Vast Majority of PMPs Offer Tick Control, PCT Poll Finds

CLEVELAND – For many years tick control was a niche service in the pest control industry, performed mostly by companies that also offered exterior services (e.g., mosquito control). 

Times have changed and now tick control is offered by most pest control companies. In fact, the vast majority (85 percent) of those who responded to PCT’s recent reader poll indicated they offered tick control services.

Mark Constantino, owner of Arkadia Pest Control, Randolph, N.J., said tick control is a growing segment for his business and that revenue generated from tick control is “hovering around 7 percent.”  Constantino said he has found success advertising tick control services on his company’s website, www.arkadiapest.com, as well as on Google and Facebook.

Although, a large majority of PCOs said the do offer tick control, that doesn’t necessarily mean their phones are ringing off the hook with service requests. Ticks are largely a regional pest, most problematic in the Northeast and Midwest. 

“It’s not that we don’t offer tick control, it’s just that don’t really deal with them [in Southwest area]. They aren’t prevalent here. We haven’t had a tick call in years,” said Tayler O’Quinn, marketing managing, Keller's Pest Control, Bradenton, Fla. O’Quinn added that if the company were to get a tick control service request they have the protocols in place and it would just be a matter of “figuring out which product to use.”

One area where ticks are a problem is northern Michigan. Butch Hogarth, owner of Hogarth’s Pest Control, Williamsburg, Mich., said tick control accounts for about five percent of his company’s total revenue. Hogarth said one thing he recommends homeowners do before calling him for tick control services is drag a white, terry cloth towel across the lawn, then checking the towel to see if it picks up ticks. Hogarth created a Facebook video to demonstrate how this works.

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