Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How U.S. pest control companies use video and market their services, and the evidence behind it: our own read of 157 pest control homepages; what Rollins, Rentokil Terminix and Anticimex report about advertising, recurring plans and acquisitions; how many pest control workers and companies there are and what they earn, including Florida; how often homes see rodents, roaches and ticks; the EPA, Florida and auto-renewal rules on safety claims, licences and service plans; and where five popular numbers came from.
28.0% of 157 U.S. pest control homepages we read on November 2, 2026 showed a video player and 23.6% linked to a YouTube channel; that video share sits between HVAC contractors (29.5%) and funeral homes (27.2%) in our same-method reads (our measurement). (Mark Studios)See details
28.7% of those homepages called their treatments safe for kids, pets or family, or non-toxic, and 52.2% used safety or eco wording. EPA bars such claims on pesticide labels and product ads; that rule governs products, and we make no judgment about any site. (Mark Studios; EPA)See details
Rollins, Orkin's parent, spent $128.5 million on advertising in 2025, up 58.4% since 2019, though advertising fell to 3.4% of revenue as sales grew faster. (Rollins; our calculation)See details
Rentokil moved Terminix marketing from paid digital media to local web pages in 2025, updating about 800 pages, and reported a five-fold rise in Terminix appearances in 'exterminator near me' searches. (Rentokil Initial)See details
The one published video result in the trade is Orkin's 2014 YouTube campaign, which Google says lifted watch time 275%; it measured viewing, not sales. (Google)See details
BLS counted 102,620 pest control workers on payrolls in May 2025 at a median $45,250, and Florida employed 12,400 of them, more than any other state with a published estimate. (BLS)See details
The four largest firms earned 31.1% of U.S. pest control receipts in 2022, and about 75% of Rollins' business is recurring service. (U.S. Census Bureau; Rollins)See details
"Termites cause $5 billion in damage a year" is an unpublished 2006 industry estimate with no surviving calculation, and "84% of homeowners have pests" came from one pest company's 2012 survey. (PCT Magazine; HomeTeam Pest Defense)See details
How many pest control websites show video?
A little over a quarter. On November 2, 2026 we opened the homepage of every U.S. pest control company mapped with a website in OpenStreetMap, the open map database, and 28.0% of the 157 we could read showed a video player (our measurement). The frame was 190 distinct websites, each counted once however many offices it serves, drawn from 326 features mapped as pest control businesses. The map holds far fewer pest control firms than the 16,535 establishments Census counts, so these shares describe the mapped firms, not the whole trade. With the same method, pest control homepages showed video less often than roofing, dental, physical therapy, chiropractic and HVAC homepages and more often than seven other kinds of local business: 28.0% against 37.6% for roofers and 12.2% for accounting firms (our comparison).
The video split evenly between files on the site and embeds: 14.0% of homepages used a self-hosted video, 14.6% embedded one, 11.5% a YouTube player and 1.9% Vimeo, and 9.6% played a muted background loop. Of the pages with video, 40.9% used only files on the site. 23.6% linked to a YouTube channel. Facebook was linked from 77.7% of homepages, Instagram 42.0%, LinkedIn 29.3%, X 26.1% and TikTok 5.7%; 80.3% linked to at least one social profile. A hand check of 30 random homepages agreed with the video rule on 93.3% (28 of 30).
On U.S. pest control homepages (n = 157, Nov 2, 2026)
Share
Click-to-call phone link
87.3%
Termite services mentioned
76.4%
Online booking or quote request
73.2%
Reviews or testimonials
72.0%
Free inspection, estimate or quote
55.4%
Contact form on the homepage
54.8%
Guarantee or warranty
54.8%
Eco, green, natural or safety wording about treatments
What do pest control homepages claim about safety, licences and badges?
Safety claims are common. 28.7% of the homepages described their treatments as safe for children, pets or family, pet- or family-friendly, or non-toxic, and 41.4% used eco, green, organic or natural wording; 17.8% did both (our measurement; a hand check agreed with the safety rule on 96.7%). EPA's rules bar "safe", "harmless" and "nontoxic" claims on pesticide labels and in pesticide product advertising (see the rules section); they govern products, so we make no judgment about any site, but the wording is the kind regulators look at. Florida separately lists misleading pest control advertising as a ground for discipline.
Trust badges are less common than reviews. 32.5% said they were licensed or showed a licence number, but only 10.8% printed the number; 28.0% named NPMA or a state pest management association (24.8% NPMA), 23.6% the Better Business Bureau and 7.6% QualityPro or GreenPro certification. On termites, 24.2% offered termite inspections, 23.6% a free inspection and 17.8% real-estate wood-destroying insect reports. 23.6% advertised a coupon or "$ off" offer, 5.1% instant pricing or buy-online, and 6.4% financing.
The software behind the sites mostly stays hidden. We could identify pest or field-service software on only 10 of the 157 homepages (6.4%) (GorillaDesk, FieldRoutes, ServSuite, Briostack and Jobber), so no split by vendor is possible. WordPress ran 55.4% of the sites. Only ten chain or multi-location hosts were in the frame (Orkin, Terminix, Truly Nolen, Arrow and others); 8 of 10 of them linked to a YouTube channel against 29 of the 147 other homepages, and 3 of 10 showed a video player, too few to compare as shares.
How do pest control companies market themselves, and where does video fit?
The biggest firms spend more on advertising every year, and they now put local web pages and search ahead of paid media. Rollins, the parent of Orkin, spent $128.5 million on advertising in 2025, up from $81.2 million in 2019 (Rollins 10-K): a rise of 58.4% in six years, while advertising fell from 4.0% to 3.4% of revenue as sales grew faster (our calculation). Its selling and marketing expenses, which include the sales staff, came to $484.9 million in 2025 (Rollins 10-K), or 12.9% of revenue (our calculation). Terminix spent $100 million on advertising in 2021, its last year as a listed company (Terminix 10-K), and listed its channels as digital marketing, television and radio, print, partnerships and door-to-door summer sales (Terminix 10-K).
Rentokil, which bought Terminix in 2022, told investors in its 2025 annual report that it had moved North American marketing away from paid digital media toward organic leads: it updated about 800 regional-brand web pages (Rentokil 20-F) and launched over 400 new branch, metro and state pages (Rentokil Form 6-K). It reported a five-fold rise in how often Terminix appeared in "exterminator near me" searches in the fourth quarter of 2025 (Rentokil 20-F) and North American lead growth of 7.1% in the second half of the year (Rentokil Form 6-K). Neither Rollins nor Rentokil breaks out video spending. An EDGAR full-text search on November 2, 2026 found 52 documents in 10-K filings filed in 2025 that contain "pest control", and only 5 that also contain "video", none of them filed by a pest control company (SEC EDGAR, our search).
The clearest published video result in the trade is Orkin's own YouTube campaign, written up by Google, which sells the ads. Google reported that Orkin's 2014 TrueView campaigns of educational and humorous videos lifted watch time by 275% (Think with Google), with a branded search lift of up to 350% among viewers (Think with Google) and more than 98% of channel views from the target audience once targeting was set (Think with Google). It is one advertiser's case study from the platform that sold the media, not a controlled study across companies.
The trade association uses video too. The National Pest Management Association (NPMA), which represents pest control companies, released a 2026 Harris Poll finding that 29% of Americans had tried home remedies for ants alongside a video series (NPMA), and launched a "Bed Bugs Exposed" video series with an April 2025 poll in which only 29% of 2,099 adults said they could identify a bed bug (NPMA). Orkin's 2024 "Bug Week Bug Fails" campaign asked people to post on Instagram and TikTok for $50 off a first service (Orkin). Yelp, which sells local ads, reported that U.S. searches on Yelp for bed bug extermination rose 53% from May 2024 to April 2025 (Yelp) and searches for "rodent" 21% from August 2024 to July 2025 (Yelp).
Software vendors that sell to pest companies survey their own market. In FieldRoutes' April 2025 survey of 1,025 pest control company leaders (FieldRoutes is part of ServiceTitan and sells software to pest companies), 52% named acquiring new customers as a top goal and 73% said they were not using AI (FieldRoutes). In its 2026 survey, 33% of pest and lawn operators picked marketing automation as the technology expected to deliver the most value (FieldRoutes via GlobeNewswire). Google lists pest control among the Local Services Ads categories that can require business and owner background checks, general liability insurance and state licences (Google).
Online, pest information on video comes mostly from people outside the trade. Of the 100 most-viewed English-language Lyme disease videos on YouTube in September 2016, 40 were made by consumers (Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives), and a 2017 McMaster University study of 700 Lyme disease videos found very little from government or academic sources (Social Science & Medicine). Of the 50 most-engaged English-language #tickprevention TikTok videos about dogs and cats in a 2026 study, 92% were made by influencers (Veterinary Record).
Who are the biggest pest control companies, and how concentrated is the trade?
Two companies lead the U.S. market, and thousands of small firms share the rest. In the 2022 Economic Census, the four largest pest control firms earned 31.1% of U.S. industry receipts, the eight largest 37.9%, the 20 largest 44.1% and the 50 largest 48.7% (U.S. Census Bureau). The same census counted 13,928 employer firms (U.S. Census Bureau) with $19.9 billion in receipts in 2022 (U.S. Census Bureau), up 52.0% from $13.1 billion in 2017 before inflation (U.S. Census Bureau; our calculation). Census's annual business survey put 2024 receipts at $23.0 billion (U.S. Census Bureau).
Rollins, the parent of Orkin, reported $3.76 billion in revenue for 2025 (Rollins 10-K), up 86.6% from $2.02 billion in 2019 (Rollins 10-K; our calculation). Residential pest control brought in $1.69 billion, commercial $1.24 billion and termite and ancillary services $781.5 million (Rollins 10-K). Rollins serves more than two million customers from more than 800 locations (Rollins 10-K) and had 21,946 employees at the end of 2025 (Rollins 10-K). Rentokil Initial, the British group that bought Terminix in 2022, reported North America pest control revenue of $4,148 million for 2025 (Rentokil 20-F), and its North America region delivered 62% of group revenue (Rentokil 20-F). Anticimex, a privately held Swedish group, says it had SEK 17.1 billion in revenue in 2025 (Anticimex) and U.S. locations in 24 states as of 2026 (Anticimex).
Consolidation runs on acquisitions. Rollins completed 31 acquisitions in 2022, 44 in 2024 (including franchise buybacks) and 26 in 2025 (Rollins 10-K), and paid $207.2 million for Saela Pest Control in April 2025 (Rollins 10-K). Rentokil bought 31 pest control businesses in 2025 (Rentokil 20-F), and Anticimex reported more than 440 acquisitions in total as of 2026 (Anticimex). In the 2021 Terminix fairness opinion, Lazard found a mean multiple of 18.3x trailing EBITDA in earlier pest control deals (Rentokil F-4).
How big is the U.S. pest control market? The estimates side by side
Every estimate counts something different, which is why they disagree.
The company estimates are about half the Census figures. Census counts every receipt of firms classed in the industry, including work outside pest control, while the companies sized the market they compete in. Rentokil's merger filing put the number of North American pest control firms at more than 20,000, and Terminix put U.S. firms at about 19,000; Census counted 13,928 firms with paid employees in 2022.
How much pest control revenue is recurring?
Most of it. About 75% of Rollins' business was recurring service at the end of 2025, with 10% ancillary and 15% one-time work (Rollins 10-K); in 2019 Rollins said about 80% of its pest control revenue was recurring, measured on a narrower base (Rollins 10-K). 67% of Rentokil's pest control revenue was contracted in 2025 (Rentokil 20-F), and its North American customer retention was 80.5% (Rentokil 20-F). Terminix said in 2021 that over 80 percent of its revenue came from customers on renewable contracts (Terminix 10-K). Termite guarantees carry a cost: Rentokil added $201 million of provisions for Terminix termite damage claims in 2025, taking the total to $384 million (Rentokil 20-F).
How many pest control workers are there, and what do they earn?
About 100,000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimated 102,620 pest control workers on U.S. payrolls in May 2025, at a median annual wage of $45,250 and a mean of $46,400 (BLS OEWS). The lowest-paid tenth earned under $34,680 and the highest-paid tenth over $61,890 (BLS OEWS). Counting the self-employed, BLS put the occupation at 108,700 jobs in 2025 and projects 114,700 by 2035, a rise of 6 percent, with about 13,700 openings a year, most of them to replace people who leave (BLS Employment Projections). 88 percent of the jobs are in pest control companies rather than in-house (BLS).
The industry itself employs more people than the occupation, because companies also hire salespeople, office staff and managers. BLS's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted 155,687 jobs at 17,701 private pest control establishments in 2025 (BLS QCEW), up from 127,614 jobs at 15,377 establishments in 2019 (BLS QCEW): growth of 22.0% in jobs and 15.1% in establishments (our calculation). Average pay across all those jobs rose from $46,177 to $59,312 (BLS QCEW), 28.4% before inflation (our calculation). Census County Business Patterns counted 16,535 employer establishments in 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau), 9,415 of them with fewer than five employees and only 3 with 500 or more (U.S. Census Bureau).
Pest control in Florida
Florida has more pest control workers than any other state with a published estimate: 12,400 in May 2025 (BLS OEWS), 12.1% of the national count (our calculation), ahead of Texas at 9,470 and Georgia at 5,770 (BLS OEWS). The occupation's share of Florida jobs is 1.89 times its national share (BLS OEWS). The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro employed 2,480 pest control workers (BLS OEWS). Florida's pest control establishments employed 20,855 people in 2025, up 19.8% from 17,407 in 2019 (BLS QCEW; our calculation), and took in $2.3 billion in receipts in 2022 (U.S. Census Bureau). Florida pest control workers earned a median $44,320 (BLS OEWS); the highest state mean was Nevada's $54,110 (BLS OEWS).
How hard is it to hire technicians?
Hiring is a standing problem, which is why recruiting video and ads now come from the trade association as well as from companies. In FieldRoutes' April 2025 survey of pest company leaders, 45% ranked recruiting and retaining employees as a business goal (FieldRoutes). NPMA's first national careers campaign, in spring 2026, reached more than 1.28 million people and drew over 31,000 clicks (NPMA), with a LinkedIn click-through rate of 4.00% (NPMA); applications on its job board rose more than 170% year over year (NPMA), and NPMA says its workforce program has driven more than 64,000 applications since 2021 (NPMA). Orkin pledged in 2023 to make veterans 10 percent of its workforce by 2026 (Orkin). Rentokil's North American colleague retention rose to 82.2% in 2025 (Rentokil Form 6-K). Rollins trains staff from a 27,000 square foot learning center in Atlanta with its own broadcast studio (Rollins 10-K).
The work is about as safe as the private-sector average. Pest control employers reported 2.2 recordable injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers in 2024, against 2.3 for all private industry (BLS SOII).
How common are pests in U.S. homes?
About one home in eight sees mice, rats or cockroaches in a year. In the Census Bureau's 2021 American Housing Survey, 15.3 million of 128.5 million occupied U.S. homes had seen signs of mice or rats in the previous 12 months and 14.5 million signs of cockroaches (U.S. Census Bureau). In the 2019 survey the national rates were 11.3% for roaches and 11.9% for rodents (U.S. Census Bureau), with roach sightings reaching 35.2% of households in the Houston metro (U.S. Census Bureau) and rodent sightings 18.9% in Philadelphia (U.S. Census Bureau). Homes with leaning or buckling outside walls were about 5.6 times as likely to report rodents (U.S. Census Bureau).
Rates run far higher in older low-income housing. A Rutgers study published in 2022 of 1,753 low-income apartments in four New Jersey cities found cockroaches in 37%, mice in 20% and bed bugs in 9%, and 78% of 856 residents interviewed had tried do-it-yourself control in the previous six months (Journal of Medical Entomology). An earlier Rutgers survey, published in 2016, of 2,372 apartments found bed bugs in 12.3%, and forty-nine percent of those infestations were in homes whose residents did not know (Journal of Medical Entomology). One co-author of both studies works with a pest control company.
Ticks, mosquitoes and disease
Reported diseases spread by mosquitoes, ticks and fleas rose from 27,388 cases in 2004 to 96,075 in 2016, CDC's 2018 Vital Signs report found (CDC), about 3.5 times as many (our calculation), and ticks accounted for 77% of reports (CDC). More than 80,000 Lyme disease cases are now reported to CDC each year (CDC), and CDC cites an insurance-claims estimate that about 476,000 people may be diagnosed and treated each year (CDC). Only 26% of U.S. adults said they take prevention steps in tick areas in a 2024 Harris Poll for NPMA (NPMA).
What do pest professionals treat, and what do homeowners know?
Rodents top the list. In NPMA's spring 2025 survey of 375 pest professionals, run with the University of Florida, 96% had treated rodents in the past year (NPMA), 90% said they were called to treat "bed bugs" that turned out to be something else (NPMA) and 42% reported more trouble with invasive species (NPMA). Homeowners know less than the trade would like: in a 2026 Harris Poll for NPMA, 58% of homeowners knew the damage termites can cause and only 36% knew the signs of an infestation (NPMA), and NPMA's professionals said only 23% of homeowners call for preventive termite inspections (NPMA). In a separate 2026 Harris Poll wave of 1,389 homeowners, 52% said they had used a licensed pest control professional in the past year (NPMA). NPMA represents the pest control industry and commissions these polls.
Many households also treat pests themselves. EPA's most recent pesticide market report estimated that 88 million U.S. households used a pesticide in 2011-2012 (EPA) and that home and garden pesticide spending was $3.33 billion in 2012 (EPA); EPA has published no newer edition.
What does pest control cost a homeowner?
Angi, a marketplace that sells leads to pest control companies, publishes cost guides from projects on its platform. Its 2026 guides put the average termite treatment at $621, based on 7,800 projects (Angi), a termite inspection at $100 (Angi), annual termite plans at $200 to $400 (Angi) and bed bug treatment at $2,500 (Angi). Its general pest control guide contradicts itself: the summary gives $108 to $261 for a one-time visit, while the table on the same page lists monthly visits at $40–$70, quarterly visits at $100–$300 and a higher one-time range (Angi). We show both because the page does.
How much damage do termites do?
The University of Florida's extension service cites an estimate that subterranean termites cost the U.S. over $30 billion a year in damage and control (Rust and Su, 2012) and the Formosan termite alone likely more than $4 billion (Su and Lee, 2023) (UF/IFAS Extension). UF researchers projected in 2018 that half the structures in South Florida could be at risk from two invasive termite species by 2040 (UF/IFAS), a forecast rather than a count. Rentokil's provision for Terminix termite damage claims stood at $384 million at the end of 2025. The popular "$5 billion a year" figure is traced in the last section.
What do the rules say about pest control advertising, licensing and service plans?
Federal pesticide law bars safety claims, and it reaches advertising. EPA's labeling rule at 40 CFR 156.10(a)(5), paragraph ix, treats claims such as "safe", "harmless" or "nontoxic to humans and pets" as false or misleading (eCFR), and paragraph x adds "contains all natural ingredients" and other non-numerical safety comparisons (eCFR). EPA's advertising policy at 40 CFR 168.22 reads FIFRA sections 12(a)(1) (A) and (B) as covering advertisements in any medium (eCFR). FIFRA caps civil penalties at $5,000 per offense for commercial applicators in the statute (U.S. Code, via Cornell LII), $24,885 after the January 2025 inflation adjustment (eCFR), and at $500 for a first offense by an applicator who only provides a service (U.S. Code, via Cornell LII), $2,353 after adjustment (eCFR).
Applicators of restricted-use pesticides must be certified. EPA's revised certification rule took effect in March 2017, and older state plans stayed in force until November 4, 2023 (EPA, Federal Register). Certifications expire after five years without recertification (eCFR), applicators must be at least 18 (eCFR), and structural pest control is commercial category g (eCFR). EPA's 2017 rule counted 420,999 certified commercial applicators (EPA) and 918,892 noncertified applicators working under their supervision (EPA). As of EPA's August 2026 notice, all 50 states run their own certification programs under EPA approval (EPA, Federal Register).
Florida
As of 2026, Florida's Structural Pest Control Act (chapter 482) licenses each business location every year for a fee set between $75 and $300 (Florida Statutes), requires every employee who performs pest control to carry a state ID card within 30 days (Florida Statutes), and lists "fraudulent or misleading advertising" as a ground for discipline in paragraph h (Florida Statutes). Fines reach $10,000 per violation (Florida Statutes). A new termite contract must say on its first page, in bold, whether it is offered for repair and retreatment, retreatment only, or with no guarantee (Florida Statutes), and companies doing real-estate termite inspections must carry at least $500,000 of errors-and-omissions cover (Florida Statutes). Florida's advertising rule, 5E-14.142 paragraph (6), requires vehicle, directory and other ads to be factual and to run only under the licensed name (Florida Administrative Code, via Cornell LII).
Auto-renewing service plans
Quarterly and annual plans fall under auto-renewal law. The Eighth Circuit vacated the FTC's "click-to-cancel" rule on July 8, 2025 (FTC, Federal Register), and the FTC restarted the rulemaking with an advance notice whose comments closed on April 13, 2026 (FTC, Federal Register). The FTC says complaints about negative-option billing rose to more than 90 a day in 2025 (FTC, Federal Register). Florida's law (s. 501.165) requires notice 30 days or more before a service contract of 12 months or longer renews (Florida Statutes). California's amended law, for contracts from July 1, 2025 (California Legislature), requires notice of a price change at least 7 days before it takes effect (California Legislature), and New York voids auto-renewal clauses in service contracts unless the customer gets written notice fifteen days to 30 days ahead (New York GOL 5-903, via FindLaw).
Enforcement
The largest cases against pest companies came from poisonings, accounting and termite contracts. In the U.S. Virgin Islands case, in which a family was poisoned by methyl bromide, a fumigant EPA had banned indoors since 1984, Terminix companies agreed in 2016 to pay $10 million (U.S. Department of Justice) and were sentenced in 2018 to $9.2 million in fines and restitution plus community service (U.S. Department of Justice). The SEC fined Rollins $8 million in April 2022 over unsupported accounting reductions (SEC). In Alabama, Terminix's own filing describes a 2020 settlement over Formosan termite contracts with a $25 million consumer fund (Terminix Form 8-K), while the attorney general announced it as a $60 million settlement (Alabama Political Reporter); the settlement covered retreating over 12,000 homes (Alabama Political Reporter), and the attorney general said Terminix had raised some renewal rates by up to 1,000 percent (Alabama Political Reporter). Terminix expected $140 to $150 million in above-normal termite claim costs from 2020 to 2029 (Terminix Form 8-K).
What do the popular pest control numbers really say?
Five numbers turn up again and again on pest control company, software and marketing sites. We traced each one back as far as it goes.
"Termites cause $5 billion in damage a year"
It is an unpublished industry estimate from 2006. Software vendors repeat it as fact: PestPac by WorkWave's 2024 trends page says termites cause over $5 billion in property damage a year and that more than 600,000 homes face infestations (PestPac), Briostack's 2025 statistics page lists $5+ billion (Briostack), and Terminix's 2021 10-K stated an estimated $5 billion in U.S. home damage a year without a source (Terminix 10-K). NPMA's 2018 Termite Awareness Week release used the same $5 billion (NPMA). A 2015 investigation by PCT Magazine found the $5 billion figure was not in any published paper and that NPMA did not have the calculation (PCT Magazine). Before 2006 the trade used $2 billion; NPMA's technical director updated it from an older estimate plus building-cost inflation (PCT Magazine), and recalled his first result was closer to $7 billion (PCT Magazine). Academic estimates swing widely on their inputs: $1.02 billion in a 1986 estimate (PCT Magazine), $11 billion from Nan-Yao Su in 2002 (PCT Magazine), and $16.6 billion in repair costs behind Rust and Su's 2012 worldwide $40 billion (PCT Magazine), while the same method run on 2010 termiticide sales gives $5.2 billion (PCT Magazine). By 2023 NPMA's wording had moved to $6.8 billion, which it describes as the old figure adjusted for inflation (NPMA). Orkin frames its $5 billion as what residents spend on control and repair, with about 600,000 homes damaged (Orkin); we found no original for the 600,000. Use instead: call it "an industry estimate", or cite UF/IFAS's $30 billion with its 2012 source. Nobody counts termite damage directly.
"84% of homeowners have a pest problem every year"
It was one pest company's survey in 2012. A pest control company's 2019 press release states that 84% of homeowners have a pest problem each year, with no source (HARVEY'S Pest Control). The figure comes from an April 2012 HomeTeam Pest Defense survey of 1,319 homeowners fielded in February 2012, in which 84 percent had a pest problem in the previous 12 months, mostly ants, spiders and flies (HomeTeam Pest Defense). HomeTeam's own 2022 survey of homeowners aged 25 to 75 found 76% (HomeTeam Pest Defense). Use instead: NPMA's 2023 Harris Poll, in which 88% of 2,044 adults had bugs, insects or rodents at home in the past year (NPMA), or the Census counts of homes that saw rodents or roaches in the section above. Ants in the kitchen and a termite colony are not the same "pest problem".
"One in five Americans has had bed bugs"
The survey counted people who knew someone who had met bed bugs, including in a hotel. A pest company's 2024 page says 20% of Americans have had bed bugs at home or know someone who has (Dodson Pest Control). It comes from NPMA's "Bed Bugs in America" survey of January 2011: one out of five had an infestation at home or knew someone who had met bed bugs at home or in a hotel (NPMA), and only 13 percent knew someone with an infestation at home (NPMA). Use instead: measured infestation rates, such as the 12.3% Rutgers found in low-income New Jersey apartments, with the population named.
"Rodents invade 21 million homes every winter"
NPMA's own estimate, with no method. A pest company's 2024 page repeats 21 million homes (Dodson Pest Control), from NPMA's 2020 Rodent Awareness Week release, which gives 21 million without a study (NPMA). Use instead: the Census Bureau's 2019 American Housing Survey: 14.8 million occupied homes, 11.9%, saw rodents in the previous 12 months (U.S. Census Bureau), or 15.3 million in 2021. Rodents were 14.6% of calls in NPMA's 2025 survey of pest professionals (NPMA).
"Video makes homeowners 59% more likely to hire you" and "lifts conversions 80%"
None of the video claims on pest marketing sites was measured on pest control. A pest control marketing agency says homeowners who watch educational videos are 3x more likely to buy recurring plans, crediting a video studio whose cited page is about LinkedIn ads (Cube Creative Design); we found no original. The same agency's 64% "more likely to hire" (Cube Creative Design) started as the credited studio's online-shopping claim that 64% of consumers were more likely to buy after a product video, which the studio has since dropped (Yum Yum Videos). Its 59% (Cube Creative Design) traces to Service Direct, a seller of home-service leads, whose April 2022 survey of 559 homeowners found 59% said they were more likely to hire a contractor whose website had videos (Service Direct), a stated preference about contractors in general. A marketing agency's 2026 pest control page says video lifts landing-page conversions by up to 80% (Web Tonic). That number starts with EyeView, a vendor of landing-page video, reporting in 2009 that its first test on one tutoring client's page lifted conversion by over 80 percent (EyeView); its 2010 white paper called 80% a result "in some cases" (EyeView), and the one test it describes in full found almost 32 percent (EyeView). Use instead: nothing measured exists for pest control. The nearest real result is Orkin's own YouTube case study, 275% more watch time, which measured viewing, not sales.
Bonus: "Pest control is a $29.7 billion industry"
Market-size figures differ by a factor of two because they define the industry differently. A marketing agency page says $29.7 billion in 2026, crediting "NPMA / IBISWorld" (Web Tonic), and a software vendor says $26.1 billion in 2025 (Briostack). IBISWorld's public summary shows $29.9bn for 2026 (IBISWorld), but NPMA's own figure, from Specialty Consultants' survey of company owners, is $13.416 billion of structural pest control revenue in 2025 (NPMA). Use instead: the Census Bureau's $19.9 billion in 2022 receipts for the whole industry, and say which definition you mean.
We started from the questions people search for about pest control video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 273 figures from 38 publishers.
On November 2, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (through the BLS data API), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open data, and Employment Projections and injury tables (through Internet Archive copies, because bls.gov refuses automated requests); Census County Business Patterns, Nonemployer Statistics, the 2017 and 2022 Economic Census and the Annual Integrated Economic Survey (through the Census data API), and Census American Housing Survey releases; CDC reports through archived copies; UF/IFAS Extension; the 10-K, 20-F, 6-K, 8-K and F-4 filings of Rollins, Rentokil Initial and Terminix, and EDGAR full-text search; EPA rules through the eCFR and the Federal Register; FIFRA and Florida, California and New York law; Justice Department, SEC and FTC notices; NPMA, FieldRoutes, Angi, Yelp, Google, Orkin and Anticimex pages; peer-reviewed studies; and the pages behind each popular claim. The homepage figures are our own measurement on the same day, described in the first section. We left out the PCT and Pest Management Professional industry surveys (bot walls and gated downloads), an Orkin survey with no sample size or dates, two scanned EPA consent agreements with no readable text, Florida licence counts (FDACS publishes only single-record lookups), CDC dashboards with no printed figures, and any figure from a gated source.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
44 / 157 readable homepages with video_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player: a <video> element or player iframe/placeholder (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Vidyard, Brightcove, Loom, Facebook video ...) at least 150x80 px, or a labelled click-to-play control or hidden player embed
22 / 157 readable homepages with video_self_hosted = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player that is a native <video> element (file served by the site or its site builder/CDN, incl. background videos)
23 / 157 readable homepages with video_embedded = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player from a third-party host (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Facebook, TikTok ...)
18 / 157 readable homepages with youtube_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a YouTube player (iframe, lite-youtube placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
3 / 157 readable homepages with vimeo_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a Vimeo player (iframe, placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
37 / 157 readable homepages with youtube_channel_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to a YouTube channel or handle (not a single video; template placeholders excluded)
66 / 157 readable homepages with instagram_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to an Instagram profile (template placeholders excluded)
126 / 157 readable homepages with any_social_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: any of the YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or LinkedIn profile links
41 / 157 readable homepages with pest_id_library = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: pest library / pest guide / pest ID / pest identifier / bug library / insect guide wording, "identify your pest", "learn how to identify pests" in the page text, or a link labelled or pathed so (/pest-library, /pest-id, /pest-guide ...); "identify the pest" as an inspection step excluded
120 / 157 readable homepages with termite_service = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: any termite wording (termite treatment, inspection, control, bait, bond, warranty, or "termite(s)") in the page text or a termite link
38 / 157 readable homepages with termite_inspection = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: termite inspection/evaluation, "free termite" or a WDO/WDI inspection in the page text, or a link labelled termite inspection
37 / 157 readable homepages with free_inspection = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: free / complimentary / no-cost inspection (incl. free termite inspection) in the page text or a link/control labelled so
87 / 157 readable homepages with free_inspection_estimate_quote = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: free / complimentary / no-cost / no-obligation inspection, estimate, quote, consultation or evaluation in the page text or a link/control labelled so
28 / 157 readable homepages with wdo_wdi_report = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: WDO / WDI, wood-destroying organism/insect, NPMA-33, termite letter/clearance/report, real estate (termite) inspection in the page text, or a link labelled or pathed so
74 / 157 readable homepages with service_plans_recurring = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: service/pest/protection/termite/mosquito plan(s), quarterly, bi-monthly, monthly service, recurring service, annual plan/agreement, year-round protection, ongoing or seasonal service, membership, preventative plan in the page text (customer reviews on the homepage included), or a plans link
86 / 157 readable homepages with guarantee_warranty = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: guarantee(d), warranty, money-back, free re-service/re-treatment, satisfaction guarantee in the page text or a guarantee/warranty link
65 / 157 readable homepages with eco_green_organic_natural = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: eco-friendly/eco, green pest control/services/products, organic, all-natural, natural products/treatments, environmentally friendly/responsible, low-impact, botanical, plant-based in the page text, or a link labelled or pathed so
45 / 157 readable homepages with safety_claim_wording = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: safety wording about treatments: pet-/family-/kid-/child-/people-safe or -friendly, "safe for/around your kids, pets, family, people", "safe(r) treatments/products/solutions", non-toxic, low-toxicity, "harmless to people/pets", eco-safe, environmentally safe, in the visible page text (FAQ questions such as "Are your treatments safe for kids and pets?" count; "keep your family safe" and "harmless bugs" excluded) or a link labelled pet-safe/non-toxic EPA's pesticide labeling rule 40 CFR 156.10(a)(5)(ix) treats safety statements such as 'safe', 'nonpoisonous', 'noninjurious', 'harmless' or 'nontoxic to humans and pets' as false or misleading on product labels; it governs labels, not service-company websites, and this count does not judge whether any claim is lawful.
17 / 157 readable homepages with license_number_shown = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a license number shown: "License #", "Lic. No." or a state license code (SPCB, PCO, FDACS, TPCL, JB, TDA ...) followed by digits
51 / 157 readable homepages with licensed_insured_wording = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "licensed and insured/bonded", "fully/state licensed" or a license number in the page text
44 / 157 readable homepages with npma_or_state_association = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: National Pest Management Association / NPMA / PestWorld or a state pest management / pest control operators association named in the page text, shown as a badge image (alt text or file name) or linked
39 / 157 readable homepages with npma = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: NPMA / National Pest Management Association / PestWorld named in the page text, as a badge image or linked
12 / 157 readable homepages with qualitypro_greenpro = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: QualityPro or GreenPro (NPMA certifications) named in the page text, as a badge image or linked
37 / 157 readable homepages with bbb = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: BBB / Better Business Bureau / A+ rating in the page text, a BBB badge image, a bbb.org link or a BBB seal request
113 / 157 readable homepages with reviews_testimonials = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: testimonials or reviews shown: page text with testimonials, customer reviews, "what our customers say", Google reviews, star ratings or review counts; a link labelled testimonials/reviews; or a review-widget request (Birdeye, Elfsight, Trustindex, PestRoutes reviews badge ...)
115 / 157 readable homepages with online_booking_or_quote = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: book/schedule service online, instant quote/pricing, get a (free) quote/estimate, request a quote/inspection/service, buy now/online in the page text, or a link/control labelled book/schedule/quote/estimate/buy or pathed /book, /schedule, /quote, /get-a-quote, /pricing (tel: and mailto: links excluded)
8 / 157 readable homepages with instant_quote_or_buy_online = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: instant quote/pricing/estimate, buy now/online, "see your price/pricing", online pricing, checkout in the page text, or a link/control labelled so or pathed /buy, /checkout, /instant-quote (cart icons and merch shops excluded)
12 / 157 readable homepages with price_shown = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a price for a pest service: $ per month/quarter/treatment/service/visit/year, "starting at / as low as / only / from $X", or "$X initial/first service" (coupons, "$X off", damage and repair costs, financing and prices quoted in customer reviews excluded)
37 / 157 readable homepages with coupon_or_special = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "$X off", "save $X", "X% off" or coupon in the page text, or a link labelled or pathed coupons/specials/offers/deals
10 / 157 readable homepages with financing = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: financing, finance options, 0% APR/interest, Synchrony, GreenSky, Affirm, Wisetack or Hearth in the page text, or a financing link
10 / 157 readable homepages with pest_software_detected = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a pest-control / field-service software vendor identified (FieldRoutes/PestRoutes, PestPac/WorkWave, GorillaDesk, ServiceTitan, Briostack, Jobber, Housecall Pro, Real Green, Pocomos, ServSuite/ServicePro): first by a link host (customer portal, booking), then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit text
86 / 157 readable homepages with online_form = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online form on the homepage: a non-search <form> with at least 2 visible fields, or 1 visible email/phone/message field, or an embedded third-party form; tel: and mailto: links never count
34 / 157 readable homepages with chat_widget = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a live-chat or web-chat widget: a network request to a chat vendor (Podium, Tawk, LiveChat, Intercom, Drift, HubSpot messages, LeadConnector, PureChat ...) or a chat-widget element on the page (form and cookie-consent iframes excluded)
66 / 157 readable homepages with careers_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link labelled careers, jobs, join our team, now hiring, employment, open positions, become a technician, or a link to a /careers, /jobs, /employment or /join-our-team path
{'safety_claim': 45, 'eco_green_organic': 65, 'both': 28, 'either': 82}; rules: safety wording about treatments: pet-/family-/kid-/child-/people-safe or -friendly, "safe for/around your kids, pets, family, people", "safe(r) treatments/products/solutions", non-toxic, low-toxicity, "harmless to people/pets", eco-safe, environmentally safe, in the visible page text (FAQ questions such as "Are your treatments safe for kids and pets?" count; "keep your family safe" and "harmless bugs" excluded) or a link labelled pet-safe/non-toxic / eco-friendly/eco, green pest control/services/products, organic, all-natural, natural products/treatments, environmentally friendly/responsible, low-impact, botanical, plant-based in the page text, or a link labelled or pathed so
agreement counts in own/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; 28/30 confirmed: 7 true positives (native <video> on procarepest.com, deftpest.com, pestcontrolbros.com, griggsbrowne.com, advancedexterminating.com; an Elementor 'Play Video' click-to-play on advantagetpc.com; YouTube on quick-catch.com recorded by the crawl as a 1120x630 iframe, not re-loaded on the re-visit, kept), 21 true negatives ('Videos' nav link, 'Pause animation' and 'Play Background' buttons correctly not counted). 1 likely false positive: bugbustersusa.com counted via a 0x0 YouTube embed inside a mobile-only hero (hidden-embed rule, unchanged for comparability with the earlier pages); 1 unconfirmed: quick-catch.com (see above), counted as agree. Disagreements: bugbustersusa.com and varsitytermiteandpestcontrol.com ('Play Background' control with no loaded <video>; possible desktop background video the headless browser did not load: a possible miss)
agreement counts in own/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; 29/30: 11 true positives (e.g. 'Safe & Family Friendly', 'pet/family-friendly products', 'Child & pet friendly', 'environmentally safe solutions', FAQ question 'Are your treatments safe for kids and pets?'), 18 true negatives (a 'When Harmless Bugs Become...' blog teaser correctly not counted); 1 miss: deftpest.com has an FAQ answer ('Everything that we use is environmentally friendly and ...') in a collapsed accordion that is not in the visible page text the crawl reads
count of pest_software values among readable rows in homepages.csv: {'(none detected)': 147, 'GorillaDesk': 4, 'ServSuite / ServicePro': 2, 'FieldRoutes / PestRoutes': 2, 'Briostack': 1, 'Jobber': 1}; any-mention counts {'GorillaDesk': 4, 'ServSuite / ServicePro': 2, 'FieldRoutes / PestRoutes': 2, 'Briostack': 1, 'Jobber': 1}; rule: a pest-control / field-service software vendor identified (FieldRoutes/PestRoutes, PestPac/WorkWave, GorillaDesk, ServiceTitan, Briostack, Jobber, Housecall Pro, Real Green, Pocomos, ServSuite/ServicePro): first by a link host (customer portal, booking), then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit text. A floor: most vendors run behind customer-portal links that many homepages do not carry
Comparison of DRV-004 on this page with the published video-player shares on /research/roofing-video-statistics (37.6%), dental (35.0%), physical-therapy (31.2%), chiropractic (31.2%), hvac (29.5%), funeral-home (27.2%), veterinary (24.1%), mental-health-practice (22.4%), property-management (20.6%), optometry (20.2%), audiology (19.3%) and accounting-firm (12.2%) video statistics pages
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Nobody counts pest control video. No public source measures how many pest control companies publish video or what it does for sales; the filings do not break out video spending, and the one published video result is a single Orkin case study written up by Google.
Our homepage set comes from a volunteer map. OpenStreetMap lists 190 pest control websites, against more than 16,000 establishments in Census counts, so the shares describe mapped firms, not the whole trade; 33 of the 190 sites could not be read and intervals are wide.
Much of the consumer data comes from the industry. NPMA is the trade association and commissions its Harris Polls; FieldRoutes, Angi and Yelp sell to pest control companies. Each is named beside its figure.
Market sizes measure different things. Census receipts, company estimates of the outsourced market and NPMA's structural pest control revenue differ by a factor of two; we show them side by side rather than pick one.
Federal counts differ by design. OEWS counts payroll pest control workers; Employment Projections add the self-employed; QCEW and County Business Patterns count everyone working at pest control establishments, including office and sales staff.
Some baselines are old. EPA's latest pesticide market report covers 2011-2012, CDC's vectorborne disease trend ends in 2016, and the American Housing Survey pest questions are from 2019 and 2021; the year is given each time.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/pest-control-video-statistics#DRV-004. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Pest Control Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/pest-control-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 2). Pest control video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/pest-control-video-statistics
MLA
“Pest Control Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 2 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/pest-control-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Pest Control Video Statistics.” Last modified November 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/pest-control-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_pest_control_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Pest Control Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/pest-control-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-02}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 2, 2026: First published with 273 figures from 38 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many pest control companies use video on their websites?
28.0% of 157 U.S. pest control homepages we read on November 2, 2026 showed a video player, 11.5% embedded a YouTube player and 23.6% linked to a YouTube channel.
How much do pest control companies spend on advertising?
Rollins, the parent of Orkin, spent $128.5 million on advertising in 2025, about 3.4% of its revenue. Terminix spent $100 million in 2021, its last year as a listed company.
How many pest control workers are there in the U.S.?
BLS estimated 102,620 pest control workers on payrolls in May 2025, at a median annual wage of $45,250. Counting the self-employed, it projects 114,700 jobs by 2035.
How big is the U.S. pest control industry?
U.S. pest control firms took in $19.9 billion in 2022, according to the Economic Census, and $23.0 billion in 2024 in Census's annual survey. Company estimates of the outsourced market are about half that.
Do termites really cause $5 billion in damage a year?
Nobody has measured it. PCT Magazine found in 2015 that the $5 billion figure was not in any published paper and that NPMA did not have the calculation behind it.
How many U.S. homes have mice or cockroaches?
In the 2021 American Housing Survey, 15.3 million occupied U.S. homes saw signs of mice or rats in the previous 12 months and 14.5 million saw signs of cockroaches.
Can a pest control company advertise its treatments as safe?
EPA's rules bar claims such as safe, harmless or nontoxic on pesticide labels and treat pesticide advertising the same way, and Florida lists misleading pest control advertising as a ground for discipline. On November 2, 2026, 28.7% of the pest control homepages we read used such wording.
