Typical jobs across Frederick County

The calls we handle most often: what homeowners notice, what our technicians do, and what to expect.

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6 job stories

Typical job

What homeowners notice: On a warm April afternoon after rain, winged insects pour from a crack where the fieldstone cellar wall meets the floor of a 19th-century brick house a few blocks from the Loudoun Street Mall. By the next morning, shed wings litter the cellar steps and the sill of a nearby window.
What we do: The technician confirms eastern subterranean termites, follows mud tubes along the mortar joints to a damp sill plate, and checks the wall the house shares with its neighbor. Once the owners approve the price, a liquid termiticide goes into the soil along the foundation as its label directs, and a leaking downspout that keeps the corner wet is pointed out.
What to expect: Swarming typically stops at that spot, and the written report maps each tube, damaged timber and treated section, which the owners file away for any future sale.

Half a day typical visit

Typical job

What homeowners notice: A buyer's lender asks for a wood-destroying insect report on an end-unit townhouse in a newer Stephens City subdivision, with settlement a few weeks away. The sellers have never seen a termite but can't say what might be hiding behind the garage slab edge or under the back deck.
What we do: The technician inspects the interior, garage, deck posts and the full exterior foundation line, probing wood near grade and noting mulch heaped above the slab edge by the front walk. Findings go onto the NPMA-33 form, with the mulch and a deck post in wet soil listed as conditions worth correcting.
What to expect: No active infestation turns up, the completed form goes to the agent ahead of the deadline, and the sellers rake the mulch back before the buyer's final walk-through.

About 1 hour typical visit

Typical job

What homeowners notice: While moving boxes in a finished basement, a homeowner in Inwood, West Virginia, finds pencil-thin mud tubes on the poured concrete wall behind the furnace. The family would rather avoid drilling through new flooring and the patio slab out back.
What we do: The technician confirms subterranean termite activity and prices both a liquid treatment and a bait system. The family chooses bait, so in-ground stations go in around the house at regular spacing, each holding a cellulose bait that foraging termites share with the colony, and a monitoring schedule is set for the year.
What to expect: Feeding at the stations usually tapers off over the following months as the colony declines, and every monitoring check is logged on the service report.

3 hours typical visit

Typical job

What homeowners notice: A cabin high on the slope below Great North Mountain backs onto oak woods, and by mid-May the owners find a tick on someone almost every weekend, usually after stacking firewood or letting the dog run. A stone retaining wall and drifts of old leaves sit a few steps from the porch.
What we do: After walking the property, the technician applies a labeled yard treatment to the woodland fringe, the leaves along the retaining wall, the firewood area and the shaded grass by the porch, staying well away from the herb garden. Moving the woodpile farther from the cabin, clearing leaf drifts and talking with a veterinarian about the dog come up before the technician leaves.
What to expect: Fewer ticks usually turn up in the treated areas during the following weeks, and the service report recommends another round in early fall, when adult blacklegged ticks start questing again.

90 minutes typical visit

Typical job

What homeowners notice: Every September, stink bugs blanket the south and west walls of an older two-story farmhouse outside Berryville, and by November they crawl out from behind window trim in the upstairs bedrooms. Neighboring fields and an old row of apple trees keep them well fed through summer.
What we do: In late August, the technician seals gaps around window frames, siding seams, soffit vents and the spots where cable and air-conditioning lines enter, then treats the sunny walls following the label. A few gable gaps too high to reach safely are noted for a carpenter.
What to expect: Far fewer bugs make it indoors that winter, though a handful still wander out on mild days, and the report lists each sealed gap so next year's visit starts where this one stopped.

3–4 hours typical visit

Typical job

What homeowners notice: By late July, a homeowner off Martinsburg Pike in Clear Brook finds adult spotted lanternflies lined up on a stand of tree-of-heaven next to the driveway. Sticky honeydew and black sooty mold coat the car, the deck rail and the hostas underneath.
What we do: The technician treats the host trees according to the label and walks the yard looking for other favored plants, including a grapevine on the fence. The owners learn to watch for mud-colored egg masses on trunks, stone and the boat trailer in fall, and to keep checking the cars before long drives, a sensible habit even after Virginia repealed its lanternfly quarantine in 2025.
What to expect: Adult numbers on the treated trees drop over the following weeks, and the report notes when to scrape egg masses this fall and when nymphs are likely to hatch next spring.

1 hour typical visit

Call and tell us what you see. We will tell you what it likely is and what it usually costs before anyone drives out.