Bug Out Review

Weights add to 100% without the factors marked N/A. How the adjustments work

How we review companies Handshake Score v1.5.0 (rules v1.0.7, confidence v1.2.1)

“In score” marks the profiles counted in the customer-satisfaction factor.

In reviewers’ words

Quoted verbatim, up to 300 characters, as recorded by our researchers with the reviewer’s first name and last initial at most. Low and high ratings are shown alternately.

• BBB, company-wide, multi-brand: Rentokil North America, Inc. headquarters profile · August 19, 2026

  “on 5/28/2026, bug out came out to do wildlife remediation work. The tech who came out was able to do part of the work, but was unable to finish ... my credit card ... was charged the full amount, $925.”

  BBB complainantRead on BBB

  Complaint on the multi-brand HQ file; no state is stated in the text and the case was handled by Mid-South BBB, so it is not tied to a covered state. Status Resolved.

• BBB, Fenton, Missouri: Bug Out, 1780 Gilsinn Ln · October 22, 2024

  “I was told that I would be charge $88 per service. I was charge $335.00 for the service and I should be charge for $88.00”

  BBB complainantRead on BBB

  Complaint (type Product Issues, status Answered; the company replied that a signed contract was enclosed). An allegation, not a finding.

• BBB, Fenton, Missouri: Bug Out, 1780 Gilsinn Ln · August 12, 2026

  “Despite multiple attempts and misleading responses, I cannot get Bug Out to discontinue my termite service, and stop attempting to bill me $348.89 for annual service.”

  BBB complainantRead on BBB

  Complaint (Billing Issues); status Resolved, and the complainant later wrote that the company resolved it within days.

• BBB, Fenton, Missouri: Bug Out, 1780 Gilsinn Ln · August 6, 2026

  “Branch manager is not calling back and no further communication from bugout other than reaching out to the branch manager”

  BBB complainantRead on BBB

  Complaint (Order Issues); status Unanswered.

• BBB, Fenton, Missouri: Bug Out, 1780 Gilsinn Ln · January 27, 2026

  “They resolved my complaint by giving me a check and an apology.”

  BBB complainantRead on BBB

  Customer answer closing a mole-treatment complaint filed December 19, 2025.

• BBB, Lubbock, Texas: file named “D’s Pest Control” · May 21, 2024

  “When the technician came out, they did not place the rodent boxes.”

  BBB complainantRead on BBB

  Complaint (Billing Issues, status Answered); the branch manager replied that all charges would be refunded.

• BBB, Lubbock, Texas: file named “D’s Pest Control” · November 28, 2023

  “I have reviewed the business response and accept this resolution.”

  BBB complainantRead on BBB

  Customer answer closing a Sentricon renewal-billing complaint filed November 24, 2023 (status Resolved).

Profile scope: Two Bug Out-specific BBB files: Fenton, Missouri (16 complaints in 3 years) and Lubbock, Texas (2); totals 18. Searched BBB on November 2, 2026 for “Bug Out” near Fenton Missouri, Lubbock Texas, Amarillo Texas, El Paso Texas and Las Cruces New Mexico. Bug Out-only files exist for Fenton Missouri and Lubbock Texas. The El Paso and Amarillo searches returned no separate Bug Out file, and the Las Cruces/Deming/Silver City NM results carry the Rentokil HQ phone (610) 372-9700 and show the HQ file’s A+, so NM is covered only by the multi-brand HQ file. A “Rentokil North America, Inc.” file at 3952 Clayton Ave, St. Louis (A+, alternate name “Ambius”) and “Bug Out Pest Control” (Mexico, Missouri) and “Bug Out Termite & Pest Control LLC” (Sweetwater, Texas) files are different businesses and were not used.

Scored: Complaint record (−1.5, −1)

Complaint themes

• Billing and refund disputes, including canceled or sold-property service still being billed
• Unreturned calls and difficulty reaching the branch or a manager
• Service not completed or re-treats refused

BBB profiles

• Main profile · FView

• Fenton, Missouri: Bug Out, 1780 Gilsinn Ln (BBB serving Greater Missouri & Southern Illinois); a Bug Out-only file, address and phone match the Fenton Google listing and MDA records 0000K2/0004H2 · F · not accredited · 16 complaints in 3 yearsView

  The 16 complaints are dated May 23, 2024 to August 12, 2026; counted from the two complaint pages, 5 are Unanswered, 6 Answered and 5 Resolved, which matches BBB’s “Failure to respond to 5 complaint(s)”. The profile shows no pattern-of-complaints alert. The file may also receive complaints from the Illinois suburbs the Missouri site names; the text of the 16 complaints names no state.

• Lubbock, Texas: file named “D’s Pest Control” (alternate names “Rentokil North America, Inc” and “Bug Out”), 5810 64th St (BBB serving North Central Texas) · F · not accredited · 2 complaints in 3 yearsView

  Both complaints are answered or resolved. The Operations Manager named, Rafe Cambron, is the responsible applicator on TDA license 0824984 (Lubbock County), which ties this file to Bug Out. The listed trade-name file (D’s Pest Control) is the pre-acquisition name of this branch.

• Rentokil North America, Inc. headquarters profile, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania: multi-brand, every state; BBB lists “Bug Out” as an alternate name. Context only, not attributable to Bug Out · A+ · not accredited · 276 complaints in 3 yearsView

Door-to-door sales: N/A

N/A: the research didn’t establish door-to-door selling. It isn’t proof that the company never knocks.

No door-to-door evidence found for the covered-state (Missouri, Texas and New Mexico) branches. Search-result snippets (leads only, not page evidence) show Bug Out outside-sales job posts in North Carolina and Illinois, one labeled “Door-to-Door” on an Indeed listing for Raleigh, North Carolina; those states are outside the 24 and the pages were not opened (job boards/Indeed terms; site stop rule), so nothing is scored.

Contract terms and pricing

No contract terms on file.

Status and expiry dates are shown exactly as the issuing agency’s record showed them on the date retrieved.

Only resolved government actions count toward the score. Pending lawsuits, allegations and private matters are listed here but marked “N/A” (not counted in the score). Summaries are our researchers’ wording of the source; allegations are allegations, not findings.

• September 4, 2026 · California (Alameda County DA with 28 other California DAs and the Los Angeles City Attorney) - parent-level, California facilities · SettlementN/A

  Resolved $3.15 million civil settlement with Terminix International Inc. and Rentokil North America, Inc. over pesticide and hazardous-waste disposal and customer-record handling at California facilities (Western Exterminator / Terminix names). Names the parent legal entity that licenses Bug Out, but no Bug Out branch and no Bug Out name; recorded for context, not scored for Bug Out.³²

• January 16, 2026 · Texas Department of Agriculture, Structural Pest Control Service (enforcement report, rolling 12 months) · EnforcementN/A

  Case 00049029 against license 0569756 (RENTOKIL NORTH AMERICA INC, DBA BUG OUT, Randall County): INCOMPLETE/INCORRECT USE RECORDS, agency action WARNING, penalty None, date final January 16, 2026. A warning with no penalty: recorded, not scored. Searches of the report for “bug out”, “bugout” and TPCLs 0824984 and 0918482 returned 0 rows.³¹

• April 22, 2025 · U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina, Bruce-Terminix Company v. The Terminix International Company Limited Partnership, et al. (case 1:20-CV-962) - private commercial dispute between a Terminix licensee and Terminix, not a government action; North Carolina is outside the 24 covered states · LawsuitN/A

  Memorandum opinion and order finding Terminix (not Bug Out) in civil contempt of a permanent injunction protecting Bruce-Terminix’s exclusive 17-county North Carolina territory, because Terminix allowed Rentokil to give “Bug Out”, which Rentokil operates in that territory through a subsidiary, access to parts of the Terminix System. Private license dispute in North Carolina; Bug Out is not a defendant and no consumer or regulator finding is made. Recorded for context (and as a court description of Bug Out as a Rentokil subsidiary); not scored. The earlier entry named the W.D. Tennessee and case 2:24-cv-02932 from a search snippet; the opinion itself shows M.D.N.C. 1:20-CV-962.⁸

Workplace score: N/A. It carries 10% of the Handshake Score when at least 20 employee reviews are on file (otherwise excluded and remaining weights renormalized).

No employee reviews on file.

Awards and certifications

None verified.

What the company says about itself

These are the company’s own claims, quoted from its materials. We haven’t verified them.

• Founded/established 1963 (“Bug Out | Est. 1963”, “62 years of experience”)²

• Missouri site: “Serving St. Louis | St Charles | Belleville | Edwardsville | Champaign” (Belleville, Edwardsville and Champaign are in Illinois, outside the 24 states)³³

• Texas site: “Pest Control Experts in Lubbock, Amarillo, & El Paso TX”³⁴

• Company-displayed review banners (not independent figures): Missouri “4.8 Stars From 1812 Reviews”; Texas “4.6 Stars - Based on 782 User Reviews”; main/North Carolina “4.5 Stars from 5029 Reviews”³³

• 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed (Texas and North Carolina home pages)³⁴

Mentions

• SEC EDGAR · Trade press · 2026 · Neutral toneRead

  Rentokil Initial 2025 Form 20-F (brand names)

  Rentokil Initial lists Bug Out among the brand names it owns or licenses, confirming Bug Out as a Rentokil brand.

  “Florida Pest Control, Bug Out, Steritech”

Reddit hasn’t been searched for this company yet.

7 locations on file in Missouri (3), New Mexico (1), Texas (3).

Overall confidence in this score: Low (provisional), 4 of 11 points.

What keeps it from rating higher:

• 13 independent websites cited (25 or more earns a point).
• 4,202 western US Google reviews behind customer satisfaction (10,000 or more earns full points).
• Too few independent non-Google reviews to blend in (Google only).
• Verifier rated the customer reviews medium (high earns a point).
• Verifier rated the licensing medium (high earns a point).
• Verifier rated the legal and regulatory record medium (high earns a point).

How confidence is set

Gaps in the record

• The brand’s own site terms (missouri.bugoutservice.com/terms-and-conditions/, 5.1(d)-(f)) forbid automated data collection, robots and scraping. Fetching bugoutservice.com stopped once that was seen; only four pages were captured (main home page, Missouri home, Texas home, Missouri terms). No contract/service-agreement, FAQ, coupon, careers or location pages were read, so the contract terms, contract terms (minimum term, auto-renewal, cancellation fee and channel, arbitration) and services-by-page are unknown.
• Website terms of use (Missouri site) cover only use of the website (Washington State law, no arbitration of service disputes); per the October 27, 2026 ruling they say nothing about the service contract.
• Google excerpts and themes empty.
• Yelp, Facebook, Glassdoor and Indeed not opened (terms forbid automated access). The Lubbock Yelp rating (2.6 from 19) is search-snippet only and unscored. Other Bug Out Yelp results in snippets (Tampa Bay, Columbia Tennessee, De Queen Arkansas, Lexington North Carolina) are different businesses or outside the 24 states.
• No separate Bug Out file was found for Amarillo, El Paso/Canutillo or Las Cruces, which fall under the multi-brand Rentokil HQ file. BBB search results also list Bug Out branches at Las Cruces (1800 W Amador Ave), Deming and Silver City, New Mexico under the HQ file.
• Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Trustpilot, Porch, Nextdoor not checked.
• Ownership: Rentokil North America, Inc. is the licensed entity, Rentokil Initial’s 20-F lists the Bug Out brand and the M.D.N.C. opinion calls Bug Out a Rentokil subsidiary. The acquisition date is known only for the Lubbock branch (BBB: “Date of New Ownership: 11/12/2019”, filed as D’s Pest Control); the earlier owner/legal name (job posts show “Bug Out Service, LLC”) and the other branches’ dates were not established.
• Missouri: MDA record only for the Fenton address; no separate Pesticide Business record found for the St. Peters and St. Louis offices (searched ‘Bug Out*’ and ‘Rentokil*’). Insurance and bond not shown in the MDA lookup. MDA publishes no enforcement list; Missouri AG complaint data and Case.net were not searched.
• Texas: TDA lists three BUG OUT commercial business licenses by county only (Lubbock, El Paso, Randall); the CSV has no street address, so the Canutillo (El Paso County) and Amarillo listings are matched by county/DBA only. TDA enforcement report is a rolling 12 months; older actions drop off. No Texas AG complaint dataset is published; no free statewide trial-court search. OSHA not searched (human-verification check on results, per the Texas guide).
• New Mexico: NMDA license lookup not looked up (NMDA lookup terms restrict commercial use). New Mexico business registry read (Rentokil North America, Inc. Active). New Mexico courts and AG not searched.
• Search results were noisy (OR/site: queries often returned unrelated pages). Reddit threads, local news and trade-press mentions of Bug Out in Missouri, Texas and New Mexico were not found.
• Bug Out Pest Solutions LLC, De Queen, Arkansas (a Facebook page, not on bugoutservice.com); Texas LLCs with Bug Out in the name (e.g. BOPC LLC, Bug Out Pest Management LLC, Bug Out Termite and Pest Control LLC, Bug Out Pest Services LLC and an individual’s DBA) found in the TDA CSV; none belongs to this brand.
• Employee ratings, door-to-door status and sales conduct could not be verified for the covered states; Bug Out outside-sales job posts in North Carolina and Illinois appear in search snippets only.
• The TDA, MDA, Texas Comptroller and New Mexico SOS records were re-read live. No live Google check (Google Maps not opened).
• Other Bug Out-named Google listings in covered states belong to different businesses and were left out: Bug Out Pest Control (Yuma, Arizona; bugoutpestaz.com), Bug Out Brothers (Idaho Falls, Idaho), Bug Out Pest Control (Forsyth, Montana), Bug Out Termite & Pest Control (Nebraska; bugotp.com), Alan’s Bug Out Pest Control (Oregon), BugOut Defense (New Orleans, Louisiana), BugOut Masters and Bug Out Insect n Rodent (California), BUG OUT, INC. & SOUTHERN GREENERY (San Antonio, Texas; bugoutweepholes.com).

Open questions

• The brand site’s service agreement, FAQ and cancellation terms were not read (site terms forbid automated access), so minimum term, auto-renewal, cancellation fee and arbitration are unknown.
• New Mexico pesticide licensing for the Las Cruces office is not looked up (NMDA lookup terms); BBB lists further NM Bug Out branch addresses (Deming, Silver City) under the HQ file that have no Google listing or company-site page on file.
• Whether the 16 complaints on the Fenton BBB file include Illinois customers is not shown in the complaint text.