About Graduate Pest Control

A family company since 1983

Arnold Katz started Graduate Pest Control in 1983, five years after finishing his B.S. in Entomology at the University of Georgia. He had already been doing the work since 1975. The name comes from that degree, and so does the way the company works: identify the animal correctly, understand how it lives, and change the building so it cannot live there.

Between Arnold and his son Ryan, Graduate brings a combined 70 years of experience in New York City. In that time we have worked rats to roaches, ants to crickets, bed bugs to mosquitoes, and buildings ranging from estates to walk-ups, and we have seen close to every situation a building can create. The company has grown entirely by word of mouth and still serves its first client.

Who runs Graduate

Arnold Katz, founder, is still in the field as senior technician and staff entomologist. He provides identification and diagnostic support on complex accounts, and he developed the source-and-structure method the company runs on before integrated pest management had a name. Much of the metal work and exclusion technique Graduate uses today he worked out himself, by trial in the field.

Ryan Katz, Chief Operating Officer, has worked in the industry for more than 25 years. He trains every Graduate technician personally, audits the work in the field, and goes on site for the larger jobs to diagnose the building. He has traveled throughout the United States and internationally to consult, treat and teach, including for Mexico's national pest management association and the PestInsight Initiative in Nigeria.

The technicians who service your home or building are trained in house by Ryan and work under Graduate's New York State registration.

Students of the science

We treat this work as a science. Why does a mouse choose one wall and not another? How does a colony of carpenter ants decide where to send its satellite nests? What lets a Norway rat succeed in a sewer, a cellar and a garden all at once? Understanding how these animals function and succeed as a species is what lets us take away what they need, instead of treating the same problem every season.

How we work

• Inspection and identification first. Every plan starts with what the animal actually is and where it is living.
• Rodent exclusion. We find the openings and close them with galvanized sheet metal, hardware cloth, copper or stainless mesh and mortar, fastened mechanically. Never foam.
• Rodent control that removes the animals already inside, with detection dogs where activity is hidden behind walls or under slabs.
• Integrated pest management for food plants and commercial buildings. We have worked alongside the same food manufacturer since 1989, and the program we built for them in the 1990s met SQF requirements when the audits began.

Where we work

On Long Island we serve the North Shore, including Huntington,Northport, East Northport,Smithtown, Commack,Oyster Bay and Great Neck. In the city we work across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. The full list is on our service areas page.

Licensed and accountable

Graduate Pest Control, Inc. holds New York pesticide business registration 03298. Ryan Katz holds New York certified applicator license C1822141 in categories 7A, 7F and 8. Every license and certification is listed in full, with what it covers, on our credentials page.

In the press

• Three ways to get rid of mosquitoes in your garden this summer, and a common myth, News 12 Long Island, 1 July 2026
• It’s mice season (and you might not even know you have them), News 12 Long Island, 17 December 2025
• Garden Guide: How to get rid of a yellow jacket nest, News 12 Long Island, 30 July 2025

More on our media page.