About us
Since 1921, Western Exterminator has been providing homeowners and business owners with customer service excellence and trusted pest control solutions.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Ant Control and Bird Control, Cockroach Extermination, Insect Control, Pest Control, Rodent Control, Termite Control
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 69% | ||
| 12% | ||
| 5% | ||
| 10% | ||
| 3% |
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.
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.
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.
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