A cockroach treatment for a 2 BHK should not cost what a termite job costs, and a termite job should never be quoted as one round number without a square-foot rate behind it. Here is what each common treatment involves, what it should cost in a typical Indian city, and the five things that separate a safe technician from a risky one.
The short answer
Pest control is priced by floor area for most treatments, by the visit for mosquito work, and by the job for rodents and bee hives. There is no visit charge. The technician inspects, measures and quotes, and almost every company gives a warranty period during which a repeat treatment is free.
| Treatment | Typical charge | Priced per |
|---|---|---|
| Cockroach and ant, gel plus spray | ₹2 | sq ft |
| Minimum charge, studio or 1 RK | ₹700 | job |
| Herbal or odourless upgrade | ₹1 | sq ft, added |
| Post-construction termite, drill and inject | ₹7 | sq ft |
| Pre-construction anti-termite | ₹12 | sq ft |
| Wooden furniture termite spray | ₹900 | wardrobe |
| Bed bugs, two visits | ₹4 | sq ft |
| Bed bugs, single room | ₹1,500 | room |
| Mosquito fogging | ₹900 | visit |
| Larvicide and drain treatment | ₹600 | visit |
| Rodent baiting and proofing, two visits | ₹1,500 | job |
| Lizard and spider spray | ₹1 | sq ft |
| Bee or wasp hive removal | ₹2,500 | job |
| Home AMC, four visits a year | ₹3,500 | year |
Metro cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru run about 30 percent higher. A same-day call adds roughly 20 percent. Flexible timing takes a little off. These are the figures the TheHire cost estimator uses, so what you read here is what it will quote.
How the per-square-foot price works
Multiply the rate by the carpet area of the home. The estimator assumes about 500 sq ft for a 1 BHK, 800 for a 2 BHK, 1,200 for a 3 BHK and 2,500 for a villa, and you can correct those numbers. So a cockroach treatment for a 2 BHK is 800 times ₹2, and a post-construction termite job for the same flat is 800 times ₹7.
Two things stop the arithmetic going below a sensible floor. Every company has a minimum charge, ₹700 for a studio or 1 RK, because the technician's travel and the chemical mix cost the same whether the flat is 300 or 500 sq ft. And a termite job on a single room is priced on the room's area, not the flat's, so say which rooms show damage.
The eight treatments every home eventually calls for
1. Cockroaches and ants, ₹2 per sq ft
The standard kitchen call. The technician applies gel bait in dots along the backs of drawers, under the sink, behind the fridge and inside the switchboard, then sprays a residual insecticide along skirtings, drain outlets and the bathroom. Gel does the killing in a modern kitchen; spray stops the ones coming in from the drain. The warranty is 3 to 6 months, and the small German cockroaches that live in kitchens are usually gone within a week. Ask for the gel to be applied even if the quote says spray; it is the part that works.
2. The herbal or odourless upgrade, ₹1 per sq ft on top
A milder active ingredient, usually plant-derived or a low-odour pyrethroid, that lets you stay in the house during treatment. It is worth it for homes with an infant, a pregnant woman, an asthmatic or a bird. It is not stronger than the standard treatment; it is gentler, and it may need a repeat sooner.
3. Post-construction termite, ₹7 per sq ft
The technician drills 12 mm holes at about 30 cm intervals along the junction of the wall and the floor, on both sides of external walls and along internal walls, injects a termiticide emulsion, usually imidacloprid, fipronil or chlorpyrifos, and seals the holes with white cement. Door and window frames are drilled and injected too. This is the treatment described in IS 6313 Part 3 and it carries a one-year warranty. The drilling is noisy and dusty; plan for the technician to be in the house for most of a day in a 2 BHK.
4. Pre-construction anti-termite, ₹12 per sq ft
Done at the builder stage: the soil at the bottom and sides of the foundation trenches, the backfill, the plinth fill before the floor slab and the external perimeter are all treated in stages. If you are building a house, insist on it and ask for the chemical's name and the certificate. It is the cheapest termite protection you will ever buy, and it cannot be done later.
5. Wooden furniture, ₹900 per wardrobe
Powder-post beetles and drywood termites live inside a wardrobe or a cot without any contact with the ground. The treatment is drilling and injecting the piece, then spraying it. Priced per wardrobe or cupboard, so count them before the call.
6. Bed bugs, ₹4 per sq ft or ₹1,500 per room
Always two visits, 10 to 15 days apart, because the first spray does not kill eggs and the second catches what hatched. The technician treats mattress seams, the bed frame joints, the headboard, skirting, switchboards, picture frames and sofa seams. One room is the right scope if the bugs are confined to one bed; whole-home is right if they have been there for more than a month, because they travel. Do not move the mattress to another room before the visit; that is how they spread.
7. Mosquitoes, ₹900 for fogging and ₹600 for larvicide
Fogging kills the adults in the air that afternoon and does nothing to the next batch. Larvicide, usually temephos or a Bti product in the drains, sumps and the overhead tank overflow, kills the larvae for several weeks. For a house, larvicide first; for a society compound before the dengue season, both. Fly control for a kitchen or a shop is ₹800 per visit.
8. Rats, ₹1,500 for two visits
Baiting with bromadiolone cakes in tamper-resistant stations, glue boards where bait is unsafe, and the part that matters most: proofing, which means sealing every gap over a centimetre with wire mesh or steel wool, fitting drain covers and door sweeps. The second visit removes the stations and checks the seals. A rodent job without proofing is a rodent job you will repeat in three months.
One rule that saves money: combine treatments. A cockroach treatment and a lizard spray on the same visit share the travel and the setup, and pest control professionals on TheHire discount from the fourth item onwards.
Five signs of a safe technician
- They ask about children, pregnancy, asthma, pets, birds and a fish tank before choosing the chemical, not after.
- They can name the active ingredient and show the CIB-registered label on the container.
- They wear gloves and a mask, and they tell you the re-entry time in hours, not "whenever".
- They apply gel for cockroaches rather than only spraying, and they drill for termites rather than only spraying the wall.
- They write the warranty period and the repeat-visit terms on the bill.
Every pest control professional on TheHire is ID and phone verified, and reviews after each job are public, which takes care of the part you cannot check at the door.
What to keep ready before they arrive
- The carpet area of the flat, or the room sizes if only some rooms need treatment.
- Food, water and utensils covered or put away; the kitchen counters wiped so the gel has clean surfaces.
- The fish tank covered and its air pump switched off; birds and pets out of the house for the day.
- Photos of the problem if you are posting a request: a mud tube on a wall or a cockroach in a drawer tells the technician which treatment to quote.
When the price is not the price
Furniture-only termites. If the damage is in one wardrobe and the walls are clean, the per-wardrobe rate applies, not a whole-flat drilling job. Ask the technician to tap the wall-floor junction and show you whether there are tubes before agreeing to the full treatment.
A society-level problem. Mosquitoes and rats do not respect flat boundaries. If the whole building has them, a commercial AMC at ₹1,500 a month for the common areas is cheaper than ten households each paying for fogging.
Repeat visits. A cockroach job that needs a second visit within the warranty should be free. If the technician wants to charge for it, the warranty was not real; that is the review to leave.