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How much does a pest control answering service cost? Sharrk answers every call 24/7 from $99 a month

By Sharrk Team · October 15, 2026

If you're comparing pest control answering services, Sharrk is the one to start with: it answers every call 24/7, asks what the caller is seeing and where, books treatments and termite inspections on the same call, and texts and calls every new lead in under 30 seconds, from $99 a month with no contract. Pest control answering services we checked cost about $50 to $750 a month, and Sharrk's $99 Core plan goes further: it follows up with every lead until they reply or book, includes a CRM, and comes with Mako, an AI assistant that builds all of it for you.

You don't set any of it up by hand. Tell Mako what you want in plain English and it builds your AI voice agent, your follow-up and your automations, shows you every step and waits for your OK. You can build and test it free with no credit card.

What does Sharrk cost for a pest control company?

Self-serve plans, no contracts, no setup fees, cancel anytime.

Credits cover AI call minutes, texts, emails and voicemail drops, and the pricing page lists what each action costs (an AI call minute uses 150 credits). Every paid plan can be billed yearly for 2 months free, so Core is $990 a year, and your first payment comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, minus credits used. If you register for business texting, the carriers charge a one-time $5 brand fee and a one-time $20 campaign vetting fee, plus a small monthly campaign fee.

What you get for $99 a month

Every call answered and sorted

People call about pests right after they see one, often in the evening, and they book with whichever company picks up. Sharrk's AI voice agent picks up on the first ring, day or night, asks what the caller is seeing, where and for how long, and handles each kind of call your way:

• Active problems like ants, roaches, mice and bed bugs: it shares your initial service price if you've set one and books the earliest open slot.
• Termite inspections: it asks about swarmers, mud tubes or soft wood, and whether a home sale needs a WDI report, then books the inspection.
• Wildlife, bees and wasps: raccoons in the attic, bats and stinging insects get an inspection booked or a live transfer to your team, following your rules.
• Recurring service: callers asking about quarterly or monthly service hear your plans the way you describe them and get the initial treatment booked.

Treatments and inspections booked on the call

Sharrk books into its built-in calendar, Calendly, Cal.com or ServiceTitan while the caller is on the line, sends a confirmation, and bookings can show on your Google Calendar. If you schedule routes in other pest control software, that software can receive leads and call details through webhooks or API connections. Each call summary names the pest and the details, so your office can assign the right technician.

Every new lead texted and called in under 30 seconds

Leads from your website forms, Angi, Thumbtack and Networx get a text and an AI call from Sharrk in under 30 seconds. Then Strikes keep following up by AI call, text, email and voicemail drop, and stop the moment the lead replies or books. See how it works on our speed-to-lead page.

Past customers brought back before the busy season

Hunts reach back out to past leads and customers you have permission to contact, like last year's one-time treatments, inside the calling windows you set. Opt-outs, quiet hours and DNC checks are built in, and anyone ready to book goes straight back to you. Learn more about lead reactivation.

Your whole front office in one place

Unified inbox, CRM pipeline, AI booking calendar and booking pages, web forms, video SMS, voicemail drops and review requests, all in Sharrk and all buildable by Mako. That's contractor automation in one bill.

Sharrk has helped clients bring in six figures in revenue, including a single $30,000+ deal.

Mako builds it for you

Instead of a settings page, Sharrk hands you Mako, its AI assistant. Say "build me an AI receptionist for my pest control company, transfer stinging-insect calls to my on-call tech and follow up with every Thumbtack lead in 30 seconds" and Mako reads your website, builds your AI voice agent, writes the follow-up and wires up the automations. It shows you every step and waits for your OK before anything changes.

Need a change later? Ask Mako: your new quarterly plan details, a termite-season greeting, a review request after every Won job. Want the Sharrk team to build it for you? Sharrk Complete includes a done-for-you build every month.

Why do pest control calls spike in some months?

Pest work is seasonal, so your call volume follows the bugs.

• Termite swarm season. Mississippi State University Extension says native subterranean termites swarm from about mid-February to mid-May depending on location, in daytime, while Formosan termites start around May and swarm at night. Oklahoma State Extension notes swarms on warm spring days and sometimes in fall. A homeowner who sees swarmers calls right away.
• Late summer stingers. NC State Extension notes that wasps, yellowjackets and hornets get more aggressive as summer turns to fall, because nests have grown larger. These are the calls that can't wait until morning.

Sharrk answers many calls at the same time, so a swarm-season Saturday never means a busy signal, and a bigger month simply uses more credits. A 400-minute peak month uses 60,000 credits: top up Core with a credit pack that lasts 12 months, or move up to Sharrk Complete, where 185,000 monthly credits cover that month about three times over for a flat $449. Price your busiest month before you pick a plan.

Which calls are urgent and which are quotes?

Most pest control calls fall into two groups, and Sharrk treats them differently.

The first call is also the best moment to offer recurring service. Someone calling about ants in the kitchen is a good fit for a quarterly plan. Sharrk explains your plans the way you describe them and books the initial treatment, so the conversation turns into recurring revenue instead of a message slip.

What should every pest control call capture?

Give Sharrk this checklist and it asks these questions on every call, with the answers in the call summary. If the caller hangs up halfway, you still have enough to call back.

1. Name, callback number and service address
2. Pest: what they see (ants, roaches, rodents, termites, wasps, bed bugs, other)
3. Where: kitchen, attic, crawl space, yard, eaves, inside walls
4. How long they have seen it, and whether it is getting worse
5. Pets or children in the home, and any allergies to stings
6. Property type: house, apartment, rental, commercial
7. New or existing customer
8. One-time treatment or interest in recurring service
9. Best time for a visit

A short intake script

"Thanks for calling [Company], this is [name]. What are you seeing, and where in the property?" "How long has it been going on? Any pets or kids in the home, or anyone allergic to stings?" (If stinging insects near an entry or a known allergy) "I'm going to get you to our on-call technician right now." (Otherwise) "I can book an inspection. Is this a house, apartment or business? What day works best?" "Many customers with [pest] go on our quarterly plan so it doesn't come back. Want the technician to go over that at the visit?"

Tell Mako to build this script into your Sharrk agent, then call it yourself in the browser to hear it before it ever answers a real call. We cover a similar script for heating and cooling companies in our HVAC answering service guide.

What do other pest control answering services charge?

Published prices from each provider's own pricing page, checked October 15, 2026.

Per minute, Sharrk Core works out to about 31¢ if you use the credits only on calls, compared with about $1.75 on PATLive's 200-minute plan and about $3.60 on Ruby's. Peak months widen the gap: on PATLive's 200-minute plan, a 400-minute month would cost $349 plus 200 extra minutes at $1.99, or $747, while the same month on Sharrk Complete stays $449.

The receptionist figure is the May 2025 national mean annual wage for receptionists, $39,460, divided by 12. Wages are about 70% of what private employers pay per hour once benefits are added, so the real cost is closer to $4,700 a month. That benefits share is an all-industry average, not a receptionist-specific figure.

How do I compare pest control answering services?

1. Count your calls. Pull 12 months of call logs from your phone provider. Note total calls and average length for your slowest and busiest months.
2. Price a normal month and a peak month. Multiply calls by average minutes. On Sharrk, each AI call minute uses 150 credits, so check both months against your plan's monthly credits.
3. Check every rate and fee. Sharrk has no setup fee and lists what each action costs on its pricing page. Elsewhere, watch for setup fees and rounding: AnswerConnect, for example, rounds every call up to the next full minute.
4. Check booking. Sharrk puts the inspection or treatment on your calendar during the call, so nobody in your office has to call back to schedule it.
5. Check the hand-off. Make sure urgent calls (stinging insects, rodents inside) transfer live to a person. With Sharrk, you change who gets those calls by asking Mako.
6. Check speed on web leads. Form and directory leads go cold fast, and Sharrk texts and calls them in under 30 seconds. See our notes on the 90-second speed-to-lead rule.

Get Sharrk answering your pest control calls today

Start free and Mako will build your first AI agent from your website in minutes, no card needed. Call it, hear it book an ant treatment, and go live from $99 a month when you're ready. Prefer a walkthrough? Book a demo to see it with your own call flow. See the pest control AI receptionist page for the full setup.

Run a lawn care or landscaping crew as well? See what a landscaping answering service costs.

Need the script itself? Here's a full pest control call script with a triage table and follow-up texts.

Sources

• PATLive pricing (checked October 15, 2026)
• Ruby pricing (checked October 15, 2026)
• AnswerConnect US pricing guide (PDF) (checked October 15, 2026)
• Rosie pricing (checked October 15, 2026)
• My AI Front Desk pricing (checked October 15, 2026)
• BLS, Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025 (checked October 15, 2026)
• BLS, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (checked October 15, 2026)
• Mississippi State University Extension, Protect buildings from swarming termites (checked October 15, 2026)
• Oklahoma State University Extension, Subterranean termite (checked October 15, 2026)
• NC State Extension, Stinging insects of late summer (checked October 15, 2026)

Related on Sharrk: AI receptionist for pest control · Sharrk's AI answering service · Speed-to-lead follow-up · Lead reactivation · Contractor automation

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