You Have Weeks, Not Hours: St. Louis Termite Treatment Averages $416
Revised October 29, 2026
How much does pest control typically cost in St. Louis?
Most one-time pest control visits run $108 to $261, with an average of about $172, according to Angi’s national cost data. Ongoing plans bill per visit: about $40 to $70 for a monthly visit and $100 to $300 for a quarterly one. Termites are their own line. Angi puts termite treatment in St. Louis at an average of $416.
Keep reading ↓The screwdriver is supposed to knock. You push it into the wood sill along the basement wall, the way the inspector just did, and instead of a hard little tock you hear a soft, dry crunch, like stepping on a stale cracker. The blade sinks to the handle. Behind you, the man with the clipboard is already saying the words “today only.”
That sound is the most expensive noise a St. Louis house makes, and it is also the moment people spend the most money they didn’t need to spend. So breathe first. Missouri’s own extension guide says you can.
University of Missouri Extension puts it plainly in its guide to subterranean termites: if you find damage, there is no hurry to apply control measures. Termites work slowly, and a few weeks of delay are of little consequence. Use that time, the guide says, to choose a treatment and a professional carefully. The same guide tells you how to do the screwdriver test yourself: probe wood near the foundation, and termite-damaged wood offers little resistance.
Weeks, not hours. That changes the whole negotiation. It means you can get a second and third bid, ask who holds the termite license, and compare the treatment against what the job usually costs here. According to Angi’s St. Louis cost data, termite treatment in St. Louis averages $416, with most homeowners paying somewhere between $162 and $691. A quote far above that range is not automatically wrong, but it has to explain itself, line by line, before anyone signs. A termite price that is only good today is the one price you can always walk away from.
Three phone calls belong before any of that, and none of them is to a pest company. Rats, roaches or bed bugs inside a building in the City of St. Louis go to the city’s Citizens’ Service Bureau at 314-622-4800. Mosquitoes in St. Louis County go to the county at 314-615-0680, the number county cities give residents for spraying requests. And for termites anywhere in Missouri, the state Pesticide Control Program at 573-751-5504 oversees the Category 7B license for termite pest control, so you can check the person holding the drill before you let him near your foundation.
Write those three numbers on the inside of the cabinet door under the sink.
How much does pest control typically cost in St. Louis?
Most one-time pest control visits run $108 to $261, with an average of about $172, according to Angi’s national cost data. Ongoing plans bill per visit: about $40 to $70 for a monthly visit and $100 to $300 for a quarterly one. Termites are their own line. Angi puts termite treatment in St. Louis at an average of $416.
Those are the ordinary numbers, the ones for ants marching along the baseboard under the sink and the spider in the corner of the shower you pretend not to see. The bill turns ugly in two places: a specialty pest like termites or bed bugs, and the fees that sit around the plan rather than inside it. Both are easy to see coming once you know where to look, and neither one is something you have to decide in the driveway.
One visit or a plan: which meter is running
It starts with a line of ants crossing the counter of a south city two-family toward the sugar bowl, the morning after the first warm rain. You call, you agree to a monthly price on the phone, and the first invoice shows up stuck to the storm door with a second line above that price that you don’t remember anyone saying out loud.
A one-time visit fits a problem you can point at: that ant trail, a wasp nest humming under the back porch rail, a single mouse that slipped in through a gap in the old brick when the nights turned cold. A plan is a subscription, and the price on the phone is only the monthly part. Angi’s national figures for a 1,500-square-foot home put the initial visit of an ongoing plan at $150 to $300, then $40 to $70 for each monthly visit or $100 to $300 for each quarterly one. That initial visit is the second line on the invoice.
Inspection fees can stack on top as well. Angi says pest inspections run $125 to $450 on average, that some companies inspect for free, and that the fee is sometimes waived or deducted from the bill if you go ahead with treatment. Ask which of those it is before the truck pulls into your driveway, not after.
St. Louis gives you a way to check that fee. Rottler Pest Solutions, which has been protecting St. Louis-area homes since 1956, says on its own St. Louis page that it gives a termite inspection free of charge before beginning treatment. So when a company wants a fee just to shine a flashlight into the damp back corner of a brick bungalow basement, where the paint flakes off the foundation wall and the air smells like wet cardboard, you know at least one local company that prices that look at zero. Ask the others to match it, or to take the fee off the treatment.
Over a full year, Fixr puts regular pest control treatments at $471 to $867. Put that next to whatever you are quoted, add the first-visit charge, and the real yearly cost of the plan is finally on the table.
Why termites are the line item a St. Louis house cannot skip
Four species of termites are reported to occur naturally in Missouri, according to MU Extension, and all of them are subterranean. They live in the soil and come up into the house from below. The most common house-infesting termite in the United States, the eastern subterranean termite, is one of them.
You usually meet them in spring. MU Extension says swarming flights happen in Missouri during the spring months, usually on a warm, sunny day following rain. That is the morning you find a scatter of shed wings on a basement windowsill, light as dandruff, and a few more caught in the window track.
Old St. Louis houses give them a lot of doors. Foundations made of hollow block, or of masonry and rock, give termites several ways to reach the wood unseen, and consistently moist soil along a foundation wall is good termite habitat. The extension guide’s advice is the same advice that keeps a basement dry: slope the grade away from the house and point the downspouts away from the walls. Our guide to basement waterproofing in St. Louis covers that side of it.
One thing the guide is blunt about: there are no do-it-yourself termite control measures that effectively achieve the desired results. Treatment belongs to a licensed professional.
Ask for the 7B, not just a business card
Missouri splits structural pest work into license categories. Category 7A covers general structural pests, with the exception of wood-destroying organisms. Category 7B covers wood-destroying organisms, including termites, carpenter ants and powderpost beetles. A company can be perfectly good at spiders and still not be the one you want drilling along your foundation.
So when the termite bid comes, ask a plain question: who on this job holds a 7B? If the answer is vague, the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Control Program is at 573-751-5504. It is a short call, and it separates a termite company from a general pest company taking a swing at a termite job.
The scratching in the wall, and the city number to call first
Mice announce themselves at night. A light scrabble behind the drywall, a pause, then again, usually right where the headboard sits. By morning there is a dusting of droppings in the back of the cabinet under the sink.
Angi puts rodent extermination at $180 to $600, and Fixr puts a one-time rodent removal at $225 to $500, more if you want rechecks or live trapping. That pays for the mice in the house today. It does not seal the gap they came through.
In the City of St. Louis, that first number from the top of this page is the step before the exterminator. The Citizens’ Service Bureau takes reports of rats inside a building, rats seen on the exterior of a property, roaches inside a building and bed bugs, at 314-622-4800 or online. The city’s Vector Control program, which works to reduce mosquitoes and rats, is at 314-657-1500. I could not find on the city’s pages exactly what happens after each kind of report, so ask when you call.
Half of these problems start in the yard. Here’s what lawn care costs in St. Louis.
Mosquitoes: call the county before you buy a season
You hear them before you see them, that thin whine at your ear on the patio after dark. Angi puts mosquito removal at $350 to $500.
In St. Louis County, check the public program first. Cities that contract with the county health department tell residents to call St. Louis County at 314-615-0680 to request mosquito spraying or report a mosquito concern. One of them lists the county’s work, which includes inspecting properties, sampling water for larvae, trapping adult mosquitoes to test for disease and ultra-low volume mist spraying when outbreaks are found. In the city, a mosquito breeding site or a spraying request goes to the Citizens’ Service Bureau.
Public spraying covers a neighborhood, not your shady side yard. But a phone call about the standing water two doors down costs nothing, and it is the honest first move before you sign a season-long program.
Bed bugs: the most expensive routine pest
Bed bugs are the job that keeps people up in every sense. Angi puts bed bug extermination at $1,000 to $4,000 and says a major treatment can cost as much as $6,000. Fixr puts the range at $300 to $3,500, from chemically treating one bedroom on the low end to heat treating a whole four or five-bedroom home on the high end.
Before you compare those numbers, ask every company the same question: are follow-up visits in the price, or billed separately? That one answer moves the real total more than the method does.
The plan, priced in full
How much does pest control charge?
A one-time visit typically runs $108 to $261, per Angi. On a plan, add an initial visit of $150 to $300 to the $40 to $70 monthly or $100 to $300 quarterly rate; the pest, the size of the house and how bad the infestation is move it most.
Six questions that make three quotes comparable
Lay the bids on the kitchen table and ask each company the same six things. The quotes stop being three numbers and start being three offers you can rank.
- What is the initial visit fee, and is it waived if I sign up for a plan?
- Is there an inspection fee, and is it deducted if I hire you?
- Does each scheduled visit include the inside of the house, or only the outside unless I ask?
- Are return visits between scheduled ones included, or billed as extra visits?
- For termites, who on the job holds a Category 7B license?
- For bed bugs, are follow-up treatments in this price?
If you are still deciding who to call rather than what to spend, our companion piece on how to choose a pest control company in St. Louis covers red flags, guarantees and the questions to ask before anyone treats your home.
Heard the crunch in the sill plate? You have time. Browse pest control companies around St. Louis on St Louis Near Me Directory, get three bids, and ask each one which meter they are running.
If you’re the technician who can name a pest from a single wing on a windowsill, the homeowner holding that screwdriver is looking for someone who won’t rush them. Put your business in front of those customers.
Frequently asked questions
Is $50 a month good for pest control?
Yes, it sits inside the normal range. Angi puts a monthly pest control visit at $40 to $70. Before you judge it, add the initial visit, which Angi puts at $150 to $300 on an ongoing plan, and ask whether the inside of the house is treated or only the outside.
Why is my monthly pest control bill so high?
Usually because something sits around the monthly rate: an initial visit of $150 to $300, an inspection fee of $125 to $450 that was never waived, or more visits than the problem needs. Angi says a one-off problem shouldn’t need regular service, while a persistent, significant problem may need quarterly or monthly visits. Ask for an itemized statement.
Is it expensive to get rid of termites in your house?
Less than most people fear. Angi’s St. Louis data puts termite treatment at an average of $416, with most homeowners paying between $162 and $691. The expensive part is the damage: Angi says termite repairs average about $1,000 to $3,000.
Is it worth paying for pest control?
For termites, there is no real alternative. MU Extension says there are no do-it-yourself termite control measures that effectively achieve the desired results. For a one-off problem like a single wasp nest, a single visit is enough and a standing plan usually isn’t worth it.
How much should you spend on pest control?
For ordinary pests, Angi puts the average at about $172 a visit, with most homeowners paying $108 to $261. Fixr puts a full year of regular treatments at $471 to $867. Much more than that should mean a specific problem, like termites or bed bugs, priced on its own line.
Is pest control a rip-off?
Not when you can read the meter. The bad deals hide in the fees around the plan and in pressure to sign the same day. For termites, MU Extension says a few weeks of delay are of little consequence, so take the time to get three bids and check the 7B license at 573-751-5504.
How fast do I need to act after finding termites?
You have weeks. MU Extension says that if you find damage, there is no hurry to apply control measures, because termites work slowly. Use the time to pick a treatment and a licensed professional.
More reading for St. Louis homeowners:
- How to choose a pest control company in St. Louis
- What Mark Twain / I-70 Industrial is actually like
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.