Service: A Combo of Tools and Treatments

How do pest management companies decide which termite treatments to perform at their accounts? As with virtually all pest management treatments, pest management professionals rely on a wide range of tools in their toolboxes.

“The ultimate litmus test for me and my brother is, what would we have done at our own houses?” said Bill Cowley, who co-owns Cowleys Pest Services with brother, Drew Cowley.

They use a combination of termite baiting systems around the exterior and liquid termiticide treatment for vulnerable areas like the front stoop and garage.

“We combine methods on most of our treatments as long as we have a cooperative customer — if they see the advantage of doing that,” Bill Cowley said.

According to the 2025 PCT State of the Termite Control Market survey, 75 percent of PMPs said their company location offered both baits and liquid termiticide treatments.

Using a combination of both was the primary treatment for almost half (48 percent) of the survey’s respondents. Thirty-three percent of PMPs said their primary treatment was liquids; 16 percent said baits only.

“Different situations call for a different type of action,” said Jeff Preece, ZipZap Termite & Pest Control, located in Kansas City, Mo. His go-to treatment is termite baiting systems, but “there are some cases where we’ll use the termiticide dust," he said. “There will be times that we use the termiticide foam, and there are times that we may do a spot treatment with liquid.”

Fullscope Pest Control began using termite baiting systems to help combat Formosan termites, which are now active in north Houston. Camille Landry said she likes the ability to use an above-ground bait station to target carton nests that can be found in attics and “are a little bit more difficult to locate or treat.”

WDI/WDO Inspections. In the PCT survey, 85 percent of pest management professionals said their company locations performed termite inspections or reports for real estate transactions.

ZipZap Termite & Pest Control is not one of them. The company stopped performing WDI/WDO inspections for real estate transactions in 2023.

“They make no money for us. And they’re really not a generator for leads,” said Preece. Employees had to “drive all over the city and it really disrupts our flow of programs. The windshield time was enormous.” Plus, it was hard to charge a decent price for inspections in a competitive market, he said.

“We made a decision to stop that, and our revenue went up probably 40 percent,” said Preece. Now instead of spending time performing a $95 termite inspection, an employee can perform a $250 pest treatment.

The company still does about 16 real estate inspections a month — down from 300 — but it charges a higher price and mostly does inspections for refinancing. Those specific inspections, Preece said, aren’t as time-bound as home sales and are easier to fit into existing route schedules.

“It’s been very, very effective for us, and more profitable,” said Preece of dropping the inspections.

Heath Porch, owner of 360 Pest Solutions, does fewer wood- destroying insect inspections in the greater Mansfield, Ohio, area than before.

“Nowadays, a lot of homeowners in Ohio are just using home inspectors who have never killed a termite in their life” to inspect for termites along with other conditions for a lower price. He said he’s seen where some inspectors have misidentified termite and carpenter ant damage.

And if termites are found, he’s still going to charge the customer to perform his own WDI inspection before performing treatment. He’s not going to rely on the home inspector’s assessment. “To me, that’s unfair to consumers when they have to be double dinged.”

Damage Repair. Fixing termite damage is a growing revenue stream for Admiral Pest Control, which performs localized treatments and subcontracts fumigation for drywood termites. “Within our lane, we try to make sure we can do everything that’s in our scope of work,” said Trevor Jones.

Making the entire process seamless leads to long-term customer relationships.

“We do repairs, we do the treatments, we’ll put you on a maintenance plan and make it easy for the consumer. That leads to a lot of customer referrals. And that leads to customer trust. That trust leads to a lot of cross selling,” including general pest work, he said.

Fumigation. Sixteen percent of pest control company locations offered termite fumigation in 2024.

It was the only area of termite work that declined at Admiral Pest Control.

“Fumigations are down 20 percent over last year. That’s been a trend that’s gone on the last few years” as the cost of fumigation has increased, said Jones. As a result, localized treatment — using termiticide foam and borate-based products — has become more appealing to Admiral’s customers.

PMPs reported that the average callback rate for termite control services was 1.8 percent.