Cockroach Extermination Cost Calculator

Home size
1,800 sq ft
What you are dealing with
How often
How bad it is
Your ZIP code

Showing the national average. Enter your ZIP code for local cost estimates.

Low $190
Typical $235
High $290

National average

Where these figures come from
  • Exterminating and pest control services, United States: $28.90/hour, August 2026 (BLS CES CES6056171003)
  • Gel bait, growth regulator and dust: $0.04 per sq ft treated (price recorded October 2026, not index-adjusted)

Cockroach Extermination costs $190 to $290 for a typical 1,800 sq ft job in 2026, against a national benchmark of $235. Labor runs 1 crew hours at $28.90 an hour. Enter a ZIP code to apply that area's measured wages for this work and its regional price level.

What makes up the price

Labor $67 1.7 hours at $28.90/hour, 40% burden, 1.00x regional
Gel bait, growth regulator and dust $72 1,800 sq ft treated at $0.04 each
The visit $35
Contractor overhead and profit $61 35% applied to the work above
Typical total $235 $190 to $290 depending on contractor

Cost by size

National averages, before any local adjustment. Computed from the same model as the calculator above, so the two always agree.

Home size Sq ft treated Typical Range
1,000 sq ft 1,000 $180 $150 to $225
1,400 sq ft 1,400 $210 $170 to $255
1,800 sq ft 1,800 $235 $190 to $290
2,400 sq ft 2,400 $275 $225 to $340
3,100 sq ft 3,100 $325 $265 to $400

Do not buy a can of spray on the way home

If you take one thing from this page, take this. Aerosol insecticide is the worst possible response to German roaches, and it is what almost everybody tries first.

The pyrethroids in a consumer spray are repellent. They do not just kill on contact — they make treated surfaces unpleasant, so the roaches that survive move away from where you sprayed. In practice that means they leave the area under the sink and spread into the wall voids, the cabinet carcasses, behind the dishwasher, and through shared walls into the next room or the next apartment.

So what you buy with a $12 can is a problem that used to be in one cupboard and is now in four rooms, is harder to bait, and costs more to treat. Total-release foggers and "bombs" are the same mistake at larger scale: they drive the population into voids and kill almost nothing, because roaches shelter in exactly the places the mist does not reach.

The professional protocol is the opposite of repellent:

None of that works if the surfaces have been sprayed first.

One visit cannot work, and here is why

A female German roach carries her egg capsule until a day or two before it hatches. That capsule — the ootheca — holds 30 to 40 eggs and is physically sealed; insecticide does not penetrate it, and neither bait nor dust reaches the eggs inside.

So on the day of treatment you kill the adults and nymphs that are walking around. About a month later the capsules that were being carried or hidden hatch, and you have a new generation. If nothing is still working at that point, you are back where you started with a four-week head start lost.

Which is why the job is a course of two or three visits over four to six weeks:
Visit 1 inspection, prep check, bait and dust placement, monitors set
Visit 2, at 2 to 3 weeks refresh bait, read monitors, find what was missed
Visit 3, at 4 to 6 weeks confirm the hatch has been caught, final placements

The figure in the calculator above is one visit. Most companies selling German roach work price the course as a single job with the follow-ups included, which is why a quote of $400 to $700 for "roach treatment" is often a better deal than $235 for one visit — it is a different unit. Ask explicitly: how many visits, over how long, and is the follow-up in the price?

A company quoting a German roach infestation as one visit with no follow-up is either misunderstanding the problem or selling you something that will not work.

Which roach you have changes everything

These get lumped together and they are not remotely the same job:

German American Oriental
Size 1/2 to 5/8 inch, tan, two dark stripes 1.5 to 2 inches, reddish brown 1 inch, very dark, almost black
Where Kitchens and bathrooms, indoors only Basements, crawlspaces, outdoors, sewers Drains, basements, damp ground level
Breeds Indoors, continuously Mostly outdoors Outdoors and in drains
Also called — Palmetto bug, water bug Water bug, black beetle
Difficulty The hard one Much easier Moderate
Typical cost $200 to $400 a course $100 to $250, often one visit $150 to $350

German roaches breed indoors. That is the whole distinction. You have a self-sustaining population living in your kitchen, and it does not need anything from outside to keep going. Everything on this page is about that.

American roaches — the big ones people in the south call palmetto bugs — mostly live outside and wander in. A couple of sightings a month in a Florida summer is an exclusion and perimeter problem, not an infestation, and it is much cheaper to deal with. Seeing one large roach is not what seeing a small striped one means.

Oriental roaches come up through drains and live in damp basements and crawlspaces. The fix is usually moisture and drain covers as much as insecticide.

If you are not sure which you have, photograph one and ask before booking. It changes both the price and the plan.

Sanitation is half the treatment, and it is your half

Gel bait works by being the most attractive food available. If there is grease behind the stove, crumbs under the toaster, an open pet bowl overnight and a stack of cardboard in the pantry, the bait is competing and losing.

This is the single biggest variable in whether a treatment succeeds, and it is the part the household controls. Before the technician arrives:

A household that does all of that gets a result in one course. A household that does none of it is usually told after visit three that the infestation is "resistant", when the real problem is that there was something better to eat.

What you are paying for

For a 1,800 sq ft home, one visit at $235:
Applicator time, about 1.7 hours around $67
Gel bait, growth regulator and dust around $72
The visit — truck, equipment, licensed applicator $35
Overhead and margin around $61

Roach work costs more per square foot than general pest service because it is interior crack-and-crevice application through kitchens and bathrooms rather than a walk round the outside with a sprayer. The product is also more expensive: a tube of fipronil or indoxacarb gel is $25 to $45 and a bottle of growth regulator $60 to $110.

Apartments and shared walls

If you rent, or you own a condo, read this before paying for anything.

German roaches travel between units through shared wall voids, plumbing chases, and the gaps around pipes under sinks. Treating one unit in an infested building does not work — the population re-enters from next door within weeks, and you can repeat that cycle indefinitely at your own expense.

What actually resolves it is treating the affected units and their neighbors on the same schedule, which is a building-level job.

In most US states a landlord has a legal obligation to provide habitable premises, and a German roach infestation generally falls inside it. Report it in writing, keep the record, and ask for building-wide treatment rather than a visit to your unit. If you are told to handle it yourself, that is worth checking against your state's landlord-tenant rules before you spend money on a treatment that is structurally unable to succeed.

The health reason not to live with it

Worth stating because it is often treated as a cosmetic problem: cockroach allergens are a recognized asthma trigger, and the association is strongest in children. The allergens are in the droppings, the shed skins and the bodies, so they persist in dust after the roaches are gone — which means a thorough clean of the treated areas is part of finishing the job, not an optional extra.

Roaches also mechanically carry bacteria including salmonella across food surfaces. They are not a disease vector in the way a mosquito is, but a kitchen with an established population is a contamination problem.

When it goes beyond a treatment

For a genuinely severe, long-established infestation — typically somewhere that has been untreated for years — the options move up a level:

These are rare for German roaches in a single-family home and much more common in multi-unit buildings and commercial kitchens. If a company proposes one for an ordinary household infestation, get a second opinion first — a competent bait-and-IGR course handles the large majority of cases.

Questions worth asking

Common questions

How much does cockroach extermination cost?

A German roach treatment on a 1,800 sq ft home runs $190 to $290 a visit, with a typical visit near $235 and a heavy infestation around $340. But the job is a course rather than a visit — two or three treatments over four to six weeks — so the realistic total is $400 to $700, which matches the reported $200 to $400 for a German roach course and $300 to $700 for a heavy one. American roaches, the large ones often called palmetto bugs, are a much easier problem at $100 to $250 and frequently one visit.

Why does cockroach treatment need more than one visit?

Because the egg capsules survive it. A female German roach carries an ootheca holding 30 to 40 eggs until a day or two before it hatches, and the capsule is sealed — insecticide does not penetrate it and bait does not reach inside. So a treatment kills the adults and nymphs walking around, and about a month later the capsules hatch. Something has to still be working at that point, which means a second visit at two to three weeks and usually a third at four to six.

Should I spray for cockroaches?

No, and this is the most important thing on the page. Consumer pyrethroid sprays are repellent, so they do not simply kill — they make treated surfaces unpleasant and the survivors move away, out of the cupboard under the sink and into wall voids, cabinet carcasses and adjoining rooms. A $12 can turns a one-cupboard problem into a four-room one that is harder to bait and costs more to treat. Foggers and bombs are the same mistake at larger scale: they drive the population into voids and kill almost nothing.

What do professionals use for cockroaches?

Gel bait in crack-and-crevice placements — many small dots along the routes roaches travel rather than a visible smear — plus an insect growth regulator that stops survivors reaching breeding age, plus boric acid or silica dust blown into voids the bait cannot reach. The growth regulator is the part that ends an infestation rather than reducing it, so ask whether it is included. None of it works properly if the surfaces have been sprayed with a repellent first.

How do I tell German roaches from other kinds?

German roaches are small — half to five eighths of an inch — tan, with two dark stripes behind the head, and they live in kitchens and bathrooms. American roaches are an inch and a half to two inches and reddish brown, live mostly outdoors and in sewers, and are what people in the south call palmetto bugs. Oriental roaches are about an inch and almost black, and come up through drains into damp basements. The distinction that matters: German roaches breed indoors continuously, so you have a self-sustaining population. The others mostly wander in.

What should I do before the exterminator arrives?

Clean grease, especially behind and under the stove and on the sides of appliances, because grease is the preferred food and where the population concentrates. Empty and wipe out the cabinets and drawers to be treated. Remove corrugated cardboard, which is both shelter and food — roaches travel inside the flutes, so a stack of delivery cartons in a pantry is a nursery. Fix any dripping trap or supply line, since they need water more urgently than food. And put pet food and water away overnight while the treatment runs.

Why does sanitation matter so much for roach treatment?

Because gel bait only works by being the most attractive food available. If there is grease behind the stove, crumbs under the toaster, an open pet bowl and cardboard in the pantry, the bait is competing and losing. This is the largest variable in whether a treatment succeeds and it is the part the household controls. Households told after a third visit that their infestation is "resistant" usually have a food competition problem rather than a chemistry one.

Should I clean after a roach treatment?

Clean the surfaces, but leave the bait placements alone — people routinely scrub away the treatment they paid for. The technician will tell you which cabinets to keep empty and for how long. Once the course is finished and the infestation is cleared, a thorough clean of the treated areas is part of finishing the job rather than an extra, because cockroach allergens persist in dust after the roaches are gone and they are a recognized asthma trigger, most strongly in children.

Can one apartment be treated for roaches?

Not successfully, in an infested building. German roaches move between units through shared wall voids, plumbing chases and the gaps around pipes under sinks, so a treated unit is recolonized from next door within weeks and that cycle can repeat indefinitely at your expense. What resolves it is treating the affected units and their neighbors on the same schedule, which is a building-level job rather than a tenant-level one.

Is my landlord responsible for cockroaches?

In most US states a landlord has a legal obligation to provide habitable premises, and a German roach infestation generally falls inside it — though the details vary by state and sometimes by city. Report it in writing and keep the record, and ask for building-wide treatment rather than a visit to your own unit, because single-unit treatment in a shared building cannot succeed. If you are told to handle it yourself, check your state's landlord-tenant rules before spending money on a treatment that is structurally unable to work.

Are cockroaches a health risk?

Yes, mainly through allergens rather than disease. Cockroach allergens — in the droppings, shed skins and bodies — are a recognized asthma trigger, and the association is strongest in children. Because the allergens persist in dust after the insects are gone, cleaning the treated areas thoroughly is part of finishing the job. Roaches also mechanically carry bacteria including salmonella across food surfaces, so an established population in a kitchen is a contamination problem even though they are not a disease vector in the way a mosquito is.

When is heat treatment or fumigation needed for roaches?

Rarely in a single-family home. Heat treatment, raising the structure to a lethal temperature, and fumigation, which requires vacating the property, both run $1,000 to $3,000 and up, and they are mostly used for severe long-established infestations in multi-unit buildings and commercial kitchens. A competent gel bait and growth regulator course handles the large majority of household cases, so if one of these is proposed for an ordinary infestation, get a second opinion before agreeing.

How long does it take to get rid of German roaches?

Four to six weeks for a properly run course, assuming the kitchen prep gets done. You should see a sharp drop in sightings within the first week — that is the adults and nymphs — then possibly a small resurgence at three to four weeks as the egg capsules hatch, which the second and third treatments are there to catch. If sightings are still at their original level after two visits, the usual causes are food competition from an uncleaned kitchen, repellent spray applied beforehand, or reinfestation from an adjoining unit.

Where these numbers come from

Nothing here is copied from a contractor directory. Labor is priced from what the trades are actually paid, materials from published producer prices, and both are adjusted to your area using federal cost-of-living data.