Mosquitoes Are Free. Getting Rid of Them Is a $130 Million Business.

By Sean Goldsmith

Mosquito Squad built a sizeable franchise around one of the world's most annoying insects. Now it is looking for more revenue from the same customers.

Mosquito Squad has spent more than 20 years building a business around an insect everybody hates. Now it is looking beyond mosquitoes and giving franchisees more things to sell to the same household.

Mosquito Squad has a wonderfully uncomplicated sales pitch. If mosquitoes are making it miserable to sit outside your own home, the company will come and deal with them. It sounds like a useful local service business, although perhaps not the obvious starting point for a franchise generating $130.7 million in systemwide gross revenue.

That is what Mosquito Squad reported for 2025. The brand also reports average gross revenue of $493,200 for the territories included in its current franchise performance figures, showing that there is a substantial business behind the slightly ridiculous name.

The model is straightforward. Mosquito Squad takes a problem customers already understand, sells recurring treatments and operates through local territories serviced by technicians in branded vehicles. The more interesting development is that the company is now trying to make those customer relationships useful for more than mosquito control.

People Will Pay to Get Their Garden Back

Mosquito Squad began in 2005 after founders Boyd Huneycutt and Scott Zide came across the mosquito-control opportunity while running an outdoor lighting business. They were already working around the part of the home where the problem was most obvious.

People spend considerable amounts on gardens, pools, patios and outdoor entertaining areas, only to find that mosquitoes can make those spaces unpleasant during the months when they want to use them most. Paying somebody to reduce that problem is an easy purchase to understand.

That gives Mosquito Squad a simpler sales job than many service businesses face. It does not have to educate homeowners about why mosquitoes are irritating. It has to persuade them that professional treatment is worth paying for and then provide a service good enough to keep them coming back.

Recurring treatments are an important part of those economics. A satisfied customer can remain on a treatment programme, allowing the franchisee to generate repeat business from the same property rather than continually paying to acquire another household.

Winter Is a Problem When You Sell Mosquito Control

Seasonality is an obvious weakness in a business built around mosquitoes. Demand can be strong during warmer months across much of North America, but the economics become more complicated when temperatures fall and mosquitoes become less of a problem.

For a franchisee, the issue extends beyond a quieter sales period. Vehicles still cost money, technicians need productive work and the business has already spent money building relationships with customers it would rather continue serving throughout the year.

Mosquito Squad has been addressing this through Mosquito Squad Plus, expanding beyond mosquitoes and ticks into a wider range of pest-control services. That gives franchisees more reasons to return to properties they already service and provides work that is less dependent on one particular pest appearing at the right time of year.

A homeowner who trusts the company to deal with mosquitoes may also need help with ants, spiders, rodents or other pests. The franchisee already knows the property, has the customer's contact details and has done much of the difficult work involved in establishing trust. Adding relevant services to that relationship can make considerably more sense than starting again with a stranger.

The Van Has to Make Money

Mosquito Squad currently estimates the initial investment for a franchise at between $162,380 and $220,375, with new operators generally starting with one truck. The physical requirements are very different from those of a restaurant or retail franchise because there is no expensive customer-facing location that needs to be fitted out before trading begins.

The economics instead depend heavily on what happens on the road. Routes need to be planned efficiently, technicians need to complete enough jobs each day and customers need to remain with the business long enough to justify what was spent acquiring them.

The reported average gross revenue of $493,200 gives prospective franchisees a useful reference point, although it does not tell them what will remain after operating costs. Labour, chemicals, vehicles, fuel, insurance, marketing, royalties and administration all have to be paid before the owner knows what the territory has actually produced.

Anyone considering the franchise should therefore spend as much time examining technician productivity, route density and customer retention as they do looking at headline revenue. A truck travelling long distances between small jobs produces very different economics from one completing several recurring treatments in the same neighbourhood.

The Mosquito Could Be the Way Through the Door

The move into wider pest control makes Mosquito Squad more interesting because the brand has already spent years acquiring homeowners through its original service. Those relationships have a value beyond the mosquito treatment itself if franchisees can sell customers other services they genuinely need.

Finding a new customer can be expensive, particularly in a local service business where several competitors may be bidding for the same online search or household lead. Selling another service to somebody who already knows the company can reduce that pressure, provided the additional work fits naturally with what customers expect from the brand.

Mosquito control gives franchisees a clear reason to start the relationship. Broader pest control can then increase the amount of revenue generated from the same household and potentially give technicians more work outside the traditional mosquito season.

For established operators, that can offer another route to growth without depending entirely on opening new territories or continually increasing customer acquisition. The same vehicles, technicians and existing customer relationships have the potential to produce more revenue across the year.

There Is Good Money in Annoying Problems

Mosquito Squad is a useful example of why some of the less glamorous corners of franchising deserve attention. Customers are rarely concerned with whether a franchise concept sounds exciting at an investment exhibition. They are considerably more interested in whether it solves a problem they do not want to deal with themselves, and mosquitoes fit that description rather well.

The brand has spent more than two decades building a sizeable business around that simple irritation. Its move into broader pest control now gives franchisees an opportunity to make the original customer relationship more valuable while reducing some of the seasonality built into the original model.

The $130.7 million in systemwide gross revenue reported for 2025 suggests plenty of homeowners are already prepared to pay for mosquito control. If Mosquito Squad can persuade more of those existing customers to use it for other pest problems as well, the insect that built the brand may eventually account for a smaller share of the business it created.

What We Can Learn From This

Mosquito Squad shows how a straightforward customer problem can support a substantial franchise when the service is recurring and technicians can serve several properties efficiently within a territory. Prospective franchisees should pay close attention to customer retention, route density, technician productivity and the effect of seasonality in their local market. The expansion into wider pest control gives operators another way to earn from households they have already spent money acquiring. If Mosquito Squad Plus can increase customer spending across more months of the year, it could strengthen the economics of an already sizeable franchise.