Challenges: Who Pays, Higher Costs

When Cowleys Pest Services gets a bed bug call, it’s usually because customers brought the pests back home after traveling. “People come back from vacation, or kids come back from college with them, or a business trip; somebody comes back with them,” explained Bill Cowley.

The company mostly gets called to treat single-family homes, which at 43% made up the biggest market for bed bug revenue, found the 2025 PCT State of the Bed Bug Control Market survey.

Treating apartments and multi-family housing generated 36% of bed bug revenue. Controlling the pests in these settings, however, was more challenging, said PMPs in follow-up interviews.

One reason: It’s not unusual for one tenant to cause bed bug problems for people living nearby. “There’s spillover to where, unfortunately, the tenant that’s having the problem isn’t saying anything, and now other tenants that are adjacent to that problem unit are experiencing an issue,” said Dennis Guinan, Green Pest Solutions.

Smaller multi-family dwellings with three to eight units account for the bulk of bed bug work performed by Green Pest Solutions. Located in urban environments, the buildings typically are older structures converted from single- family residences.

Doing this work can get tricky due to the tenant-landlord dynamic. And city regulations can muddy the waters for who is responsible for paying.

During the pandemic, Philadelphia passed legislation that requires landlords to pay for bed bug control during the first year of a lease. “The issue is that the landlords aren’t privy to all of the rules, unless they’re a part of an association, so they are not aware that they’re responsible for it,” said Guinan.

If bed bugs are found in subsequent years of the lease, tenants share the cost of controlling the pests. But renters may fear reprisals. “Most often it is a tenant calling us letting us know they have a problem, and they want it taken care of, but they don’t want their landlord to know,” Guinan said.

PMPs said challenges to growing bed bug services at their locations included increased competition (24%), fewer infestations (23%) and less concern about the pests (19%). The high price of treatment also was a deterrent, said PMPs in follow-up interviews.

“With everything we include with our service and how we go through the process of our service, we are certainly on the higher end for cost. So cost is certainly a factor,” said Andrew Reynolds, Apple’s Environmental Pest Management Solutions.

Scott Monds agreed. The general manager of National Exterminating Co., Newport News, Va., said price was a particular challenge for low-income renters who may be required to pay for treatment. As a result, they may delay reporting a bed bug problem and “then it really does get out of control,” he said.

Cost is what caused Standard Pest Management to change bed bug treatment methods. In the early 2000s, heat was its go-to control approach. Today, the company uses chemical.

“Once landlords were required in New York to treat bed bugs, they weren’t going to be paying for heat services,” said Gil Bloom.