---
title: "Pest Control Worker"
description: "Apply or release chemical solutions or toxic gases and set traps to kill or remove pests and vermin that infest buildings and surrounding areas."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/pest-control-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Pest Control Worker

**Category:** Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance · **SOC code:** 37-2021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 37-2021.00

Apply or release chemical solutions or toxic gases and set traps to kill or remove pests and vermin that infest buildings and surrounding areas.

Also advertised as: Commercial Pest Control Technician (Commercial Pest Control Tech); Exterminator; Pest Control Applicator; Pest Control Chemical Technician (Pest Control Chemical Tech); Pest Control Operator; Pest Control Technician (Pest Control Tech); Pest Technician (Pest Tech); Residential Pest Control Technician (Residential Pest Control Tech).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $45,250 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $21.75/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $34,680 to $61,890, with the middle half between $37,440 and $49,600
- **Total US employment:** 102,620
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 13,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 60/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 102,620 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $34,680 |
| 25th | $37,440 |
| 50th (median) | $45,250 |
| 75th | $49,600 |
| 90th | $61,890 |
| Mean (average) | $46,400 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $51,300 | $47,938 | 1,430 |
| SD | $49,920 | $56,352 | 190 |
| NV | $49,240 | $49,250 | 790 |
| CT | $49,010 | $47,302 | 880 |
| NJ | $48,780 | $44,832 | 2,270 |
| CO | $48,650 | $47,209 | 970 |
| HI | $48,570 | $44,174 | 740 |
| NY | $48,530 | $44,968 | 4,220 |
| ME | $48,340 | $49,809 | 320 |
| ND | $48,020 | $53,980 | 120 |
| NH | $48,000 | $46,081 | 260 |
| MD | $47,360 | $45,122 | 1,670 |
| CA | $47,190 | $42,621 | Not published by BLS |
| AK | $46,900 | $45,819 | 40 |
| OR | $46,570 | $45,056 | 740 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/pest-control-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/pest-control-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 108,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 114,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 6,000 jobs, or +5.5%. Faster than average: 5.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 13,700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Recommend treatment and prevention methods for pest problems to clients.
- Record work activities performed.
- Drive truck equipped with power spraying equipment.
- Direct, or assist other workers in, treatment or extermination processes to eliminate or control rodents, insects, or weeds.
- Inspect premises to identify infestation source and extent of damage to property, wall, or roof porosity and access to infested locations.
- Spray or dust chemical solutions, powders, or gases into rooms, onto clothing, furnishings, or wood, or over marshlands, ditches, or catch basins.
- Study preliminary reports or diagrams of infested area and determine treatment type required to eliminate and prevent recurrence of infestation.
- Clean work site after completion of job.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.85 |
| C — Conventional | 4.17 |
| I — Investigative | 2.94 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.21 |
| S — Social | 1.67 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 90.4 |
| ISTP | 77.0 |
| ESTJ | 75.9 |
| ISFJ | 73.4 |
| INTJ | 66.1 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Pesticide Handler, Sprayer, and Applicator, Vegetation](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pesticide-handler-sprayer-and-applicator-vegetation) — median $46,340
- [Hazardous Materials Removal Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hazardous-materials-removal-worker) — median $49,450
- [Septic Tank Servicer and Sewer Pipe Cleaner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/septic-tank-servicer-and-sewer-pipe-cleaner) — median $49,880
- [Landscaping and Groundskeeping Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/landscaping-and-groundskeeping-worker) — median $39,150
- [Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/water-and-wastewater-treatment-plant-and-system-operator) — median $60,020
- [First-Line Supervisor of Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-landscaping-lawn-service-and-groundskeeping-workers) — median $58,430
- [First-Line Supervisor of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-farming-fishing-and-forestry-workers) — median $59,320
- [Agricultural Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-technician) — median $49,630
- [Farmworker and Laborer, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/farmworker-and-laborer-crop-nursery-and-greenhouse) — median $35,660
- [Agricultural Inspector](https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-inspector) — median $49,940

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/pest-control-worker