Esquire Exterminating Svces

A couple of days before New Year’s Eve, when we were expecting about a dozen or so people over for a couple of days from out of town, we saw a mouse in our kitchen. We have seen mice in our house four or five times over the 32 years we have lived here. Of course we freaked out. We live in a two-​family, semi-​attached house in Williamsburg and there was some renovations going on the attached side which we blamed for the first outbreak in six years since the ground floor apartment was being completely renovated next door along that common wall.
We called Esquire and I think I spoke to the owner’s wife who got in touch with him immediately saying something like, «You have to help these people. They are having a ton of friends and family over for New Year’s!» Tony, the owner, came over the same day. Our kitchen is two years old but pointed out a couple of spots a mouse could sneak in. The same for a coat closet in our dining room, where a mouse ran to, and had a couple of holes, as well as a hallway closet. He explained what kind of traps and chemicals he was using, he said it could take a week or so to get rid of them (Tony said it could be more than one) and advised that we should not plug up the possible holes with steel wool (sheet rock for the old coat closet) for a week or 10 days after the day he came. If we did, Tony said, the mouse (mice?) would be trapped in our house because usually eat the chemicals and most would go back to the original nest and «pass away.» To make a long story short Tony was absolutely correct. We caught three mice and found one dead mouse after we sealed up all the holes we knew about.
One piece of advice is that you have to move ALL the furniture in the house — no matter how heavy — to check for holes. After the first go-​round we realized that a china hutch in our living room that we didn’t move for years covered a hole in the wall. Once we sealed that, and with the advice and expertise of Tony, we were fine and have our house back without any extra unwanted «visitors.»

Incompetent. Total waste of money. Weeks after they treated our place, we were still getting bit by bed bugs. They refused to do any follow-​up treatment, something you are supposed to do to ensure bed bugs don’t come back. Everyone from the EPA, the CDC to the city of New York gives guidelines urging follow ups for this reason. This company claimed it wasn’t necessary. Instead they came and did a brief check of the bed, chucking anything in their way carelessly on the floor, and determined that there were ‘definitely no bed bugs’ even though we were getting bitten. (Notice L.N.‘s review from 2011, which was only two years before our experience, and even Marissa T. They went through the same thing with these people.) Later that day, we also found where the bed bugs had been nesting, a spot that they also overlooked. But no apologies and no thorough follow-​up treatment even though they clearly did NOT get rid of the bed bugs. They refused to do any follow ups to finish the job.

I woke up really early in the morning to a scratching noise coming from my kitchen. I looked around to see what it was, but couldn’t figure it out so went back to bed. I woke up and went to make myself breakfast and when I opened the cabinet I saw a tiny mouse. I freaked out, slammed the cabinet and started crying hysterically. I called my friend who recently had a similar issue and she told me to call Esquire. I called them the second I got off the phone with my friend and they were there within an hour. Tony came with his son Steve and did a thorough search throughout the apartment. They searched my kitchen, where they found the mouse, and the rest of my apartment as well. Thankfully it was just one mouse!
I have not had a problem since. I highly recommend Esquire. They are reasonably priced, very efficient, and very professional. They do not try and sell you unnecessary services, they are a very honest company. They are also very respectful with your personal items, you never know who’s coming into your house these days to provide services. I will definitely be using Esquire if I come across another problem again.

moved into a new building and had mice from the construction, the building had been treated monthly by one of the bigger companies and they were useless, we finally called esquire and within a month, no mice and no need for them to even return after a few months service, we were paying other company monthly and felt like it was a hack job, going with a mom and pop operation that cares made the world of difference, the guy mikey came out and did more in one day then the other company did all week
i def reccomend them, and have done so for many others with bedbugs and such, and they all came back with great feedback,
thank you esquire, screw roscoe that stupid bed bug sniffin mutt is a scam

I got scared finding a bedbug crawling next to me while I was laying on my bed and working with my computer. Since I killed it and flush it through the toilet I couldn’t know if it was a male or female. The next morning i woke up with three bites on my back. I called Esquire before 9 am, their voice message led me to call Tony’s mobile phone number. I told him what happened, we set up an appointment for the same date at 1pm — 1.30 pm and 1.05 pm he was here.
He checked everything, gave me great explanations and ended up saying that I was lucky cause there was no trace on any bedbug whatsoever.
He is prompt, very professional meticulous, doesn’t try to sell you anything and even told me to make him a call if necessary next week so we will figure out a solution. he charged me a reasonable price since I live south Brooklyn and i’m not the kind of person who messes with hygiene or safety.

Esquire Terminators came to my home for ants. They sprayed and laid out gel and said that the ants would be gone within a couple of weeks. The ants lessened but were back within a couple of weeks. I called them for about two months before I could get someone to schedule an appointment with me. On the morning of the scheduled appointment, I waited for 45 minutes before calling. Mike answered and told me that he was running about two hours late and was busy with other jobs. I was stunned that he would not have called to apprise me of this, and that it seemed reasonable to him to tell me he was busy with other jobs — after all — WE had a scheduled appointment. I mentioned that I might not be home at that time and that he should call me before coming. He neither called nor showed up. When I called to express my disappointment and frustration, I was spoken to in an unprofessional manner and told that I should have waited and should have known that when he scheduled a 10 am appointment, he meant that he could show up at any time between 10 am and 2 pm. I am very well aware that the larger (and certainly more professional) companies quote you a time frame within which they will show up. This was NOT the case with this company. After being shouted at on the phone, I decided to use another exterminator. Therefore, I rate them poorly for their customer service, and the effectiveness of their products.

My landlord sent Esquire out to check my apartment for bedbugs. My boyfriend and I had just moved into an apartment two weeks prior, and we were getting bitten up. Then, my bf found a bug which we had confirmed as a bb for free at M & M Pest Control.
The first thing Tony did when he came into my apartment was to tell me that I would be responsible for paying for extermination, since we had just moved in, he knew the building and there had been no prior complaints. Well, all I know is my boyfriend (and later I) lived in our last place for ten years without having them. Tony suggested I had gotten them from the moving company we used, and *thank god* I did not call that company and wrongly accuse them of giving us bb, because the bb are from the building (as we found out).
So Tony made me cry in the middle of an already crappy situation, and I want to let others out there know that he is giving out legal advice that is just plain wrong. In New York, the landlord is always responsible for paying for extermination and is required to act within 30 days. I confirmed this with the Department of Housing, the Metropolitan Housing Council, and a reputable extermination company. You can find all this info online quite easily. (Does Tony not know how to use the internet? Guess what, i do!) «For tenants in New York, the right to a bedbug-​free environment is included in the city’s housing and maintenance code, Subchapter 2, Article 4, which specifically names bedbugs in the list of insects the landlord is legally obligated to eradicate. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) lists bedbugs as a Class B violation, which means that they are considered hazardous and that the landlord has 30 days to correct the problem. The landlord must eradicate the infestation and keep the affected units from getting reinfested.»
Before writing this review, I called Tony to let him know that he is misinforming people. He yelled at me and hung up on me. So here we are. Tenants, please be very wary if your landlord sends in this exterminator, and definitely don’t take legal advice from him:
After giving out incorrect legal advice (wait, did Tony miss his calling as a lawyer – is this why he called his business «Esquire»?), this exterminator did a «visual» «inspection» for bb. Tony’s «inspection» is lazy and half-​assed. Anyone who has had their apartment cleared for bedbugs by this hack should not feel assured. He could find no signs of infestation around the apartment, even though the other night my boyfriend captured an actual bug on himself. Tony did not believe me that there was a problem until I showed him the bug that M & M had already id’d as a bb. When Tony again told me I had to pay for extermination, I pushed back and said it is my landlord’s responsibility. Tony then claimed it was probably just one bug and there is no infestation. Yeah, that corresponds with everything I’ve ever heard about bb (!).
And I definitely have to second the reviewer who says M & M Pest Control is far superior. They were kind, patient, and gave me ACCURATE information when I talked to them.
Update 06÷30÷13:
A few days after Tony’s incompetent visit to our apartment, we hired M & M Pest Control to come in with a certified dog. Amazing service. Dexter the super beagle (of M & M – NOT Esquire) found a hot spot of bb activity in the baseboards of the bedroom, not even where our bed is. Incidentally, it is the corner where the previous tenants had their mattress on the floor (which I saw when the broker brought me to view the apt.) We were informed that the bb def came from the building, and not in with our stuff from the move. Dexter alerted nowhere else in the entire apt, including in many boxes we stopped unpacking once we found the bug. Dexter also found skin casings in that corner, undisturbed in very old dust; this problem has clearly existed for awhile, and was present when Esquire’s Tony «inspected» our apartment two days prior. So not only did Esquire give us incorrect legal advice, we got proof that they wrongly accused us of bringing the bugs with us, and failed to find visual evidence of bb out in the open, with Tony’s «inspection.»
*Anyone* who feels reassured by an Esquire visual inspection should NOT.
Tony is a hack and a liar.
And so we had to move out of the apartment just weeks after moving in, paying over $ 4000 to fumigate all of our belongings and move. But it was clear that this is a building problem, whether or not my landlord or Esquire would admit it, and so that even if we paid to exterminate just our apartment, it would keep coming back. Ugh, this was one NYC rite of passage I had hoped to never experience.

Hi — at first these guys did an OK job. They were cheap, came when they said, took care of our whole building. But when the mouse problem came back and we called back… our calls were not returned. We eventually found someone else MUCH better.

this is my first-​ever Unilocal reveiw, but i had such a negative experience with this company that i feel compelled to write. these guys are HACKS. what began as a good experience with them ended in disaster. after stringing us along for weeks, it resulted that they were not able to tackle even a simple mouse problem. they gave misleading advice, did not follow up as promised (telling us repeatedly that they were not able to come by for a follow up because they had much bigger jobs than ours — and then hung up on us)… big, big thumbs down. i definitely recommend spending the money and going with real professionals — we called in M&M to finish the job that esquire failed so dismally at, and they were super.

Had bedbugs. Now 3.5 weeks past my last sighting or biting. Esquire used no dogs, no gimmicks, no BS. Came in when they said they would, returned calls and texts promptly, reasonably priced. Only suggestion is to have a list of questions for pre-​and post-​care ready for them once bugs are found, because they are not too chatty. :) Once I hit the 55 day «all clear» point, will change this to 5 stars.
First Unilocal review, btw. Was looking for help and most reviews are by people who thought they had bedbugs and didn’t. I had bedbugs and they came in and did their job well.

My girlfriend woke me up at 4am convinced we had bedbugs. In fairness she’d been getting bitten by something for the last few nights. I dug around behind the bed and found a small dead bug and threw it in a jar. Then we went and slept on the couch.
This morning I called Esquire and described the problem to them and they sent someone over this afternoon. The guy was very friendly and professional. He took looked at the bug I’d found and pronounced it a carpet beetle. I described the bites my girlfriend had on her hands and forehead and he said that sounded more like dust mites. He performed a thorough inspection of the mattress and box spring and when he found no evidence of bed bugs, told me how to treat the dust mites.
So the crazy part? He didn’t charge me for coming by. So give them a call they’re honest people.

Last night I found a bug in my apartment. I squashed it and didn’t think anything of it until a few hours later, when the paranoid wheels in my head began to spin.
Could it have possibly been a bed bug, the blight of Manhattan, the tiny bug that had brought clothing retailers and movie theaters to their knees? I Googled bed bug images feverishly. The more pictures I looked at, the more convinced I became that I had indeed killed a bed bug earlier.
I unearthed the bug corpse from my trash can, but it was too squashed for me to discern its original shape. I sealed it up in a piece of clear tape (as advised by the internets) and Unilocaled exterminators.
Feelings of terror surged through me at the idea of having bed bugs. Would I need to burn all my possessions and run far, far, away? Was I going to become a social pariah? How would I tell my boyfriend? Would I have any friends after this ordeal? Would my workplace ban me from coming in the next day!!! WAS I GOING TO BECOME *THAT* PERSON?
I (restlessly) slept that night. Then I called Esquire first thing in the morning, the thought of a major bed bug infestation instilling a very noticeable tone of desperation in my voice. The individual who picked up the phone was calm, collected and very helpful.
With all the bed bug hysteria sweeping the masses, it’s easy for scammers to ripoff people not in the pest-​know-​how, and this is why I’m so glad I called Esquire. They could have easily charged me hundreds of dollars for an inspection and thousands for treating my apartment, but they didn’t.
As another Unilocaler mentioned below, in this day and age it’s quite rare to find a company that will give you honest advice instead of playing on your panic to earn some $$. As it turns out, I didn’t end up having bed bugs (THANK GOD), but if I ever do (or if I have any pest problems at all) I’ll be calling Esquire.

Like many New Yorkers, my boyfriend and I have become overly paranoid and terrified of bed bugs. Which is why we instantly panicked when linear insect bites would start showing up on my legs in the morning, but couldn’t find any evidence that it was what we feared most, bed bugs.
Convinced that a canine search would give confirmation (and a peace of mind for us), I spent two hours calling pest control businesses in my area trying to schedule a canine apartment search on the same day. It was impossible — the soonest appointments I could find were for next Wednesday (and it was Friday morning). The thought of waiting five more days to full-​on infestation fed our paranoia. When I finally found ‘http://​bed​bugznyc​.com’ and called, it was like a dream that they were able to send a dog and their handler to the apartment by 2:00pm same day. I profusely thanked Cynthia, the receptionist, calling her, «our life saver».
But this is a bad review, right? And this was just the beginning of the nightmare we were faced with bedbugznyc /​Bed Bug Pest Control LLC:
First, I get a call back at about 1:30pm from Cynthia who said that the canine and the handler were not able to come by for an inspection until 7:00pm that night with very little detail as to why. Irritated but desperate, I agreed that was fine. We would just have to suck it up for a couple hours more. 7:30pm rolls around, and we get a call from the handler, Albert. Repeatedly apologizing and making excuses, he finally arrives at our apartment at 9:30pm with a cute terrier mix named, Max.
He gives us little direction and has us stay out of the rooms while inspecting. Bedroom — cleared (BLISSFUL RELIEF), office — cleared (RELIEF), living room — hit (WHAT?!). Albert stands in the far corner of the living room saying that Max has sensed something in the cable wall outlet; that there are bedbugs somewhere — in the walls, near, maybe next door, above — just somewhere. Without showing any tangible evidence, he immediately suggests getting an exterminator involved, painting horrific scenarios if left untouched. After about 30 minutes, Albert left with $ 270, we were left terrified. Soon after, we called to make an exterminator technician appointment for 11:30am the next day. Even receiving a $ 100 discount for the frustrations we had dealt with rescheduling the inspection. We were told to double bag all of our clothes, towels, bedding, linens and wash/​dry them in high heat. We stayed up for several hours piling our belongings in garbage bags and sealing the tops with duct tape.
It’s now Saturday morning and we have been up for hours preparing for the exterminator, carrying our (extremely heavy) trash bags filled with clothes to the laundromat… Only except it’s 11:30am, and there is no exterminator. And then it’s noon, and still no exterminator. I try calling Cynthia, no answer, just a voicemail. It’s now 1:00pm and still nothing from bedbugznyc /​Bed Bug Pest Control LLC, or the contracted exterminator technician. I am seeing red, furiously I call Cynthia again. This time she answers apologizing, saying she would call me back in 5 minutes and locate the technician. Thirty minutes passed, no call. So, I call again. This time, she says that they were not able to reach the technician and the soonest they could get someone in was Sunday. She tells me all this two hours AFTER the original appointment time.
Three words: UNRELIABLE, UNPROFESSIONAL, and now UNQUALIFIED.
After the frustrating call, I searched Unilocal to find other exterminators in the area praying to find one available to come by in the afternoon– at least for a second opinion.
And that is when I found Esquire Exterminating Services — a family-​run pest control service with great recommendations and reviews. Upon receiving my very emotional call, the owner sent out his son, Michael, to stop by and check out the apartment — at no charge. He carefully examined the apartment and came to the conclusion that no, there were no bed bugs. And yes, there are a lot of scammers out there. Especially with bed bugs becoming more and more of an epidemic in New York City, scammers are trying to cash in naïve and worried people like ourselves. We are in the process of getting a third and last opinion from another pest control company. And luckily, I have not had any new bites.
I WILL NEVER recommend or use bedbugznyc /​Bed Bug Pest Control LLC. If you suspect you are getting bit by bed bugs, but cannot find evidence of it, the only advice I have to give is:
Don’t panic and get a couple opinions. And I hope after reading this review, you are now better informed than we were.

I have been having red welts show up on my skin for almost a month now. A dermatologist did a biopsy and determined it was insect bites. I called Esquire to help me with an inspection since I didn’t know what had bitten me. I thought it might have been bed bugs, but had done two pretty thorough searches in my ENTIRE studio apartment (as they can hide ANYWHERE, not just the bed). The first gentleman I spoke with was pretty helpful. He told me to try a mixture of bleach and peroxide to spray on my box spring and around the bed area in case it was mites. If I was still getting bit, then it was bed bugs. He also told me it was most likely male bed bugs because those do not live on the bed, but can live anywhere. They will bite every few days, as opposed to every day like female bed bugs, and will travel up to 20 feet for food.
After spraying the mixture, I still got bit. I called them and they said they would show up at my apartment at 8 am in two days, following my call. Unfortunately, the man who showed up was over an hour late and I really needed to go to work. He did a brief check of the box spring and determined that there were «definitely no bed bugs.» I ended up paying $ 55 for a 5-​minute «inspection» that was a million times LESS thorough than the two I had done myself previously.
This evening, I decided to do ANOTHER check. Low and behold I found a cluster of what seems to be bed bug feces on the inside corner of the box spring, where he apparently looked. The corner sits right by an electrical outlet, which makes sense according to some of my research, male bed bugs can live in sockets because they are dark and warm.
I am INCREDIBLY frustrated by this service. I read so many good reviews and feel like I did not get the same attention as others. I would be careful of this company.

The best exterminators in the business if you ask me. Found them to be totally honest, sadly a rare find these days.

I called Esquire at 2am on a weekend after having found a few small bugs in my bedroom and immediately started freaking out at the thought that we might have bedbugs. I was given a call back first thing the next morning (on a Sunday!) from Tony, who patiently answered all my questions and gave me advice on how to deal with the situation until our appointment for a free inspection of the apartment.
When Tony came over with his son (both really nice and friendly) he took a look at the specimen I had saved and declared these little guys were most definitely NOT bedbugs but in fact spider beetles. He took the time to explain why we shouldn’t worry about them and gave us tips on how to keep them away.
I was extremely relieved not to have bedbugs but also felt really bad to have had the guys come all the way to our place (for free!) for a situation that in the end, was not going to require their services. They couldn’t have been more gracious and friendly though. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for honest, patient and thorough exterminators. Great guys!

A friendly guy came over the day after I spotted a rat in my basement and put down a bunch of poison. since that took care of the problem, they didn’t charge me for the follow-​up visit a week later. good, honest service.

After seeing all the great Unilocal reviews, I made an appointment – on thanksgiving I discovered a bunch of roaches in my boiler room. The guys at Esquire were great. In the initial call they were very friendly and reassuring, immediately pegging the type of roach and where the nest was, just by the description, and really putting me at ease. They were over the next day to take care of it. Fast, friendly, and really well priced. The exterminator was also really great with questions I had about the product he was using and possible concerns with the boiler room and with our dog. Couldn’t recommend them more strongly!

These guys are great. My fiancé found a tiny little bug in our apartment and started freaking out, convinced we had bed bugs. We called these guys at 10 on a Sunday morning and one of them came by right away, since he was in the neighborhood. He took one look at the bug and told us it was NOT a bed bug, just a regular garden bug, which makes sense since we live on the first floor, adjacent to a beautiful garden. I have never wanted to hug an exterminator more! Now we’re celebrating with bloody marys!

I brought them some bugs in a bag and they gave me their free opinion that I DON’T have bed bugs. Honest guys!!! I hope I never need an exterminator… but if I do, I’m calling them.