By the Templateez Team · Licensed Attorney · June 2026

Pest Control Intake Forms: What to Document Before the First Treatment

A pest control technician who arrives at a property without knowing what pests are present, whether there are pets inside, or what chemicals the homeowner has already sprayed is walking into a liability problem. Pest management is one of the most regulated service trades in the country. The EPA, state agriculture departments, and local health authorities all have opinions about what you apply, where you apply it, and what you document before and after treatment. Your intake form is where that documentation starts.

Most pest control companies use a basic service ticket: name, address, "check all pests that apply." That gets a technician to the door. It does not protect your business when a customer claims their cat got sick after a treatment, or when a health inspector asks to see your service records for a restaurant account. A proper pest control intake form captures the details that keep your company compliant, your technicians prepared, and your liability exposure under control.

Why documentation matters more in pest control

Pest control is a chemical application business. Unlike a plumber replacing a faucet or an electrician wiring an outlet, you are introducing regulated substances into someone's living or working space. That creates three documentation requirements that other trades do not face.

First, EPA compliance. FIFRA (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act) requires that pesticides be applied according to their label. The label is the law. Your intake form is where you capture the information that determines which products are appropriate — and which are prohibited — for a given property. A product labeled "do not use where food is stored" cannot be applied in a kitchen pantry. A product labeled "keep away from aquatic environments" cannot be used near a fish tank. You need to know these conditions before your tech opens the truck.

Second, liability protection. When a customer claims property damage, pet illness, or allergic reaction after a treatment, the first thing their attorney will ask for is your service documentation. A detailed intake form showing that you asked about pets, documented chemical sensitivities, recorded the customer's consent to treatment — that is your defense. A blank service ticket with "ants — sprayed baseboards" is not.

Third, recurring service contracts. Pest control is a subscription business. Most of your revenue comes from monthly or quarterly service agreements, not one-time treatments. A thorough intake on the first visit builds the service history that makes every subsequent visit efficient. Your tech shows up knowing the property layout, the pest history, the access points, the sensitive areas. That is what retains customers year after year.

Property details: the foundation of treatment planning

Your intake should capture property specifics that directly affect treatment selection and scope:

• Property type — single-family residential, multi-family, apartment complex, commercial, warehouse, restaurant, retail, or agricultural. Treatment protocols differ substantially across these categories.
• Square footage — determines product quantity, pricing, and time allocation.
• Construction type — slab vs. crawlspace vs. basement. Pier and beam vs. concrete block. Wood frame vs. masonry. Termite treatment and rodent exclusion strategies depend entirely on how the building is constructed.
• Landscaping and exterior conditions — standing water, dense vegetation against the foundation, wood mulch beds, firewood storage. These are pest harborage conditions that affect your treatment plan.
• Year built — older homes have more entry points, more settling cracks, more likely history of prior infestations.

Pest identification: what, where, how long

The customer's description of what they are seeing drives your initial treatment approach. Your intake should capture more than "ants" or "roaches":

• What they are seeing — species if known, or a description (small brown ants vs. large black ants, German cockroaches vs. American cockroaches, droppings but no sightings). Pictures are valuable if the customer can provide them.
• Where they are seeing activity — kitchen only, bathroom, basement, attic, exterior perimeter, multiple areas. Location patterns help your tech identify the species and the entry points before arriving.
• Duration — first noticed yesterday vs. ongoing for six months. A recent appearance suggests a new entry point. A chronic problem suggests a harborage that previous treatments missed.
• Severity — occasional sightings vs. heavy infestation. This determines whether you are dispatching for a standard treatment or a full cleanout.

Prior treatment history

This is the field that separates professional intake from a generic service form. You need to know what has already been tried:

• DIY treatments — store-bought sprays, foggers ("bug bombs"), bait stations, diatomaceous earth, essential oil products. This matters because over-the-counter foggers can scatter pests deeper into wall voids, making professional treatment harder. Customers who have been spraying for weeks may have created chemical resistance issues.
• Previous pest control companies — who serviced the property before? What treatment plan were they on? Why did the customer leave? If the answer is "they came every month and the roaches never went away," your tech knows that a standard perimeter spray is not going to cut it.
• Products used — if the customer knows what was applied previously, this helps your tech avoid redundant chemistry and potential overexposure.

The critical safety fields: pets, children, and sensitivities

This is where intake documentation directly prevents harm — and lawsuits.

Pets in the home. This is not optional. Dogs and cats are sensitive to pyrethroids. Cats are especially sensitive because they cannot metabolize certain compounds. Birds are sensitive to airborne chemicals. Fish tanks and aquariums are extremely sensitive — many common insecticides are lethal to fish at concentrations that are harmless to mammals. Your intake must ask: what pets, how many, where are they kept, and can they be removed during treatment? The answer to these questions changes your product selection entirely.

Children and occupancy. Are children under five in the home? Is anyone pregnant? Are there elderly residents with respiratory conditions? These factors affect product choice, application method (bait vs. spray vs. granular), and re-entry intervals.

Chemical sensitivity and allergy disclosure. Some customers have documented chemical sensitivities or allergies to specific active ingredients. Others have asthma that is triggered by aerosol applications. Capturing this at intake — before your tech starts mixing — is the difference between an accommodation and a medical incident.

Service type and scope

Your intake should clearly establish what the customer is signing up for:

• One-time treatment vs. recurring plan — monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly. This affects pricing, scheduling, and product strategy (one-time treatments are more aggressive; recurring plans focus on prevention and monitoring).
• Interior vs. exterior vs. both — some customers want exterior perimeter treatment only. Others need full interior treatment. Document the scope clearly.
• Specific target areas — attic only (wildlife exclusion), crawlspace only (moisture pests), kitchen only (German cockroaches), yard only (mosquito or tick treatment).
• Specialty services — termite inspection, bed bug treatment, wildlife exclusion, fumigation. These require different equipment, certifications, and pricing.

Access, scheduling, and entry instructions

Pest control often requires access to areas the customer might not think to mention. Your intake should capture:

• Gate codes and lockbox information — especially for recurring service where the customer may not be home.
• Locked areas — attic hatches, crawlspace access panels, storage rooms, garages.
• Occupied vs. vacant — vacant properties (foreclosures, rental turnover) require different coordination. Who lets your tech in? Who locks up after?
• Preparation instructions — did you communicate what the customer needs to do before treatment (clear under sinks, remove items from pantry shelves, cover fish tanks)? Document that you gave these instructions and when.

These are the same access-and-scheduling details that matter across all service trades. If you handle multiple trades, an electrician intake form captures similar property-access fields but with trade-specific technical details.

Commercial accounts: a different level of documentation

Commercial pest control — restaurants, food processing, healthcare facilities, hotels — operates under a different documentation standard. Health department inspectors expect to see detailed service logs. Food service establishments need documentation for their own health inspections and certifications.

Your commercial intake should additionally capture: health department permit numbers, most recent inspection date, food service certification type (if applicable), HACCP plan contact (for food processing), and whether the facility has specific product restrictions (organic-only, no aerosols in occupied spaces, LEED building restrictions). This is documentation your customer needs from you, and it starts at intake.

Building the service history from day one

Every piece of information on your intake form becomes the first entry in that customer's service history. When your tech returns for the second quarterly treatment, they should be able to pull the file and see: what pests were identified at intake, what the construction conditions are, where the sensitive areas are (pets, fish tanks, chemical sensitivities), what was treated on the first visit, and what to monitor on this visit.

That service history is what turns a pest control company into a trusted partner instead of a vendor the customer replaces every year. It is also what protects you when something goes wrong. Documented processes, captured at intake and maintained through service, are your best defense against complaints, claims, and regulatory inquiries.

If you are building out documentation across a multi-trade operation, the Trade Services Bundle includes pest control alongside 51 other service categories, each with trade-specific intake fields.