Termite RegistryBrothers Termite Co Inc
Cerritos, CA
Registered with the board since 1976.
- License:
- 458 (CA)
License record read
- Termite work only
Metro area · CA
Termite control in Los Angeles
Los Angeles sits in the part of California where drywood termites are most prevalent, and that single fact reorganises everything else — which treatments are on the table, which licence category the company you call needs to hold, and why the cheapest bid and the most expensive one may not even be for the same job.
Los Angeles sits in the part of California where drywood termites are most prevalent. UC IPM puts it plainly: drywood termites “are most prevalent in southern California, including the desert areas, but also occur along most coastal regions and in the Central Valley.” That one fact reorganises everything downstream — which treatments are even on the table, which license category the company you call needs to hold, and why two bids for the same house can describe two completely different pieces of work.
Which termites are active here
Two groups matter in Los Angeles County, and they behave nothing alike.
The western drywood termite lives entirely inside the wood it eats. There is no soil connection to break, which is why a soil treatment that works against subterranean termites misses the point against this one. You usually meet them one of two ways: the pellets they push out of the wood, or the swarmers. UC IPM describes those flights as occurring “during daytime hours during summer and fall” — daylight, warm months, which is unlike the spring afternoon flights people expect from termites.
The western subterranean termite is here too. Reticulitermes “can be encountered in nearly all regions of the state,” and it swarms “during the afternoon in either spring or fall on clear days after a soaking rain.” If winged insects appeared indoors on a gray afternoon a day or two after rain, that timing points here rather than at drywood.
One species that gets talked about is not established in Los Angeles. The Formosan subterranean termite is in California, but UC IPM records it as “thus far restricted to a small area near San Diego.” If a proposal for a Los Angeles house leans on Formosan termites, that is a question to ask, not a fact to accept.
Which one you have decides the treatment, so read subterranean vs drywood termites before you agree to anything, or start at Termite Scan if you are working from something you found rather than something you were told.
The shape of the market here
The California Structural Pest Control Board publishes its register of licensed businesses. Filtered to Los Angeles County and to the license categories that cover termite work, it holds 468 registrations. Fold each company's branch offices together and that is at least 405 separate businesses — the gap between the two numbers is chain branches, and there are 63 of those.
What those businesses are licensed to do
The board records a speciality on every registration, and it splits three ways. This is the part that does not appear on any map listing, and it is the part worth knowing before you call anyone.
- Termite work only
- 132
- 33%. No general pest side to the business.
- Licensed to fumigate
- 26
- 6%. Fumigation is its own speciality on the register, and most firms here do not hold it.
- Pest control and termites
- 247
- 61%. General pest businesses that also carry the termite speciality.
Where they are, and where they are not
Termite-licensed businesses are not spread evenly across California. 10 of the state's 58 counties have none registered at all.
- 1–4
- 5–19
- 20–59
- 60–199
- 200 or more
- None registered
The towns they are based in
Within Los Angeles County, the register lists businesses in 97 different towns and cities, and 28 of those have exactly one. The concentration is much flatter than the county map suggests.
- Los Angeles49
- Long Beach18
- Whittier15
- Downey13
- Santa Clarita12
- Norwalk11
- Carson9
- Van Nuys9
How much of it is national brands
Orkin Pest Control holds 15 separate registrations in this area; Dewey Pest Control Co-Dewey Serv holds 13, and Terminix holds 7. Counting a company once rather than once per office is what takes 468 registrations down to 405 businesses. If you call three companies and two turn out to be branches of the same one, this is why.
Why the fumigation number is the one to look at
Drywood colonies sit inside the structure, often in several places at once, with no central nest to reach through the soil. Whole-structure fumigation is the treatment that answers that, and UC IPM’s assessment is that sulfuryl fluoride “treats all infestations simultaneously and has high levels of efficacy, if correctly applied.”
That is a genuine advantage and it comes with genuine costs. Everyone and everything has to leave: UC IPM notes it “will also be necessary for the occupants, pets, and plants to vacate the structure for several days.” Roofs get damaged by tarpaulins dragged over them. And the efficacy claim carries a condition — “nonmonitored fumigation may not have enough gas concentration to kill infestations, and failures may occur.” Monitoring is the part that makes the high-efficacy sentence true.
So in the county where drywood termites are most prevalent, roughly one local business in sixteen holds the speciality the whole-structure answer requires. That is not a scandal — localized treatments are legitimate work and most jobs do not need a tent. It does mean that if a company proposes fumigation, the speciality on its registration is a thing you can check in about a minute, and that if every company you called proposed something else, the reason may be what they are registered to do rather than what your house needs. Read fumigation and spot treatment side by side before you decide which conversation you are having.
Operators that meet a stated filter
The filter: businesses on the register kept by the Structural Pest Control Board, with an address in this area, holding a speciality of termite work only or fumigation, ordered by the year they first registered, oldest first. 158 businesses meet it; the 12 that registered earliest are below.
What this is not: a rating, a recommendation, or a vetting. I have not used these companies, I do not collect reviews, and nobody has paid to appear here — there is no paid placement on this site. Registering a business is not an achievement, and an older registration is not a promise about the work. It is simply the one comparable fact the state publishes.
Tri Pacific Termite Company
Verdugo City, CA
Registered with the board since 1977.
- License:
- 1266 (CA)
License record read
- Termite work only
Americana Termite Company Inc
Glendale, CA
Registered with the board since 1979.
- License:
- 528 (CA)
License record read
- Termite work only
Yamaguchi Termite Control Service
Los Angeles, CA
Registered with the board since 1981.
- License:
- 1052 (CA)
License record read
- Termite work only
Majestic Termite Control
Whittier, CA
Registered with the board since 1983.
- License:
- 956 (CA)
License record read
- Termite work only
Andys Termite & Pest Control
Lomita, CA
Registered with the board since 1985.
- License:
- 593 (CA)
License record read
- Licensed to fumigate
Dewey Pest Control Co-Dewey Serv
Van Nuys, CA
Registered with the board since 1985. 13 offices in this area.
- License:
- 3738 (CA)
License record read
- Licensed to fumigate
Washington Termite Control Inc
Los Angeles, CA
Registered with the board since 1987.
- License:
- 5 (CA)
License record read
- Termite work only
Castle And Home Termite & Pest Control Inc
Hacienda Heights, CA
Registered with the board since 1988.
- License:
- 937 (CA)
License record read
- Licensed to fumigate
Higgins Termite Inc
Sun Valley, CA
Registered with the board since 1988.
- License:
- 1195 (CA)
License record read
- Termite work only
Rousselle Inc
Pico Rivera, CA
Registered with the board since 1988.
- License:
- 1490 (CA)
License record read
- Licensed to fumigate
Enriquez Termite & Pest Control
Norwalk, CA
Registered with the board since 1990.
- License:
- 1798 (CA)
License record read
- Licensed to fumigate
Names and license numbers are as they appear on the register, which I read on 2026-08-04. Check any of them yourself at search.dca.ca.gov, the public license lookup run by the California Structural Pest Control Board (SPCB), Department of Consumer Affairs — it will show you the current status, which may have changed since I looked.
What California puts in writing about the report
California does not use the NPMA-33 that most states run on. It has its own form — the Wood Destroying Pests and Organisms Inspection Report, form 43M-41 — and the board is explicit that it “supersedes the NPMA-33 form in California and is the official form required for reporting the findings of a Wood Destroying Pest and Organism (WDO) inspection.” An inspector may fill in an NPMA-33 as well, but only “as an attachment to the WDO Report.”
Four things in the Structural Pest Control Act change what a Los Angeles homeowner or buyer should do, and none of them is common knowledge.
A separated report has to be asked for when you order, not afterwards. The Act splits findings into Section I — “items where there is visible evidence of active infestation, infection or conditions that have resulted in or from infestation of infection” — and Section II — “conditions deemed likely to lead to infestation or infection but where no visible evidence of such was found.” That split is what an escrow argument is actually about, because it separates what is happening now from what might happen later. But the company’s duty is to tell you “at the time a report is ordered” that a separate report is available. Ask after the fact and you are asking for a favor rather than exercising a right.
There is a third category, and it is not called Section 3. The regulation calls them “further inspection items” — areas the inspector could not get into — and says they “cannot be defined as Section I or Section II.” An inaccessible crawlspace is not a clean bill of health, and the form is designed to say so.
The report does not expire, whatever escrow tells you. No California regulator document states a validity period. Two real numbers get misquoted as one: a company “will reinspect repairs done by others within four months of the original inspection,” after which “all inspections shall be original inspections and not reinspections”; and the board keeps property records for two years. Neither is an expiry date. The 90 days people repeat is lender and escrow practice with no source in state law.
A report follows a transaction, not a building. An inspection ordered “at the request of a different party, for a different purpose than a previous inspection, or a different transaction” is a new inspection needing a new original report. The seller’s report from a deal that fell through is not automatically yours.
Two more worth knowing: the report has to reach you “within 10 business days from the start of the inspection,” and refusing to pay does not release the company from delivering it — “the failure or refusal of the person ordering the inspection … to pay for such inspection or report shall not excuse a registered company which has commenced an inspection from preparing and delivering a report.”
For how this compares with the rest of the country, see termite letter requirements by state.
What the money is actually attached to
No California rule caps what a company may charge for an inspection or a treatment, and no rule says who pays for either. Every source that confidently assigns Section I repairs to the seller turns out to be a brokerage or a pest control company describing a local custom, not a regulation. It is negotiable because nothing makes it otherwise.
Two prices are constrained, and both are worth holding onto. A reinspection of repairs done by someone else, inside that four-month window, has a charge that “can be no greater than the original inspection fee for each reinspection.” And where a fumigation fails and has to be verified again, the consumer is not charged for that reinspection.
For what drives the number on a treatment bid rather than what it lands at, the fumigation and liquid barrier pages set out the units the work is priced in — the liquid barrier page carries the label application rate, so you can work out the gallons your own house needs and check a bid against it.
Checking a company yourself, in about two minutes
The Structural Pest Control Board is part of California’s Department of Consumer Affairs, and it “licenses and regulates businesses and individuals for pest control.” Two of its public tools do most of the work.
The license lookup lives at search.dca.ca.gov. It covers every board in the department, so narrow it first: open the “Boards and Bureaus” filter and choose Structural Pest Control Board. You are looking for the registration to be current, and for the speciality to match the job being proposed.
The second one is less known and more useful to a buyer. The board runs a Wood Destroying Organism System search that lets you “see if a specific property has been inspected within the last two years” — and the state form tells you that you are “entitled to obtain copies of all reports and completion notices on this property reported to the Structural Pest Control Board during the preceding two years.” You can run an address you are buying and find inspections the seller has not mentioned. The board itself frames the whole business as lender-driven rather than state-mandated: “most lending institutions require that homes in California be inspected for wood destroying pests and organisms (WDO) before financing a home loan.”
Here’s what I’d do with a Los Angeles address before agreeing to any work: run the property through the WDO search first, because a report from eight months ago reframes every conversation that follows. Then look up each company’s registration, and check the speciality against what they have proposed. If someone has recommended a tent, I’d want to see fumigation on their registration, and I’d ask whether the fumigation will be monitored — UC IPM’s efficacy sentence depends on that word, and it is the one thing in this whole page I would not let go unanswered.
Sources
- Drywood Termites (Pest Notes 7440) — UC Statewide IPM Program, updated August 2014. Accessed 2026-08-04.
- Subterranean and Other Termites (Pest Notes 7415) — UC Statewide IPM Program, updated May 2014. Accessed 2026-08-04.
- Structural Pest Control Act and Rules and Regulations — California Structural Pest Control Board. B&P Code §§ 8516, 8519.5; 16 CCR §§ 1990, 1993, 1993.1, 1996. Accessed 2026-08-02.
- FAQ: Use of the NPMA-33 in California — Structural Pest Control Board. Accessed 2026-08-02.
- Wood Destroying Pests and Organisms Inspection Report, form 43M-41 (Rev. 04/2015) — Structural Pest Control Board. Accessed 2026-08-02.
- Wood Destroying Organism System Search — Structural Pest Control Board. Accessed 2026-08-02.
- Termites: Questions & Answers (19_087, Rev. 03/2019) — Department of Consumer Affairs, Structural Pest Control Board. Accessed 2026-08-02.
- Business registration counts, specialities, cities and issue dates computed from the board’s published licensee file,
StructuralPest_8400, retrieved 2026-08-04.
Treatment options
A visual and probing examination of the accessible parts of a structure to establish whether termites are present, what kind, and how far activity extends. What counts as accessible is narrower than most people assume.
A continuous zone of treated soil around and beneath a building, applied by trenching, rodding and drilling, so that subterranean termites die crossing it. The whole job turns on the word continuous.
The wood destroying insect inspection a lender or a purchase contract asks for, and the written report it produces. A licensed inspector walks the accessible parts of the property, records what was visible on the day, and issues the finding on the form your state or your lender prescribes. It is a transaction document. It is not a treatment, and it is not an assessment of the building.
Plastic stations sunk into the soil around a building, holding cellulose laced with an insect growth regulator and serviced on a schedule. They aim at the colony rather than the ground against the foundation.
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