The Service: Typically, an UpSell

Flea work varies in the severity of the infestation and the overall complexity of the job. As such, most PMPs (79 percent) offer flea control as a separate, add-on service, found the PCT 2021 State of the Flea Control Market survey.

Lance Griggs, owner of Spectrum Pest Management in Madison, Ala., prefers to treat the entire house, especially when clients have indoor-outdoor pets with full run of the home.

“You can get good money for a flea job. It’s several hundred dollars usually to treat the house and if you to do the yard it’s more on top of that,” said Griggs, whose program involves three treatments.

Customers will go with the treatment plan their pest professional suggests, said Kerry Lindsey, Terminix Service Company. “Fleas are pretty traumatic. It’s like bed bugs. When you have something parasitic like that just feeding on you, those people are zero tolerant,” he said.

In 2020, the average price charged for a typical residential flea control service was $210, found the PCT survey. Most companies (76 percent) guarantees their service.

Weather influences when flea season starts and ends. In metro Atlanta, “mid to late summer is usually where we have the most calls. Moisture has a lot to do with it and temperature,” said Glenn Fordham, Olympic Pest & Termite Control.

The season for Griggs in northern Alabama picks up in late summer and can run through November, while flea work in southern Louisiana is nearly year-round for Terminix Service Company.

Nearly a third (30 percent) of pest control companies do not specifically promote their flea control service. Those that do emphasize features like the service guarantee (40 percent), excellent control (37 percent), certified technicians (34 percent), free inspection (27 percent) and benefits of preventive treatment (20 percent).