Selling to pest control companies: how to get past info@ and reach the owner
To sell to pest control companies, get the owner's name before you write: the US Census Bureau counts 16,535 exterminating and pest control establishments with paid employees (NAICS 561710, 2023), about 88% with fewer than 20 employees, so the owner usually decides. The published address is often info@ or office@. Pair it with the owner's name from the company's own site, or use the phone, and keep automated texting out of it.
Key numbers
- 16,535US establishments, NAICS 561710 Exterminating and Pest Control Services (2023 County Business Patterns)
- 4,016Sellable businesses with a phone (pest control companies)
- 309Owner name read from the company site (pest control companies)
- 0Owner name and a verified email (pest control companies)
- 100%Share of verified emails that are not shared inboxes (pest control companies)
Live from the 67Leads warehouse, computed (US Central) when this page was served. Sellable means graded as the trade, with a phone, opted-out businesses removed. Methodology.
How many pest control companies are there?
Census County Business Patterns counts 16,535 establishments under NAICS 561710, Exterminating and Pest Control Services, summing the 2023 state file (US Census Bureau). The 2023 Nonemployer Statistics add about 16,137 pest control businesses with no employees (Census NES 2023). That makes pest control unusual among local trades: there are roughly as many firms with payroll as without, where cleaning, for example, is dominated by one-person businesses. Proportionally more pest control businesses have staff, which means more of them have an office that answers the phone. It is also one of two trades in our Census table, with landscaping, where Florida, not California, has the most establishments:
| State | Establishments, NAICS 561710 |
|---|---|
| Florida | 2,301 |
| California | 1,984 |
| Texas | 1,498 |
| New York | 788 |
| Georgia | 723 |
| North Carolina | 573 |
| Arizona | 565 |
| New Jersey | 429 |
| Virginia | 426 |
| Tennessee | 424 |
Source: US Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns, state file. Counts business locations with paid employees.
The 67Leads warehouse holds 4,016 sellable pest control companies today, from public business listings and company websites, each graded against the trade. That is what we have collected, not a census. The pest control lead list and the pest control statistics page show live counts by state and city.
Who sells to pest control companies
- Home-services marketing and cold email agencies selling booked inspections and recurring-service sign-ups.
- Field-service software sales teams: routing, scheduling, contracts and billing for recurring treatments.
- Local SEO and review agencies.
- Web designers.
- Chemical, equipment and vehicle suppliers.
- Insurance agents writing general liability and commercial auto.
- Buyers of businesses: search funds, independent sponsors and roll-ups.
The selling to pest control companies use case has the filters for each.
Why acquirers watch this trade
Pest control is one of the trades that people buying small companies write to. The Stanford Graduate School of Business 2024 search fund study counts 681 first-time search funds since 1984, with a record 94 raised in 2023 (Stanford GSB), and recurring-revenue home services are a common target for that kind of buyer. Self-funded searchers and roll-up teams are on top of that.
For an acquirer, the list is not about email deliverability. It is about owner names, a sense of size and how long the business has been visible. In our data:
- 309 pest control companies name an owner on their own website (8%)
- 0 have both an owner name and a verified email (0%)
- 0 have an owner name and a verified email that is not a shared inbox
Review counts are a rough proxy for how long a business has been serving customers. The profile table below shows how pest control's review counts compare with every trade we carry. A letter to the owner by name, sent to the business address, is the usual first contact for this buyer; email and a call follow.
The info@ problem
One cold emailer described it exactly: "I'm cold emailing pest control businesses and kept hitting info@ and contact@ addresses" (r/coldemail). A shared inbox is not a dead end. At a small firm the owner may read it, or the office manager forwards it. But a message addressed to "Hi there" is easy to ignore.
Live figures for pest control, as of 5 Nov 2026:
- 4,016 sellable pest control companies with a phone number
- 2 have an email the mail server confirmed (under 1%)
- 2 of those are not a shared inbox (100% of verified)
- 1 more have an email on a catch-all domain
- 365 (9%) list no website
- 17 are under 4 stars with 50 or more reviews
What to do with a shared inbox:
- Address the owner by name in the first line, even when the address is info@. Our guide to finding owner names covers where to look: the about page, the "our team" page and the contact page.
- Make the email easy to forward. One sentence on what you do, one on why it matters to this company.
- Call if the inbox does not answer, during business hours, and ask for the owner by name.
The review and email profile against every trade:
| Measure | Pest control companies | Every trade |
|---|---|---|
| Sellable businesses | 4,016 | 135,822 |
| Rated on Google | 3,865 | 129,111 |
| Median Google rating | 4.9 | 4.9 |
| Middle half of ratings | 4.7 to 5.0 | 4.7 to 5.0 |
| Median review count | 102 | 37 |
| No reviews yet | 4% | 5% |
| 1 to 9 reviews | 15% | 21% |
| 200 or more reviews | 39% | 19% |
| Perfect 5.0 rating | 31% | 42% |
| Found emails the mail server confirmed | under 1% | 16% |
| Found emails on a catch-all domain | under 1% | 17% |
| Found emails the mail server refused | under 1% | 2% |
| Found emails that are not a shared inbox | 48% | 58% |
The states with the most pest control companies in our data:
| State | Sellable | Verified email | No website | Owner named |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 663 | 0% | 10% | 7% |
| Texas | 461 | 0% | 9% | 6% |
| Florida | 202 | 0% | 9% | 8% |
| Arizona | 186 | 0% | 3% | 10% |
| North Carolina | 143 | 0% | 6% | 13% |
| Ohio | 138 | 1% | 9% | 9% |
| Tennessee | 126 | 0% | 12% | 9% |
| Colorado | 118 | 0% | 10% | 14% |
| Oklahoma | 118 | 0% | 12% | 10% |
| Missouri | 88 | 0% | 7% | 11% |
States with 50+ sellable businesses, largest first, live from the 67Leads warehouse.
What counts as pest control
Searches for exterminators return supply stores, animal shelters and county offices. We grade every listing before it can be sold:
- Core: pest control services, exterminators, termite control and wildlife and animal control.
- Adjacent, kept and flagged: lawn care, mosquito control, bed bug control and wildlife removal services.
- Left out: pest control supply stores, animal shelters and county offices.
Today 236 listings (6%) were graded off-trade and withheld, and 365 (9%) kept as adjacent. A mosquito-only or lawn-care business may or may not fit your offer, so decide before you export.
Phones and the Texas rule
A live, manually dialled call to the listed business number during business hours is a reasonable channel here, especially for firms with an office.
Texts are different. Under federal rules, autodialed texts to a mobile need prior express consent, and damages are $500 to $1,500 per text (47 USC 227). An owner-operator's listed number may be a personal mobile.
Texas, which has more pest control establishments than any state but Florida and California in the Census table above, adds a registration layer: since 1 September 2025, Senate Bill 140 treats texts as telephone solicitations (SB 140), which requires a registration certificate with a $200 filing fee and a $10,000 security before soliciting a purchaser in Texas (§302.106, §302.107). Take advice before texting anyone in Texas.
Email has its own rules. CAN-SPAM "makes no exception for business-to-business email" (FTC). Read whether buying an email list is legal before your first send.
A plan for your first 100 pest control companies
- Pick one metro, or one state if you are an acquirer.
- Pull every core pest control company. Decide whether adjacent rows stay.
- Split into owner name with verified email, verified shared inbox, and phone only.
- Write to the owner-named group by name. Address the shared-inbox group to the owner too, using the name from the site where you have it.
- Call the phone-only group during business hours.
- After 100 contacts, keep the group that answered. Our guide to cold email reply rates has the arithmetic for sizing the next batch.
Questions
How many pest control companies are in the US?
The US Census Bureau counts 16,535 exterminating and pest control establishments with paid employees (NAICS 561710, 2023 County Business Patterns), plus about 16,137 with no employees in the 2023 Nonemployer Statistics.
How do I find pest control company owners?
Look on the company's own website first: the about page, team page and footer. 309 pest control companies in our data name an owner on their site today.
Is it legal to text pest control companies?
Autodialed texts to mobile numbers need prior express consent under the TCPA, and Texas requires registration for text solicitations. Use email and live calls instead.
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Sources
- https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
- https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2023/historical-datasets/nonemp23us.zip
- https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/case-studies/2024-search-fund-study
- https://reddit.com/r/coldemail/comments/1smrjha
- https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/227
- https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB00140F.htm
- https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._bus._and_com._code_section_302.106
- https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._bus._and_com._code_section_302.107
- https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business