Survey: Top top profit, revenue-generating services

No audio available for this content.

There are no surprises in this year’s roundup of the most reliable profit and revenue generators.

Ask a pest management professional (PMP) to list the Top 5 pests that will generate the most profit and revenue in 2018, and the answer is hardly shocking.

More than half of the respondents of Pest Management Professional’s 2018 State of the Industry survey rank ants first, and then cockroaches, rodents, termites and other wood-destroying insects and organisms (WDI/WDO), and finally, bed bugs.

Additional revenue and profit possibilities are out there for PMPs who target more than these five pests. PMPs report spider management is next on the list of services that generate the most revenue and profit.

Fleas and ticks, mosquitoes, occasional invaders and stinging insects all follow as the services that generate the most revenue and profit. The order in which they rank differs for the two categories, however.

The services in this group that generate the most revenue are for mosquitoes, fleas and ticks, occasional invaders, and stinging insects. Those that generate the most profit are for fleas and ticks, mosquitoes, stinging insects, and occasional invaders. Requests for flea and tick management services — the most profitable of the four — is expected to rise, due to the likelihood of unseasonably warm winter and spring months.

Bird management may be last on the list of top revenue-generating services, but it generates a decent profit, according to responding PMPs. And while wildlife management is not a specialty many PMPs offer, that may change. More and more PMPs are in demand for this service thanks to urban sprawl in many areas of the country, and extensive licensing requirements that make for highly trained technicians.

Rounding out the list of top profit-generating services are stored product pest management; turf, ornamental and tree insect management; and fly management. Although managing stored product pests and flies often are included in the general pest management services most PMPs offer, that’s not the case for turf, ornamental and tree insect management. Instead, that work often falls to PMPs who work with companies that also offer lawn service.

For PMPs who have never considered offering many of these revenue- and profit-generating services, it may be time to expand their pest management offerings.

You can reach Managing Editor Diane Sofranec at dsofranec@northcoastmedia.net or 216-706-3793.