Ecola Termite & Pest Control Services

Professional, timely, courteous, fair. Ben Taylor is a gem and expert estimator. He will coordinate with tenants directly if needed. With 5 properties involved, Ben handled them all easily. The oldest houses that were all wood structures built in the 40’s needed tenting as suspected. The remainder were done without tenting and all tenants were very comfortable with the process. Thank you Ben and Ecola!
I originally had Ecola service our residence several years ago and was very happy with the results.

I have had Ecola inspect and treat my home for termites for over 3 years now and it is a great way to keep these pests under control. I initially needed extensive heat treatment and enrolled in the annual inspection plan after that and have not had any issues with termites again. The men are polite and well equipped to do their job and I have recommended the treatment to many friends. There is no tenting or poison involved and that was the most appealing thing to me.

We asked for a quote from Ecola for Pest and Termite services. We chose Ecola for the pest service but ended up using a different company for the termite services. That was a huge mistake and we wished we had chosen Ecola for both jobs. Our experience with Ecola has been excellent. The technician, Carlos Z., has given excellent service. During his three visits for the initial treatment and the two rechecks, Carlos was always on time, pleasant and professional and completed the job quickly. The appointment service was excellent as well and they worked with us to schedule these appointments to complement our work schedules. We are very happy with Ecola. Won’t be saying the same for the other company.

Ben was really knowledgeable. He honored a discount card and also gave me a military discount. Very easy to make an appointment for the treatment. The crew showed up on time. they did the heat treatment in both attics and treated the other area’s as needed. I would highly recommended them to anyone. My only critique would be. That a chk list for me to prepare the house for the heat treatment, electro gun would have been nice.
Scott

I never leave Unilocal reviews, so it should say something that I am taking the time to write.
It’s awesome that they are an alternative to the awful chemicals that other services use, and the actual workers I’ve dealt with when they’ve been in my apartment have been super friendly and professional.
What’s not professional is their appointment rescheduling process, or lack thereof. I don’t choose to use this company — it’s the company my landlord insists on, and she pays the bill. I however, deal with making the appointment, and then waiting for them to show up (or not show up). We have exposed wood in our vaulted ceiling, which is prone to termites. In the 2 years I’ve lived here, we’ve needed to call Ecola three times for termites. EVERY SINGLE TIME I CALL I have the same experience:
1. It’s difficult to get an appointment. It’s usually at least 2 weeks out, if not more. But whatever, fine… they are busy, hopefully because they are good. I can deal.
2. They don’t return calls. They have a voicemail system that asks you to leave a message and claims a call will be returned within a business day. That’s consistently a lie.
3. They don’t show when they say they will. They give a 2 hour window, and just don’t show. They also don’t call, or they call the wrong number. When I finally call them, they act indignant, and claim they’ve left messages, but not for me – for the landlord, which is bizarre, because when you book an appointment they ask for the best number to reach you at. You’d think they’d use it. Landlords, property managers, etc., are not the folks that book the appointment, and are often not available to take a random call from a random number, and then call their tenant (though they probably should be). Just call the correct number!
4. They don’t apologize. The very pleasant girl on the phone just transfers it to some guy — I am assuming a manager — who acts like his company has provided wonderful service. When I explain that I have to take unpaid time off of work every time to sit around and wait for his workers to NOT show up, I am met with silence.
If this happened once, I’d just roll my eyes and get over it. I did. If it happened twice, I’d be annoyed and would mention it to my landlord. I did. If it happened three times (as it did today), I am pushed to Unilocal.
I will be urging my landlord to change vendors, and if you don’t have endless amounts of time to sit around and hope your appointment will happen, I encourage you to look elsewhere too.

This is a great company if you are looking for an alternative to tenting and harmful chemicals. The two guys that came out to do the work were both professional and courteous and overall did an awesome job. Highly recommended!

I hired Ecola to come to my house under their 2 year warranty package, knowing I had termites. Everyone was very nice, polite, and on time, BUT (1) I had a hard time to getting them to return calls after their initial major treatment, (2) I also had pointed out 2 small areas were I saw termite droppings, and they came 3 times and never did solve the problem in those 2 areas. Then had another area that they treated 2 separate times, and never solved it either. Then I called back, not realizing I was outside my 2 year warranty to let them know that those SAME 3 AREAS AFTER 2 TREATMENTS FOR THE 1 AREA, and 3 TREATMENTS ON THE OTHER AREAS were still showing major signs of fresh termite activity. They said, «Sorry, your warranty has expired», and then stated that their work was «not guaranteed to solve my termite problem». So I asked about getting them to come to just treat those few areas, their response was that it would cost me around $ 1000 because I’d have to reinstate my 2 year contract.
I don’t know, it just seemed things were not handled very well at all — One unhappy family here.

Not infrequently, I get the impression that they only difference between the pests and the pest-​control people is the mode of action.
Ecola is different, much different. We had had an inspection several years before our first contact with Ecola, in which the inspector found termites pretty much every place there was dust near exposed wood. After two very thorough inspections by different inspectors, Ecola’s inspectors, who each were VERY thorough, have not been able to find ANY termites in most of those areas.
But they did find some infestation and outlined our choices, including tenting, although the first inspector convinced me that tenting, while effective, was not necessary nor would he recommend it. Nice because tenting was most expensive (and likely quite profitable). We went with the less costly and much more convenient electro-​gun and non-​toxic chemical treatment. (Without going into detail, I can confirm that every treated area was completely cleared of infestation after the treatment.)
1−½ years later, we’ve had our «annual» inspection (I was busy?), and the new inspector found 3 new areas, where he confirmed the infestation was recent and the colonies very small, and a couple of the treated areas re-​infested. Not surprising given that several of our neighbors have tented since our first treatment and that until very recently defects in our roof were providing a water source to these areas. Re-​treatment is covered under our warranty, so we’re scheduling the treatment.
Ecola is the most open and communicative pest-​control company I’ve worked with. They go over their findings and present options with pros and cons of each treatment. Most companies immediately recommend tenting upon finding any infestation — «it’s the only way we can assure you they’re gone», which is true but a little like cutting off your foot to eliminate athlete’s foot. Not only is this an expensive option, it both risks damage to the roof and house itself (while handling the tent) and is terribly inconvenient, what with bagging foodstuffs, medicines, etc., etc., and being out of your house for a night or two. And while I’m told the gas used in tenting is inert — works by smothering ALL the resident pests — all providers do provide and highly recommend your using sealed plastic bags for any food and medicine left in the house. Ultimately, it’s one of those not-​entirely-​comforting situations where they say «it’s almost certainly no problem after we’ve cleared the house».
One small problem: as others have noted, the office staff just isn’t as good as the inspectors or the fellows who do the treatment. They are not infrequently confused and sometimes lack basic customer service skills (e.g., don’t ever tell a customer he’s wrong).
Even with that, I think Ecola is simply the best at dealing with the termite reality of SoCal living.

If you red all these reviews you will see that Ben is the only good thing about Ecola. As a property manager and owner, I highly suggest you get multiple estimates from other companies and compare all the BS. This termite business here in SD is such a racket. Did you know that all the inspectors work on commissions as well as their pay?
While I agree that Ben is knowledgeable and helpful he is not the owner. Ecola’s office staff is terrible with the paperwork. The follow up is horrible. So again I highly suggest you get multiple bids. A smaller company, maybe owner on staff is the way to go.

Escrow was delayed due to an incomplete report.
Quote by owner Susan Fries was much less than actual charge.
Manager Dennis was unavailable to correct report after repeated requests.
I do not recommend their services for escrow requirements.

Just had a termite inspection performed by the very friendly and knowledgeable employee Ben. While walking around the house, he mentioned many different prevention methods for keeping termites out of the wood. Ben was very honest and helpful. Luckily we didn’t have any major termite issues, but he told us that swarm season is approaching and to get another inspection around December/​January.
We highly recommend ECOLA and especially Ben for termite inspections!
— Tamara Cross

Outstanding experience with this organization. I was thrilled to find a company that would deal with the uninvited occupants in my attic. Many companies will not go into an attic. We got a free inspection and estimate before we booked a date for services. Dennis and Abraham did an awesome job of cleaning up what our uninvited guests left behind. It was very hot and demanding work, but these guys did not take any shortcuts. The original estimate price was honored and there was no attempt to plug in extra charges.

We called another company last week for an inspection/​quote as we saw some swarmer termites and that compnay wanted to tent and fumigate.
I then called Ecola for an inspection and like a previous reviewer, we also had Ben inspect our house and he was very honest with us and told us that tenting was completely unnecessary since there was no evidence of a serious termite problem. But he did give us some great alternative options and we will have them come back next year to re-​inspect the house.

We called for an inspection knowing we had active termites and was part of three quotes we are getting. La Jolla Shores area.
Met with Ben Taylor, who was informative and honest about our choices to fix this issue. ECOLA has many options to choose which vary in price.
Ben was proud to work for this company and is a 20 yr. veteran of the business.
The price of the services was not the lowest but we feel they would do a very good job for the money. I would recommend having Ben come inspect your house at minimum.