Pest Control FAQ: Straight Answers from Extermco

Yes. Extermco Termite & Pest Control is family-owned and has been based in Fort Smith, Arkansas since 1991, with a second office in Springdale serving Northwest Arkansas. We are licensed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Every call to (479) 783-1822 rings our Fort Smith office, not a call center.

Termites, ants, brown recluse and other spiders, German cockroaches, bed bugs, mice and rats, wildlife, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, wasps, and carpenter bees, for homes and businesses. We also do WDI termite inspections for real estate closings and soil pretreatments for new construction. The one thing we do not exterminate is honey bees; we refer those to local beekeepers.

Yes. Same-day service is available across most of our service area when the schedule allows, so call early in the day for the best shot at it. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, with Saturday appointments available on request.

Yes, when applied the way we apply them. We use EPA-registered products placed where pests travel and hide, meaning cracks, voids, and the exterior perimeter, rather than sprayed across open living areas. Your technician tells you at each visit whether any dry time or re-entry wait applies. Attic fogging for brown recluse stays in the attic, and your family and pets can remain in the house while it is done.

Not for a routine exterior quarterly visit, as long as gates are unlocked and pets are put up. Initial inspections and interior treatments do need someone home to let the technician in and walk through what you have been seeing.

An exterior barrier treatment around the foundation, doors, windows, and eaves; web removal from soffits and entryways; interior treatment whenever you ask for it; and a free return visit if anything shows up between the scheduled visits. Visits are every 90 days. See what the quarterly plan covers.

Because the treatment flushes pests out of the cracks and voids where they were hiding, so for a few days you see insects you never saw before. Activity should drop off within a week or two. If it does not, call the office and we come back at no charge.

Yes. An inspection to quote any treatment is free, including termite inspections. The only inspection we charge for is a standalone WDI-R termite inspection and report for a real estate closing, which is a flat $175 in Oklahoma and Missouri. Arkansas does not use a standalone inspection; the NPMA-33 termite clearance letter is issued with treatment.

Yes. Extermco is licensed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri and carries $3 million in total liability insurance. Our full termite warranty covers up to $50,000 in termite damage repair.

Quarterly pest control from Extermco starts at $35 per month. Residential prices are set by the size of your home in four tiers: under 2,000 square feet, 2,000 to 2,999, 3,000 to 3,999, and 4,000 to 4,999. Homes over 5,000 square feet are quoted individually. A one-time pest service starts at $165. The full rate table is on our pricing page, and the number there is the same number the office quotes on the phone. Check our current deals before you book.

No. Extermco does not use contracts. Our service agreement is a schedule, not a commitment, and you can cancel at any time, for any reason, with no cancellation fee, no penalty, and no notice period. We have run the company this way since 1991.

Call (479) 783-1822 or text 479-446-6566 and tell us. There is no form to fill out, no fee, and no waiting period.

Monthly, at the rate for your home's size tier. That monthly rate covers your scheduled visit every 90 days plus any free return visits in between.

We come back and re-treat at no charge. Free return visits between scheduled services are part of the quarterly plan, not an add-on.

No. The same 2026 rate card applies across our entire service area in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Price is set by the size of the home and the service, not by the town.

Because the number on the website is the number you get on the phone. Most companies in our markets either publish nothing or publish a low monthly rate tied to a 12-month agreement with a cancellation fee. Our prices are public, and you can walk away from our service any time without paying to leave.

Very. All of Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma sit in USDA Termite Infestation Probability Zone 1, the highest-risk zone in the country, and Arkansas ranks in the top ten states nationally for termite pressure. Southwest Missouri sits just above that line in the moderate-to-heavy zone. Eastern subterranean termites are active in Sebastian County every month of the year, not just in swarm season. Read about how we treat them.

Early spring through May, usually the first warm days after a rain. Winged swarmers or piles of shed wings on window sills, in the garage, or near the foundation mean a mature colony is close by. Termite swarmers have straight antennae, a thick waist, and two pairs of equal-length wings; flying ants have elbowed antennae, a pinched waist, and unequal wings.

We do not publish a termite treatment price because the number depends on what we find. Treatment is priced from the linear footage of your foundation, which we measure from the county assessor sketch, and quoted in writing after a free on-site inspection. Our renewal, booster, pretreat, and WDI inspection prices are fixed and published on the pricing page.

A liquid treatment is a termiticide barrier trenched and rodded around the full foundation perimeter. It stops an active infestation immediately and carries our full repair warranty, so it is what we recommend when termites are already in the house. The Trelona bait system places stations every 15 feet around the foundation and eliminates the colony over time with less digging, which suits homes where trenching is impractical. Your technician recommends one after the inspection, and both are quoted in writing.

Our full warranty covers all treatment needed to eliminate termites plus repair of new termite damage, up to $50,000. It stays active as long as the annual renewal is paid before the expiration date, and it transfers to the new owner when the home sells, so a buyer can inherit coverage the previous owner paid for.

For a liquid treatment, $165 to $250 a year depending on the size of the home. For a Trelona bait system, $225 to $400 a year. Renewal statements go out by mail about a month before your expiration date. The tier table is on the pricing page.

A re-application of the liquid barrier around the foundation, needed every 5 to 10 years as rain, soil, and humidity break the original chemical down. We charge it at our cost, which is three times that year's renewal, billed in place of the renewal payment. It keeps the full warranty active without paying for a brand-new treatment.

Most lenders require one. In Oklahoma and Missouri, Extermco performs a standalone WDI-R inspection and issues the NPMA-33 report for a flat $175, and schedules them across LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties and the Missouri lake area. In Arkansas the NPMA-33 clearance letter is issued with treatment, so there is no separate inspection charge.

Yes. A homeowner pretreat on a new build is 15 cents per square foot of slab. Builders and general contractors are quoted from the plans on a tiered per-square-foot scale that drops as the slab gets larger, with a $200 minimum. We bid projects within 50 miles of Fort Smith or 30 miles of Springdale, in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri only.

Yes. Fort Smith and the Arkansas River Valley are among the heaviest brown recluse areas in the country, and they are established across Northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma as well. A house with recluse activity usually has dozens to hundreds of them living unseen in the attic, wall voids, closets, and storage areas. See our brown recluse service.

Look for a uniform tan-to-brown color with no stripes or bands on the legs, a dark violin shape on the back, and a body about the size of a quarter with the legs spread. Brown recluse hide in undisturbed spots: closets, behind furniture, under bath traps, and in the attic. The quickest confirmation is a few glue boards along baseboards and in closets; if recluse are in the house, they show up on them within days.

Because recluse live where a perimeter spray never reaches: inside wall voids, under carpet tack strip, behind outlets, and in the attic. Getting rid of them takes dust in the voids, fogging the attic, and monthly follow-up until the monitors come up empty. That is a different service from quarterly pest control.

$300 for the initial treatment, then $100 a month for follow-up visits, typically two to three months, until the glue board monitors show the population is gone. Pricing is on our pricing page.

Outside, we sweep webs from soffits, fascia, doors, and windows, dust all accessible wall voids, spread granular bait around the perimeter, and treat the foundation and entry points with liquid. Inside, we dust the voids behind outlets and switches, under baseboards and carpet tack strip, bath traps, and plumbing penetrations, treat the base of the walls, and ULV fog the attic. Glue boards go in every room to track results. The fog stays in the attic, so your family and pets can stay in the house.

Remove all light switch and outlet covers, clear closet floors, pull furniture and stored items away from exterior walls, and empty the cabinets under the sinks. That gives the technician access to the voids where recluse actually live.

Most recluse bites heal on their own, and the spider only bites when it is pressed against skin, usually inside clothing, bedding, or a shoe. A bite that develops a spreading sore, blistering, or fever should be seen by a doctor. Shake out shoes and clothes that have been stored in a closet, and keep beds pulled away from the wall.

German roaches are small, light brown, and have two dark stripes behind the head. They live in kitchens and bathrooms and arrive in boxes, grocery bags, and used appliances, not from the yard. The large dark roaches you see outdoors or in a garage are American, smokybrown, or wood roaches, which are handled under regular quarterly service. Read about our roach service.

Three visits: an initial cleanout, then two follow-up bait services 14 days apart. The full program is $300, paid at the first visit. It is the treatment for an established infestation, which usually means you are seeing ten or more roaches during the day.

We pull out the appliances, apply liquid to the cracks and crevices in the cleared-out areas and the rest of the house, place waterproof dust inside the outlets and switches, bait inside appliances that cannot take liquid, and leave monitors to track activity for the follow-up visits.

Take the outlet and switch covers off the walls, empty every cabinet, drawer, and pantry, clear the countertops and the tops of the appliances, and have the kitchen and bathrooms completely cleared out before the technician arrives. Prep is most of what makes the treatment work.

If you are seeing a few roaches now and then, a one-time service may be enough. If you are seeing ten or more during the day, the population is established and the three-visit program is the only thing that reliably ends it, because the follow-up baiting is what catches the roaches that hatch after the first treatment.

Yes, but German roaches move between units through shared walls and plumbing, so ask your property manager to have the neighboring units inspected too. Extermco services apartment communities across Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas and can set up a building-wide program. See our multifamily program or contact us to set that up.

Odorous house ants are the number one indoor ant in our area; they smell like rotten coconut when crushed and trail into kitchens after rain. Carpenter ants are the large black ants that nest in damp wood. Pavement ants nest under slabs and driveways. Fire ants are a Fort Smith and River Valley problem. See our ant control page.

No. Benton and Washington Counties are outside the USDA fire ant quarantine zone, and the elevation and Ozark winters keep colonies from establishing. Fire ants are an issue in Fort Smith and the River Valley, where we treat mounds and yards, but a company advertising fire ant control in Rogers or Bentonville is selling you something you do not need.

Store-bought sprays are repellents. They kill the ants you can see and scatter the rest of the colony, which often splits into several new colonies. We use non-repellent products and baits that the workers carry back to the nest, and quarterly service keeps the exterior treated so the next trail never gets started.

Not to the same degree. Carpenter ants excavate wet or decaying wood to nest in rather than eating it, so they are usually a sign of a moisture problem around a window, roofline, or bathroom. We treat the nest and point out the moisture source that needs fixing.

Yes. Every ant species is covered under the quarterly plan, including free return visits if a trail shows up between services. A one-time ant service is available if you do not want an ongoing plan.

Droppings along walls and in cabinets, gnaw marks on food packaging or wiring, scratching in the ceiling or walls at night, and greasy rub marks along baseboards. Mice can squeeze through a gap the size of a dime. See our rodent control page.

We inspect first, at no charge, to find how they are getting in, then trap and place tamper-resistant bait stations where the activity is, and seal the entry points so the next ones cannot follow. Rodent work is quoted in writing after the inspection because every house has different entry points.

Yes. Exclusion work is part of how we solve a rodent problem, not a separate company. Typical entry points in our area are gaps around utility lines, worn garage door seals, damaged foundation vents, and openings under siding. We quote the sealing after the inspection.

Yes. We trap and remove raccoons, squirrels, opossums, skunks, and armadillos, then seal the entry point so the next animal does not move in. Wildlife jobs are quoted after a free inspection. See our wildlife removal page.

Cleanup of an attic damaged by wildlife or rodent activity. Depending on what we find, that can mean removing animal waste, pulling out insulation that has been soiled or compacted, and fogging the space with a sanitizing and deodorizing treatment. The scope is set by the condition of the attic, not a package price.

Usually not. Only insulation that is actually soiled, compacted, or contaminated needs to come out, and in many attics that is a section, not the whole thing. If a company has handed you a four- or five-figure quote to strip and replace an entire attic, get a second opinion before you sign. We inspect for free and tell you what actually needs to be done.

October through February. As nighttime temperatures drop, mice and rats push indoors for warmth, and rodent calls to our office climb every fall. Sealing entry points in September is the cheapest rodent control there is.

They ride in on luggage, used furniture, secondhand clothing, and visitors. Bed bugs have nothing to do with how clean a home is; the cleanest house in the neighborhood can get them from one hotel stay. See our bed bug treatment page.

Itchy welts in clusters or lines on skin that was exposed while you slept, rust-colored spots on sheets and mattress seams, tiny shed skins, and live bugs about the size of an apple seed in mattress seams, box spring corners, bed frame joints, and behind the headboard.

We inspect first, at no charge, and quote per room in writing. Treatment covers every harborage in the affected rooms, meaning mattress, box spring, bed frame, baseboards, outlets, and nearby furniture, followed by a follow-up inspection to confirm the infestation is gone. Our bed bug work carries a warranty.

Most infestations are handled with one treatment and a follow-up inspection. Heavy infestations can need a second treatment because eggs laid before the first visit hatch afterward, and that follow-up is covered under the warranty rather than billed as a new job.

No. A mattress can be treated and then sealed in an encasement, which is far cheaper than replacing it. Moving an infested mattress out of the house without treating it first spreads bed bugs down the hallway and into the truck.

Yes. Extermco handles bed bug treatment for multi-unit housing, hotels, and healthcare facilities across our service area, priced per room and scheduled around the facility. Contact us for commercial bed bug service.

Roughly April through October, peaking in July and August. Yard treatments run every three to four weeks through the season and are priced by the size of the lot. See our mosquito control page.

We treat the places mosquitoes rest during the day: shaded foliage, under decks, along fence lines, and around eaves, and we treat or point out standing water where they breed. Emptying birdbaths, plant saucers, and clogged gutters between visits makes the treatment last longer.

Yes. Fleas come in on wildlife, stray cats, and previous occupants, so a house with no pets can still have them, especially after a move. We treat the interior and the yard together, and if you do have pets, have them treated by your vet the same day so the fleas have nowhere to go. See our flea treatment page.

The lone star tick is the most common tick in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, followed by the American dog tick and the blacklegged tick. Yes, we treat yards for ticks, focusing on the tall-grass edges, leaf litter, and wood lines where they wait for a host. Tick and flea yard treatments are priced by lot size and quoted after a free inspection. See our tick control page.

Black widows, which we find in meter boxes, woodpiles, and under decks and patio furniture; wolf spiders that wander in during fall; and the orb weavers that web up porches every September. All of them are covered under quarterly service, and web removal from eaves and entryways is part of every visit. Brown recluse are handled under a separate program.

Yes. Paper wasps under eaves and on porch ceilings, yellowjackets nesting in the ground or inside wall voids, hornets, and mud daubers. Accessible nests are treated as part of quarterly service, and we offer a standalone wasp service if you are not on a plan. See our wasp, hornet, and bee page.

No. Honey bees are pollinators and we do not kill them. If a swarm or hive turns up on your property, we refer you to a local beekeeper who will remove it alive. We do treat wasps, hornets, yellowjackets, and carpenter bees.

Yes. Carpenter bees drill half-inch round holes into unpainted cedar, pine, and redwood on fascia, decks, and porch rails, usually from April through June. We treat the galleries directly and recommend sealing and painting the wood afterward, since bare wood is what draws them back.

Yes. Extermco provides commercial pest control for restaurants, apartment communities, warehouses and industrial plants, medical facilities, offices, storage facilities, and HOAs across Fort Smith, Northwest Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, and southwest Missouri. See our commercial pest control page or request a quote.

We walk the property first, then send a written proposal based on the square footage, the type of facility, and the service frequency it needs. Commercial accounts get the same no-contract approach as our residential customers; you are never locked into a term.

Yes. We build audit-ready programs for food processing and distribution facilities, with a pest device map, service logs, product labels and safety data sheets, and trend reports kept on site for the auditor.

Yes. We handle building-wide quarterly service, unit turnover treatments, and dedicated German roach and bed bug programs for property managers, with per-unit pricing and one point of contact at our office. See our multifamily pest control page.

Four markets across three states. The Arkansas River Valley, including Fort Smith, Van Buren, Greenwood, Alma, and Sebastian and Crawford Counties. Northwest Arkansas, including Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, and Benton and Washington Counties. Eastern Oklahoma, including Poteau, Sallisaw, Spiro, and LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties. And southwest Missouri around Table Rock Lake, including Shell Knob, Eagle Rock, and Emerald Beach.

Yes. Our Springdale office serves Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Bella Vista, Centerton, Siloam Springs, and the surrounding towns in Benton and Washington Counties. The NWA office line is 479-310-9557.

Yes. Extermco is licensed in Oklahoma and serves eastern Oklahoma, including Poteau, Sallisaw, Spiro, Roland, and the rest of LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties from our Fort Smith office, plus West Siloam Springs in Delaware County from Springdale. WDI termite inspections for Oklahoma closings are a flat $175.

Yes. Extermco is licensed in Missouri and serves Shell Knob, Eagle Rock, Emerald Beach, and the Table Rock Lake area, including lake homes and docks where spiders and wasps are the constant problem. WDI inspections for Missouri closings are a flat $175.

Our main office is at 5010 South 35th Street in Fort Smith, Arkansas 72903, and our Northwest Arkansas office is in Springdale. Call (479) 783-1822 or text 479-446-6566 from anywhere in our service area and the Fort Smith office answers.