Licensing

1. What Is Your FDACS Licence Number?

Florida regulates pest control under Chapter 482, Florida Statutes, administered by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Rodent work falls under General Household Pest and Rodent Control. A licensed operator provides the number without hesitation, and you can verify it yourself through the FDACS licensee search at fdacs.gov in about two minutes.

For wildlife species including squirrels and bats, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regulates in addition, so ask about that separately if your problem is not a rodent.

Evidence

2. How Many Entry Points Did You Find, and Can I See the Photographs?

This is the single most useful question on the list and almost nobody asks it. A proper survey produces a count and a photo file. If a company cannot tell you how many openings they found, they have not surveyed the building, they have looked at it.

The count is also how you compare quotes honestly. Two numbers that look far apart frequently reflect different amounts of work rather than different pricing. An older property with complex roof geometry might carry twenty openings where a newer house on the same street has four.

Materials

3. What Material Will You Seal With?

The correct answers are galvanised hardware cloth, copper mesh, stainless mesh, metal flashing, purpose made tile closures and masonry. The wrong answers are expanding foam, caulk, silicone, plastic or screen, all of which rodents chew through within days.

On coastal property add a follow up: will the cut edges be sealed, or are you using stainless or copper? Salt attacks raw galvanised cut edges far faster than inland installers expect, and a seal fitted to standard inland practice can begin failing within a few years while looking entirely sound from the ground.

Sequence

4. Do Trapping and Exclusion Happen Together, and Is There a Verification Visit?

Sealing a house with rodents still inside means they chew new openings to get out, or they die in your wall voids. The correct sequence is exclusion and trapping together, using one way doors so animals can leave but not return, followed by a return visit confirming zero activity before the last opening is closed.

If there is no verification visit in the quote, ask why. That visit is what separates a job that is finished from a job that is merely over.

Pricing

5. Can I Have the Quote Itemised by Phase?

Rodent work splits into three jobs that many companies sell as one: removal, exclusion, and attic restoration. You should be able to see them separately, because they are separately necessary and you may not need all three.

Watch specifically for insulation replacement quoted on the first visit, before any trapping has happened. That is the most expensive line on a typical rodent invoice and it is being sold before anyone knows whether the animals are gone.

Warranty

6. What Does the Warranty Cover, and For How Long?

Exclusion should carry a written warranty on the seal with a term attached. This matters most where outdoor pressure is permanent: property backing onto preserve, refuge, state forest, scrub, reclamation land or undeveloped scrub lots, where the population next door will be identical next year.

On those properties, the warranty tells you more about whether the work will hold than the headline price does.

Insulation

7. Does My Insulation Actually Need Replacing?

A trustworthy operator will tell you when it does not. Light droppings across a limited area of intact insulation can usually be cleaned and treated. Replacement is warranted with widespread urine saturation, insulation flattened into nesting beds across a large area, contamination in the return air path, or odour that persists after cleaning.

Method

8. Will You Use Poison?

Ask, and listen to the reasoning rather than the answer alone. A poisoned rodent dies inside the wall cavity rather than outside, which converts a rodent job into an odour and decontamination job. Rodenticide also creates secondary poisoning risk for Florida owls, hawks and other raptors, and for pets.

There are situations where baiting has a place, generally commercial and exterior. What should concern you is a residential attic job where bait is the whole plan and nothing gets sealed.

Summary

The Short Checklist

• FDACS licence number, verified at fdacs.gov
• Entry point count and photographs
• Metal sealing materials, never foam or caulk
• Trapping and exclusion together, plus a verification visit
• Quote itemised by removal, exclusion and restoration
• Written warranty on the seal with a term
• An honest answer on whether insulation needs replacing
• A reasoned position on poison rather than a default

Keep Reading

Related Guides and Services

• Free Rodent Inspection
• Exclusion vs Pest Control
• What Rodent Control Costs in Florida
• Rodent Exclusion