About

PestChief is a matching service, not a pest control company

We do not own trucks, we do not employ technicians, and nobody from PestChief will ever come to your house. PestChief is not owned by, and does not own, any pest control company. What we do is pass a homeowner's request to one independent local pest control company that can help, and publish sourced research to make that decision easier.

Find my pro How matching works

Free for homeowners. One independent local pest control company, and that company contacts you directly.

Chief, a beagle inspector in a blue work jacket, holding a magnifying glass

In one paragraph

What is PestChief?

PestChief is a free matching service for US homeowners. You give the pest you are seeing and your ZIP code, and PestChief passes that request to one independent local pest control company that covers the ZIP code and handles the pest. That company contacts you directly. Pest control companies pay for introductions, so the homeowner pays nothing.

Scope

What does PestChief actually do?

PestChief does two things. It publishes research about pests, the damage they do, when they are active and what treatment typically costs. And it passes a homeowner's request to one independent local pest control company that covers their ZIP code and treats their pest. Matching is on coverage and pest handled, never on price.

Everything past the introduction belongs to the company you hire. They inspect the property, they choose the treatment, they set the price, they hold the warranty and they stand behind the work. PestChief has no role in any of it, and no ability to intervene in it.

There are also things we deliberately do not publish. You will not find reviews on this site, star ratings, ranked lists of the best companies in your city, or claims about how many homeowners we have helped. Numbers like that are easy to write and almost impossible for a reader to verify, so we leave them out rather than dress the site up with them.

You will not find a team page, a founding date or a headcount here yet either. Those details will appear on this page once they are confirmed, rather than being written to fill the space.

The business model

How does PestChief make money?

Independent pest control companies pay PestChief for qualified introductions. Homeowners pay nothing. That is the entire business model, stated here on the page rather than buried in the terms.

What counts as a qualified introduction?

It means a homeowner with a genuine pest problem, in a ZIP code the company actually services, for a pest the company actually treats. A company pays for that introduction whether or not the job is eventually booked, which is exactly why we would rather send a partner nothing than send them somebody they cannot help.

What does that mean for you?

You are never billed by PestChief, and nothing is added to the price the company quotes you.
We have a commercial relationship with the companies we introduce you to, and you should read this site knowing that.
Paying us does not buy a company a better write up, because we do not publish rankings, reviews or endorsements of individual companies at all.
If a match is wrong, tell us. A bad introduction costs us the trust of the homeowner and the relationship with the company at the same time.

Why say this on a page instead of in a footnote?

A homeowner who does not know how a free service is paid for cannot properly judge the advice it gives. Once you know what our incentives are, you can decide for yourself what our recommendations are worth. That seems a fairer trade than hiding it.

Pest control companies pay PestChief, and homeowners do not. Tell us the pest and your ZIP code, and one independent local pest control company that covers your address contacts you directly.

Find my pro

Why we exist

Why does PestChief exist?

Pest control is a hard thing to shop for. It usually starts on a bad day. The work is not standardized, so two quotes are rarely comparable. Licensing rules differ from state to state. And a great deal of what ranks well online is either an advertisement or a thin page assembled to catch a search rather than to answer it.

Meanwhile the genuinely useful information already exists. University extension services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture and state agriculture and pesticide agencies all publish careful, current work on identification, health risk and treatment. It is simply scattered across dozens of sites, written for specialists, and very hard to find at ten at night when you have just seen something move under the kitchen counter.

PestChief exists to do two unglamorous things. Put that research into plain language in one place, and shorten the distance between a homeowner with a problem and a local pest control company that can solve it.

Sourcing

Where does the information on this site come from?

Every factual claim on this site carries a source, and that source has to come from one of a small number of places.

Sources PestChief uses

University extension services, including state land grant university entomology and integrated pest management programs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for anything touching human health.
The Environmental Protection Agency, for pesticide regulation, registered products and safety guidance.
The United States Department of Agriculture, for species range, agricultural impact and quarantine information.
State agencies, for licensing rules, reporting requirements and regional pest conditions.

Sources PestChief will not use

A pest control company's own marketing, including that of a company PestChief introduces homeowners to.
Another matching service or lead generator.
A statistic with no traceable origin, however often it is repeated elsewhere.
Anything we cannot link to so that you can check it yourself.

Our standards

What rules does PestChief hold itself to?

If a claim cannot be sourced, it does not go on the page. We would rather leave a visible gap than fill it with something plausible.
Prices are published as national ranges with the basis stated, never as a quote for your home.
Pages about bites and stings are written to help you describe what you are seeing, never to diagnose it. Diagnosis is a doctor's job.
Pages carry the date they were last updated, so you can judge how current the research is.
When we get something wrong and you tell us, we correct the page rather than quietly deleting it.

Nothing on this site is medical advice, legal advice or a substitute for an inspection of your property by a licensed professional. Pest control licensing is set state by state, and you can confirm any company's license yourself with your state pesticide or agriculture agency before you let anyone treat your home.

Common questions about PestChief

Does PestChief do the pest control itself?

No. PestChief does not spray, trap or treat anything, and it employs no technicians. It passes a homeowner's request to one independent local pest control company. That company inspects the property, chooses the treatment, sets the price and holds any warranty.

What does PestChief cost a homeowner?

Nothing. PestChief never bills a homeowner, and nothing is added to the price the pest control company quotes. The company pays PestChief for the introduction. What the treatment itself costs is set by that company, and the cost guides on this site publish national ranges from published sources with the basis for each figure stated.

How many companies will contact me?

One. A request goes to a single independent local pest control company that covers the ZIP code and handles the pest, and that company contacts the homeowner directly. PestChief does not send the same request to a panel of companies to bid against each other.

How quickly will somebody call?

PestChief does not promise a timeframe, because it does not control the schedule of an independent business. Timing depends on the company and on how busy the area is. If nobody has been in touch and the problem cannot wait, say so through the contact page.

Is PestChief independent of the companies it introduces?

Yes. PestChief does not own, and is not owned by, any pest control company. Matching runs on which ZIP codes a company covers and which pests it handles, not on which company pays the most. PestChief publishes no rankings, reviews or endorsements of individual companies.

Who is behind PestChief?

There is no team page, founding date or headcount published here. Rather than write something to fill the space, those details will appear on this page once they are confirmed. What can be checked today is set out above: the business model, the sourcing rules and the limits stated plainly.

Keep reading

Get matched with one local pest control company

Tell us the pest and your ZIP code. It costs you nothing, one independent local pest control company gets the request, and that company contacts you directly.

Find my pro How matching works

Are you a pest control company? See what joining involves.

A matching service, not a pest control company.