Did you know that more than 80% of homeowners experience at least one pest problem every year? From ants and termites to mice and squirrels, there are a whole lot of pest problems that can plague a home at any given time.

If you have a pest problem on your hands right now, you might be looking for a pest control company to step in and lend a helping hand. You also might be wondering what the pest control cost is going to be to make your pest problem go away for good.

It can be difficult to answer the question, “How much is pest control?”, definitively. On average, homeowners pay anywhere from $50 to over $600 for general pest treatments.

The pest control prices that you pay are going to depend on a number of factors. So if you’re asking yourself, “How much should I pay for pest control?”, right now, you should learn about these factors prior to calling on a local pest control company.

Here are several of the factors that can have an impact on pest control rates.

What Kind of Pest Problem Are You Dealing With?

When you’re trying to figure out what the pest control cost is going to be for your home, one of the first things that’s going to factor into it will be the kind of pest problem that you have. There are obviously all kinds of different pests that can work their way into your home and wreak havoc in it.

Some of the most common pests found in American homes are:

• Ants
• Fleas
• Mice
• Roaches
• Spiders
• Bees
• Termites

The specific type of pest problem that you have in your home is going to go a long way toward determining your pest control rates. If you have, say, bees emanating from a single beehive, your problem might cost less to fix than someone else who has a home filled with termites.

A pest control company is going to need to take a different approach to each individual type of pest. There are some pests that don’t cost much to get rid of and others that could potentially cost you a small fortune before everything is all said and done.

How Bad Is Your Pest Control Problem?

Another thing that you should keep in the back of your mind when you’re trying to calculate your pest control cost is how severe of a pest problem you have in your home. The bigger that your pest problem is, the more you’re likely going to have to pay to make it go away.

Let’s say, for example, that you just spotted a mouse running across your kitchen floor for the very first time. There is a decent chance that there’s probably more mice where that one came from. But at the same time, you likely don’t have hundreds of mice running around behind the walls in your home.

You’re not going to have to pay as much for pest control as someone who has dozens of mice creeping and crawling throughout their home every day. If you’re seeing that many mice in your home, it means that you have an all-out infestation in your home that’s going to take a lot of hard work to eliminate.

A pest control company might be able to get the first situation we just mentioned under control in a single day without much effort on their part. But the second situation that we spoke about could require a much longer extermination process. You’re going to face much higher pest control rates if your home falls into this category at this time.

Which Pest Control Company Are You Going to Hire to Help You?

When you’re in the market for a pest control company, finding one shouldn’t be an issue at all. There are almost 30,000 pest control companies operating throughout the U.S. at this time, which means you should have at least a few options in your immediate area.

But one thing you’re going to want to keep in mind when you hire a pest control company is that every individual company is going to charge different pest control rates to their customers. It’s why you shouldn’t simply choose the first pest control company you can find and call on them for their services.

In a perfect world, you should reach out to four or five pest control companies and explain your situation to them. You should let them know what kind of pests you have in your home, how bad the problem seems to be, and how quickly you need the problem dealt with. A pest control company should then be able to provide you with a rough estimate of what your pest control cost will be if you work with them.

You can then compare the quotes that you receive from several pest control companies to find out which one is going to give you the most competitive rates around. You could save yourself hundreds of dollars by taking this approach to choosing a pest control company.

You shouldn’t necessarily just go with whichever pest control company is going to charge you the least. But you should try to track down the company that’s going to deliver the services that you need without breaking the bank. If you don’t remember anything else from this blog post, make sure you remember that!

How Soon Do You Need a Pest Control Company to Come to Your Home?

If you can avoid doing it, you shouldn’t ever put off having pest control services performed in your home as quickly as you can. You don’t want to let a pest problem grow and spiral out of control by not taking care of it as soon as possible.

But there are some pest problems that are going to need to be handled sooner than others. These types of pest problems are probably going to cost you more money than others that won’t require immediate services.

If, for instance, you have a beehive behind a shed out back of your home, you shouldn’t let it linger there for too long. But at the same time, you’re not going to need to have a pest control company send someone out on a Sunday morning to deal with it. You can get rid of the beehive at your earliest convenience without scheduling emergency pest control services.

There are some other pest control services that won’t be able to wait, though. The aforementioned infestation involving dozens of mice scurrying throughout your home at one time is a great example of a pest problem that you won’t want to have to deal with for any longer than you have to. You and your family could face a whole host of health issues if you live in a home with a serious rodent infestation.

In that case, you’re going to want to have a pest control company come to your home ASAP, no matter what the pest control cost will be. It’ll be well worth the pest control rates that you’ll have to pay since your family’s health could be compromised if you don’t do anything about your pest problem.

Is Your Pest Control Problem Going to Require Multiple Treatments?

Oftentimes, a pest control company is going to be able to eliminate a pest problem from your home in one shot. They’ll remove a beehive or send mice running for the hills by treating your home just once for your pest problem.

But there are also many instances in which a pest control company isn’t going to be able to get rid of all the pests in your home at once. They’re not going to be able to remove every single ant, flea, or termite from your home without treating it several times over the course of a few weeks.

As you might imagine, this is going to send your pest control cost skyrocketing in a lot of cases. You’re going to have to pay a pest control company to take at least a few trips out to your home, and the total price is going to add up over time.

In this situation, it’s good to be on the same page with your pest control company so that you know how often they’re going to have to visit your home and what it’s going to cost you. It’ll prevent any miscommunications between you and your pest control company and ensure that you know what the pest control rates will be in the end.

Don’t be afraid to sit down with your pest control company at the start for a frank discussion about how they’re going to handle your pest problem. They should be prepared to break down their general approach to the problem to you so that you know what to expect in the days, weeks, and even months to come.

Are You Going to Need to Continue to Treat Your Home for Pests?

In the immediate aftermath of a pest problem, you’re going to be glad that your pest control company was able to eliminate whatever pests were in your home. But you’re also going to be worried about the pests possibly making a return at some point and causing issues for you again.

Your pest control company should be able to explain whether or not they think the pests might come back. They’ll use everything from the location of your home to the overall condition of it to tell you what your chances are of having pests in your home again in the future.

If there is even a slight chance that you might have pests come back to your home moving forward, you may want to arrange to have a pest control company come back to perform preventative maintenance every so often. You can have them come once a month, once every six months, or even just once a year to inspect your home for pests and to treat it for them.

There will obviously be a pest control cost associated with doing this kind of maintenance in your home. But the good news is that it could prevent you from having to pay much higher pest control rates later on if you don’t do any maintenance and see pests make a return.

You should at least think about scheduling preventative pest control maintenance for your home. It could pay off in a big way down the line.

Do You Need to Make Any Repairs to Your Home as a Result of Pests?

There are some pests that aren’t going to do too much damage to your home while they’re in it. Fleas, for instance, might annoy you and your pets, but they’re not going to do a ton of damage to your home.

But many other pests, like mice and termites, will leave damage in their wake as they move around in your home. It’ll put you in a position where you’ll have no choice but to make repairs once a pest control company is able to get rid of them for you.

You should factor these repairs into your pest control cost, even if the pest control company isn’t going to be the one making the repairs for you. It’ll incentivize you to do whatever you have to do to keep your initial pest control rates on the lower side.

Figure Out What the Pest Control Cost Will Be for Your Home Today

It would be pretty much impossible for us to sit here and give you a definitive pest control cost for your home. As you’ve just seen, there are lots of factors that need to be considered when coming up with pest control rates.

To get an answer, you’ll have to contact a few pest control companies in your area and ask, “How much does pest control cost?” They should be able to give you a better idea of what you’ll have to pay to treat your home for pests.

Want to learn more about what pest control companies can do to help you with a pest problem? Check out the other pest control-related content on our blog.