Pest Control Questions, Answered

Sawyer Exterminating is a pest control, termite, mosquito and crawlspace company based in Burlington, North Carolina. Our service center is at 401 Alamance Road, on the I-40/I-85 corridor, and we serve Alamance County, Greensboro and the Triad, Durham, Chapel Hill and the Raleigh area.

Sawyer is locally operated and joined the Northwest Exterminating family of brands in 2019. That gives a local team access to Northwest’s training, products and programs, including NorPest Green, the botanical pest control program most of our residential customers are on.

Yes. In North Carolina, pest control companies and the people who apply pest control products must be licensed by the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Structural Pest Control and Pesticides Division. Sawyer’s technicians are licensed, trained applicators, and Sawyer is a member of the North Carolina Pest Management Association.

You can verify any company’s license yourself through the NCDA&CS Structural Pest Control and Pesticides Division rather than taking the company’s word for it.

Check these six things, in this order:

1. State license. Verify it through the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services.
2. What’s in writing. Get the agreement term, the cancellation terms, the price after year one, and exactly which pests are covered.
3. The guarantee. “Guaranteed” should mean a specific written commitment to return between visits at no charge.
4. Who actually shows up. Ask whether you get a consistent technician or whoever is on the route that day.
5. Whether they inspect before quoting. A firm price over the phone for termite or bed bug work, sight unseen, is a red flag.
6. Reviews with detail. Reviews that name the pest and the outcome tell you far more than a star average.

DIY works for a handful of ants on a countertop. It does not work for anything that nests, breeds indoors, or damages structures.

Hire a professional for termites, bed bugs, German cockroaches, ant infestations, rodents, fleas, stinging insects in a wall void, and snakes. Store-bought products fall short on each of these. Foggers and “bug bombs” scatter German cockroaches deeper into wall voids. Repellent sprays cause some ant colonies to split into several colonies. Termites live in the soil and inside the wood, where nothing sold at a hardware store reaches the colony.

With ants, treating the trail on the counter does nothing to the colony producing it, and the colony may sit in a wall void, under a slab, or out in the landscape. The nest has to be found and treated.

The NorPest Green quarterly program covers common household pests: ants, spiders, roaches, centipedes and millipedes, silverfish, mice and other occasional invaders.

These are handled as separate services, because they need different products, equipment and schedules:

• Termites
• Mosquitoes
• Bed bugs
• Fire ants
• Fleas and ticks
• Carpenter bees and in-ground yellow jackets
• Snakes

Sawyer also offers Crawlspace Care for damp crawlspaces, which are a common source of pest and moisture problems in Piedmont homes.

Sawyer’s NorPest Green program starts at $45 per month with convenience billing (autopay), for quarterly service. The monthly rate depends on the square footage of your home, and the initial service is priced at your free estimate.

Residential only. Other restrictions apply. Requires convenience billing (autopay). Price varies by square footage of home. Cannot be combined with other offers. Valid on new service only. One-year agreement required.

Green Elite Plus combines Sawyer’s green services into one program with one monthly payment:

• NorPest Green pest control
• Termite protection with the Sentricon System with Always Active
• Green mosquito reduction
• Flea and tick control
• Bee control, covering carpenter bees and in-ground yellow jackets
• Fire ant control

Your free estimate shows the bundled rate for your home.

Yes, for the NorPest Green quarterly program. It requires a one-year service agreement and convenience billing (autopay).

Your agreement spells out the term, what’s covered and how to cancel. To go over yours, call (336) 360-5854.

Call us at (336) 360-5854. We’ll ask what’s prompting the change, because many of the reasons customers call to cancel, such as pests coming back, a missed visit or a billing question, are things we can fix on that call.

If you still want to cancel, here’s what to expect:

• Any balance for services already performed is due before the cancellation is processed.
• Convenience billing (autopay) stays active until that balance is paid, then stops.
• Sentricon termite protection: renewal payments are brought up to date and are not prorated. We’ll then schedule a visit to remove the bait stations from your property.
• Bundled plans such as Green Elite Plus are reviewed by our office so the final amount reflects the services you’ve received.

Call (336) 360-5854 as soon as you know your moving date, and have your new address ready.

If your new home is in our service area, we can set up service there. Sawyer is part of the Northwest Exterminating family, which serves homes across Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and the Carolinas, so even a longer move may still be covered by one of our sister brands. We’ll tell you on the call.

Any balance on your current account is due before the old service is closed out.

Yes. Pest control estimates, termite inspections, bed bug inspections and crawlspace inspections are all free, with no obligation.

The one exception: snake removal inspections begin at $125, which is applied to the service if you move forward with the work.

Request one through the free estimate form or call (336) 360-5854.

You can pay online through the Current Customers page, or by phone at (336) 360-5854.

Most residential plans use convenience billing (autopay), which is required for program pricing. To update the card on file, call our office.

Most homes in North Carolina are on a quarterly schedule, four treatments a year. The products used on the exterior break down over roughly 90 days, and four visits line up with the region’s pest seasons:

Active infestations are different. Bed bugs, German cockroaches and fleas need a shorter, more intensive schedule to break the egg cycle before moving to maintenance.

The initial service is the most thorough visit. It starts with a whole-home inspection, followed by an in-depth interior and exterior treatment:

• Inspection of the interior and exterior, identifying the pests present, where they’re getting in, and what’s attracting them, such as moisture, food sources or shrubs touching the siding.
• Interior treatment targeted to cracks, crevices and problem areas like kitchens, baths, garages and utility spaces.
• Exterior perimeter treatment around the foundation, eaves, door and window frames, and entry points.
• Web and nest removal on eaves, porches and accessible overhangs.
• Findings and recommendations in your service report: what was found, what was applied, and what you can do to reduce pest pressure.

Yes for the initial service, because it includes an interior inspection and treatment and someone needs to let the technician in.

For recurring visits, exterior service can usually be completed without you there. If you’re seeing activity inside, ask for interior service when you schedule and plan to be home.

It depends on the pest:

That’s normal, and it usually means the treatment is working. Products applied into cracks, voids and hiding places flush insects out. Ants and roaches that had been living inside walls and under cabinets become visible as they cross treated surfaces.

Expect this to peak in the first 3 to 7 days and then drop off sharply. If you’re still seeing steady activity after two weeks, call us and we’ll come back out at no charge.

Sawyer’s guarantee is that we’ll return between regularly scheduled pest control visits, if needed, at no additional cost to you. The same applies to the mosquito program.

Call (336) 360-5854. It doesn’t change your regular schedule.

For a standard quarterly service, very little:

• Clear access to the exterior perimeter by moving trash cans, planters and stored items a couple of feet off the foundation.
• Unlock gates, and keep pets indoors or in a closed room while the technician works.
• For interior service, make sure we can reach the areas you’d like treated, such as under sinks and along baseboards.
• Put away pet food and water bowls and any food left on counters.
• Cover fish tanks and turn off the aerator during interior treatment.

Bed bug, flea and German cockroach treatments need more preparation. We’ll go over it with you before those appointments, and following it closely is what makes the treatment work the first time.

Normal rain won’t undo your service. Exterior products bind to surfaces as they dry, and once dry they won’t wash off. That’s why they hold up for roughly 90 days through a North Carolina summer.

Heavy, sustained rain within the first hour is the exception. If a storm hits right after your technician leaves, call us and we’ll come back out at no charge.

Same-day or next-day service is often available when you sign up for pest control, depending on the schedule in your area that day.

Call (336) 360-5854 early in the day for the best chance at a same-day visit, and tell us if it’s urgent, such as a snake inside the house or stinging insects near a door.

Yes. Every product we use is registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and its label, which is federal law, specifies where it can be applied, at what rate, and how long before re-entry. Your licensed technician follows it on every visit.

NorPest Green uses active ingredients derived from flowers, plants and other natural sources rather than conventional synthetics.

The general rule: stay off treated surfaces until they’re completely dry. The exact time depends on the product and the weather, so your technician will tell you before they leave.

Fish and reptiles are the most sensitive household pets. Cover aquariums and turn off the aerator during interior treatment, and tell your technician in advance if you keep them.

NorPest Green is Sawyer’s botanical pest control program. Its active ingredients are derived from flowers, plants and natural elements from the earth, and it’s our standard residential program, not a premium add-on.

It covers ants, spiders, roaches, centipedes and millipedes, silverfish, mice and other common household pests on a quarterly schedule, with free re-service between visits. See the current NorPest Green offer.

NorPest Green is designed to control the same household pests as conventional programs, on the same quarterly schedule.

Early botanical products, fifteen or twenty years ago, broke down faster than synthetics. Modern formulations are stabilized to last through a full quarter between visits.

Where a conventional product is the right tool, such as certain termite applications, we’ll use it and tell you why.

Tell your technician where your pollinator plants and edible beds are, and they won’t be treated. This is a standard request, and it goes into your account notes for every future visit.

• Vegetable gardens and edible plants are never treated with structural pest control products. Those products aren’t labeled for food crops.
• Flowering plants in bloom are avoided during mosquito and perimeter applications, because that’s where pollinators feed.
• In2Care mosquito stations are designed to target mosquitoes.

Yes. Ask and we’ll provide them. Your technician can tell you the product name and EPA registration number for every application, and can provide the full label and Safety Data Sheet (SDS) on request.

You can also look up any product by its EPA registration number through the EPA Pesticide Product Label System, or call the National Pesticide Information Center at 1-800-858-7378 for independent information.

No, for standard quarterly pest control. Exterior service requires nothing from you, and for interior service you only need to stay out of the room being treated until surfaces are dry.

Some specialty treatments, such as bed bugs and fleas, can require you to be out of the home for a few hours. We’ll tell you exactly how long before the appointment.

Yes. If pests come back between your regularly scheduled visits, we’ll return at no additional cost to you. That applies to both NorPest Green pest control and the Green Mosquito Reduction Program.

Every installation of the Sentricon System with Always Active comes with a Lifetime Termite Warranty.

To use the guarantee, call (336) 360-5854.

Almost never. Standard homeowners policies exclude termite damage as a maintenance issue, because it develops gradually and is considered preventable, unlike a sudden covered event such as a fire.

The same generally applies to damage from carpenter ants, carpenter bees and rodents. Check your own policy language and ask your agent directly.

Four signs, in rough order of reliability:

1. Mud tubes: pencil-width tunnels of soil running up foundation walls, piers or crawlspace framing. This is the clearest sign of subterranean termites.
2. Discarded wings: small piles of translucent wings on windowsills or floors, usually after a warm spring day.
3. Hollow-sounding wood: termites eat from the inside out. Tap baseboards, door frames and window trim with a screwdriver handle.
4. Bubbling or uneven paint: often mistaken for water damage.

Most termite damage happens where you can’t see it: inside walls, under floors and in crawlspaces. A professional inspection is the dependable way to know, and ours is free.

Check the waist, the wings and the antennae.

A pile of loose wings with no insects attached is almost always termites. Save a few in a sealed bag and call for an inspection.

Termites are active year-round once a colony is established. What changes is swarm season.

Eastern subterranean termites, the main species in the Piedmont, swarm on warm days in late winter and spring, most often March through May and usually after a rain. Swarmers inside the house mean a mature colony is close by, typically one that has been feeding for several years.

Sentricon is a baiting system designed to eliminate the entire subterranean termite colony, including the queen, rather than just keeping termites away from your house.

Stations are installed in the soil around your home, each loaded with Recruit HD bait, which termites prefer over wood. Foraging termites feed and carry it back to the colony. The active ingredient stops termites from molting, so the colony collapses.

“Always Active” means the bait is in the stations from day one, so protection starts at installation. Sentricon needs no drilling into your slab and no trenching, and it’s the only termite control product to receive the EPA’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award.

With Sawyer, every installation includes a Lifetime Termite Warranty and an annual interior inspection for termites and pests at no additional charge.

In most North Carolina home sales, yes. Lenders commonly require a wood-destroying insect report, often called a termite letter, before closing.

Sawyer provides termite inspections and letters for real estate closings and new construction. Realtors and builders can request them through our realtor services and builder services pages, with closing documents sent by email.

Order once your closing date is set. On a tight timeline, call (336) 360-5854 and say it’s for a closing.

Termites cause an estimated $5 billion in property damage across the United States each year, according to the National Pest Management Association, and standard homeowners policies rarely cover it.

A mature eastern subterranean colony can contain hundreds of thousands of workers feeding around the clock, out of sight. By the time damage is visible from inside a room, it’s usually well advanced. Termite inspections are free, and Sentricon customers get an annual inspection at no additional charge.

Sawyer’s Green Mosquito Reduction Program provides monthly treatments during peak mosquito season. Each visit includes:

• Inspection of the yard for breeding and resting areas.
• Source reduction: finding and eliminating standing water in gutters, tarps, plant saucers and low spots.
• Larvicide on breeding sites that can’t be removed.
• Treatment of resting areas, the shaded undersides of shrubs and foliage where adult mosquitoes spend the day.

The products are derived from flowers and bacteria. For extra coverage, In2Care stations placed in your yard use mosquitoes themselves to carry a larvicide to breeding sites you’d never find.

No treatment eliminates every mosquito, since they fly in from neighboring yards and woods. The program is guaranteed to reduce the number of mosquitoes in your yard, and we’ll return between visits at no charge if activity comes back.

No. In almost every case, your mattress and furniture can be treated and kept.

Throwing furniture out is usually a mistake, for three reasons:

• Bed bugs are rarely confined to the mattress. They hide in headboards, baseboards, outlet plates and carpet edges.
• Dragging an infested mattress through the house spreads bed bugs into hallways and other rooms.
• Without treatment, the replacement gets infested too.

Start with a free bed bug inspection, then follow the preparation steps we give you closely.

With gel baits and growth regulators applied over several visits, never with foggers.

German cockroaches breed extraordinarily fast and live inside voids, behind refrigerator motors, inside dishwasher panels and under cabinets, where sprays never reach. What works:

• Gel bait placed directly where they hide. Roaches feed, return to the void, and the effect spreads through the population.
• Insect growth regulator to stop the next generation from reproducing.
• Follow-up visits to catch roaches hatching from eggs already laid.
• Fixing moisture. German cockroaches need water more than food, so a dripping trap under the sink undoes a lot of work.

Don’t use foggers or bug bombs. They don’t reach into voids, and they scatter roaches into the next wall or room.

Ants are looking for water and shelter at least as much as food, and a clean house has plenty of both.

• Moisture. A slow drip under a sink, a leaking hose bib or a damp crawlspace draws ants in.
• Weather. Heavy rain floods colonies and pushes them indoors; drought drives them in to find water.
• A bridge to the house. Shrubs touching siding, limbs over the roof, or mulch piled against the foundation give them a path around your perimeter treatment.
• Food you don’t notice. Pet food bowls, the recycling bin, a hummingbird feeder.

Don’t spray a visible ant trail with a store-bought repellent. With some species, that causes the colony to split into several new colonies.

Sawyer’s fire ant service is designed to eliminate fire ant colonies within 72 hours, above and below ground.

Treating mounds one at a time is why DIY fire ant control usually fails. The colony relocates a few feet away and rebuilds. Treat yards where children and pets play first: fire ant stings cause painful pustules, and some people have serious allergic reactions.

Yes. Sawyer’s snake removal service includes an inspection, removal of snakes found on the property, a repellent treatment that masks the scents that draw snakes in, and monitoring.

The snakes we see most around homes in our area include copperheads, rat snakes, black racers and garter snakes. Snakes follow food and cover, so reducing rodents, tall grass, woodpiles and debris near the house reduces snake activity.

Snake removal inspections begin at $125, which is applied to the service if you move forward. If a snake is inside your living space, call (336) 360-5854 right away.

Yes. North Carolina winters are mild enough that most pests stay active, and some are at their worst indoors.

• Rodents are in peak indoor season. Mice and rats move into houses as temperatures drop.
• German cockroaches are unaffected by outdoor temperature and thrive year-round in kitchens and bathrooms.
• Overwintering pests such as stink bugs, lady beetles and spiders gather in attics, wall voids and crawlspaces.

Crawlspace Care is Sawyer’s crawlspace enclosure service. It’s designed to lower humidity under your home, help prevent fungus and wood rot, and reduce pests. It includes:

• A high-quality vapor liner with taped seams
• Sealed foundation vents
• Mechanical drying

The crawlspace inspection is free.

A damp crawlspace is one of the most common reasons pests settle under a home. Subterranean termites need soil moisture. Cockroaches, silverfish, camel crickets and many ants are drawn to humidity. Damp wood is also easier for wood-destroying insects to attack.

Controlling the moisture removes the conditions they’re looking for, which makes your pest control and termite protection work better.

Commercial pest control is built around prevention, documentation and keeping pests out of sight of your customers. Sawyer’s commercial program uses Integrated Pest Management (IPM): monitoring, exclusion, sanitation recommendations and targeted treatment.

We serve schools and daycares, food processing, industrial facilities, medical facilities, office buildings, restaurants, retail and apartment communities. Service is quarterly, or monthly when needed, with free re-service between visits and independent quality control audits.

Yes. Sawyer’s builder services include residential and commercial termite pretreatments, the Sentricon System, liquid soil treatment, NorPest GreenGuard (a combined termite and initial pest treatment for new homes), new construction termite letters and insurance certification.

Yes. Realtors can request termite inspections and order termite letters through our realtor services page, with closing documents sent by email.

For HOAs and community associations, our community association services cover pest control, termite protection, mosquito reduction and crawlspace care for common areas and member homes.

Sawyer serves central North Carolina from our Burlington service center:

• Alamance County: Burlington, Graham, Mebane, Elon, Gibsonville, Haw River, Swepsonville, Saxapahaw, Snow Camp and Altamahaw.
• Durham and Orange: Durham, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Efland.
• Greensboro and the Triad: Greensboro, Kernersville, Browns Summit, McLeansville, Pleasant Garden and Julian.
• Chatham, Lee and Randolph: Pittsboro, Fearrington, Siler City, Sanford, Asheboro, Liberty and Staley.
• Caswell, Person and Rockingham: Reidsville, Eden, Roxboro, Rougemont, Leasburg, Semora and Timberlake.
• Raleigh and Wake: Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Garner, Morrisville and Fuquay-Varina.

Don’t see your town? See our full service area or call (336) 360-5854 with your address and we’ll confirm coverage.

Every new service starts with a free estimate:

• Call (336) 360-5854. It’s the fastest option, and same-day or next-day service is often available.
• Request a free estimate online through the free estimate form.
• In the Raleigh area, use the Raleigh free estimate page.

Have your address ready, along with a short description of what you’re seeing: which pest, where in the house, and for how long.