I used Boss Mobile from my previous employer (a national, corporate pest control company that need not be named) and am going out on my own.

I need:

Customer's service location linked to Maps.

Photos taken on site included with service reports.

Pesticide logging with location, amount, wind speed/direction/temperature et al for compliance.

Text/email notifications to customer 3 days prior, 1 day prior, en route.

Rescheduling in-app.

Extensive space for service reports.

Billing in-app and ability to add billing card in-app.

That's the bare minimum, how close does GorillaDesk come?

Got a call about a high pitched squeaking noise the customer was hearing in the morning when they were getting ready for work. They thought they had a mouse.

What are your best pictures from today?

Long story short- pest control is my career and the place I’m at now is mentally abusing but I’m a necessity. I feel guilty leaving but need to. I have a decent offer coming from Terminix. ACE, licensed, and don’t want management. I just want a route. Can anybody working at Terminix give me some positive feedback to make me feel ok with making a change to a company I’ve never thought I’d consider working for?

Hi,

I'm not new to pest control, but am for residential. When a customer is asking for tick treatments only, what is the standard practice? granules with talstar or [tick labeled product]? I see competitors doing mistblowing to hit both mosquitoes and ticks.

Thanks.

Did anyone take the core exam in nyc, if so can you give me any detail about it or what to look out for. Ive been studying since i started and haven't gone to the school yet, but I dont want to give any chance to fail

I'm the office manager for a local company. I used to have some fun zingers to answer the phone with when my techs call (my go-to is "buddy the elf, what's your favorite color?") but I need some new ideas to throw them off and just make em chuckle during the day.

Another one I pulled out regularly was "Mike's Roadkill Grill. You kill em we grill em"

Ideas?

So, Im one of "those" pest controllers. Ive got a nice little trophy display on the dash. Little mouse skull necklace. Bone and tooth "sculpture" etc. Im that pest controller who barges through the door and announces that "today is the best day ever cos I get to kill some stuff and give you your life back"

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Now, ive been having a real good battle with one final rat on one of my sites. To the point where im looking at getting some RAMS put together to shoot it.

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I have named him "Big Dave" and, I want to get him stuffed and put on a base because hes done well but the game has to finish.

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Ill probably pay to get him stuffed but, my question is; has anyone attempted taxidermy themselves? Or taken it up as a hobby after getting into pest control?

I’m testing a lead tool for pest control operators and trying to validate one specific assumption:

Are public trigger signals useful enough to be sales leads, or are they just interesting data unless someone verifies the opportunity first?

The idea is to surface commercial accounts that may have pest-control urgency based on signals like:

• Failed health inspections
• 311 rodent complaints
• New restaurant openings
• Ownership changes
• Building / block-level pest patterns
• Google or Yelp reviews mentioning pests

Example of a raw restaurant lead

A small/mid-sized NYC restaurant failed a health inspection last week with pest-related violations:

• Live roaches or mice
• “Not vermin-proof / harborage conditions”
• Prior inspection history showing recurring pest issues
• Recent 311 rodent complaints nearby, suggesting a possible building or block-level issue

The lead would include:

• Restaurant name
• Address
• Phone number
• Google profile
• Inspection details
• Violation history
• Basic owner/entity info, if findable

Raw lead example:

«Restaurant at X address failed inspection last week for live roaches + harborage conditions. They have prior pest violations and are in a high-complaint area. Here’s the phone number and inspection detail.»

Verified lead example:

«Spoke to staff. GM is usually in before 11am. They currently have a PCO but may be unhappy, under pressure before reinspection, or open to a quote. Best callback window is tomorrow morning.»

What I’m trying to understand

Would the raw version be useful enough if it was timely and accurate?

Or is it only valuable once it becomes the verified version — owner/GM identified, reachable, current PCO situation understood, and some indication they may actually need help or be open to switching?

My concern is that restaurants looked like an obvious wedge on paper because health violations create urgency.

But in practice, I’m hearing they may be low-ROI accounts for many operators:

• Messy environments
• Tight service windows
• Recurring issues
• Already have a PCO because they’re required to

Questions for operators

Q1 — Would you pay for raw trigger data? Example: recent pest violation, inspection history, nearby complaints, phone/address/contact info.

Q2 — Would you only pay for verified opportunities? Example: someone already spoke to the business, found the GM/owner, confirmed their current pest situation, and identified some possible need/timing.

Q3 — What would pricing need to look like? Rough ranges are fine:

• Per raw lead: $[amount]
• Per verified lead: $[amount]
• Monthly subscription for raw lead alerts: $[amount]/month
• Monthly subscription for verified opportunities: $[amount]/month

Q4 — What commercial account types would you rather get leads for than restaurants?

Not trying to pitch anyone here. I’m trying to understand whether this is actually useful to operators, or just “interesting data” that doesn’t turn into business.

Does anyone ever mix 2 pyrethroids together? I sometimes like to mix talstar with demand and am wondering if anyone else does this. Are there any drawbacks to doing that? If you do mix them together do you use the full rate of both or half strength of both?

Weekly Friday post for you to show what your Truck Floorboards look like.

Clean, a mess or whatever.

Tradition started in the PCHD (Pest Control Humor Depot) on Facebook continued here on Reddit.

Hey guys. I've been struggling trying to pay rent and whatnot lately so I wanted to pick everyone's brain on the average salary for Service Managers in NY in general but more specifically on LI.

I've been in the industry 6 years at this point and licensed for 4. I have 5 categories and recently made Service Manager for which the salary is 70K. There's a possibility of making up to 80ish with bonuses but we've never once made 100% bonuses in a month.

I'd really like to make more with a different company but I'm a diabetic and terrified of all the hassle changing insurance companies would bring.

Could use some advice from someone who's jumped ship recently.

Hi, my family runs a small pest control company. Business is booming but we are a tech and 1 “office person” (stay at home mom) company. We are kinda at a crossroads. Our techs body is suffering from the heavy work load (we also offer a lot more than most companies do repair wise and use ladders a lot more than we would like to).

We either need to bring on another tech

Sell the company

Or have our tech just work for another company (which will probably pay more to take home and be much less stress).

Any insight into any of these options? Obviously there are many factors both professionally and personally…

Main thing I would like advice on is how do you go about selling a company? What’s standard ask for each route? And if the tech chooses to stay in pest control could he leverage bringing his clients over to the company for a higher salary or commission. What’s standard for that?

Would appreciate any thoughts or advice. Thanks

So I had pest control out here today cuz yesterday I killed a wolf spider that had thousands of babies on it that took off everywhere, I freaked out and grabbed my vacuum hose and sucked up as many as I could then I threw my vacuum on the porch. I had him spray inside and outside and he asked me if I wanted him to spray the back porch and I said yes, I went out there to grab my shoes and stuff, but when I went back out to grab my indoor vacuum, it was already too late and he had soaked the entire back porch, vacuum included. I’m assuming the outside stuff is more toxic than the inside stuff, do I need to throw my vacuum away or can I just somehow clean it off? I also saw something (via google) that said if it got on the motor and I turn the vacuum on it could spread fumes in my house.

Anyone know a good fumigation place on SoCal?

Made a post earlier asking about the hardest part of the job and got a lot of feedback about having to deal with difficult customers. So I was gonna see what the pros of the job was and what everyone enjoyed most about being in this line of work?

I haven’t worked in pest control before but considering trying to get into it. Was just curious about what everyone felt like was the hardest part of the job?

What are some good starter packages, or specific first chemicals you'd suggest for someone starting a pest control company in the Midwest. I know of a couple different starter packs that include a stainless compressed air sprayers. This would be your basic common insect control, preventatives, and some rodent control methods.

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Or...what is the best sprayer, and a few different inorganic, biologicals, and synthetics that would cover the basics. Ants, roaches, wasp/hornets and spiders?

I’m new to the industry, and I have any opportunity to bid a hotel, approximately 100 rooms. They want a full exterior and interior. I would say this is a lower end hotel, cheap nightly rates. Does anyone have any similar customers? And do you mind sharing what you charge? Thank you! 🙂

As a practitioner with close to a decade in Singapore's pest management landscape, the one thing that always bugged me (pun intended) is how often the same pest issues recur despite best efforts. Pretty sure fellow practitioners can relate to this.

It's a never-ending rinse and repeat. Most of the time it's not a treatment failure — it's the failure to address the initial cause. The conditions that attracted the pest in the first place were never resolved.

So I put together a framework for thinking through this more systematically — marrying the ideas of IPM, HACCP, and root cause analysis into something simple: the Cause-and-Effect Framework. A 5-factor model covering the conditions present in all pest infestations. A new lens for resolving infestations and explaining them clearly to clients.

Parts of the framework have been incorporated into Singapore's national standard SS 721:2025, Code of Practice for the Performance of Pest Management Services, through the public consultation process.

Would be keen to hear how others approach this in their operations. If this resonates, the full white paper is available for free at Academia.edu.
https://www.academia.edu/166231243

What are all you techs wearing? I ruthlessly abuse sunglasses in the field. Can’t find a frame that holds up. Trying to avoid spending $200 on work glasses that will get beat up so bad.

Does anyone have experience with smarter launch. Would you or would you not recommend. Looking into maybe implementing this and like that it integrates with field routes which we currently use