Julie Bimmerman
Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations at Rollins
Thank you, Jerry. At Rollins, we are constantly looking for ways to improve in all areas of our business. As many of you know, continuous improvement is an important part of our culture. We have a lot of opportunity for the remainder of 2021. But I would like to recognize that the significant financial gains from this quarter are on top of the strong gains that we experienced during 2020. Even as we were all entering a different economic time back in Q2 of last year, our revenue grew at a steady 5.6%. That was converted into net income growth of 17.2%. Both of these 2020 numbers were at or above our historic averages. So for the second quarter 2021, as Jerry noted, all business lines presented strong revenue growth. Keys to the quarter included pricing strength, positively impacting revenue growth, continued mosquito service revenue improvement over 30% and commercial pest control revenue improving significantly.
Additionally, for the first time, our mosquito service revenue has surpassed our bedbug revenue in this quarter was over 3% of our total revenue. Looking at the numbers. The second quarter revenues of $638.2 million was an increase of 15.3% over the prior year's second quarter revenue of $553.3 million. Our income before income taxes was $133.9 million, or 29.4% above 2020. Our net income was $98.9 million, up 31.2% compared to 2020. Our earnings per share were $0.20 per diluted share compared to $0.15 in 2020, or a 33.3% increase. As a reminder, we reported both GAAP and non-GAAP financials for the first quarter of 2021. The non-GAAP results were positively impacted by our gain on sales of several of our properties. For the first six months of 2021, revenues were $1.174 billion, which was an increase of 12.7% over the prior year's first six months revenue of $1.014 billion. Our GAAP income before income taxes was $253.8 million, or 59.7% above 2020. Our GAAP net income was $191.5 million, or 61.4%, compared to 2020. Our GAAP EPS or earnings per were $0.39 per diluted share compared to $0.24 per diluted share in 2020.
Overall, like some companies that were negatively impacted by the pandemic, demand in most areas of our business in both 2020 and 2021 was strong. We maintained consistent revenue growth of 5.6% in 2020, followed by a healthy increase of 15.3% in 2021. It does not seem that pent-up demand or stimulus checks have impacted our residential revenue growth, but rather a new awareness of pest needs based on more time spent at the home. It would be difficult to predict what these new demand levels will look like in the future, but we remain optimistic. Our total revenue increased for the quarter, up 15.3% and included 1.7% from significant acquisitions with the remaining 13.6% from pricing and new customer growth. Residential pest control made up 40% of our revenue; commercial pest control, 33%; and termite and other services made up approximately 21% of our revenue. In addition, our wildlife service continued to see strong double-digit growth. Again, total revenue less significant acquisitions, was up 13.6%. From that, residential was up 12.3%; commercial, excluding fumigation, increased 14.8%; and termite and ancillary grew by 14.9%. In total, our gross margin decreased to 53.3% from 53.8% in the prior year's quarter.
Improvements were made in total payroll but were negatively offset by higher overall fleet costs and a write-down of inventory of $2.7 million related to our PPE, or personal protective equipment. We will continue to assess our fluctuating future needs and market value for our PPE in the coming quarters. In addition to our continued Orkin U.S. mileage savings, our Orkin Canada and Western Pest brands are making progress regarding their BOSS and routing and scheduling implementation. Each company has improved their on-day and on-time delivery since the project started. These savings will help support improvements in our overall fleet cost in the future quarters. Depreciation and amortization expenses for the quarter increased $1.4 million to $23.3 million, an increase of 6.3%. Amortization of intangible assets increased $1.3 million due to several acquisitions, including McCall Service in December 2020 and Adams Pest in Australia in July of last year. Sales, general and administrative expenses presented a 7.1% improvement for the quarter over 2020, decreasing from 30.9% of revenues to 28.7% of revenues in 2021. The quarter produced savings in administrative and sales salaries and benefits as well as telephone savings from better negotiated contracts.
As for our cash position, for the six months ending 6/30/2021, we spent $28.4 million on acquisitions compared to $56 million in the same period last year. We paid $79.7 million on dividends and had $13.2 million of capex compared to $12.4 million in 2020. We ended the period with $128.5 million in cash, of which $73.6 million is held by our foreign subsidiaries. Before I close out, I would like to mention our recent press release, where Rollins was named to the top 50 green fleet list as pushed by Automotive Fleets 2021 ranking. As part of our continuous improvement that I mentioned in my opening, we have lots of opportunity in the future in this area, but we are proud of this recognition by the industry. Yesterday, the Board of Directors approved a regular cash dividend of $0.08 per share that will be paid on September 10, 2021, to stockholders of record at the close of business August 10, 2021.
Gary, I'll turn it back to you.