Methodology

How this site is compiled today, and what's changing.

Coverage

pestlist covers Florida and Texas only. Since 27 September 2026 we no longer publish pages for any other state, so we can check the listings in these two properly before adding more.

Where the data comes from now

Every listing is a business from Google's public Places data, pulled for a search of termite and pest control companies in each metro this site covers. For each one we keep the name, address, phone number, website, opening hours and Google's own star rating and review count.

What we verify today

In both states, most listings are matched to a state licence record, as described next. We do not confirm that a business is still trading.

Florida: listings matched to the FDACS licence register

Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) licenses every pest control business, and licenses each branch separately, with that branch's own street address and phone number. We matched each Florida listing to that register using the FDACS export of active business licences dated 11 September 2026.

A listing is matched to a licence only when its phone number or street address agrees with one specific licence record and the business names agree too. A name on its own is never enough: chains such as Truly Nolen hold a separate licence for each branch, and matching on the name alone would attach one branch's licence to another. Where two licences fit a listing equally well, we show neither. We also show nothing when a licence's expiry date has passed, even if the register still marks it active.

What a matched listing shows: the licence number, its status and expiry date, and the date FDACS first issued it. You can look any licence number up yourself in the FDACS Pest Control Business Licenses report.

Three things a Florida licence line does not tell you:

  • Which kinds of work the licence covers. FDACS licenses pest control businesses in categories (termite and other wood-destroying organisms, general household pest, lawn and ornamental, fumigation), and the register export we used does not include them. A matched licence shows the business is licensed for pest control in Florida, not that it is licensed for termite or WDO work.
  • How long the business has existed. The earliest issue dates in the register cluster in 1986 and 1987, which looks like when its records begin rather than when those businesses started. We show the first-issued date as the register records it.
  • Anything about a listing without a licence line. No line means we could not tie that listing to one licence with confidence. It may trade under a parent company's licence or be registered at a different address. It does not mean the business is unlicensed.

Texas: listings matched to the TDA register

The Texas Department of Agriculture's Structural Pest Control Service licenses pest control businesses and publishes its register of commercial business licences as a public file. Each licence carries a TPCL number, an expiry date and the categories of work it covers, termite (T) among them. We used the file downloaded on 27 September 2026.

The register gives each licence's county but no street address or phone number, so we could not match Texas listings the way we match Florida's. Instead, strongest evidence first: the TPCL number the company prints on its own website, where that number is in the register and fits the listing (5 listings); otherwise, a business name that equals the licence's legal or trading name, or clearly shares it, with exactly one such licence in the metro's counties. National chains hold many licences under one name, so they are matched only when their branch page states the number. Where two licences fit, we show neither.

We show a Texas licence only when it is current and includes the termite category. 57 of our 91 Texas listings show one: the TPCL number, its categories, expiry date and first-issued date. You can check any number yourself with the Texas Department of Agriculture. As in Florida, no licence line does not mean the business is unlicensed, only that we could not tie it to one licence with confidence.

What we deliberately do not publish

  • No licence claim on a listing we have not checked. Florida listings show a checked business licence, and Texas listings a checked termite-category licence, each described exactly as above. A listing we could not match shows no licence line.
  • No "Trusted", "Vetted", "Best" or "Top-rated" badges on a listing. Those would be our own unsourceable claim about one company. Metro pages are titled the way people search for them ("best licensed termite companies in Jacksonville"), but the order on the page is Google review count, not our judgement of quality. A Google star rating is Google's own figure, shown as Google shows it.
  • No national average prices. There is no credible source for one. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes no producer price index for this industry, and the figures repeated across the web trace to price lists withdrawn years ago.

Known limits

  • No licence-category check in Florida, and in Texas a match rests on a name or the company's own website rather than an address, because the register has none. This is the main limit and the main thing we're working to fix.
  • A Google listing can include businesses that don't actually do termite or WDO work. A search for pest control turns up general pest, mosquito and rodent companies too. We haven't yet filtered these down to termite-specific licensees, because that requires the licence data we don't have wired in yet.
  • Ratings and review counts are a snapshot. They're dated by when we pulled them and will drift out of date between pulls.

A published score, now live across Florida

Started 27 September 2026 as a Tampa-only pilot; every Florida metro on this site now carries the same treatment: facts read from each company's own website (treatment types, warranty, free inspection, service area and more), each with a source link and a checked date, and a published 100-point score built only from those facts, the FDACS licence match and Google's own rating figures. How we rank, in full. A Florida provider page needs a matched licence and at least two verified website facts to be indexed; others still exist and are linked from their metro page, marked "noindex" until they clear that bar. Texas metros don't carry this yet: scan_provider_sites.py hasn't been run for them.

What's planned

Add the licence category for Florida, so a listing can show whether a business is licensed for termite and WDO work specifically, and resolve the Texas listings we could not yet tie to one licence, chiefly chain branches.

Quote requests

Metro pages carry a short form for homeowners who want quotes. We store what you send us, review it by hand, and share it only as the consent line on the form describes: with licensed termite companies serving your area, so they can contact you about it. Quote requests do not change the listing order on any page.

How automation is used

Listing data is pulled, parsed and normalised by a script, and the pages are generated from the resulting data automatically.

Editorial content is not generated that way. Written guidance on this site is researched against primary sources (state statutes and administrative codes, licensing board advisories, and federal agency documents) and reviewed before publication.

Corrections

If a listing is wrong, closed, or you can supply a licence number for it, we want to know. Send a correction.