OSU’s three
“To find a credible pest control company in Ohio, ensure they are licensed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture… Ask for proof of insurance, compare bids, and understand the treatment plan before work begins.” (OSU Extension ENT-0103, 2025)
The health department’s 2016 handout points to the same place: the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s pesticide licence database. Ask for the licence number and look it up.
Six questions for the bid
- Will you inspect before quoting?
- Heat: how many probes, where do they go, and what is the hold time at the coldest one?
- Do you apply a residual after heat? (A heat-only outfit that cannot legally apply pesticides cannot.)
- When is the follow-up inspection? (Within a week, per Virginia Tech.)
- Chemical: which products, and when is the second visit?
- What is in writing afterward, and what is the guarantee?
Red flags
- A quote before anyone has looked
- Foggers or “bug bombs” anywhere in the plan — the health department: “DO NOT USE”
- Steam as the primary mattress treatment — OSU: “generally not recommended”
- No licence number on the paperwork
Our answers
Inspection first; probes in the mattress, box spring and furniture voids, hold timed from the coldest; desiccant residual after heat; follow-up within seven days; licence number on request; written log and report every job.
Figures cited: Ohio State University Extension ENT-0103 “The Bed Bug Threat”
(2025) and HYG-2105 “Bed Bugs” (2020); Toledo-Lucas County Health Department bed bug handouts
(revised March 2016); Virginia Cooperative Extension ENTO-583NP “Bed Bug Heat Treatments” (2024);
Kells & Goblirsch, Insects 2(3):412–422 (2011). Not medical advice.