Pest Technician of the Year 2026: Nick Muir Named Runner-Up

Pesties.au is proud to announce Nick Muir, founder and lead technician at Pesties.au, was named Runner-Up and Highly Commended in the 2026 Australian Pest Technician of the Year awards, placing him among the top three pest technicians in the country.

The awards are run by Professional Pest Manager magazine and sponsored by Agserv, with the 2026 results announced on 7 August and the awards presented at the Pestech Roadshows by Dr Phil Ridley and Jason Green, General Manager at Agserv.

Our Lead Technician and Founder, Nick Muir, was recently named one of the top three pest technicians Australia-wide.

Recognition for a standard built over years

Pesties.au was built on a straightforward idea: that pest control in South East Queensland could be done to a higher standard than the market was used to, and that customers would pay for work done properly rather than done cheaply.

Holding that line takes effort. It means investing in top grade products, insect growth regulators and premium baits rather than the cheapest thing that will pass. It means constant re-education on pest biology and habits to most effectively combat pest activity. It means a full home walkthrough before a single product gets prepared. Treating skirting boards, wet areas, roof voids, external barriers and entry points on every job, not just the rooms are having issues in. And when all this comes together it means we’re able to confidently put a written, signed, money back warranty in the customer’s hand at the end of it.

Those standards take years to establish and daily discipline to maintain. An independent industry panel assessing that work and ranking it among the best in Australia is external validation of it. It’s genuinely thrilling for us, and the accolade belongs to everyone involved in the business.

An award for the technician, not the marketing budget

Most awards in the pest industry are company awards. A form is submitted, you talk about your growth, and the operator with the largest marketing spend generally walks away with something.

Pest Technician of the Year is deliberately different. Now in its fifth year, it assesses the individual carrying out the work and dealing with the customer on site. There is no company category, nothing that can be delegated to a marketing department, and no way to buy in.

That distinction matters for anyone choosing a pest controller. Licensing tells you someone is legally permitted to apply restricted chemicals. It doesn’t tell you how well they do it. This award is one of the very few independent measures of the second thing.

What the judging involved

The competition ran across three stages.

A deliberately gruelling online knowledge test. Pest identification and colony related questions covering the technical end of the trade. Nick scored 27 out of 34 and progressed to the finals.

Customer reviews submitted as evidence. Every review put forward came from a real job across our service area, in suburbs ranging from Pimpama to Coomera, Robina to Burleigh, and Shailer Park to Logan. Pesties.au holds a 5.0 star rating across 180 Google reviews at the time of writing.

A panel interview for finalists. Forty five minutes with Dr Phil Ridley and Jason Green, covering technical knowledge, customer service and problem solving on jobs that fall outside the textbook.

There was a record number of entrants this year from across Australia, with all three finalists coming from Queensland. For the full announcement, read Professional Pest Manager’s coverage of the Pest Technician of the Year 2026 winners.

What this means for our customers

Nothing about the service changes. The same standards apply on every job, and the same guarantee sits behind them.

What the award adds is independent verification. Any pest control company can call itself the best on the Gold Coast on its own website. An industry panel placing our lead technician in the national top three is a claim that comes from somewhere other than our marketing.

For the record: Pesties.au is QBCC licensed (1313994) and QLD Health licensed, fully insured, and provides residential pest control and AS 3660.2 termite inspections across the Gold Coast, Logan and South Brisbane. Every eligible treatment carries the written PestiesProtect+ money-back warranty. A pest free home, or your money back.

Congratulations Nick. Thoroughly deserved.

Pest Technician of the Year 2026: the full result

  • Winner: Hernan Garcia-Prieto, Concept Termite and Pest Management, Brisbane
  • Runner-up, highly commended: Nick Muir, Pesties.au, Gold Coast
  • Runner-up, highly commended: Liam Basley, LB Pest Management, Brisbane

The 2026 award was run by Professional Pest Manager magazine and sponsored by Agserv, with results announced on 7 August 2026. Congratulations to Hernan on the win and to Liam on placing alongside Nick. Entering means putting your technical knowledge in front of a panel that knows the difference, and most operators in this trade never do it.