About the team
Reed Calder
Editor, termitequote.com
Reads termite quotes line by line and checks every number against a published source. Not a pest control operator, and not paid by one.
A note on the byline. Reed Calder is a pen name. We publish under one consistent byline rather than anonymously, and we make the method and every source public so you can check the work instead of taking our word for it.
Why a pen name and not a photo
A photograph and a surname prove nothing. Plenty of pricing sites have both and still will not tell you where a single number came from. What actually lets you judge whether to trust a figure is being able to follow it back to its source — so that is what we publish instead.
Everything on this site is written under one consistent byline, so mistakes are attributable rather than diffused across an anonymous "editorial team". When we get something wrong, the correction is recorded on the sources page rather than quietly overwritten.
What you can check instead
- Every range we use, with its source, the date we last checked it, and a confidence label — plus the figures we rejected for lack of a source.
- The grading rules, written out in full, including the cases where we refuse to give a verdict.
- How the site is funded, including the conflict of interest that funding creates.
What we are not
We are not licensed inspectors and nothing here is a substitute for an inspection. We do not treat houses, sell products, or take a cut of your treatment. We read quotes against published data, which is a narrower job than it sounds — and the reason we can do it without picking sides.