Find Houston-area pest control companies — and see which ones we've confirmed with the business.

Hiring a pest control company in Houston

Pest control is licensed in Texas, by the Department of Agriculture's Structural Pest Control Service. The business needs a licence and the technician at your door needs one too. Ask for the number.

Why Houston is a hard place to keep bugs out

Warm, wet and mild — the same conditions that make the growing season endless mean pests here do not get a killing winter. Practically, that means a treatment plan in Houston is ongoing rather than a one-off, and any company promising to permanently eliminate insects from a house in this climate is overselling.

Three things dominate this market:

• Subterranean termites. Houston is in one of the highest-pressure termite zones in the country. This is the one worth spending real money on, and the two approaches — a liquid barrier versus a bait system — behave very differently. Ask which one you are being quoted, what the renewal cost is, and crucially what the warranty actually covers: retreatment only, or retreatment plus damage repair. That distinction is worth thousands.
• Mosquitoes. Standing water is the whole game. A misting service treats symptoms; a company that walks your yard looking for what holds water is treating the cause.
• Rodents in autumn. The seasonal move indoors starts when nights cool. Exclusion — sealing the entry points — outperforms trapping every time, and it is the part cheap quotes leave out.

Questions that separate companies

• Is the quote for an initial treatment plus a recurring plan, and what does cancelling cost?
• What are you applying, and is there a re-entry interval for kids or pets?
• If pests come back between visits, is the callback free? Most reputable companies say yes without being asked.