Specialized Coverage for Pest Control and Exterminators
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Louisiana • Pest Control & Lawn Care
Louisiana wants the bond and the policy, and it wants to hear from you when the policy runs out. Coverage for termite, general pest, vertebrate and fumigation operators statewide.
Veteran-owned • 20+ years in specialty insurance • Certificates issued same day when you qualify
Louisiana asks for two financial filings and there is no choosing between them. La. R.S. 3:3367 requires a surety or fidelity bond of two thousand dollars, issued by a bonding, surety or insurance company authorized to do business in Louisiana, of tenor and solvency acceptable to the commission. Separately, LAC 7:XXV.105 requires a certificate of insurance covering public liability at not less than $250,000 per occurrence and not less than $100,000 for property damage, or combined single limits of $350,000. Both on file, or no place of business permit.
The two do different jobs, which is why the state wants both. The bond is conditioned on faithful performance of your duties and obligations to clients and customers, and the rule ties it to fulfillment of the agreement between the licensee and the customer and to insuring against fraudulent practices. That is a promise about contracts and honesty. It answers for work not performed. It does not answer for work that caused damage, which is what the liability policy is for.
Then there is a rule Louisiana has that we have not seen anywhere else. Along with ten days written notice to the commission before either instrument is canceled, you owe the commission ten days written notice when paid claims reach or exceed the aggregate limit. In plain terms, the state wants to know when your policy is used up. Most operators have never read that sentence, and it is the one that turns a bad year into a licensing conversation. While you are checking, put the company on BestPestControlIn.com. Listing is free for any licensed pest control company, Louisiana homeowners search it by ZIP code and by state, the listing carries a backlink that helps your own site rank, it sends referrals, and we write blog posts on the companies in the directory.
Both, and there is no choosing between them. La. R.S. 3:3367 requires a $2,000 surety or fidelity bond, and LAC 7:XXV.105 separately requires a certificate of insurance covering public liability at not less than $250,000 per occurrence and $100,000 property damage, or $350,000 combined single limits. The place of business permit does not issue without both on file.
The bond is conditioned on faithful performance of your duties and obligations to clients and customers and on compliance with the rules, and the regulation ties it to fulfillment of the agreement with the customer and to insuring against fraudulent practices. It answers for a contract not performed or for dishonesty. The policy answers for damage. A treatment that went wrong is a liability claim, not a bond claim.
Yes, and it is the rule most operators have never read. Along with ten days written notice before either instrument is canceled, you owe the commission ten days written notice when paid claims reach or exceed the aggregate limit. The state wants to know when your policy is used up, which means a bad claims year becomes a licensing conversation rather than a private one.
General Pest Control, Commercial Vertebrate Control, Termite Control, Structural Fumigation, Ship Fumigation and Commodity Fumigation. Ship Fumigation exists because the Louisiana port complex along the Mississippi is one of the largest in the world, and it is a genuine specialty rather than a variation on structural work.
Yes. There is a $12 fee for each standard contract and each wood destroying insect report. It is a per transaction cost on the two documents a termite company produces most, so a busy inspection season carries a real expense that never shows up on an annual renewal notice. Build it into pricing rather than absorbing it.
Place of business permits expire on the last day of June and must be renewed on or before June 30. The permit is $150 for two employees or less and $200 for three or more. Individual licenses run on a separate three year recertification cycle due by December 31 of the year before the third anniversary, so two calendars run at once.
Formosan subterranean termites. They build carton nests inside structures, do not require soil contact, and cause damage on a timeline that makes native subterranean species look slow. New Orleans is the North American epicenter. Writing multi-year treatment guarantees against that pressure is a different promise than writing them in a native species market, and carriers price it accordingly or decline it.
Ten days written notice to the commission on both instruments. Since the permit cannot stand without them, treat those ten days as the window to replace the filing rather than as a grace period.
For most companies working termite in this state, no. It is a licensing threshold set by rule, not a figure derived from what a concealed damage claim, a disputed WDIR, a fumigation exposure or a structural repair actually costs in a Formosan market. Meet it to hold the permit, then set limits against the buildings you actually treat.
Usually not without the applicator endorsement. Standard commercial general liability forms carry a pollution exclusion broad enough to catch pesticide and herbicide application, so it has to be added back deliberately. A certificate that satisfies the commission while excluding application is compliance without protection.
License type drives it. General pest with clean loss runs sits at the bottom of the market. Termite Control raises it substantially against Formosan pressure, structural fumigation prices separately, and ship fumigation is a narrow specialty with few markets. WDIR volume, in-house versus subcontracted fumigation, and named storm exposure on property and fleet are what underwriters weigh after that.
The commission's minimum is $250,000 per occurrence public liability and $100,000 property damage, or $350,000 combined single limits. In the state with the heaviest Formosan termite pressure in the country, that is a starting point rather than a program, and the aggregate is the number worth watching.
Formosan subterranean termites build carton nests inside walls, do not require soil contact, and damage structures on a timeline that makes native species look patient. Multi-year treatment guarantees written against that pressure are the largest severity driver on any Louisiana submission.
Every WDIR is a professional opinion attached to a transaction, in a market where concealed damage is common and buyers do find it. The claim is about the report rather than the treatment, and general liability is the wrong instrument for answering it.
Separate license types and separate underwriting exercises. Vacated buildings, neighboring property, security and re-entry on the structural side, and vessel work in one of the world's largest port complexes on the other, written by a short list of carriers.
River elevators and grain storage along the Mississippi make commodity work ordinary here. Product bound for the food chain and customer audit standards change what a mistake costs.
Puts chemical application back inside the liability policy. Without it the pollution exclusion removes the exact claim you bought the policy for, whatever the certificate on file with the commission says.
Named storm exposure on your building, trucks, tarps and equipment, in a state where a single season can produce a total loss and where the recovery period is also your busiest scheduling period.
Crawlspace and under-house work in Louisiana humidity, fumigation crews, port and vessel access, ladder exposure and heat. Both trauma and heat illness claims come back here.
Covers the customer property you are working on rather than merely around, which is where fumigation, trenching and under-house work sits.
| Licensing authority | Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Structural Pest Control Commission |
|---|---|
| Governing statute or rule | Louisiana Structural Pest Control Law, La. R.S. 3:3367 for the bond, with rules at LAC Title 7, Part XXV, including Section 105 on bonding and insurance |
| License categories | Six license types: General Pest Control, Commercial Vertebrate Control, Termite Control, Structural Fumigation, Ship Fumigation and Commodity Fumigation, held under a place of business permit with licensed operators, technicians and salespersons registered separately |
| Minimum liability limits | Certificate of insurance covering public liability at not less than $250,000 per occurrence and not less than $100,000 for property damage, or combined single limits of $350,000, with ten days written notice to the commission before cancellation and ten days written notice when paid claims reach or exceed the aggregate limit |
| Bond requirement | A surety or fidelity bond of $2,000, issued by a bonding, surety or insurance company authorized to do business in Louisiana, of tenor and solvency acceptable to the commission, conditioned on faithful performance of duties and obligations to clients and customers and compliance with the Part and its rules. Flat, with no tiers by category or crew size, and required in addition to the insurance |
| Proof of insurance filing | Both the bond and the certificate of insurance filed with the place of business permit application, each providing at least ten days written notice to the commission before cancellation |
| Renewal cycle | Place of business permits expire on the last day of June and renew on or before June 30, at $150 for two employees or less and $200 for three or more. Licensed operators $10 per phase, examination $50 per phase, technicians and salespersons $25 each, technician examination and registration processing $25 each, and $12 for each standard contract and wood destroying insect report. Individual licenses recertify on a three year cycle due by December 31 of the year before the third anniversary |
Louisiana licenses six types of work: General Pest Control, Commercial Vertebrate Control, Termite Control, Structural Fumigation, Ship Fumigation and Commodity Fumigation. The bond does not change with how many you hold, and neither does the insurance minimum. What changes is who you need on staff and which exams they sit, since licensed operators pay $10 per phase and the examination runs $50 per phase.
Two calendars run at once and they do not line up. The place of business permit expires annually on the last day of June and has to be renewed on or before June 30, at $150 for two employees or less and $200 for three or more. Individual licenses run on a three year recertification cycle due by December 31 of the year before the third anniversary. Technicians and salespersons are $25 each, with technician examination and registration processing at $25 each. Neither recertification nor a well certified crew does anything about the bond or the certificate, and the reverse is equally true.
The detail most operators from other states find surprising is that Louisiana charges by the document. There is a $12 fee for each standard contract and each wood destroying insect report. That is a per transaction cost on the two pieces of paper a termite company produces most, and it means a busy inspection season carries a line item that a fixed annual license fee would not. Worth building into pricing rather than absorbing quietly.
Louisiana is a both-and state, and it is worth being precise about what each instrument does. The bond is a flat $2,000 surety or fidelity bond under La. R.S. 3:3367, from a company authorized to do business in Louisiana, of tenor and solvency acceptable to the commission. It is conditioned on faithful performance of all duties and obligations to clients and customers of the business and on compliance with the Part and its rules, and LAC 7:XXV.105 adds that it relates to fulfillment of the agreement between the licensee and the customer and insures against fraudulent practices. That is a promise about contracts and honesty rather than about damage. A treatment that went wrong is a liability claim, not a bond claim, which is exactly why the commission also requires the insurance certificate at $250,000 per occurrence and $100,000 property damage, or $350,000 combined single limits. The bond amount is flat across all six license types and every crew size, so termite, ship fumigation and general pest operators all post the same $2,000. Both instruments carry ten days written notice to the commission before cancellation. Remember a bond is not insurance: it pays the state or your customer and then comes back to you for the money. Every Louisiana bond, with instant pricing, is at AmericasSuretyBonds.com.
License types held, termite and WDIR volume, whether fumigation is in-house, port or commodity work, payroll, vehicles and claims history. Most Louisiana operators finish the application in a few minutes.
Your submission goes to carriers that will write Formosan termite exposure and Louisiana fumigation work rather than the many that decline the state on sight.
Review the quote, bind, and we get the certificate to the commission with the notice provisions it requires, alongside your bond, with certificates out the same day when you qualify.
License type drives a Louisiana quote and the spread is wider than in most states. General pest control with clean loss runs sits at the bottom of the market. Termite Control moves it substantially, because the carrier is standing behind guarantees against Formosan pressure. Structural Fumigation prices on its own logic, and Ship Fumigation is a narrow specialty with a short list of markets willing to write it at all. Commercial Vertebrate Control brings its own questions.
Three things move the number more than anything asked in the first five minutes. Wood destroying insect report volume, since every report is a professional opinion in a market where concealed damage is common and buyers do find it. Whether termite work and fumigation are performed in-house or subcontracted. And your named storm exposure, both in the property and fleet sense and in the sense that a heavy season reshapes a whole year of scheduling and claims.
The state fees are modest, with one exception worth planning for. The permit is $150 or $200 depending on headcount, licensed operators are $10 per phase, exams $50 per phase, technicians $25. But the $12 per standard contract and per wood destroying insect report is volume based, and a company writing several hundred reports a year is paying a real number that does not appear on any annual renewal notice.
Louisiana is the hardest termite state in the country and it is not close. The Formosan subterranean termite has been established here for decades, New Orleans is the epicenter of its spread in North America, and a Formosan colony behaves nothing like the native eastern subterranean species most of the country underwrites around. Carton nests inside walls, colonies that do not need soil contact, damage timelines measured in seasons rather than years, and a French Quarter building stock where the structures are older than the statutes protecting them.
That reality drives everything about a Louisiana submission. Treatment guarantees are multi-year promises in the worst possible environment for keeping them. Wood destroying insect reports attach to transactions in a market where a buyer who finds concealed damage after closing has a serious claim about a professional opinion. Raised and pier and beam construction puts technicians under houses in humidity that produces moisture and fungus findings alongside the insects, and repair questions follow close behind.
The commercial side is distinct too. Ship Fumigation is its own license type for a reason, since the Louisiana port complex along the Mississippi is one of the largest in the world, and commodity fumigation at river elevators is ordinary work here. Hurricane exposure sits over the whole state and reaches your building, your fleet and your equipment as well as your customers' schedules. We are a specialty shop, and your submission goes out already answering what a Louisiana underwriter asks: your license types, your termite and WDIR volume, whether ship or commodity fumigation is in the book, and what the loss runs actually show.
Greater New Orleans is the most demanding termite market in the United States. Formosan pressure through Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes, a historic building stock in the Quarter, the Garden District and along the lakefront that cannot simply be rebuilt, raised construction, and a real estate market that runs on wood destroying insect reports. Add the port and the ship and commodity fumigation work that comes with it, and one metro contains most of the specialties the state licenses.
Baton Rouge and the river parishes mix state government, university and petrochemical accounts with a large residential base and heavy termite pressure of their own. The industrial corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans brings facility work with contractor safety and access requirements that shape how a crew operates on site.
Southwest Louisiana around Lake Charles and Lafayette carries energy sector accounts, rice and sugarcane agriculture at the edges, and hurricane exposure that has been tested repeatedly in recent years. North Louisiana through Shreveport, Bossier City, Monroe and Alexandria behaves more like Arkansas and east Texas, with native subterranean pressure rather than Formosan dominance, more agricultural adjacency and longer drive times between accounts.
Serving operators in and around:
Have six things in front of you and this takes one call instead of three. Your place of business permit and its June expiration. Which of the six license types you hold and who is licensed in each. Roughly how many standard contracts and wood destroying insect reports you write a year, since that is both a fee line and an exposure measure. Whether fumigation is in-house. Your named storm history on property and fleet. And loss runs for the last three years, including any commission action, resolved or not. Operators who bring that set are usually bound the same week.
Tell us about the operation and we will bring back real numbers from carriers that write this class.
