Pest control in Waco

Texas requires anyone doing structural pest control for hire to be licensed under the Structural Pest Control Act, run by TDA. Licenses come in categories, including general pest control, termite control, lawn and ornamental, and fumigation, so ask which category covers your job. TDA publishes lists of active business, applicator, technician and apprentice licenses and a company search by ZIP code or address.

A licensed business must carry at least $500,000 of bodily injury and property damage coverage with a $1,000,000 aggregate, and the policy has to cover damage to property in the company's care, custody or control. Ask for the certificate.

What you should receive at a Waco home

For an indoor treatment at an owner-occupied home, the applicator must make TDA's consumer information sheet available to you, and it has to be TDA's own form, in English or Spanish. At a rental with fewer than five units, each resident can ask for it at each indoor treatment.

In complexes of five or more units, residents in or next to the treatment area get at least 48 hours' notice by a posted sign or a notice at each unit. That notice can be skipped only for an emergency treatment of an imminent health hazard, and both you and the applicator must sign a statement saying so. Notice signs must be at least 8.5 by 11 inches and list the National Pesticide Information Center hotline, 1-800-858-7378.

If you're buying or selling in Waco, the termite report must be on TDA's prescribed Wood Destroying Insect Report form, with no changes, from a licensed applicator or technician in the termite category. The inspection covers visible, accessible areas only, so hidden activity behind walls or in inaccessible attics can be missed. A treatment can be recommended only with visible evidence of active infestation, or of a past one with no sign of prior treatment.

Formosan termites have been found in 31 Texas counties, according to Texas A&M, and they swarm at night in late May and early June. Ask your inspector whether that species has been found locally.

• Fire ants. Texas A&M AgriLife prefers the Two-Step Method: broadcast bait, then treat problem mounds. Spring and fall are the best times; in hot, dry summers ants are less active and mounds are harder to see.
• Scorpions. The striped bark scorpion is the only one of Texas's 18 species found statewide, and it hides under rocks, boards and debris. Waco's brush pickup takes one 4x4x4-foot pile up to twice a month, and the monthly bulky pickup takes piles up to 6x6x6 feet, so clear the yard before a treatment. Bricks, concrete and tile don't go in the bulky pile.
• Mosquitoes. Ask the City of Waco whether it runs mosquito treatment in your area. DSHS advises EPA-registered repellent and emptying standing water from tires, buckets, clogged gutters and plant pots, and said in 2023 that mosquitoes stay active in much of Texas into November and December.

HomeGuide's national figures (January 2026) put a one-time exterminator visit at $100 to $600, quarterly service at $80 to $150 a visit and monthly treatments at $40 to $75. Termite treatment runs $225 to $2,500 for chemical or bait methods and $2,000 to $8,000 for tenting, and an inspection can cost nothing or up to $250 (November 2025). Mosquito service runs $80 to $150 a visit.

Ask a Waco company to put callbacks and retreatments in writing. The Texas pest control guide has the full breakdown, and the Waco hub covers city services. For more options, compare pest control in Killeen, or see Waco real estate agents if the inspection is for a sale.