The Essentials

Bed bug control remained an essential service for pest control companies in 2024.

“It’s extremely important,” said Joel Grassi, director of sales at BHB Pest Elimination, which serves residential and commercial customers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

People who have bed bug issues needed professional help to get rid of the pests.

On average, these services generated 13.7 percent of revenue at pest control company locations over the past 12 months, found the 2024 PCT State of the Bed Bug Control Market survey. The survey was sponsored by Envu and conducted by Readex Research, an independent research firm based in Stillwater, Minn.

For multi-family housing, effective bed bug control services were key.

“In Los Angeles, bed bugs are a reason for someone to sue someone else. We need to be able to do bed bug work for our customers and do it well,” said Greg Bausch, vice president of American City Pest & Termite, Gardena, Calif.

It’s also work you don’t want to give to a competitor, even if it’s a small percentage of your revenue. “If we don’t do it, somebody else will,” Bausch pointed out.

BUGSolutions of Tennessee services about 780 apartment communities in the middle of the state. “Bed bug control is one of our niches. We’ve been able to figure it out and solve the issue before we’re treating a whole building for bed bugs,” said Loyd Owen, senior division manager.

In follow-up interviews, pest management professionals (PMPs) said bed bug control is not the predominant service it was years ago. “We still have bed bug jobs regularly” but “we’re less busy” with this work, explained Grassi.

Del Lawson, vice president, Modern Pest Control, which serves the greater Houston area, agreed. Bed bugs are “not in the first 10 lines of our revenue coming in, but it’s enough for us to focus on it, to train on it, to be prepared, to carry the products; all of that.”

According to the PCT survey, 38 percent of PMPs said bed bug control services became more significant to their business over the past five years. In comparison, 68 percent responded this way in 2017, the first year PCT conducted bed bug market research.

Grassi attributes the shift in significance to the industry becoming better at solving bed bug problems. “We had to do the research, really hone our craft, really come up with better products and methodologies.” The industry is better now at inspection, control methods and monitoring, he said.

According to the PCT survey, 86 percent of pest management company locations offered bed bug control services in 2024, up from 71 percent seven years ago.