When you contract to have a pest control company perform work at your home or business, problems can arise in the following areas;

1. The knowledge, honesty and dedication of the person inspecting or treating your home or business.
2. The "company policy" of the service company doing the work. Do they really want to solve the problem or just create an ongoing customer?
3. Your ignorance about pests and pest control.
4. Shopping for price—you always get what you pay for.
5. Conditions that are causing the problem that you should correct. This is a tough one, as some companies use this for an excuse for not solving the problem, "the blame game". Many times this relates to No.1 above.
6. Misdiagnosing the problem or the species of the pest that is the problem. This unfortunately can be intentional, so that a more expensive treatment will have to be done.

Probably the most feared and most abused treatment that these conditions apply to is Subterranean Termite treatments. I have personally run into these types of situations more often with termites than with any other type of pest infestation. There are several reasons for this; the relatively high cost of treatment, the knowledge and effort needed to perform a thorough inspection and the integrity needed to pass up the opportunity of a good sale and commission. I have seen more structures treated that didn’t need to be, than ones where treatment was needed and it was not treated.

Some examples of misdiagnosed termite situations that I have run up against are;

1. On numerous occasions wood rot was said to be a termite infestation. There is probably not a home that doesn’t have some wood rot or rotting wood somewhere on the premises.
2. Ant swarmers [reproductives] being sold as termite swarmers and therefore, a termite infestation.
3. Stored product pests [you know those little bugs or moths you get if you keep a package of food too long] being passed off as termite swarmers.
4. Mud Wasp nests are not termite shelter tubes.
5. One young frantic first time homeowner was told the noises she heard were termites eating her home and she needed her whole house treated. It was the aluminum siding creaking as it expanded and contracted with the heat of the sun.
6. On the other hand, if termites are there, make sure they’re found and the structure is treated properly. Treating a structure improperly or doing a partial treatment is comparable to removing one half a cancerous tumor.

There are other common pitfalls that the consumers should be aware of;

1. Over service- that is a frequency of service that is not needed and is usually not cost effective. As an example, if you live in an unattached single family home you shouldn’t require monthly service, except possibly in southern climates or if you have a German Roach problem. I know, in the Mid Atlantic states, most single family homes can be controlled with quarterly service with no charge for additional service calls for covered pests. The program does not cover all pests, but we design the program around the customer’s needs and wants. Keep in mind that you are paying travel and set up time for the technician, service vehicle and related costs each time you get serviced. From a value-received standpoint, four-45 minute services usually produces more actual service time than twelve-20 minute services and is normally cheaper. However, the technician must be better trained and more conscientious.
2. Pest control for commercial operations-Many commercial entities that have pest problems have fallen afoul of one or more of the six situations at the top of this article. They also may be looking only at purchase order cost and not the "other" costs. Some of these costs can be hard to tally, but can be very costly. Some examples are;

1. Lost customers.
2. Product loss to contamination or damage.
3. Unhappy employees and turnover.
4. Failing customer, FDA, Board of Health and other inspections.
5. Time and resources spent fielding employee and customer complaints.
6. Giving away product or service to placate a customer.