The Pest Control Phone Report 2026.
Updated September 25, 2026
78% of pest control companies we asked send after-hours calls to voicemail. Only 6% pay an answering service. Most close at 5pm.
send after-hours calls to voicemail (62 of 79)
pay an answering service (5 of 79)
close by 5pm on weekdays (61 of 75)
What happens to a pest control call after closing?
| Option | Share of companies |
|---|---|
| Voicemail, a machine or a text line | 78% |
| A person: staff, on-call tech or owner | 13% |
| An answering service | 6% |
| AI | 3% |
When do pest control offices close?
An office open 8 to 5 on weekdays is closed 73% of the week.
| Option | Share of companies |
|---|---|
| Before 4:30pm | 11% |
| 4:30pm | 12% |
| 5pm | 59% |
| 5:30pm | 4% |
| 6pm | 12% |
| 7pm | 3% |
Method, sample and limits
- Outcomes logged on our own sales calls, 14 Aug to 13 Sep 2026, one answer per company.
- After hours: 79 companies (2 vague answers left out). Voicemail, machines and text-only lines count together: no one answers.
- Closing time: 75 companies (1 open 24/7 and 1 with no fixed time left out).
- States: FL 52, AL 20, NM 6, WA 1, CA 1, unknown 1.
- Companies with a PestLine AI account are excluded. No company is named.
- A convenience sample of what companies told us, not a national survey. 95% interval on the headline share: about 69-88%.
How to cite this report
PestLine AI, "The Pest Control Phone Report 2026", pestlineai.com/pest-control-phone-report, September 2026. Reuse the aggregates with that credit: download the CSV.
Questions
What share of pest control companies send after-hours calls to voicemail?
In our sample, 78%: 62 of the 79 pest control companies that told us how they handle calls after closing send them to voicemail, an answering machine or a text line.
How many pest control companies pay an answering service?
Five of 79 (6%) named an answering service for after-hours calls, and two (3%) use AI. Ten (13%) have a person pick up: office staff, an on-call technician or the owner.
When do pest control offices close?
Most close at 5pm. Of 75 companies that told us their closing time, 61 (81%) are closed by 5pm and 73 (97%) by 6pm.
How was this measured?
From outcomes logged on our own sales calls between 14 August and 13 September 2026, one answer per company, mostly in FL and AL. It is a convenience sample, not a national survey; the method section lists its limits.
Related: where pest control companies lose calls, after-hours answering for pest control, the sourced statistics and what voicemail costs.