Am I paying too much for pest control?

We bought a brand new home in September of 2012. When we were going through the motions of closing on the house, we signed up for termite services with a local pest control company. I set it up so I would be billed quarterly, and we’ve been paying $52 every three months since August of last year (we got the first 6 months free, I suppose).

The only time they’ve ever come to our house since we moved in was September of 2013. This was for a termite inspection. The guy comes in, taps on our baseboards for fifteen minutes, and then leaves. $208 a year for that?! I know what we’re really paying for is the protection just in case we ever do get termites and the house needs to be treated. However, this seems a bit steep.

When we were renting, we didn’t have termite protection, but we got the inside and outside of the house sprayed three times a year for $72 per treatment. This treatment kept away pretty much any type of roach you could imagine, even those pesky Palmetto Bugs that are so prevalent in the Southeastern US. It just seems that we’re paying the same amount for them to do less work. And just as an FYI, the roach sprays were done with Terminix, while we now use a different, lesser-known company. We don’t need those treatments anymore, since we no longer live in a trailer and our house does a great job of keeping bugs out.

Am I paying too much? How much do you pay for termite protection?