Market on the Move

More people wanted mosquito-free yards last year. According to the 2024 PCT State of the Mosquito Control Market survey, sponsored by MGK, 61 percent of pest management professionals (PMPs) said demand for mosquito control services increased either somewhat or significantly in 2023 from the year prior.

It’s no surprise then that 58 percent of PMPs said revenue from mosquito control services increased in 2023 at their locations. On average, this work accounted for 17.4 percent of overall company revenue last year, though this was down from 19.3 percent in 2022.

Uncooperative weather caused the decline, reported PMPs in follow-up interviews.

For J&J Exterminating, based in Lafayette, La., mosquito revenue was “way down from normal” due to drought, said Technical Director Adam Woodard. “It was so dry for so long, there was no water for those mosquitoes to hatch out in. There’s always going to be some mosquito pressure down here in Louisiana, but as far as getting a lot of new services, we just didn’t have a whole lot of that,” he said.

Heavy rain in New England was the challenge for Ultra Safe Pest Management. “In 2023 we got a ton of rain. It was unseasonably wet,” said President Vic Palermo.

This caused the Boston-based company to miss about 15 percent of mosquito treatments. As such, this service line only saw single-digit growth in 2023, compared to 25 precent growth in 2022. That year, drought extended the summer season and “we didn’t miss a single treatment. In fact, we got some extra treatments,” recalled Palermo. An extra 400 or so treatments “really adds up,” he said.

Despite inhospitable weather in Arizona, Mosquito Joe of North Phoenix experienced significant growth.

“Last year was the hottest and driest year on record for Phoenix, and we grew our business by 40 percent,” said Denis Logan, franchise owner.

Mosquitoes in Arizona? Yep. “We do have a pretty healthy mosquito problem here in the valley, Phoenix in particular,” said Logan. The area gets enough rain and consistently warm temperatures to sustain container-breeding Aedes mosquito populations about 11 months of the year, he said.

“They are super resilient. The fight is real.”

According to the PCT survey, 86 percent of pest control company locations offered mosquito control services last year, up from 74 percent in 2023.