Pest Control Questions, Answered

Northwest Exterminating is a pest, termite, mosquito and wildlife control company founded in 1951 in Marietta, Georgia. Today it employs more than 1,000 team members and serves homes and businesses in six states: Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Northwest is best known for NorPest Green, a botanical pest control program built around active ingredients derived from plants rather than conventional synthetics — and for the mouse mascot behind the line “Pests in the house? Call the Mouse!”

Yes. Northwest holds the structural pest control licenses required in each of the six states it operates in, carries liability insurance, and its technicians are licensed, trained applicators. Northwest is a company member of the Georgia Pest Control Association, holds Nashville Charter #4109, and is BBB Accredited with an A+ rating.

You can and should verify any pest control company’s license yourself through your state agriculture department — in Florida that’s FDACS, and in Georgia it’s the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Structural Pest Control Program.

Check these six things, in this order:

1. State license. Verify it yourself through your state agriculture department rather than taking the company’s word for it.
2. What’s in writing. Get the agreement term, the cancellation terms, the price after year one, and exactly which pests are covered.
3. The guarantee. “Guaranteed” should mean a specific written commitment to return between visits at no charge, not a slogan.
4. Who actually shows up. Ask whether you get a consistent assigned technician or whoever is on the route that day.
5. Whether they inspect before quoting. A firm price over the phone for termite or bed bug work, sight unseen, is a red flag.
6. Reviews with detail. Reviews that name the pest and the outcome tell you far more than a star average.

DIY works for a handful of ants on a countertop. It does not work for anything that nests, breeds indoors, or damages structures.

Hire a professional for termites, bed bugs, German cockroaches, ant infestations, rodents, fleas, stinging insects in a wall void, and wildlife. Each has a specific failure mode with over-the-counter products: foggers and “bug bombs” scatter German cockroaches deeper into wall voids and make the infestation harder to reach; repellent sprays cause some ant colonies to bud into multiple colonies; and drywood termites live inside the wood, where nothing sold at a hardware store will reach them.

Ants are the one most people underestimate. Treating the trail on the counter does nothing to the colony producing it, and the colony is rarely where you'd guess — it may sit in a wall void, under a slab, or outside in the landscape entirely. Finding and treating the nest is the whole job.

Professionals also have access to non-repellent and bait products that are restricted-use, plus the inspection training to find the source rather than treating wherever you happened to see a bug.

The NorPest Green quarterly program covers common household pests: ants, cockroaches, spiders, mice, silverfish, centipedes, millipedes, crickets, earwigs and other occasional invaders.

These are handled as separate specialty services, because they need different products, equipment and schedules:

• Termites (subterranean and drywood)
• Mosquitoes
• Bed bugs
• Fire ants
• Fleas and ticks
• Carpenter bees
• Wildlife — rodents, squirrels, raccoons, snakes, birds, moles and honeybees

Not sure what you’re looking at? The pest identification library has photos and descriptions for roughly 70 species common in the Southeast.

Northwest’s recurring NorPest Green service runs $129–$162 per quarter for homes up to 8,000 square feet. With convenience billing (autopay) that comes to $43–$54 per month, while service is still performed quarterly.

One-time pest control runs $250–$325.

Pricing for larger homes or specialized pest concerns may vary. Four things affect where you land in the range:

Quoted after an inspection rather than over the phone: wildlife removal and commercial work. Those prices depend on construction type, infestation size and access. The inspection is free.

Residential only. Other restrictions apply: quarterly service only and requires convenience billing (autopay) — varies by square feet of home. Cannot be combined with other offers, valid on new service only. One-year agreement required.

Sentricon termite protection starts at $749 for new customers, with annual renewal starting at $336.

Liquid termite treatment starts at $4.50 per linear foot for defined treatment, or $5.50 per linear foot for comprehensive treatment. Liquid renewals start at $249.

Final pricing depends on the size of the property, the treatment type and any additional measures needed. What moves it:

• Linear footage of the foundation — the primary driver for liquid treatment.
• Construction type — slab, crawlspace and basement homes each require a different approach.
• Termite species — subterranean termites are treated from the soil with Sentricon baiting or a liquid barrier. Drywood termites live inside the wood and require no-tent localized treatment or tent fumigation, which is quoted separately.
• Whether there is active damage that needs repair alongside treatment.
• Warranty type — a Repair & Retreat warranty costs more than Retreat-Only because it covers damage repair as well as re-treatment.

For scale on why it’s worth doing properly: termites cause an estimated $5 billion in US property damage a year, and standard homeowners insurance covers none of it.

Book a free termite inspection or call 866-258-7943 for a firm number on your home.

Bed bug treatment starts at $500 per room, and scales with how heavy the infestation is:

Final pricing depends on the severity of the infestation, the room and its furnishings, and the number of rooms requiring treatment.

On method: conventional chemical treatment usually takes 2–3 visits spaced about two weeks apart, to catch eggs that hatch after the first application. Heat treatment is usually completed in a single day, because raising the space to a lethal temperature kills every life stage at once, eggs included.

One thing worth knowing before you get quotes anywhere: treat the entire affected area, not just the room where you found them. Bed bugs spread along walls and through outlets, and partial treatment is the single most common reason a bed bug job fails and has to be paid for twice.

Northwest’s Green Mosquito service runs April through October and is divided into seven monthly payments. What you pay depends on whether you already have other Northwest services:

A $150 initial fee applies when your first treatment begins after July 1.

See how the Green Mosquito Reduction Program works, or call 866-258-7943 to get started.

Yes — the NorPest Green quarterly program requires a one-year service agreement, along with convenience billing (autopay). That’s what makes the recurring rate and the free re-service guarantee possible.

One-time treatments and inspections have no agreement requirement.

Your agreement spells out the term, what’s covered and how to cancel. To go through yours, call 866-258-7943.

Yes. Pest control estimates, termite inspections, bed bug inspections and commercial inspections are all free.

The one exception is wildlife: snake removal and bird control inspections begin at $125, and that fee is applied to the total service cost if you move forward with the work.

Request one through the free estimate form or call 866-258-7943.

You can pay online through the payment portal, or by phone at 866-258-7943 during customer care hours.

Most residential plans use convenience billing (autopay), which is required for program pricing. To update a card, log into the payment portal or call customer care.

Most homes in the Southeast are on a quarterly schedule — four treatments a year. That timing isn’t arbitrary. The residual products used on the exterior break down over roughly 90 days, and four visits line up with the region’s actual pressure points:

Active infestations are different. Bed bugs, German cockroaches and fleas need a shorter, more intensive schedule — usually 2 to 3 visits spaced 10 to 14 days apart to break the egg cycle — before moving to maintenance.

The initial service is the longest and most thorough visit. It typically runs 45 to 90 minutes and includes:

1. Inspection — interior and exterior, identifying the pests present, where they’re getting in, and what’s attracting them (moisture, harborage, food sources, landscaping touching the structure).
2. Interior treatment — targeted crack-and-crevice application, baiting where appropriate, and treatment of problem areas like kitchens, baths, garages and utility spaces.
3. Exterior perimeter treatment — a residual barrier around the foundation, plus eaves, door and window frames, and entry points.
4. Web and nest removal — de-webbing eaves, porches and accessible overhangs, and knocking down accessible wasp nests.
5. Findings and recommendations — a written service report covering what was found, what was applied, and what you can do to reduce pressure (trim the shrubs off the siding, fix the leaking hose bib, seal the gap under the garage door).

After the initial service your home moves to an exterior prevention program. Recurring visits typically take 20 to 30 minutes.

Yes for the initial service. No for recurring visits.

The initial service includes interior treatment and a full inspection, so someone needs to let the technician in. After that, ongoing quarterly service is performed on the exterior and you don’t need to be home.

If you want interior work on a recurring visit — or you’re seeing activity inside — ask for an interior service when you schedule and plan to be there.

It depends on the pest:

That’s normal, and it’s usually a sign the treatment is working. Products applied into cracks, voids and harborage areas flush insects out of hiding. Ants and roaches that had been living inside walls and under cabinets become visible as they move across treated surfaces.

Expect this to peak in the first 3 to 7 days and then fall off sharply. If you’re still seeing steady activity after two weeks, call us and we’ll come back out at no charge.

Call us and we’ll come back at no additional charge. That’s the core of the service guarantee — free re-service between regular visits, on both the pest control and mosquito programs, for as long as you’re a customer.

Call 866-258-7943. No charge, no visit limit, and it doesn’t affect your regular schedule.

For a standard quarterly service, very little:

• Clear access to the exterior perimeter — move trash cans, planters and stored items a couple of feet off the foundation.
• Unlock gates, and secure pets outdoors or in a closed room.
• For interior service, make sure we can reach the areas you’d like treated — under sinks, along baseboards, and in the corners of kitchens and baths.
• Cover or put away pet food and water bowls and any exposed food on counters.
• Cover fish tanks and turn off the aerator during interior treatment.

Bed bug, flea and German cockroach treatments have much more specific prep — laundering, bagging, emptying cabinets. You’ll get a written prep sheet before those appointments, and following it exactly is the difference between a treatment that works and one that has to be repeated.

Normal rain won’t undo your service. Exterior residual products bind to surfaces as they dry. Once dry, they won’t wash off — that’s what “residual” means, and it’s why they hold up for roughly 90 days through a Southeast summer.

Heavy, sustained rain within the first hour is the exception. If a storm hits right after your technician leaves, call us and we’ll come back out at no charge.

Same-day and next-day service is available in most markets when you call early in the day. Availability depends on route capacity in your area that day.

Situations we prioritize: stinging insects near an entry or where someone has a known allergy, snakes inside a living space, wildlife in the living area, and active rodent entry.

Call 866-258-7943 and tell the representative it’s urgent.

Yes. Every product Northwest uses is registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the label — which is federal law, not a suggestion — specifies where it can be applied, at what rate, and how long before re-entry. Your licensed technician follows it on every visit.

Northwest’s NorPest Green program goes further, using active ingredients derived from plants, flowers and other natural sources rather than conventional synthetics.

The general rule: stay off treated surfaces until they’re completely dry. The exact interval depends on the product and the weather, so your technician will tell you the specific re-entry time for your home before they leave.

Fish and reptiles are the most sensitive household pets. Cover aquariums and turn off the aerator during interior treatment, and tell your technician in advance if you keep them.

NorPest Green is Northwest’s botanical pest control program. Its active ingredients are derived from flowers, plants and other natural sources rather than conventional synthetic compounds — and it’s the standard residential program, not a premium add-on.

It covers ants, cockroaches, spiders, mice, silverfish, centipedes, millipedes, crickets and other common household pests on a quarterly schedule, with free re-service between visits.

Yes. NorPest Green is every bit as effective as traditional synthetic compounds for the household pests it’s designed to control.

Early botanical formulations, fifteen or twenty years ago, did break down faster than synthetics — that reputation was earned. Modern formulations solved it. Today’s botanical products are microencapsulated and stabilized, giving them the same roughly 90-day residual as conventional products through a Southeast summer.

Where conventional products are genuinely the right tool — certain termite applications, heavy commercial German cockroach pressure — Northwest uses them, and will tell you why.

Tell your technician where your pollinator plantings and edible beds are, and they won’t be treated. This is a standard exclusion, not a special request.

• Vegetable gardens and edible plants are never treated with structural pest control products. Those products aren’t labeled for food crops, and applying them there would violate the label.
• Flowering plants in bloom are avoided during mosquito and perimeter applications, because that’s where pollinators are foraging.
• Applications are timed for early morning or evening where possible, when bee activity is lowest.
• Honeybee colonies are relocated, not killed. Northwest offers honeybee relocation as a wildlife service.

Flag a beehive, butterfly garden, pollinator strip or raised bed before your first service and it goes into your account notes for every future visit.

Yes — ask and we’ll provide them. You have a right to know what’s applied at your home. Your service report lists the product name and EPA registration number for every application, and your technician can provide the full label and Safety Data Sheet (SDS) on request.

You can also look up any product yourself by its EPA registration number through the EPA Pesticide Product Label System, or call the National Pesticide Information Center at 1-800-858-7378 for independent information.

No, for standard quarterly pest control. Exterior service requires nothing from you, and interior crack-and-crevice service only requires staying out of the room being treated until surfaces are dry.

You do need to vacate for bed bug heat treatment and whole-structure tent fumigation. Both come with detailed written instructions well in advance, covering how long, and what to do about food, medication and plants.

Yes. If pests come back between your scheduled visits, we return and re-treat at no additional charge. No visit limit, no charge, and it applies to both the NorPest Green pest control program and the Green Mosquito Reduction Program.

Longer-term warranties:

• Lifetime Termite Warranty — included with every installation of the Sentricon System with Always Active
• 30-Year Warranty — on the CrawlSpace Seal encapsulation system
• Ongoing warranty options — available with no-tent drywood termite treatment in Florida

To use the guarantee, just call 866-258-7943.

Retreat-Only covers the treatment. Repair & Retreat covers the treatment and the damage.

• Retreat-Only: if termites are found again, Northwest re-treats the structure at no cost. Repairing any damage they caused is your responsibility.
• Repair & Retreat: Northwest re-treats and covers the cost to repair damage caused by termites, up to the limits in your agreement.

Repair & Retreat costs more. Whether it’s worth it depends on your construction type and termite pressure — a slab home in a low-pressure area is a different risk from a crawlspace home with a history of activity. Your inspector will tell you which makes sense for your home and why.

Almost never. Standard homeowners policies exclude termite damage as a maintenance issue — the reasoning being that it develops gradually and is considered preventable, unlike a sudden covered event such as a fire or a burst pipe.

The same generally applies to damage from carpenter ants, rodents and other wood-destroying or gnawing pests.

This is exactly why a Repair & Retreat termite warranty exists — it’s the coverage your homeowners policy won’t give you. Check your own policy language and ask your agent directly; a few carriers offer limited endorsements.

Five signs, in rough order of reliability:

1. Mud tubes — pencil-width tunnels of soil and saliva running up foundation walls, piers or crawlspace framing. This is the clearest subterranean termite sign there is.
2. Discarded wings — small piles of translucent wings in windowsills, on floors, or caught in spider webs, usually after a warm spring day.
3. Hollow-sounding wood — termites eat from the inside out, leaving a thin veneer. Tap baseboards, door frames and window trim with a screwdriver handle.
4. Bubbling or uneven paint — frequently mistaken for water damage.
5. Frass — small piles resembling sawdust, sand or coffee grounds beneath wood. These are drywood termite droppings, and they’re the most common first sign in South Florida.

Here’s the uncomfortable part: most termite damage happens where you can’t see it — inside walls, under slabs, in crawlspaces. An annual professional inspection is the only dependable way to know, and ours is free.

Check the waist, the wings and the antennae.

The quick field test: a pile of loose wings with no insects attached is almost always termites. Save a few in a sealed bag and call for an inspection — identification determines the treatment.

Termites are active year-round once a colony is established. What changes is swarm season.

• Eastern subterranean termites — the primary species in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and the Carolinas — swarm on warm days from February through May, typically after rain.
• Formosan subterranean termites — established along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts — swarm in the evening from April through July, often around lights.
• Drywood termites — the main threat in South Florida — swarm from spring into fall, peaking in the warmer months.

Colony expansion increases in warm weather, but a colony feeding inside a heated structure keeps eating through winter. Seeing swarmers means a mature colony is already nearby — usually one that’s been established for three to five years.

Subterranean termites live in the soil and travel up into your home. Drywood termites live entirely inside the wood. That difference drives everything about how each is treated.

Sentricon is a baiting system that eliminates the entire subterranean termite colony, including the queen — it doesn’t just repel termites from your house.

The mechanism: stations are installed in the soil around your home’s perimeter, each loaded with Recruit HD bait, which termites prefer over wood. Foraging termites find it, feed, and carry it back to the colony, sharing it through the grooming and feeding behavior termites naturally practice. The active ingredient interrupts molting, so the colony collapses over roughly 3 to 6 months.

“Always Active” means the bait is in the stations from day one — not a monitoring block that gets swapped for bait only after termites are detected. Protection starts at installation.

Two things worth knowing: Sentricon requires no drilling into your slab or foundation and no trenching, and it’s the only termite control product ever to receive the EPA’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. Every installation includes a lifetime termite warranty.

Note: Sentricon targets subterranean termites. Drywood termites live inside the wood and never contact soil, so they need a different approach.

No-tent termite treatment is a localized alternative to whole-structure tent fumigation for drywood termites. Northwest offers it in Florida only.

Instead of tenting the entire structure, the technician injects treatment directly into the galleries where drywood termites are living, then applies a preventive treatment to accessible wood.

What that means practically:

• You don’t move out. No hotel, no bagging food, no boarding pets, no removing plants.
• Usually completed in a day, versus 2–3 days for fumigation.
• No tent on your roof and no risk of tent-related roof or landscaping damage.
• Ongoing warranty options are available.

The tradeoff, stated plainly: fumigation reaches every board in the structure; localized treatment reaches what we can find and access. For a widespread infestation in an older home, fumigation may still be the right call. Northwest offers both in Florida, and the free inspection tells you which one your situation actually needs.

In most Southeast real estate transactions, yes. A Wood Destroying Organism (WDO) report — often called a termite letter or termite clearance letter — is required by most lenders and is standard in Georgia and Florida residential closings.

The report documents whether there’s visible evidence of active infestation or previous damage from termites, powderpost beetles, wood-boring beetles or wood-decaying fungi.

Northwest issues termite letters for closings. Request one through the realtor termite letter request, or for new construction use the new construction termite letter request.

Timing matters. Most letters are valid for a limited window before closing, so order once your closing date is set rather than months ahead. On a tight timeline, call 866-258-7943 and say it’s for a closing.

Termites cause an estimated $5 billion in property damage across the United States each year, according to National Pest Management Association figures — and standard homeowners insurance covers none of it.

Speed depends on species and colony size. A mature eastern subterranean colony can contain hundreds of thousands of workers; a Formosan colony can contain several million and cause structurally significant damage within a few years. Drywood colonies are far smaller and work more slowly, but commonly go undetected for years, which lets damage accumulate quietly.

The practical takeaway: termites eat continuously, they eat out of sight, and by the time damage is visible from inside the room it’s usually well advanced. An annual inspection costs nothing and is the entire defense.

With gel baits and growth regulators applied over 2 to 3 visits — never with foggers.

German cockroaches are the hardest common household pest to eliminate, for two reasons. They breed extraordinarily fast (a single female produces roughly 300–400 offspring in her lifetime, reaching maturity in about 50–60 days), and they live inside voids — behind refrigerator motors, inside dishwasher panels, under cabinet toe-kicks — where sprays never reach.

What actually works:

1. Gel bait placed directly in harborage areas. Roaches feed, return to the void, and the effect spreads through the population.
2. Insect growth regulator to stop the next generation reaching reproductive maturity.
3. Follow-up visits at 10–14 day intervals to catch eggs already laid, which no product affects.
4. Sanitation and moisture correction — German cockroaches need water more than food, so a dripping trap under the sink undoes a lot of work.

Do not use foggers or bug bombs. They don’t penetrate voids, and the repellent effect scatters roaches into adjacent walls, rooms and — in apartments — neighboring units. Fogger use is one of the most common reasons a German cockroach job turns into a much bigger job.

Ants are looking for water and shelter at least as much as food, and a clean house has plenty of both.

The usual reasons ants come in despite good housekeeping:

• Moisture. A condensation line, a slow drip under a sink, a leaking hose bib, or a poorly ventilated bathroom is an ant magnet. Odorous house ants in particular nest in wall voids near moisture.
• Weather. Heavy rain floods colonies and pushes them indoors; drought drives them in to find water. Ant calls spike after both.
• A bridge to the house. Shrubs touching siding, limbs over the roof, mulch piled against the foundation or firewood stacked on the wall gives them a highway that bypasses your perimeter treatment entirely.
• Invisible food sources. Pet food bowls, the recycling bin, a hummingbird feeder, aphid honeydew on landscape plants.

Don’t spray a visible ant trail with an over-the-counter repellent. With some species — Argentine and odorous house ants especially — that causes the colony to bud, splitting into multiple satellite colonies and turning one problem into four. Non-repellent products and baits work because ants carry them home.

Barrier treatments applied to the vegetation where mosquitoes rest, typically reapplied every 21 to 30 days through mosquito season. Most customers see a noticeable reduction within 24 to 48 hours.

The Green Mosquito Reduction Program works on three fronts:

1. Barrier treatment of shaded undersides of foliage, dense shrubs and areas under decks where adult mosquitoes rest during the day.
2. Breeding source reduction — finding and treating or eliminating standing water in gutters, bromeliads, tarps, plant saucers, tree holes and low spots. This is the part homeowners can help with most.
3. In2Care stations, which use a genuinely clever mechanism: mosquitoes that enter pick up a larvicide and carry it to other breeding sites you’ll never find, treating them for you.

No treatment eliminates 100% of mosquitoes — they fly in from neighboring properties, canals and retention ponds. The realistic goal is a large, sustained reduction in your yard. The service is guaranteed to help prevent mosquito bites and reduce the number of mosquitoes in your yard, and we’ll return between visits at no charge if activity comes back.

You can help: dump anything holding water weekly, keep gutters clear, and flush bromeliads. The CDC has good guidance on reducing breeding sites.

No. In almost every case, your mattress and furniture can be treated and kept.

This is the first question nearly every bed bug customer asks, and the answer is genuinely reassuring. Professional treatment — chemical or heat — is designed to treat furniture in place. Heat treatment raises the whole room to a lethal temperature, killing bed bugs at every life stage inside mattresses, box springs, upholstered furniture and even electronics.

Throwing furniture out is usually a mistake, for three reasons:

• Bed bugs are rarely confined to the mattress. They hide in headboards, baseboards, outlet plates, picture frames and carpet edges. Removing the mattress removes maybe a third of the population.
• Dragging an infested mattress through the house spreads bed bugs into hallways and other rooms.
• You’ll re-infest the replacement — and now you’ve paid for a mattress and a treatment.

What to do instead: encase mattress and box spring in a certified bed bug encasement and keep them on for at least a year, launder bedding and clothing on high heat and dry for 30+ minutes, and follow your written prep sheet exactly. If you do discard something, wrap it in plastic and mark it clearly so nobody else takes it home.

Yes — and sealing entry points, called exclusion, is the part that actually solves it. Trapping without exclusion just creates a vacancy for the next rodent.

1. Inspection to identify the species (roof rats, Norway rats and house mice behave differently and get trapped differently), map runways, and find every entry point.
2. Trapping and removal inside the structure. Trapping is preferred over interior rodenticide, because a rodent that dies in a wall void becomes a problem of its own.
3. Exclusion — sealing gaps with rodent-proof materials. A house mouse fits through a hole the size of a dime; a young rat fits through a quarter. Typical entry points: gaps around utility penetrations, unsealed weep holes, damaged soffits and roof-return corners, gaps under garage doors, and uncapped chimneys and vents.
4. Exterior stations to control pressure from the surrounding property.
5. Follow-up to confirm activity has stopped.

Ask what exclusion is included before you sign any rodent quote — ours or anyone else’s. It’s the single biggest variable in rodent pricing and where cheap quotes get cheap.

With a broadcast bait across the entire treated area, not mound by mound. Treating individual mounds is why DIY fire ant control fails — colonies simply relocate a few feet and rebuild, often within 48 hours.

Northwest’s fire ant service broadcasts bait across the yard, which foraging workers carry back and feed to the queen. Expect meaningful control within a few weeks and season-long suppression on the recommended schedule.

Fire ants are a genuine health issue, not just a nuisance: stings cause painful pustules and a small percentage of people have severe allergic reactions. Treat yards where children and pets play as a priority.

Yes — and in the Southeast, winter is the most important visit for some pests.

Winters in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and the Carolinas are mild enough that most pests stay active rather than dying off, and Florida has effectively no pest off-season at all.

What winter service actually targets:

• Rodents — peak indoor season. Mice and rats move into structures as temperatures drop, and a heated house with a food source is exactly what they’re looking for.
• German cockroaches — unaffected by outdoor temperature, they thrive year-round in kitchens and bathrooms.
• Overwintering pests — stink bugs, ladybugs, cluster flies and spiders concentrating in attics, wall voids and crawlspaces.
• Next spring’s population — treating overwintering sites in January means a dramatically smaller emergence in March.

Skipping winter service is the most common reason customers see a hard spring bounce-back.

Northwest’s wildlife services cover rodents, squirrels, raccoons, snakes, birds, moles and honeybees — including removal, exclusion and damage repair.

Wildlife work is quoted after an inspection. Snake removal and bird control inspections begin at $125, applied to the total service cost if you move forward.

Yes to both — and the sealing is what keeps them out.

Removal follows state wildlife regulations, which vary by species and state: some species may be relocated, others must be handled in specific ways under law. Honeybees are relocated, not exterminated.

Every wildlife job should include exclusion — sealing the gaps, soffit returns, roof-line junctions, vents and chimney openings the animal used. Without it, the next raccoon or squirrel finds the same opening within weeks. If you get a wildlife quote from anyone and exclusion isn’t itemized on it, ask why before you sign.

One timing note: spring and early summer removals frequently involve young. Sealing an entry point with dependent young inside is both inhumane and a serious odor and liability problem. A proper inspection checks for a nest before anything gets sealed.

Yes. Northwest offers attic restoration and attic insulation replacement, which is frequently necessary after a wildlife infestation.

Why it matters: rodent and raccoon droppings and urine contaminate insulation and can carry pathogens — the CDC publishes specific guidance for cleaning rodent-contaminated areas. Soiled and compressed insulation also loses R-value, so heating and cooling costs go up. And the pheromone trail left behind actively attracts the next animal.

Ask for cleanup and insulation to be quoted at the same time as removal, so you’re not paying for two separate mobilizations.

Commercial pest control is built around documentation, audit readiness and prevention. Residential is built around treating a home on a set schedule.

The practical differences:

• Integrated Pest Management (IPM) rather than routine spraying — monitoring, exclusion, sanitation recommendations and targeted treatment, because most commercial environments restrict where and what can be applied.
• Documentation — service logs, pest sighting reports, trend data, product lists and SDS binders that a third-party auditor or health inspector will ask for.
• Frequency — monthly at minimum, often weekly or bi-weekly for food service and food processing.
• Scheduling — after hours or before opening, so service never interrupts operations or is visible to customers.
• Zero-tolerance thresholds — a single pest sighting in a restaurant dining room or a hospital is a business event, not an inconvenience.

Northwest’s commercial services cover warehouse and logistics facilities, property management and multifamily, government facilities, retail, office buildings, small businesses, medical facilities, hotels, gyms, daycare centers, and facilities requiring third-party audit compliance.

Northwest also offers a Scent Management system for commercial environments, plus dedicated builder, realtor and community association services.

Yes. Commercial service is scheduled around your operation — before opening, after closing, or overnight — so treatment never disrupts business or is visible to customers.

Tell us your operating hours, access requirements and any audit standards you’re held to when you request a proposal, and the program is built around them. Call 866-258-7943.

Yes — audit support is a standard part of the commercial program. Northwest maintains the documentation auditors and health inspectors ask for: a current service log, pest sighting and corrective action records, trend reporting, a device map, product labels and Safety Data Sheets, and applicator license documentation.

If you have an audit scheduled, tell us the standard and the date when you call, and we’ll make sure the documentation is in order beforehand rather than the morning of.

Northwest Exterminating serves six states: Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

• Georgia — Atlanta, Marietta, East Cobb, Smyrna, Acworth, Dallas, Canton, Roswell, Johns Creek, Norcross, Tucker, Buford, Lawrenceville, Cumming, Dawsonville, Gainesville, Monroe, Stockbridge, Newnan, Carrollton, LaGrange, Columbus, Macon, Augusta, Martinez, Grovetown, Savannah, St. Simons Island, Ringgold and Lithia Springs.
• Tennessee — Nashville, Hermitage, Chattanooga and Ooltewah.
• Alabama — Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, Anniston, Auburn, Opelika, Jasper and Cullman.
• Florida — Miami, Miami Gardens, Lauderhill and Broward County, Pompano Beach, Fort Myers, Bonita Springs and Naples.
• South Carolina — Laurens and Greenville.
• North Carolina — serviced from neighboring branches; call to confirm coverage at your address.

Don’t see your city? Coverage often extends well past the listed towns. Call 866-258-7943 with your address and we’ll tell you in about thirty seconds.

Three ways, all starting with a free estimate:

1. Call 866-258-7943 — fastest option, and same-day or next-day service is often available.
2. Request a free estimate online through the free estimate form.
3. Florida customers can also call 855-789-9807.

Have your address and a rough description of what you’re seeing ready — which pest, where in the house, and how long. That’s enough for us to tell you what the service looks like and what it costs.