Western Exterminator

They are great and keeps the ant out house.

Last summer, after 8 years in our home we suddenly had a MAJOR ant problem. It was beyond DYI and diatomaceous earth. One day, one of our pets vomited in our 2nd story hallway and by the time I saw it (within 1 hour), it was covered with ants. On the 2nd floor! This lead us to conclude they were comfortably set up within the walls of our house. The guy who came out was very nice, punctual and professional. So why the "B" rating? We called Alpha Ecological because something about their name and marketing made it seem like they were environmentally-friendly. But that wasn't quite our experience. They suggested two different types of treatments. The first treatment was a tube of special slow-acting ant poison that the ants take back to their colony, feed the others and then all die. This is kind of the same idea as those little white ant traps but WAY BETTER. And the good thing is, you can squirt this into tiny cracks, crevices and hidden places so there's very little chance of anything else being poisoned. I was totally ok with this. The second thing they recommended was spraying poison all over the ground, all around our backyard and outside our house. I was very disappointed that they pushed for this. He admitted it wasn't safe for pets, animals and birds and that it would kill beneficial insects as well. I have made it a point to practice organic gardening ever since we moved in. We NEVER use Round-Up or chemicals of any kind in our yard. We are trying to create a safe place for birds and other creatures in our yard. Plus, all those pesticides cause cancer. He warned us that using only the first treatment option might not completely take care of the problem, but I'm so glad I opted to only use the first treatment and not take is advice! Just using the one safer poison took care of 95% of the problem. He left us an almost empty tube in case we needed to do any "touch-up" treatments, which I really appreciated. We had a few minor little ant invasions (maybe 30 ants each) for a few weeks afterwards and every time, I put a little glob of ant poison in crack near where they were, they came to it immediately and went away almost as fast as they came. So while I would recommend Alpha Ecological, don't let them talk you into way more poison than you need! (Side note: about a week after they came I a little praying mantis showed up outside the kitchen window and hung out for a few days. I'd like to think this was his way of thanking us for not poisoning him.)

We paid and contracted with Alpha Ecological to spray our home [interior & exterior] monthly for approximately two years. We had intermittent problems with ants throughout, which were continuous for at least the past eight months. At one point, someone was sent out who said he could only spray outdoors and we needed to schedule another appointment for someone to come inside. On two occasions, we were told someone could not come out for a week and two weeks, respectively, in response to our call to report the problem was unmanageable. On the second occasion, I was told by the scheduler to just vacuum up the ants and I would need to wait for 2 weeks for someone to come out. On two other occasions, I called to cancel our service and was assured the problem would be addressed and persuaded to continue. On one of these occasions, a supervisor did call back and actually came out to treat the exterior and interior of our home. This took care of the ant infestation for a brief time however the ants were back in a few weeks. Outside of this exception, the solution to the problem was consistently to spray outside, with the ants simply travelling to a new area of the house ? kitchen and living room to laundry room and bedroom, and ultimately hundreds of ants in the bedroom and master bath. On March 27th, 2015, Howard came to spray and I told him about having many ants crawling on the bathroom floor and walls. Rather than take any action, he gave no response and proceeded to spray the exterior of the home and left, without providing any explanation or checking the interior of the house. After that visit, which was followed by five days of increasing numbers of ants, which were crawling on the shower walls, fixtures and us, we scheduled with another service provider on April 4th. They treated the house inside and out, and we have not had a problem with ants since. Further, the new provider contacted us twice over a period of a month following the initial service to ensure the ants were not returning. At the time of contracting with the new service, I also called Alpha to cancel your services and talked with a supervisor. I explained the problem and that the services provided were not satisfactory and did not deliver as advertised, and that the response to our report of problems had been poor. I also said that I would not pay for the March 27th service. After receiving an invoice on May 18th, I called the Alpha office about 10:30am and asked to speak to a supervisor. I was told that a supervisor would call back in approximately 30 minutes. A person did call back [not the supervisor] returned the call and said she would have Jim call. Later that day we talked with Jim, who indicated Howard had sprayed a more powerful agent on March 27th, which may have worked if we had waited. I reported that neither Howard nor anyone else at Alpha had told us a different agent was being sprayed, and our only experience after the service was an increased number of ants in the days following, which for us was the final straw. Jim indicated he would investigate further, and call back by 5pm that day regarding the final payment. We have still not heard from him (July 24th). I withheld payment on the invoice for $79, waiting for Jim or a supervisor to call. We are very happy with our new service provider and have not had an issue since they began servicing our home. This outcome confirms the problem could have been remedied by Alpha and it wasn?t. We were patient, very patient. We diligently paid our bill and, in turn, Alpha failed to control our ants or communicate responsibly.

I've had good luck with them. His staff was good. They didn't smoke and cleaned up well by themselves. It was very pleasant. They are not cheap, but they use safe products. So don't have to worry about you pets. They don't use any toxic products and I am happy about that.

They were very good. They were very conscious. But one time they just came and left the bill on the door yet they had not completed working on the pests that were inside the house. When I called them to ask them why they did not even knock, they said they would come back but had to charge us again. They did not do what they said they were going to do. I wasn't impressed and that is why I had to part ways with them. They were pretty punctual though. The company attempted to resolve the issue but did not provide options that would solve it.

UPDATE: They spray the outside of the house for all bugs every quarter and I am basically happy with them. I have been using them since my original report in 2012. They basically do a good job, but I think they could be a little more proactive in checking other areas of the property that might now have problems that didn't originally rather than depending on me to provide that information. Example: the light posts in the front of the house. They know what to look for! I don't unless it is obvious!

They are always timely, pleasant, professional, and effective. They've been very helpful.

My experience with them was fine. It was good. They were efficient and educational.

The quarterly service is done efficiently and includes a verbal consultation about things we can do to prevent ants from invading our house. In the past we have used Alpha for single calls whenever we discovered an ant infestation in the walls of our house. These treatments were more intensive but were always successful in solving the problem. We have always been concerned about the use of highly toxic chemicals in areas where we live. Alpha is very sensitive to this situation and their treatment does not involve any permanent chemicals. This is as we wish; however, it does require periodic treatment and that is why we have the quarterly treatment service.

Alpha said they were coming and yet no one saw them. Requested interior service and was always told I wasn't home even when I waited for them. However, a timely bill always arrived. Nice at first, scam in the long-run.

They were punctual. They did get my bill mixed up with someone else though which was frustrating.

They are very respectful, and the quality of their service is good, but they charge an incredible amount for the same thing that another service provider would do. I think that the other service provider does a better job. They come back every two months. We have two buildings, but when they come back for a specific problem in between, they will also charge normally around $115, but it can be much more than that if it is a problem that is difficult. They also charge like $2,000 for taking care of mice if I had them or for carpenter ants, and else they did not charge a penny for that. The $115 is just for an extra visit. It is more expensive for the bi-monthly visits. The contract that I got with Alpha for the entire year for the two buildings is far or less for just their basic service. They are a national company, and my people came out from Vancouver. They were very respectful and professional. It is just that they could not take care of the issue that I needed taken cared of, and it costs a lot more.

just ok. problems are availability for appointments and very aggressive billing/collection process. we travel quite a bit and if you happen to be the least bit late, they will hound you and threaten to turn the account over to collection agency.

Overall, I feel we were ripped off. I was livid after the experience.We had never paid for any pest control previously. We found rats in the kitchen and were not sure what to do. The company responded extremely promptly, and the pest controller that visited was very nice, but their pest control was not effective. They couldn't identify any entry points into the house from outside (the next service we used found several possibilities, confirmed one, and sealed it). Their scheme was that the rats would perish from poisoned food left in boxes at strategic locations. However, after waiting a week or so we still had rat problems. We called the company in a bit of a panic, as it was Christmas time and we had family visiting, making rats even less desirable, but they were not at all helpful. They refused to send someone out to review the situation and told us we had to wait a full 2 weeks for their system to work. They also refused to give us any sort of refund, even after charging us a huge amount of money. My impression is that this company is just out to make money. When we called them we talked to operators, not to anyone who would be providing the service. They charged a lot, and wanted to charge for every little thing. They weren't effective. After this awful experience we hired a small (2 person), local company. They provided really personal service, knew a lot about vermin, and solved our problem. They made multiple visits to our house and charged us less than half of Alpha Ecological. I feel that this contrasting experience confirms the terrible service we got from Alpha Ecological.

Alpha Ecological throughly inspected the crawl space area, then inside the apartment, to locate the source of the and quot;dead critterand quot; smell. Smell was in ceiling, which was inaccessible for Alpha Ecological, but Technician suggested having a contractor assess the situation. Even though Alpha Ecological couldn't resolve the problem, their technician went over and above to find the problem and then suggested a possible solution. I also appreciated that there was no additional cost for his inspection!

Too bad they don't guarantee their work.

We've been using this company for several years now for our annual ant issues, but recently had a very unsatisfactory experience with them. 2 years ago they did a great job, but since then the way they treat customers seems to have really changed. As I do every March, I called them to spray the perimeter of my house to prevent ants. Otherwise, I get ants inside my house like crazy by about June. If done right, I get no ants. Had them come this March, before any ants inside. First red flag was in setting up the appointment. The scheduler refused to give even a ball park estimate, even though I knew exactly what service I wanted and had always paid a set price in the past. In hindsight, I should have called someone else right then. The tech came out on time and was professional. Didn't have any problem with the tech. However, 25 days later, my house is now crawling with ants. Obviously, the treatment wasn't effective. Wasn't too worried at first, b/c I assume they'd come back for free and make it right. Had been less than 30 days since they were here, so I assumed they'd stand by their work. Wrong. Was told they wouldn't fix for free, wouldn't offer discount, waive trip fee, etc. They just said they'd come out and tell me what it will cost to fix. They gave my husband some nonsense explanation saying we had to wait 5 to 7 days for treatment to work. He told them it had been 25 days and that we didn't even have ants yet when they were here. They weren't listening. Didn't care. Life's too short to deal w/ companies that won't give prices for anything and then don't stand behind their work when there's a problem. Too bad, b/c we used to be happy with this company. Now we will have to find another pest control company.

Our technician Joe Haslo is to be commended. He explained and walked us through the whole process. He had a professional attitude and hard work ethic. We had numerous vents including several ceiling vents as well as a very long clogged dryer vent. Joe maintained a positive helpful attitude. He came back, followed up, and did a thoroughly clean exceptional job. My husband and I would rhender this a Favorable (A+) experience!

They were very apologetic when the dust blew out of one of the ducts. They were on time and cleaned up well after themselves.

The service has been fine and have gotten more proffesional.

I like them because we all have allergies and they are not using anything that is toxic for children and animals. They also do follow-up checking to see if the treatment had been effective. They are excellent overall.

We like them and have used them for about 3 years now. They come on time and use less poisonous products than other companies. We have just had very good luck with the service. We can cancel one visit a year, so I normally cancel the December one. The professionalism depends on who they send. Sometimes they are excellent and sometimes they are new technicians. We have also used them to remove a hornet nest out of our rental house.

they called me for a subsequent visit from the year prior which was effective and i was satisfied with the job even though i had to listen to a way overpriced pitch to replace plastic in the crawl-space.. on this second visit they just showed up and did not call first as they said they would....that should have been a red flag.....i was not satisfied at all with the results.........i noticed spiders where they should not be within a few weeks of the application...it rained the day they came and for days to follow but the kept assuring me the rain didn't matter.. obviously it did..............when i called them to come back out they said there is no warranty and that it is a and quot;preventive serviceand quot;....of course it was a huge surprise to me the actual terms with this company was that i paid my money and took my chances and there is no warranty whatsoever........ it is the last time i will EVER use this company which does not stand behind their service there are plenty of companies that don't just take your money, do an inadequate job that is unsatisfactory, and then just tell you tough luck......and don't fall for the phony and quot;environmentaland quot; marketing as if they are something unique and enlightened...

We have been using this service for a number of years to keep up with carpenter ants and other types of bugs in the area of barkdust, trees and such. Pet and kid friendly is a huge plus factor and they give advice for better hints to help keep these pests away and under control. I appreciate that I do not have to be at home for them to perform their services completely professionally.

They advertise as being one of the most ecologically friendly pest control companies, while being efficient at the same time. For the water ants they spray the perimeter then for the carpenter ants, they drill externally into the structure of the building. They don't do the inside that much; they do a few inside but most of it is outside. They always call ahead and give you a 30 days heads up of when they're coming out. They also call the day ahead so you can keep your pets inside while they're spraying. They usually show up on or about the time they say they'll be here. You don't have to be there for the appointment.