I seem to get more and more calls to do nuissance trapping for beaver, coyotes, racoons and skunks. I never know what I should be charging and am wondering what everyone else that does this is charging.

You will find quite a bit of information on pricing in the ADC Forum Archive http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/17/1/Animal_Damage_Control_Archive.html .

Additional information can be found through a 5 year ADVANCED SEARCH for pricing on the ADC Forum.

in tennessee it must be done for free unless you have a permit and insurance. don't know about your state but just something you need to look at.

In MN you can't do it without a DNR permit. The permit is free. But you can't use ANY part of an animal caught under a nuisance permit. You can't sell fur, glands, oils, claws or anything.

Same here. Our permit is also free, still haven't found that on the required insurance however.lol

90 for service call and 50 for animal except skunks which is 70...then price vary on exclusion work and materials

This is one of the biggest problems with this industry. The problem is that most of us came from a trapping back ground. With that said most WCO's I see are still thinking along those lines. How much do you get "per pelt" so a per animal price is used to many times. We need to charge by the hour like any successful business.
We have one fee that includes travel, paper work(including invoicing)special permits, reporting & etc.
We have another higher fee for on site work, which starts when we get on the job site. This way I get paid for every minute I work. This raised our prices very little on easy jobs but if we run into one of those last hard to get critter situations. We have all of our time covered. This also covers you if the client hires you after the other guy screwed things up and put the critters on alert. You get paid to cover that extra time. We lost only one client and our bottom line went through the roof. We don't work weekends, we only work M-F normal hours and there is only 2 of us. I have all three days this weekend off. I will be speaking on this at the WCT seminar in January in Las Vages.
I would love to get the industry to think unlike trappers and more like business people. Trapping in only one of the tools we use, get paid for all you do.
Don LaFountain CWCP
Integrated Wildlife Control

Trapper Don, very interesting. When you head out to check a trap, do you bill for the travel time? Because it doesn't take more that 5 min on site to check an empty trap or remove a critter. Would you charge for the time spent on euthanasia and disposal? This is were I view the per-animal fee as useful.

Do we charge for travel time as well as on site? Yes
We charge in 15 minute blocks of time. On site 5 minutes still 15 minutes. Again you are thinking per animal. The big question is how much are you getting paid for every minute of your time. I see talk here about having to work 7 days a week. This is just nuts. I euthanize on site. But I only deal with beavers so it's easy, but it can be applied to other aniamls also. If you take 5 minutes to remove and use the other 10 minutes at the shop for euthanasia. The price we charge for 15 min. will still be more then most WCO's charge for a per critter fee. Our old price was figured by a consultant at $75.00 per hour. That was 7 years ago. It's a lot higher now more then double. I can't cover all this here but I will at WCT sorry.
One other note, I am here to make money and a good living. If my clients aren't willing to pay me my rate I send them to the state list for a cheaper price. We have a reputation for finishing the job and standing behind our work and we work steady and don't have to chase every call. I also don't advertise and have all the work we need so there is another way.
Don

Looking forward to seeing Don in Las Vegas. One of a very few people who make a good living doing just one species!

YES Don is Real good and known well around these parts for his beaver work...I don't know him personally, but I do know of his respected reputation.

use to charge by the animal didnt make much money found i was just keeping a even bank account. then i got to thinking people pay me well for plumbing work and it wasnt for the work it was for what i knew how to do. imo adc trappers should be making around as much as any contractor in the area there in. it aint because you can catch an animal its because you have the skill and resorces to catch that animal. we do so much more then just set a cage trap out wit some cat food in it we do inspectons we do animal control we do general contractor work and most important we give the home owner peace of mind. so with that in mind around here animal control makes around 30.000 a year contractors around 50.000. if your happy catching skunks for 40 a head im happy for you but i realize im not getting any younger and i have my future to think of i will not work and break even im in this to make money and as much as i can. i was working for a doctor and after the job was done and we where done he asked me if i wanted some advice from an old man that had spent most of his time in school i said sure . flat told me son your not charging anuff for what you do i asked y he thought that he simply said if i got sick and went to the doctors office and they didnt know what was wrong with me a simple phone call and in 2 hours he could have a team off a couple 100 docs. if he needed but get a plan old skunk under your house and you have to call 50 people and spend 3 weeks to find 1 guy that knows how and can do the job right he said think on that one son

While I can see it would be easily possible to work a set schedule if you specialize in one species, that type of schedule does not "fit" in urban wildlife control. We are in a service business, and in many cases it requires immediate response. I often feel like I'm running the ER in a hospital.... when a coon falls through a ceiling tile at 2 AM on Saturday morning, you don't tell the caller you will see them on Monday morning. Same as a snake in the house on Sunday afternoon... they are not going to wait for a solution. I know there are guys who "pass" on weekend calls or shut the phone off, but this type of service is not one that fits set hours. We must often operate on the animals schedule, which is 24/7.

States like mine (IL) have daily trap check laws, and if I'm solving an animal problem for a client I will not pick my traps up for the weekend. I will follow through on the job regardless of what day of the week it happens to be. Sure, if I have a bunch of mole jobs going I can wait a couple days to check (trap-check law doesn't apply to moles), but when I'm getting squirrels or raccoons out for a home builder, commercial customer, or just an ordinary homeowner I am going to perform the trapping program and any repairs/exclusion regardless of what day of the week it is.

The "per animal" thing is definitely a carry-over thought from fur trapping.... and I dropped that type of pricing 15 years ago. We are providing a professional service, not hobby trapping. Would a roofer charge "by the shingle" to remove and replace a roof? No... they figure the time (maybe using per square as a basic guideline) and add labor, misc materials, travel, etc. Same way I figure jobs.... by the job. The issue of pricing has so many variables.... and there is certainly a big difference between rural jobs (predator control or muskrat/beaver removal) and urban work.

you have to have a state certifcation here dosnt cost anything but you have to pass a test and turn in paper work at the end of the year saying how many of each animal you caught what you did with it and where it was caught at (which parish )

Ron I hear you. I have been in this business for about 20 years and have delt with all the usual animals. Here I am required to do daily trap check also. The part I think is nuts comes from an earlier post I didn’t reply to where the question was “What do you do with your traps on weekends?” I always start a trapping program on Monday and I would get 5 days of trapping in and wire my traps open and call it pre-baiting. This way I got quality time at home. In most cases the problem has been there for a while and as long the client knows we are on the job and will take care of it that’s all they want.
I find that in most cases we can set a normal schedule with a little planning.
I understand the need for emergency services or the builder who want it done now and we have all done it. I chose not to anymore so I could cut down on my stress. You are one who saw the price problem and your pricing a job like a contractor is excellent. I am sure your pricing is based on what you need to get to cover costs AKA per hour is a good method. I see so many posts on pricing and a large amount of them lean toward the per-animal price. Some add checking fees but the base is per animal.
I don’t knock anyone for that and I hope I didn’t offend anyone.
Scott said it when he compared us to contractors. We are just that.
I don’t want anyone to change their services just get paid for all they do.

I have a story I use in talks and Scott hit on it. Here is the short version.
There is a lumber company and its run by a large diesel generator. One day it quits and 20 guys are sitting around and costing the company a boat load, So they call a service guy. He shows up and is told what it did and he says I can fix that right now. It will be $750.00 and the boss writes a check right off. The guy takes a screwdriver and turns a screw a ¼ turn and starts the thing up. The whole place is back to work and 20 guys are working. The boss freaks out and yells. I paid you $750.00 to turn a screw?
The service tech says no. you paid me because I knew which screw to turn.

It would be good for everyone to write down everything they do for their clients. Include things like, we hide traps to protect our clients privacy. Things like that and everything else like that. I think all would see that they are not charging enough.
Again I am sorry if I offended anyone. I don’t post often because it harder to say it here then in person.
Looking forward to meeting you Paul. Been reading you stuff for a long time.
Don

We've met a couple of times but I was just another face in the crowd. You, on the other hand. are pretty easy to recognise.

lets not forget what it is worth to the customer and what they can afford. I get tired of getting my bolls busted for what i charge and then hearing that they (the customer) is late for their golf date... or they just had to spend 2K on their boat to have a scrtch buffed out from the darn lawn care guy. I think we are quite skilled at what we do and should charge accordingly. IMO
most trapping jobs take at least four trips plus removing and disposing of the critter(s). repairing the damage and the knowledge to keep it from happening again. Do yourself a favor and charge to stay in business, not to be a nice guy.

Paul
I thought we met but I wasn't sure. I remember faces but can never remember names. I am still looking forward to re-meeting you.
Don

i charge a flat rate fee for max of 5 days trapping my fees are as following
125.00 for squirrels mice,rats
175.00 skunks
295.00/350.00 coons
300.00/350.00 beavers
350.00/400.00 coyotes,fox
bats 175.00
all these prices do not include exclusion services ,damage repais,or service call which i charge 65.00

Dave
I can't see how you even pay your bills at those prices. Sorry
My old flat rates for everything we did was 150.00 inspection
450.00 set up fee and 150.00 per animal caught
These are the old prices and don't included exclusion. We don't use those anymore because it was to low. Think out side the trapping box. One the guys above said he figures each job and thats how contractors do it. Try that method. You have no idea what the animals will do and what if it goes longer then 5 days? Figure out how much you need a month to make a good living and work back from there based on you average amount of jobs.
At 400.00 for one coyote/fox job every 2 days, you will find it hard to make a decent living and pay bills and buy equipment, advertising, and give your family security in the future.
125.00 for squirrels at one new job a day will not even be worth going out for. I hope you'll look at what others have said here and re think your pricing. You don't charge enough.
You offer more to your clients then you are charging for.
If I offended you I am sorry but I want everyone in this industry to get paid what they are worth.


Don LaFountain