How to Choose a Pest Control Company

The starting point

What the Council Points You At

Milton Keynes City Council does not carry out pest control treatments in domestic properties. What it does instead is recommend using a professional, and it points residents at two trade bodies — the British Pest Control Association and the National Pest Technicians Association — both of which publish find-a-contractor directories. Its reasoning is that membership indicates standards around training, qualifications and insurance.

That is a reasonable starting filter and you should use it. It is not the only filter, because plenty of competent independent operators are not members of either, and membership on its own does not tell you how a particular job will be handled. Ask the questions below of whoever you ring, member or not.

Photographs on this page are for illustration purposes only.

Money

Four Questions That Prevent a Row Later

The council's own advice is blunt and correct: make sure you know the charge and what is included at that price. Four questions cover it.

1. Is that figure the job, or the first visit? This is where nearly every dispute starts. Rodent, bed bug and flea work normally needs more than one visit.
2. Is there a call-out fee on top? Some firms charge to attend and then charge to treat. We do not charge a call-out fee.
3. How many follow-ups are included? Get the number, not the word "aftercare".
4. What does the guarantee actually say? Not whether there is one — what it covers, for how long, and what voids it.

Method

Three Questions That Tell You Who Knows Their Job

These are harder to fake than the sales answers.

"What do you think it is, and why?" A good answer is specific and hedged — it names a species, says what would confirm it, and says what would change the diagnosis. An answer that names a species confidently over the phone without asking you anything is a sales answer.

"Will you be closing the way in, or only treating?" For mice and rats especially, a treatment without proofing is a pause, not a job. A firm that quotes treatment only, and does not raise proofing at all, is quoting you half the work.

"What do I need to do before you come, and what after?" Anyone who says nothing is either doing a very simple job or has not thought about it. Bed bug and flea treatments have real preparation requirements, and a firm that does not tell you about them is setting the treatment up to underperform.

Answers to be wary of

Five Things That Should Slow You Down

• A firm price for a complicated job, over the phone, without seeing it. Wasp nests are genuinely the same every time — ours is a fixed £90. A rodent infestation is not. A confident phone price for a rodent job is usually the first visit with the rest to follow.
• Guaranteeing an outcome nobody can guarantee. Re-attending if the problem returns is a real promise. Promising a pest-free home permanently is not, because your garden will always have ants in it and your street will always have mice.
• Pressure to book while they are on the phone. A genuine urgency — a wasp nest by a nursery door — is urgent whoever you use.
• No mention of children, pets or precautions. If nobody asks what is in the house, nobody is planning around it.
• A review profile that does not look like a real business. All five stars, all in one week, no detail, no replies.

Our side of it

What You Can Check About Us

It would be poor form to write this and not answer it.

Technicians are fully trained and insured. There is no call-out fee, and the price is agreed with you before any work starts. Wasp nest treatment is a fixed £90. Same-day appointments are available, including evenings and weekends. Wasp, cockroach, squirrel and rat treatments carry a guarantee, set out on each of those pages — read the wording rather than the word.

Ask us what we think it is and why, ask what preparation you need to do, and ask whether proofing is included. If the answers are vague, that tells you something, and it should.

Short answers

Questions, Briefly

Where to go next

The Pages That Answer This