Pest Control Violations: What Texas and Florida Records Show

Quick answer: About one in four actions in Texas's latest enforcement list (50 of 211) was for operating without a license or without a business license, and those drew 46 of its 64 penalties. Florida's reports for January to June 2026 name 19 actions for unlicensed pest control, with fines up to $36,000.

Texas enforcement actions in the latest list

211

Texas Department of Agriculture, September 2025 to September 2026

Texas actions for working without a license or business license

50

about 1 in 4

Florida actions named for unlicensed pest control

19

FDACS reports, January to June 2026

Largest single fine in either state's files

$36,000

Florida, unlicensed pest control

Texas and Florida both publish the enforcement actions their pest control regulators take, in files anyone can download. We read the latest of both and counted what the actions were for. This is what they show, what they cost the people involved, and what a homeowner can check because of them. We do not name any company here.

Texas: what the actions were for

The Texas Department of Agriculture's Structural Pest Control Service keeps a list of its enforcement actions for about the last twelve months. The versions we read, posted between September 8 and September 26, 2026, list 211 actions made final between September 8, 2025 and September 18, 2026. The list covers every kind of license the service issues, so it includes school districts, cities and individual applicators as well as pest control companies.

A few of those are the department's shorthand. IPM is integrated pest management, CEUs are continuing education units, a WDIR is the wood destroying insect report used when a home is sold, and TPCL is the Texas Pest Control License number. 11 of the 13 IPM actions named a school or a school district.

147 of the 211 actions were warnings and 64 were administrative penalties. The 63 penalties that list an amount ran from $500 to $1,500, and the median was $1,000. Working without a license is where the penalties went: 46 of the 64 were for operating without a license or without a business license, and only 4 of those 50 actions ended in a warning.

Most of the actions for operating without a license carry a license number, so they are not all strangers with no license at all. The list does not say whether a license had lapsed, was the wrong kind for the work, or had not been issued yet. What they share is work done without the license it needed at the time.

Florida: what the actions were for

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services publishes a pest control disciplinary report each quarter and keeps only the two most recent on its site. The two current reports, for January to March and April to June 2026, name 106 actions: 69 fines and 37 warning letters. Each report's own footer counts more actions than its table names, so the named actions are not every action the department took.

Fines ran from $200 to $36,000, and the median was $1,000. Florida writes each violation out in full and cites the statute, so we sorted the named actions by what the violation says. An action that cites two things counts under both.

All 19 unlicensed actions ended in a fine, from $200 up to the $36,000 fine, the largest in either state's files. The reports name individual technicians as well as businesses.

What to check before you hire

• Check that the license is current on the day you hire, not just that the company has one. Working without the right license was the largest named reason in Texas (50 actions) and the third longest row in Florida's table (19). Look up a Texas company, a Florida company, or one in any of 35 states by name, license number or phone.
• In Texas, look at the truck. A company's vehicles must show its license number, marked "TPCL #" or "Texas Pest Control License #", on both front doors or both front fenders, in letters at least two inches tall, and a magnet does not count (Texas rule 7.141). Six actions were for missing numbers. The technician must also carry a license card and show you photo ID if you ask.
• In Florida, ask to see the technician's ID card. Florida law says a pest control employee must carry a current ID card while doing or selling pest control and show it when you ask (Florida Statutes 482.091). 27 named actions involved these cards, one of them for a technician who did not show a current card when asked.
• For termite work in Texas, get it in writing first. A written estimate has to come before any treatment, with the state's disclosure documents: a diagram of the house, where termites are active, what will be treated and the warranty terms, prepared by someone licensed for termite work (Texas rule 7.174). Eight actions were over these documents.
• Ask what they will apply and what you need to do before and after. Not following the pesticide label was the second longest row in Florida (21) and a Texas category too (9, plus 2 for misapplication). The label sets where a product goes, how much, and when it is safe to be back in the room.
• If your house is being tented, stay out until the fumigator tells you it is clear. Florida's reports name 17 fumigation actions, among them missing or wrong warning signs and houses not secured against anyone going back in.

A company that will not give you its license number, or tells you it does not need one, has answered your question.

What these records do not tell you

• A company that is not in these files does not have a clean record. Texas keeps about twelve months of actions, and Florida's reports name fewer actions than their own footers count.
• An action is the regulator's decision on one case. Most of the Texas actions were warnings, and none of this is a rating of anyone's work.
• Not every action is against a company you could hire. The Texas list includes school districts, cities and individual applicators, and Florida's reports name individual technicians as well as businesses.
• We name no company here. When a company listed on PestPin has an action in one of these files against its business license number, its PestPin page shows it in the regulator's own words, with a link to the file. For how states have warned homeowners about pest control sales, see what state regulators have said.

How we counted

Texas: the Structural Pest Control Service enforcement list as posted between September 8 and September 26, 2026, counted by the department's own violation category and action. Florida: the department's disciplinary action reports for January to March 2026 (posted May 4, 2026) and April to June 2026 (posted August 20, 2026), read line by line. The groups in the Florida table are ours, made from each action's own wording. Fine ranges and medians use only the actions that list an amount. We read the Texas rules on vehicle markings and termite disclosure documents, and Florida's ID card law, on September 26, 2026.