# Pest Control License Scraper (`ledgerfield_data/pest-control-license-scraper`) Actor Extract active pest control business licenses from 16 US state boards — 30,000+ records, normalized into one schema for M\&A sourcing, franchise recruiting, and lead generation. - **URL**: https://apify.com/ledgerfield\_data/pest-control-license-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Ledgerfield Data](https://apify.com/ledgerfield_data) (community) - **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $0.50 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README **Pest Control License Scraper** turns 16 separate state government license lookups — normally a slow, manual, one-state-at-a-time chore — into a **single structured dataset of every actively licensed pest control business** across Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia. Every record comes straight from a state's own public license-lookup site (no login, no paywall) — this Actor just automates the lookup, page by page, including five states that only render their data through a live browser or an embedded report rather than a plain webpage. Run it on the [Apify platform](https://apify.com) to get scheduled refreshes, instant API/webhook access to results, automatic proxy rotation, and full run monitoring — no server or browser to maintain yourself. Just 11 of the 16 states already add up to **over 30,000 individual license records** — see the real per-state counts below. *This is an independent, unofficial tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated on behalf of any state government, agency, or board named in this README — it only reads pages those agencies already publish for free, public lookup.* ### Why use Pest Control License Scraper? #### Turn newly issued licenses into a live deal-sourcing feed A state license board is often the **first public trace that a new pest control business exists** — before it has a website, before it appears in any business directory, before a competitor even notices. Schedule this Actor to run weekly or monthly and diff each pull against the last one, and you get a rolling feed of brand-new market entrants and freshly renewed operators: an early-mover signal most sourcing teams currently pick up by accident (a referral, a trade show) instead of systematically. State license boards are also the only reliably up-to-date public registry of **every actively licensed pest control business** in a state — most of these companies are small, local, and otherwise invisible to standard business databases. Put together, that makes this data useful for: - **PE roll-up sponsors & M&A advisors** sourcing acquisition targets in fragmented, high-margin local-service verticals — build a state-by-state target list ranked by license tenure, category mix, or expiration (a proxy for renewal/attrition risk), and refresh it on a schedule to catch new entrants as they appear. - **Franchise recruiters** identifying independent operators who might convert to a franchise banner — including ones too new or small to show up in a paid business database yet. - **Distributors & suppliers** (chemicals, equipment, insurance) building a prospect list of every licensed business in their territory, updated as new licenses are issued. - **Insurers & underwriters** verifying a business actually holds an active license before binding a policy. - **Market researchers** sizing the number of active operators, license churn, or category mix (termite/WDO vs. lawn & ornamental vs. fumigation) by state or county. #### The scale, in real numbers These aren't estimates — they're actual counts pulled from each state's own system: **New York 8,203** · **Ohio 5,035** · **Texas 5,721** (commercial + noncommercial business reports) · **Kentucky 2,862** · **Virginia 2,581** · **Maine 1,982** · **North Carolina 1,662** (business-level license type alone) · **Colorado ~1,172** · **Oregon 985** · **Delaware 669** · **Minnesota 262**. That's already **over 30,000 records** across just 11 of the 16 states — and it doesn't include Florida or Michigan, whose Power BI-based rosters are the largest in this build, or Missouri, Indiana, and New Mexico, all of which support statewide (not just per-county) queries. #### Why not just check each state site yourself? Because it doesn't scale past one state. Sixteen boards means sixteen different search forms, column layouts, and pagination styles — and five of them (Delaware, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon) only expose their data through a JavaScript-heavy portal or an embedded Power BI report that a plain HTTP request can't read at all, so a simple "view page source" approach silently returns nothing. Building and maintaining that yourself — across 16 government systems that each redesign on their own schedule — is realistically a multi-week engineering project, then an ongoing maintenance burden. This Actor already did that work and gets fixed centrally when a state changes something; you get one consistent schema across all of them instead of the upkeep. ### How to use Pest Control License Scraper 1. Click **Try for free** (or **Run**) on this Actor's page. 2. In the **Input** tab, pick which state(s) to pull from the `states` list — or leave the default to start with New York. 3. Optionally narrow the results with a `searchTerm`, `licenseTypeFilter`, or `statusFilter`, and set `maxItemsPerState` to cap how many records to pull per state. 4. Click **Start** and watch the run log — each state logs how many records it found. 5. When the run finishes, open the **Output** tab to preview, or export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML. No coding is required to run it from the Console; developers can also call it via the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) or SDKs to integrate results into a CRM, spreadsheet, or data warehouse. ### Input All fields are optional except `states`. See the **Input** tab for the full form, or pass JSON directly: ```json { "states": ["NY", "FL", "TX"], "searchTerm": "", "licenseTypeFilter": [], "statusFilter": ["Active"], "maxItemsPerState": 500 } ```` - **states** — which state boards to query (see the Data table below for the full list). - **searchTerm** — filters by business/licensee name where the state doesn't support it natively, results are filtered after fetching. - **licenseTypeFilter** — restrict to specific license categories. - **statusFilter** — restrict to specific statuses (default: `Active` only). - **maxItemsPerState** — upper bound on records pulled per state per run (default `500`). ### Output Each result is one license record, pushed to the dataset in real time as each state finishes. Example item: ```json { "state": "FL", "licenseNumber": "JB6655", "licenseeName": "\"BO KNOWS\" PEST CONTROL INC", "businessName": "\"BO KNOWS\" PEST CONTROL INC", "licenseType": "General Household Pest and Rodent Control, Termite and Other WDO Control", "status": "Active", "city": "PORT SAINT JOE", "county": "Gulf", "address": "609 10TH ST", "issueDate": "1998-07-27", "expirationDate": "2026-07-31", "disciplinaryFlag": false, "sourceUrl": "https://aeslicensing.fdacs.gov/Reports/PBI---Company-License/", "scrapedAt": "2026-07-09T23:05:57.718Z" } ``` You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel from the **Output** tab, or pull it programmatically via the [Dataset API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2). #### Data table | Field | Description | | --- | --- | | `state` | Two-letter state postal code | | `licenseNumber` | State-issued license/registration number (or the state's closest equivalent identifier) | | `licenseeName` | Name on the license record | | `businessName` | Business/DBA name, when the state exposes one separately from the licensee name | | `licenseType` | License category or class (e.g. termite/WDO, lawn & ornamental, fumigation) | | `status` | Active, Expired, or another state-specific status label | | `city` / `county` | Business location, where published | | `address` | Street address, where published | | `issueDate` / `expirationDate` | ISO `YYYY-MM-DD` dates, where published | | `disciplinaryFlag` | Reserved for future disciplinary-action data; currently always `false` (no state in this build exposes a matching field) | | `sourceUrl` | The exact page/report the record was read from | | `scrapedAt` | UTC timestamp the record was collected | **States covered**: CO, DE, FL, IN, KY, ME, MI, MN, MO, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, TX, VA. Two additional codes (`AL`, `MD`) are accepted as input but currently return no data — both boards are confirmed public but blocked by a bot-mitigation layer (Cloudflare Turnstile on MD; a persistent server-side error on AL) that this Actor does not attempt to bypass. ### How much does it cost to scrape state pest control license data? This Actor runs on **Pay Per Event** pricing: **$2.00 per 1,000 results**, plus a small **$0.02 flat fee per run** — that's the whole bill. Platform compute costs are included in that price, not billed separately, so the number you see before you run it is the number you pay; five of the sixteen states (DE, FL, MI, NC, OR) drive a real headless browser under the hood and cost more to run than the other eleven, but that's absorbed into the flat per-result price rather than passed through as a variable line item. A default run (500 records per state) costs a few dollars; pulling a full state's roster (e.g. New York's 8,000+ records) costs roughly the same as a cup of coffee. Apify Store subscribers on paid plans get this Actor's price automatically discounted — up to 75% off at the top tier. Apify's free tier is normally enough to try every state at a modest `maxItemsPerState`. ### Tips for scraping state license boards efficiently - Start with a small `maxItemsPerState` (e.g. 50) to sanity-check a state before committing to a full pull. - Run the Cheerio-based states (CO, IN, KY, ME, MN, MO, NM, NY, OH, TX, VA) separately from the five browser-driven states (DE, FL, MI, NC, OR) if you want faster turnaround — the Cheerio states finish in seconds, while the Playwright states take longer per record (pricing is the same flat rate either way, this only affects run time). - Use `statusFilter: []` (empty) to pull every status the state publishes, not just Active. - Schedule recurring runs (daily/weekly) via [Apify Scheduler](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules) to track new licenses and renewals over time — pair with a dedupe step on `licenseNumber` if you want a rolling incremental feed. ### FAQ **Is this legal?** This Actor only reads pages state agencies already publish for free, public lookup — the same pages a person could browse and read by hand. It does not create accounts, submit forms with personal data, or bypass any login, paywall, or CAPTCHA. You're responsible for using the output in line with each state's terms of use and applicable law. **Why do some states have fewer fields than others?** Each state publishes a different amount of detail — some list a full street address, others only a county; some expose separate business and licensee names, others only one. The Actor never invents a value; a missing field is `null`. **Why does `disciplinaryFlag` always say `false`?** None of the 16 states in this build expose a disciplinary/enforcement-action field on their public license-lookup pages. It's kept in the schema for forward compatibility if a state adds one, or a future update adds a state that does. **A state stopped returning data / a site changed.** State sites occasionally redesign or move. Please open an issue on this Actor's Issues tab with the state code and what you're seeing, and it'll get investigated. **Can you add another state, or build a custom feed for my exact use case?** Yes — reach out via the Issues tab or Apify's contact options to discuss a custom build (additional states, extra fields, dedupe/enrichment, or delivery straight into a CRM). # Actor input Schema ## `states` (type: `array`): Which state boards to query ## `searchTerm` (type: `string`): Leave blank to browse all active licenses where the state portal supports it ## `licenseTypeFilter` (type: `array`): Leave empty to include all license types ## `statusFilter` (type: `array`): License statuses to include ## `maxItemsPerState` (type: `integer`): Upper bound on records pulled per state per run ## Actor input object example ```json { "states": [ "NY" ], "licenseTypeFilter": [], "statusFilter": [ "Active" ], "maxItemsPerState": 500 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = {}; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("ledgerfield_data/pest-control-license-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = {} # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("ledgerfield_data/pest-control-license-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{}' | apify call ledgerfield_data/pest-control-license-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=ledgerfield_data/pest-control-license-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Pest Control License Scraper", "description": "Extract active pest control business licenses from 16 US state boards — 30,000+ records, normalized into one schema for M&A sourcing, franchise recruiting, and lead generation.", "version": "0.0", "x-build-id": "Qv1GyX8U6X86q9ZTK" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/ledgerfield_data~pest-control-license-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-ledgerfield_data-pest-control-license-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/ledgerfield_data~pest-control-license-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-ledgerfield_data-pest-control-license-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/ledgerfield_data~pest-control-license-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-ledgerfield_data-pest-control-license-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "states" ], "properties": { "states": { "title": "States", "type": "array", "description": "Which state boards to query", "items": { "type": "string", "enum": [ "NY", "OH", "VA", "MO", "AL", "CO", "TX", "DE", "IN", "KY", "ME", "MD", "MN", "NM", "OR", "NC", "FL", "MI" ] }, "default": [ "NY" ] }, "searchTerm": { "title": "Search term (name, business, license #)", "type": "string", "description": "Leave blank to browse all active licenses where the state portal supports it" }, "licenseTypeFilter": { "title": "License type filter", "type": "array", "description": "Leave empty to include all license types", "items": { "type": "string", "enum": [ "Operator", "Applicator", "Business/Company", "Field Representative" ] }, "default": [] }, "statusFilter": { "title": "Status filter", "type": "array", "description": "License statuses to include", "items": { "type": "string", "enum": [ "Active", "Expired", "Suspended", "Revoked" ] }, "default": [ "Active" ] }, "maxItemsPerState": { "title": "Max results per state", "type": "integer", "description": "Upper bound on records pulled per state per run", "default": 500 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```