Pet-Friendly Pest Control for Homes With Dogs and Cats

Every product a licensed technician applies carries a label approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and registered in California. The label is the law: it states where the product may be applied, in what amount, and what people and animals should do after application. No pest control company can lawfully promise more than the label says, and the Brand Guide Apex works to rules out absolute safety words for exactly that reason.

So when a homeowner asks what pest control means for their pets, the useful answer is a set of practices. Which product was chosen and why. Where it went and where it did not. How long the treated areas stay off limits, which comes from that product's label and from the weather that day. Apex answers those questions at the door, in writing on the service ticket, and again on the phone if you call the office later.

The visit follows the same sequence as every Apex first visit, with the animals part of the interview from the first minute.

A little preparation lets the technician treat where the pest is and keeps the animals clear of the work.

Before joining Apex in 1988, Jeff Alexander worked as an environmental consultant and industrial hygienist, the profession that measures exposure and decides what protective equipment a job requires. He holds degrees in botany and zoology and a master's degree in biology. That background is why every Apex technician works in long sleeves, long trousers, gloves and safety glasses, the California standard, and why the company talks about products in terms of labels, placement and drying rather than in absolutes.

It is also why Apex keeps repellent and non-repellent chemistry separate and matches the method to the pest. Repellent products kill most insects but scatter survivors; non-repellent products move through a colony by transfer. Knowing which is which is the difference between a treatment that ends an ant problem and one that splits it into three.

Dogs and cats are the usual case, and the practices above cover them: interview, placement out of reach, re-entry guidance, bowls moved. Birds and fish need one more step, because they are more sensitive to airborne product and to anything that reaches water. The technician will ask you to cover or relocate a cage or tank and to switch off an aquarium air pump while an interior room is treated, and will keep interior application away from that room where the pest allows.

Reptiles and small caged animals are handled the same way as birds. If you keep chickens, tell the office; the coop and run are treated as an exterior animal area, and the technician sets expectations about what can and cannot be applied near it.

Some of the pests Apex treats are a problem for the animals as much as for the household. Fleas and ticks feed on them. Black widow spiders bite a curious cat in a woodpile or a garage corner. Yellow jackets and paper wasps sting a dog that snaps at them near a nest under the eaves or in the lawn. Cockroaches and ants contaminate pet food left out overnight, and an open bowl on the back porch is the most reliable way to invite all of them.

The pet pages on this site cover each one: fleas, ticks, spiders, wasps and yellow jackets, and ants. Every one of them ends with the same practical checklist, because the conditions that draw pests to a home are the conditions a pet owner can change.

Apex does not describe any product or treatment as free of risk or made for pets, because the label does not, and neither the Structural Pest Control Board nor the EPA allows a company to say more than the label says. Apex does not treat animals; flea and tick treatment for the pet comes from your veterinarian. Apex does not offer a blanket waiting period for every product; you get the interval for the product used at your home.

If a company tells you its treatment carries no risk at all for every person, pet and surface, ask to see the label. The honest version is what you have read on this page: which product, where it went, and how long to keep the animals off it.

Family owned since 1978. Structural Pest Control Board registration No. 2770, Branch 2, with three named operators, Jeffrey P. Alexander (No. 8484), Brent Brandon (No. 12138) and Jared F. Alexander (No. 14137), whose licenses you can look up. BBB Accredited since 1984 with an A+ rating. A California Pest Management Association member since 1999. About 99 percent of the work is residential single-family homes, most of them with a dog or a cat, and the technician who comes to yours will ask about them before anything else.