Top 12 Exterminator Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive world of pest control, getting noticed means more than time on the job. You need sharp, specific skills that scream problem-solver. Make them obvious on your resume. Show you can read a situation fast, pick the right method, and deliver results without collateral damage.
Exterminator Skills
- Pest Identification
- Chemical Handling
- Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
- Safety Protocols
- Rodenticides Knowledge
- Insecticides Expertise
- Fumigation Techniques
- Wildlife Control
- Customer Service
- Inspection Procedures
- Heat Treatment
- Baiting Techniques
1. Pest Identification
Pest identification means pinning down the exact species, life stage, and behavior patterns behind the problem. Right pest, right treatment. Guessing wastes time and spreads headaches.
Why It's Important
Correct ID drives everything: product choice, application method, timing, safety, and prevention. It protects non-targets and trims environmental impact.
How to Improve Pest Identification Skills
Level up by mixing study with field observation.
Keep learning: Build a mental library of species, life cycles, droppings, frass, tracks, sounds, odors, and seasonal patterns.
Use tools: Hand lens, flashlight, sticky traps, monitoring stations, and identification apps for quick comparisons.
Build a reference kit: Photos, specimen vials (properly labeled), and a quick chart for common local pests.
Shadow and share: Compare notes with experienced techs; review tricky cases as a team.
Document patterns: Record site conditions, entry points, conducive factors, and activity hotspots—then compare outcomes.
Do this consistently and your diagnosis speed—and accuracy—jump.
How to Display Pest Identification Skills on Your Resume
2. Chemical Handling
Chemical handling covers selecting, mixing, applying, storing, transporting, and disposing of pesticides correctly—while complying with label directions, laws, and safety practices to protect people, pets, property, and the environment.
Why It's Important
Safe handling prevents injuries, off-target exposure, resistance problems, and legal trouble. It also ensures products actually work as intended.
How to Improve Chemical Handling Skills
Train to the label: The label is the law. Know active ingredients, signal words, PPE, re-entry intervals, and application rates. Use Safety Data Sheets (SDS)—current standard—for hazards and first aid.
Wear the right PPE: Gloves rated for the chemical, eye protection, respirators when required, coveralls, and proper footwear. Inspect and replace damaged gear.
Store and transport correctly: Original containers, intact labels, secured upright, temperature-stable spaces, spill kits on hand, and segregation by hazard class as required.
Dispose responsibly: Triple-rinse where allowed, puncture and discard per local rules, or follow approved hazardous waste procedures.
Calibrate equipment: Verify flow rates, pressure, and droplet size so you hit the target and nothing else.
Prepare for emergencies: Spill response steps, eyewash access, decontamination procedures, and clear reporting lines.
How to Display Chemical Handling Skills on Your Resume
3. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
IPM is a practical, prevention-first approach that blends sanitation, exclusion, monitoring, habitat modification, biological controls, and—only when necessary—targeted pesticides to manage pests with minimal risk.
Why It's Important
IPM reduces chemical reliance, cuts costs long-term, slows resistance, and delivers sustainable control tailored to the site and species.
How to Improve Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Skills
Know the biology: Life cycles, food sources, harborage, seasonality. Treat causes, not just symptoms.
Inspect and monitor: Use traps, visual checks, and trend logs. Early detection changes everything.
Fix conducive conditions: Seal gaps, dry moisture, adjust lighting, tighten sanitation, manage waste, and modify landscaping.
Pick controls in tiers: Start with cultural, mechanical, and biological tools. Use chemicals when justified, selecting the least risky, most effective option.
Evaluate and adapt: Measure results, tweak methods, rotate modes of action, and document changes for continuous improvement.
How to Display Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Skills on Your Resume
4. Safety Protocols
Safety protocols are the guardrails: procedures that keep technicians, clients, and bystanders safe during inspection, application, and follow-up.
Why It's Important
They prevent exposure, environmental harm, and legal violations—while keeping service dependable and professional.
How to Improve Safety Protocols Skills
Train and refresh: Regular safety sessions on handling, first aid, hazard communication, and application techniques.
Enforce PPE: Mandatory use, proper fit testing where required, and maintenance schedules.
Follow labels and SDS: Storage, mixing, ventilation, re-entry, and emergency steps should be second nature.
Maintain equipment: Leak checks, hose inspections, nozzle cleaning, and pressure tests on a schedule.
Emergency-ready: Written spill plans, eyewash and clean-up materials, emergency numbers posted, and drills.
Clear communication: Pre-service instructions, signage, re-entry times, pet and child safety, and post-service guidance.
How to Display Safety Protocols Skills on Your Resume
5. Rodenticides Knowledge
Knowing rodenticides means understanding active classes (first- and second-generation anticoagulants, cholecalciferol, zinc phosphide, bromethalin), how they work, bait station design, placement, and the regulatory guardrails around their use.
Why It's Important
Correct selection and placement speed control, reduce non-target risk, and keep you compliant with changing rules.
How to Improve Rodenticides Knowledge Skills
Match product to pressure: Consider species, food competition, and bait shyness. Use pulse baiting and pre-baiting where appropriate.
Prioritize safety: Tamper-resistant, anchored stations; secure placements; and clear labeling. Protect pets, wildlife, and children.
Know restrictions: Some second-generation anticoagulants face tighter controls in many areas. Stay current with local and federal rules.
Integrate exclusion: Seal entry holes, repair screens, add door sweeps, and trim vegetation. Bait alone won’t solve structural problems.
Monitor and document: Track consumption, replace spoiled bait, rotate actives to help avoid resistance and aversion, and log results.
How to Display Rodenticides Knowledge Skills on Your Resume
6. Insecticides Expertise
Insecticide expertise blends chemistry, formulation know-how, label precision, application technique, and resistance management to control target insects without unwanted fallout.
Why It's Important
You maximize efficacy, protect non-targets, and avoid resistance flare-ups that come back to bite later.
How to Improve Insecticides Expertise Skills
Know formulations: EC, SC, WP, bait gels, dusts, aerosols—each has a best-fit scenario. Choose based on surface type, target, and environment.
Rotate modes of action: Use IRAC classifications to prevent resistance build-up.
Calibrate and verify: Pressure, nozzle, flow rate, coverage patterns. Periodic checks save product and improve consistency.
Mind the environment: Ventilation, drift control, crack-and-crevice precision, and spot treatments instead of broad sprays when possible.
Keep records: Target species, product, rate, lot number, location, and outcomes—so you can refine the next round.
How to Display Insecticides Expertise Skills on Your Resume
7. Fumigation Techniques
Fumigation uses true gases (for example, sulfuryl fluoride or phosphine) to saturate an enclosed space and reach pests in voids, wood, and other hard-to-penetrate spots. It demands airtight sealing, precise dosing, and rigorous monitoring.
Why It's Important
When infestations are deep or widespread, fumigation reaches where liquids and dusts cannot—delivering uniform control if done correctly.
How to Improve Fumigation Techniques Skills
Seal thoroughly: Tenting or structural sealing must be meticulous. Small leaks ruin concentrations and results.
Measure, don’t guess: Use approved monitoring devices (e.g., fumiscopes or clearance monitors) to confirm concentrations and ensure clearance before re-entry.
Dose by conditions: Account for temperature, sorption, and target species. Use label calculators and site measurements to set correct dosage and exposure time.
Follow aeration protocols: Vent per label and regulatory requirements, verify safe levels, and document clearance.
Train and license: Maintain required certifications, refresh often, and keep a tight safety culture with written plans and checklists.
Blend with IPM: Pair fumigation with exclusion, sanitation, and monitoring to prevent reinfestation.
How to Display Fumigation Techniques Skills on Your Resume
8. Wildlife Control
Wildlife control focuses on humane management of nuisance animals—removal when necessary, exclusion always, and prevention so they don’t come back.
Why It's Important
It safeguards health, prevents damage, and respects local ecosystems and laws. Ethics matter here, and so do permits.
How to Improve Wildlife Control Skills
Lead with exclusion: Seal entry points, reinforce vents, screen chimneys, install chimney caps, and add one-way doors where appropriate.
Use humane methods: Live trapping only where legal and appropriate; relocation is restricted or discouraged in many areas. Always comply with wildlife regulations.
Educate clients: Food and water sources, pet feeding habits, garbage control, and habitat tweaks make a big difference.
Protect non-targets: Species ID, seasonality (avoid trapping during young-rearing), and careful device selection.
Partner when needed: Coordinate with wildlife specialists or rehabilitators for complex cases and protected species.
How to Display Wildlife Control Skills on Your Resume
9. Customer Service
Customer service means being responsive, clear, and dependable—explaining what you’ll do, doing it, and proving it worked. Then checking back.
Why It's Important
Trust keeps contracts alive. Good communication prevents confusion, earns referrals, and turns one-time calls into long relationships.
How to Improve Customer Service Skills
Communicate clearly: No jargon; set expectations on prep, timelines, safety, and post-service steps.
Respond fast: Quick scheduling, confirmations, and reminders. Use simple tools for appointment management and updates.
Follow up: Check results, gather feedback, and adjust. A short call or message goes a long way.
Personalize: Note preferences, pet concerns, and site quirks in a CRM or job notes so every visit feels attentive.
Handle complaints well: Listen first, fix quickly, and document. Turn a miss into a win.
Reward loyalty: Maintenance plans, reminders, and occasional perks keep customers around.
How to Display Customer Service Skills on Your Resume
10. Inspection Procedures
Inspection is a methodical sweep: find activity, assess severity, and uncover the conditions feeding it. Then map a plan.
Why It's Important
Accurate inspections focus treatments, avoid waste, and stop problems from spreading to untouched areas—or species.
How to Improve Inspection Procedures Skills
Standardize your checklists: Tailor lists for kitchens, multifamily, food facilities, warehouses, and landscaped exteriors.
Use the right tools: Moisture meter, borescope, flashlight, mirror, sticky traps, pheromone traps, and monitors. Thermal imaging where justified.
Document everything: Photos, floor plans, trap maps, and timestamps. Trend analysis reveals what eyes miss.
Interview occupants: Ask about timing, locations, noises, droppings, and recent changes. Clues hide in routines.
Schedule follow-ups: Reinspect to verify results and adjust the plan. No guesswork.
How to Display Inspection Procedures Skills on Your Resume
11. Heat Treatment
Heat treatment raises temperatures in a controlled way to kill pests like bed bugs, some beetles, and drywood termites. Heat gets into cracks and fabrics without leaving residues.
Why It's Important
It’s fast, chemical-free on site, and thorough when done right. Great for sensitive environments and resistant populations.
How to Improve Heat Treatment Skills
Assess and prep: Map the space, identify heat sinks and fire-suppression components, remove heat-sensitive items, and plan air movement paths.
Hit lethal temps uniformly: For bed bugs, aim for ambient 135–145°F (57–63°C) with core items reaching at least 120–130°F (49–54°C) and held for sufficient time. Place multiple sensors to verify cold spots are cleared.
Move the air: Use fans to break stratification and push heat into voids and clutter.
Verify and document: Log temperatures over time at representative locations and confirm all targets crossed lethal thresholds.
Prevent reinfestation: Recommend encasements, sealing, sanitation, and monitoring after treatment.
How to Display Heat Treatment Skills on Your Resume
12. Baiting Techniques
Baiting lures target pests with attractive food or pheromones paired with actives—delivering control right where they feed.
Why It's Important
It’s targeted, efficient, and cleaner than broad sprays when conditions are right. Less drift, more precision.
How to Improve Baiting Techniques Skills
Identify the pest first: Species dictates bait type, placement, and timing. Mis-ID equals poor uptake.
Choose the right bait: Match formulation and matrix to species and environment. Keep it fresh; rotate if acceptance drops.
Place with purpose: Along runways, near harborages, adjacent to entry points, and out of reach of children and pets. Avoid contaminating baits with sprays or repellents.
Monitor, replenish, record: Track consumption, move stations based on activity, and log results. For rodents, consider pre-baiting and anchoring stations.
Fold into IPM: Pair baiting with sanitation, exclusion, and habitat changes for durable results.
How to Display Baiting Techniques Skills on Your Resume
