Property and grounds
Pest Control
You protect buildings and the people in them from things that damage both. Termites, rodents, mosquitoes, commercial accounts with health inspections riding on your work. It is licensed, it is recurring revenue, and it is one of the steadiest trades in the South.
A day in it
- Ten or twelve stops today, routed tight.
- First is a quarterly service. Inspect the perimeter, treat, check the interior stations.
- Second is a termite inspection on a house that's about to close. That report matters to a lot of people.
- Find evidence in a crawl space and document all of it with photos.
- Lunch, then a commercial kitchen account before the dinner rush.
- Roach service in a restaurant is done right or done again next week.
- Every stop gets a report the customer can read.
What it pays
- Starting out
- $32,460
- Median
- $44,730
- Experienced
- $61,410
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 (national). Starting out = 10th percentile. Median = 50th. Experienced = 90th. Annual. Georgia figures to be added alongside national. SOC 37-2021. Real numbers only — never estimated, never rounded up.
How you get in
- —Hired with no experience. Companies train you and pay for your licensing.
- —Georgia requires registration and then certification through the Department of Agriculture.
- —Wood-destroying organism certification is where the pay steps up.
- —The Mustard Seed covers licensing, study materials, and exam fees.
What you need before you start
- —Crawl spaces and attics. This is where the work actually happens.
- —Chemical safety and label compliance, taken seriously.
- —People skills — you're in homes and businesses all day and half the job is explaining.
Someone doing it
Photograph, first name, age, and three or four sentences in their own words — to be supplied.
What it turns into
Route manager, then branch manager, then your own company. Pest control companies sell on recurring contract value and they sell well.
Want to talk to somebody doing this?
Two fields. A person reads it and texts you back.