The 24/7 AI pest control answering service that quotes and books the job
A wasp nest by the front door. Bedbugs three days before the in-laws arrive. Those callers don’t leave voicemails. They dial down the list until somebody picks up. Mercateer picks up on the first ring, quotes the treatment from your price book, and books the job into the right route day: nights, weekends, holidays, in 30+ languages. Built for solo operators and small route-based companies, with plans from $99/mo.
Sat 7:52 a.m. · Incoming call
“Wasp nest over the front door. The kids can’t get to the car.”
What is a pest control answering service?
A pest control answering service answers your company’s calls when you can’t: mid-treatment, under a crawlspace, on the road between stops, after hours. A typical service takes a message or books a callback; Mercateer also quotes the job from your own price book and books it into the right day on your route.
Every call answered 24/7
Picked up on the first ring: nights, weekends, and holidays, with no hold queue and no voicemail.
Treatments quoted from your price book
Initial treatments, nest removals, and inspections quoted as a spoken number while the caller is still on the line.
Booked into the right route day
New jobs land on the day that serves the caller’s zip, so your routes stay tight instead of zigzagging across town.
Plans from $99/mo flat
Flat monthly plans, not per-minute fees that bill you for every robocall that hits your line.
What happens when the phone rings on a Saturday morning
Nobody comparison-shops calmly with a hornet nest over the door. The caller who just found roaches in the kitchen wants a person on the line, a price, and a date, and the first company that answers and says a number usually wins the job. Here’s the call, minute by minute.
Answered on the first ring
No hold, no menu, no voicemail. The caller describes a wasp nest over the front door. The kids can’t get to the car.
Quotes from your price book
It quotes your wasp and hornet nest removal rate straight from your price book: a number, spoken out loud, not “someone will call you back with pricing.”
Books into the right route day
It checks the address against your route rules. That zip is Tuesday’s route, so it offers Tuesday morning. And because somebody answered and gave a price, the caller stops dialing. If your rules say stinging insects get a same-day slot instead, it books same-day. Your rules, applied the same way on every call.
The job lands on your schedule
Name, address, nest location, quoted price, full transcript: everything on your schedule, with nothing relayed through a message pad.
And the 9:40 p.m. restaurant call escalates
A manager reports roaches on the prep line, mid-service, with an inspection coming. Commercial account plus active infestation is an emergency (you defined that), so your on-call tech gets the text: account name, address, what the manager saw, full transcript. Two calls you never touched: one priced and sitting on Tuesday’s route, one escalated inside two minutes.
Answering services take a message. Mercateer quotes the treatment
A human answering service relays a message: you still have to call back, quote, and schedule, three more chances to lose the job to whoever answered first. Mercateer quotes while the caller is on the line, then books, because it runs on a construction-estimating engine with your real price book behind every call.
Price book
Initial general treatment
$175Wasp nest removal
$225Quarterly plan, per visit
$129Termites and bedbugs: inspect first
Your price book, spoken out loud
Load your real price book (initial general pest treatment, quarterly plan rates, nest removal, rodent service, inspections), and when a caller asks what something costs, your line item becomes a spoken number on the call. Pest control fits phone quoting better than almost any trade: most of it is priced before anyone visits.
You draw the quoting line
Standard initials, nest removals, and inspections get a number on the phone. Termite treatments, bedbug heat treatments, and anything that needs eyes on it first get “the inspector will confirm on site” and a booked inspection instead. You set that line once; the agent holds it on every call, at every hour.
Escalation rules
Live
Commercial infestation
Page the on-call now.
Stinging insects
Offer a same-day slot.
Anything else
Book the zip’s route day.
The right route day, not the next empty slot
A pest route lives or dies on density. You map which days serve which zips or neighborhoods (Tuesday is the north side, Thursday is everything south of the river), and the agent offers the day that keeps your route tight. It books into whatever runs your schedule, or no software at all: it texts you the booking and you write it up the way you always have.
Plan questions, answered your way
What the quarterly plan covers, what it costs, your re-service policy between visits: answered from your price book and your written instructions, stated the way you set them. And when the caller is ready, it books their initial on the right route day.
One front office, every channel
One consistent voice on every channel
Up and running in three steps
Load your price book and set your rules
Your greeting, word for word. What gets a spoken quote and what gets a booked inspection. Your emergency definitions, and which route days serve which zips.
Price book
Initial general treatment
$175Wasp nest removal
$225Quarterly plan, per visit
$129Termites and bedbugs: inspect first
Forward your line
Keep your number, the one painted on your truck. Works with any phone setup or carrier, no hardware, no porting. Test it with your own calls before it goes live.
Sat 7:52 a.m. · Incoming call
“Wasp nest over the front door. The kids can’t get to the car.”
Calls get answered, quoted, and booked
Run it after-hours only, on overflow, or on every call, and switch it on or off whenever you want. Every call is transcribed and summarized, so you can read any conversation word for word.
Last night
Mice in the garage
BookedRoaches, prep line
DispatchedHang-up
Textedevery call answered: nights, weekends, swarm season
flat plans to start, no per-minute fees
languages answered natively, on every call
Mercateer vs. a human answering service
| Mercateer | Human answering service | Answering it yourself | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pickup speed | First ring, every call, even when spring floods the line | Depends on staffing; queues during surges | Between crawlspaces. The rest goes to voicemail |
| Nights, weekends, holidays | Identical behavior at every hour | Covered, often at premium rates | You, woken by the midnight bedbug call. Or it’s gone |
| Quotes the treatment from your price book | A number, spoken on the call | No, takes a message | Yes, you are the price book |
| Books into your route days | Yes, by your zip-to-day rules | Rarely (relays a callback request) | You know your route cold, if you caught the call |
| Languages | 30+ natively, no transfer | Whoever happens to be on shift | Whatever you speak |
| Spam handling | Filtered, doesn’t cost you | Answered and billed like any other call | Screened by you, one interruption at a time |
| Price model | Flat plans, $99–399/mo | Typically $300–500/mo plus per-minute fees | Free, minus whatever spring sent to voicemail |
Comparison reflects typical category positioning. Confirm current details with each vendor.
Pest control answering service FAQs
Every call answered. Every job quoted. Every booking on the right route day.
It picks up on the first ring, 24/7/365, in your caller’s language. It quotes from your price book, books into your route days, and transcribes every call. Forward your line and start free, with plans from $99/mo.
No credit card required