How to become a Pest Control Technician and How you can earn

Obviously, I see what you’re getting into, and if it’s worth it. So in this article, I’ll tell you what my experience has been becoming a pest control technician and how much money can be made.

And you can see if it’s enough money for you. If you think it’s worth it. I know there’s, you know if you have searched this online.

Becoming a Pest Control Technician

You’re probably getting mixed reviews, some people say you make this, some people even say you make that. Well, I’ve actually worked in the industry. I know how much money people get paid and what my co-workers make.

So I’ll just show you an online source of what the Bureau of Labor Statistics says, the average technician makes, and how my experience contrasts with that.

Okay, so I did a bit of research at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics websites, you know, a lot of people use this as a source, especially, if you are in high school.

I know they made us use this to research every career we were interested in when I was in high school. So, if we scroll over here to Pest Control workers how to become one. So, here on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it says, state laws to require Pest Control workers would be licensed.

This is just not true. You do not need to be licensed to work on Pest Control firms. When I say, if you if a pest control company hires you, then maybe the manager or somebody will have a license and you just work under their license, but it does not require you to possess a license of your own.

You’ll just take a class. I think it’s like a four-hour class. They’ll tell you what not to spray, you know don’t spray people’s gardens things like that, some pretty basic easy stuff.

You don’t even need to take a test to show that you learned anything in the class. You just have to sit there for a few hours while they teach you a class. And that’s it. Then you are free to start your job as far as education goes.

I mean, this is just saying a high school diploma. You really did pest control companies don’t care what you have. If you even have a high school diploma, if you’re a pretty average guy and you know, you can speak politely and you can work.

Customers don’t care if you have a diploma or degree or whatever. They just want you to make them some money. So even if your College dropout or a high school dropout, even if you have felonies, you know, I’ve worked with guys who have been in and out of jail, but are pretty decent guys talk with.

So you pretty stand a pretty good chance of getting a job here. Let’s see. So technicians also must complete general training using safety. They’re usually trained within three months. I’ll just tell you my experience.

Three months is a little ridiculous maybe it’d be like, I don’t know, a very rare high-class pest control company near me, trained me for 3 days. I had I went from zero to full experience.

Being a pest control worker with a truck driving my route, dealing with my customers. I went from zero to worker in three days and I was trained in three days, okay.

It’s really easy, you just spray the foundations you know, if you have any issues, you just call whoever’s your manager is and they’ll walk you through what you need to do to take care of a customer’s pest service.

 

License and Certification

You don’t even need a license. There is an option to get some certifications. It could take certifications if your coworker. I mean, if your employer is okay, with paying you to get certified, it just looks good, and they might give you a small raise.

Other than that, they probably don’t really care. So, let’s scroll up to pay. So, there are different kinds of levels to Pest Control.

 

 

Becoming a Pest Control Technician, How can you Earn?

How much does a pest control technician make? Basically, you know, there are companies like smaller companies that just started like sort of startup pest control companies and they’re going to pay you much less but they’re going to pay you less money, but it’s a lot easier to get a job with them.

They’re just looking for anybody who’s going to run that summer out heist, you know kids straight out of high school people with no job experience, you know, people who have been in jail, they don’t care.

They just need someone to work for them. They are not very picky at all but then there’s you know, the upper sort of the upper-tier pest control companies that are going to pay you more especially, you know starting out around this number $40,000-$50,000 annually, while the lower pest control companies might pay you like this much $24,000 is very much.

The better companies will start you out at around this number $60,000-$70,000 per year and even though the lower companies will pay you, you know, fewer dollars per hour. They will work you 70 hours.

So, we got a little working Monday through Saturday, 12 hours a day, you know, while you’re going to be working a lot, but you’re still going to get this figure. You know, this number you’re probably not going to see $24,000 less.

You’re working in a really rural area or not that many customers, but if you living outside of a big city or just any moderately sized city, you’re going to make $37,000 around there. Whether you work six days a week or five days a week.

So in my experience, I worked at a kind of startup company. I got in really easily. I was young with no experience. My starting salary was $11.50 per. I work for $11.50 but I work 70 hours a week. Just like I said and I got a lot of overtime and I still managed to hit, you know, $37,000 in my first year.

And like I said, really need to get your foot in the door. If you can live comfortably up, $40,000. I lived in North Carolina and that’s a living wage here.

I did fine for myself and if you’re just looking for something to pay the bills and you know, you’re able to work a lot of hours and this could be the job for you, but I only worked there for a year and you know, I was tired of working long hours.

I just put my gear in proved that I had experience and then I applied at a better company that paid twice as much money and you know, only work five days a week and it was more of like a tower, you know, 10 hours a week sort of career.

 

Practical Breakdown

So now or what? When I started making out the newer company doesn’t pay by the hour. They pay you a draw. So you get a draw of $140 a day. And then you get commissions if you work any more than that. So, basically, you hit 20 percent commission on each service you provide. So we’re doing $75 Services.

If I get 20% of the service fees, I get to keep $15 for myself. So if I did, you know, ten stops that day. I would, I would make $150 for the company. So I would get my draw of $140. But then I get 10 more dollars in commission because I did, I work more hours.

Top four hundred fifty dollars. So I get a $10 bonus and commission and you’re working. You know, how many stops are you doing today. For the first company? I was doing about 20 stops a day.

I don’t know, 20% less work or 25% less work for as much money, which is a pretty good deal. So think about that, you know, and that’s just basically, you know, going in and out of houses, as bring the foundation, pretty easy stuff, you know recently.

After I put about two years in on the higher paying company. I got promoted to a different sort of technician called a bedbug technician. I’m going to houses doing longer jobs for bed bugs and even cockroaches and that pays more on these 60 to 70 thousand dollar Mark.

So you’re doing these, you know, again, I get paid 20% conditions, these bedbug jobs can sell for $2000 and therefore value, not for hours. I’m going to bed bug job and if I’m doing fifty thousand dollars, twenty percent, which is $400. So I’ll make for two dollars and four hours. And then I might do some other things for the company after that.

But you know, with all that said and done, I’m making around 60 to 70 thousand dollars a year. So do you know if that’s more of a number, you are wanting to reach for a year? There is a little bit of growth in this career, and you can be making sixty to seventy thousand dollars. If you work hard enough and just only like, you know, two or three years, we can reach that number if you’re ambitious and work hard and show up to work and make happy customers.

 

Rapping Up

If you’re getting into Pest Control, if you go for a newer company, you know, pretty easy to get in. You’re going to get lower pay but you’re going to get a lot of hours. So expect still make around forty thousand dollars a year and, you know, after you put a year in probably don’t stay with that company, that’s a lot of hours to be working switch to a better company that’s looking for experienced technicians that will is willing to pay for them.

So I would apply for, you know, a higher tier company that’s going to start you out like, you know, 40 to 50 thousand dollars a year and you’re only working, you know eight hours a day, 10 hours a day just five days a week.

So you still have your weekends. You’re getting home in time for dinner. It’s a better work-life balance expect that you know, there is a growth in this career to making these 60 to 70 thousand dollar range. If you’re willing to take on more work and do those bigger jobs, you know, you can make between sixty and seventy thousand dollars.

If you’re willing to kill bed bugs for your company, you know, it’s just definitely run the risk of getting some bed bugs are crawling on you and stuff. But if you’re not scared of that sort of thing, you can make some more money.

And there are other avenues to Pest Control like sales where your income is pretty much, you know, unlimited for the first company. I work for we had door-to-door salesmen and they would be making like sixty thousand dollars in the summer just going door-to-door selling pest, you know, service only contracts to those and then I would come behind them and do the pest control service.

If you don’t like getting in crawl spaces and doing the dirty work, you know, you can make a lot of money in sales as well. And then as far as you know going after the bed bug, you get the 60 to 70 thousand dollar range, killing bed bugs, but after you put in like five-plus years and you can qualify to be more into management and you can manage your team and you can make even more money.

So, you know, pretty easy job to get into really, not that bad depending on who you work. For. If you work for a good company, can be a pretty enjoyable job.

Worked in the industry for about three years. I do pretty well for myself. So if you have any questions, please just drop them in the comments, I will get back to you.

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