How to shop for pest control in Phoenix

July 2, 2021 6:09 PM

New transplant to the Phoenix métro area and we are responsible for pest control in our rental. We're from a northeast suburban area, where pest control is not a regular thing (and it's different pests), so I don't have much experience with this in general, nor what to look at for PHX specifically...

It's a single level house in a typical tract subdivision with some yard and vegetation. We saw no bugs in the house at the showing (and it was pretty clear nobody was going over it with a fine tooth comb based on other stuff lying around). We heard some big squirrels(?) except it didn't sound like squirrels in the bushes... Also, we won't be able to move in for a few weeks after our lease begins this month. Is that going to be enough time for encroachment to occur, or can we safely wait to start a service once we are actually there? The electricity and AC will be on. I understand some people in urban areas of PHX never have any issues with pests but I'm not willing to take chances....

So please tell me, Mefites, what strategy do I take in choosing a pest control service and how worried should I be about a service gap?

posted by Tandem Affinity to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

I live in Arizona. Both times I've moved into a new house someone's moved out of it and we've had a moderate-sized cricket infestation to deal with, but both times the pest control was able to deal with it immediately.

Truly Nolen is a nationwide pest-control company based largely in Tucson so you'll see a ton of their trucks and little cars around, and they're expensive but they do a very good job—if you're the kind of people who really hate dealing with bugs (no shame, me too) and price is not a huge deal my experience is that they will do a uniformly good job, and you won't have to spend time hunting around for somebody.

That said, where I am, at least, there are a ton of off-brand companies that do basically the same thing for less. The typical Truly Nolen plan here is the "Four Seasons," where they treat right away and then once at the start of each season (with different methods for seasonal pests, etc.) You can get that from all kinds of places you find on Yelp.

In case this helps, here's my detailed experience: They go around the perimeter spraying inside, then go around the perimeter spraying outside. They lay a bunch of glue traps along the inside of the exterior walls of the house (these get a ton of bugs that I basically never see out in the house). They tell me if they see any wasp's nests or spider activity, and where we might want to watch out. Then they'll offer additional services (like closing the gaps, which you can do yourself with a caulk gun) if they find some obvious ingress point.

After the first treatment, they'll tell you that if there's an infestation (or just a bunch of bugs) you're going to notice a bunch of them coming out of hiding and then dying in the middle of your floor, basically. That's normal, and it does happen, but it's not quite the terrifying insect graveyard they make it out to be, or at least it hasn't been in my experience. After that, with the seasonal pest control, we very rarely see bugs in the house.

Gross Arizona-specific detail 1: My favorite of our pest-control guys told me, shortly after we moved here, that scorpions are extremely difficult to kill with pesticide—they might get mortally wounded by your outdoor pesticide and then get into the house anyway because they live another two days, or something like that. Their primary scorpion-control strategy is to kill all the stuff the scorpions want to eat. (Though most pest-control companies will come out if you call them and say "hey I found a scorpion" and look around and do what they can for you.)

Gross Arizona-specific detail 2: In the summer there are places where the city sprays the sewers, which causes a bunch of cockroaches to run above-ground for cover. You definitely see them here, but it's usually not awful if you're clean, the people in the houses around you are clean, etc.
posted by Polycarp at 8:32 PM on July 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I’ve lived in the SE Valley most of my life, but I’ve never found a scorpion in my home or even seen one in my yard (I probably just jinxed myself). Scorpions love palm trees and citrus groves, so if it’s not too late, try to avoid them. Lavender, which does well here, repels scorpions.

I’d be a little worried about the rustling noises in the shrubbery (roof rats are a problem in some neighborhoods), but I usually find that these noises are just birds or lizards.

I don’t routinely use a pest control service or bug spray, but I do keep a container of Boric Acid on hand in case I notice any sewer roaches in the community (Polycarp’s gross detail 2 is a thing). I will then pour a line of boric acid around the perimeter of my small house and it seems to prevent any encROACHment. Almost exactly one year ago I found a dead sewer roach on my kitchen floor (I credit my kitty with slaying the monster) and I called a local pest control service called Simply Green. I was super happy with their work and haven’t seen another roach (or other insects) in my house since then (darn, I just jinxed myself again!)
posted by kbar1 at 1:14 AM on July 3, 2021

I've lived in the valley for 7 years and have used a combination of DIY pest control products and a locally owned small pest control companies,
For rodents and bird issues, I highly recommend Urban Pest Control. I don't have a contract for regular visits, I only call when there's a problem.
For DIY products, I found a store called Weed and Bug Mart. They sell professional grade products. I've found the staff very knowledgeable. With their help, I have saved money by purchasing the right product for the job.
If bees become an issue, i recommend Beehive Bee and Wasp Removal. They have been incredibly responsive and are great to work with.
posted by jennstra at 8:05 AM on July 3, 2021

I'm not an expert but I have some experience with this, so I'll share what I know:

After you see your first black widow or scorpion in/near your house, almost everything else ceases to matter to you. They can't kill you but a sting can (supposedly) make your life very miserable for a few days. But you control the venomous pests by controlling everything else, so I guess it doesn't matter.

If you can, find out from a landlord or prior tenant whether your property has a history of sightings of either. If there are scorpions, you need monthly sprayings by a professional with a history of successfully dealing with scorpions. (Use Yelp to identify one. That's how we found Orange Pest Control, who treats us monthly with "Cyzmic" spray everywhere and "Tempo" dust near doors for $60/month.) Spraying on your own won't do; I talked to a prior tenant who sprayed quarterly and continued to see them, whereas our monthly professional treatments fully eliminated the problem at the same house.

Distubing the dirt disturbs scorpions.

Scorpions are very easy to spot with black light at night. Black-light flashlights were less than $10 on Amazon last I looked.

Black widows may be easier to deal with; I don't have experience with those.

The city of Mesa has a special line you can call to have them treat nearby manholes if you're seeing a lot of sewer roaches. I don't know if other cities have the same.

Anything that can kill a scorpion can definitely kill everything else, so deal with any scorpions and you're good.

Message me if you'd like more specifics.
posted by commander_fancypants at 4:52 PM on July 3, 2021

I should mention that I also talked to a prior tenant at our current house, and was told that this house had an occasional black widow problem in the past due to a next-door neighbor that likes woodworking and keeps wood (and other clutter) on his property. I let our exterminators (see above) know about this, and they said the scorpion treatment should take care of black widows too.
posted by commander_fancypants at 2:22 AM on July 4, 2021

Response by poster: Thanks everybody for the info on this new-to-me topic. We got quotes from simply green and orange and found them very similar to each other, so went with the slightly cheaper. The technician told us he only saw signs of previous treatments rather than much pest activity, and so it seems previous tenants/owner have been keeping up with things, and we also haven’t seen much. Yay! Have come across a lot of those sewer cockroaches (dead) outside tho - thanks for the heads up on those ungeheures Ungezieferes!
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:06 AM on August 7, 2021 [1 favorite]