come up, it can be very challenging just trying to figure out where they’re coming from, what changed and why they are here all of a sudden,” he explained.

On average, 4.3 percent of overall company revenue in 2023 was generated from small fly control services, found the 2024 PCT State of the Small Fly Control Market survey, which was sponsored by Nisus. Most pest management professionals (PMPs) — 63 percent — expected the service to generate about the same amount of revenue in the year ahead.

More commercial customers would benefit from recurring small fly control and prevention programs, said Ray Hess, a training consultant who recently retired from Arrow Exterminators, Atlanta, Ga. He previously was region technical training manager at the company.

The big challenge is “getting customers to realize that it’s a needed service and pay for it,” said Hess. This would reduce the number of difficult small fly problems that PMPs get called in to solve. “A lot of customers, by the time they finally realize that ‘OK, I need help,’ it’s so bad it takes time [to resolve] and that can be an issue,” he explained.

Over the past five years, small fly control remained an equally significant portion of business for pest control company locations, reported 51 percent of PMPs. It was a service clients needed and that companies must continue to be skilled at providing.

“It isn’t normally day-to-day all that significant, but you can’t run from it. It pops up on any type of account,” said Bill Haynes, co-owner, Haynes Exterminating, Flowery Branch, Ga.

According to the PCT survey, 92 percent of company locations provided services to control small flies.