Parental care is an important aspect of reproductive effort in many animals. Since parents encounter conflict with their offspring over the allocation of parental resources, the interaction between offspring begging and parental feeding response is regarded as an important communication mechanism that regulates offspring food supply. The costs of begging are hypothesized as necessary for evolutionally stable parent–offspring communication; thus, selection impels offspring to respond to parental signals that inform them that their parents are ready to provide them with food, thereby reducing superfluous begging. In this study, we concluded that parents of the burying beetle species Nicrophorus quadripunctatus inform their offspring of their preparation for provisioning by emitting a volatile compound, and we term this newly identified pheromone type the “provisioning pheromone.” Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis and behavioral assay revealed that female parents specifically emitted an antimicrobial aromatic compound, 2-phenoxyethanol, in their regurgitation shortly before provisioning, and that this compound elicits begging behavior from their offspring. These results suggest that the provisioning pheromone originates from a germicidal agent that the female parent invests in the regurgitated food, and that parents regulate offspring solicitation via chemical communication.