Common pests in Deephaven Minnesota

Mice

Ants

Wasps

Spiders

Boxelder Bugs

Stink Bugs

To protect your home from insects, join our Insect Protection Plan (IPP)

If you have any questions or concerns or would like to schedule an appointment 

Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)

 In the fall, mice will start spending more time inside buildings and homes as the temperature starts to drop. Unlike other mammals in the Twin Cities, mice do not hibernate or have a breeding season. They often live together in groups of 10 or more. Each group will have 1 or 2 males, multiple females, and their offspring. Mice will use a home’s insulation to build tunnels and nests. All the mice in the group will forage for food to help with raising the offspring. When foraging for food, they stay within 30 yards of their nest. Mice are nocturnal, so they forage for food at night. They use their sense of smell more than their eyes. They rely on their scent trails to find their way back to their nests inside. Over time, these scent trails can become rub marks, leaving a dark smudge on the foundation or siding of a structure.

Our mouse service is our signature service. Other pest control companies will sell a contract for a monthly service to refill poison bait inside a home. This will not keep mice from getting inside. The only way to solve a mouse infestation is by sealing up the entire structure from the outside. Companies that offer this service often rush through the service and don’t use long-lasting, mouse-proof materials. Our mouse service also offers one of the best warranties in the industry. Our full 2-year warranty proves that we stand behind our work. This warranty kicks in 30 days after our seal-up. This is how long it takes to trap the mice that are inside the home. If our traps are still catching mice after the 30-day waiting period, we will come back to seal the home for free.

Mouse Identification

Carpenter ants do not eat wood like termites. Termites eat through entire wooden structures, no matter what condition the wood is in. Carpenter ants only chew through wood that is already water-damaged and rotting. They also only chew small tunnels and galleries through the wood. Carpenter ant infestations take a longer time to cause structural damage. Some other key differences between carpenter ants and termites are the shape of their bodies. Termite’s bodies are rectangular, while carpenter ants’ bodies are shaped like an “8”.

Pavement ants can be either brown or reddish-brown. Their bodies are much smaller compared to a carpenter ant. Their nests outside are built underneath sidewalks, driveways, pavers, and cement patios. Their nests have small circular piles of sand and dirt. Pavement ants also build nests inside homes. They build them in temperature-controlled areas that allow them to stay active through the winter.  They will nest under heated floors, insulated foundations, slab-on-grade homes, and places with high levels of moisture.

BOGO’s ant treatment has been proven to be more effective than any ant killer you can buy over the counter. Whether the ants are appearing inside, in the middle of winter, or in summer, we have an effective service to remove them. If the ants are active in the winter, we go inside the home. We spray foam inside cracks and crevices where the ants are coming out. The ants then cross over the product, and they carry it back to the rest of the colony. Only 10% of an ant colony leaves the nest to forage for food and water. The rest stay in the ground or below grade. During the warmer months, we want to focus on treating the exterior of the home around the foundation.

Ant Identification

Yellow jackets’ nests can grow to have 1,000-10,000 wasps. Each wasp is capable of stinging multiple times without losing their stinger. It is recommended that a yellow jacket nest be treated by a professional. Their nests vary in location and may be hard to find. It is also hard to know the exact size of the nest. They build underground nests, spherical aerial nests, and nests inside cracks and crevices around man-made structures.

Baldfaced hornets only build aerial nests. Their nests are teardrop-shaped and are always built at least 3 feet off the ground. Just like other wasps, they will never reuse an old nest built the year before. By the end of the summer, their nests have around 200-700 workers. These nests, depending on how high off the ground, can sometimes be left alone. If a nest is above 30 feet off the ground, they are not going to feel threatened and sting people that walking below.

Our wasp service is highly recommended when dealing with wasp nests that are in the ground, built inside a structure, or inside an enclosed aerial nest. These nests are hard to treat with any over-the-counter wasp killer because not every wasp leaves the nest. This includes the queen. Our product lets the wasps that leave the nest bring the product inside to spread among the entire colony before dying. Over-the-counter products kill the wasps too quickly and will only kill the wasps that leave the nest.

Wasp & Bee Identification

Spiders have been on our planet for over 500 million years. Much longer than humans have. Their role in our ecosystem has been cemented and proven to be very beneficial. Spiders eat insects that spread diseases to humans, animals, and plants. Without spiders, these insects would overpopulate our ecosystems. There are two ways that spiders catch insects to feed on. There are hunting spiders and web-building spiders. The most common web-building spiders are: cellar spiders (top left), common house spiders (top right), and harvestman spiders (aka daddy long legs). Hunting spiders leave their burrows or crevices to search for insects to eat. The most common hunting spiders are the wolf spiders (bottom left), Sac spiders (bottom right), and jumping spiders

Habitats that attract spiders are habitats that also attract other insects. Many insects live in wooded habitats and near bodies of water. These include: mosquitoes, flies, ticks, springtails, silverfish, millipedes, ants, and sowbugs. For this reason, many homes that are built close to a body of water will see an increase in spider activity. Most homes that have a large spider population on the inside will also have other insects living inside that spiders are feeding on.

Our spider removal service focuses on the exterior of the home. We do not provide a service to remove them from nature. Spiders that are inside the home come in from the outside. We start each service by knocking down any cobwebs. Inside these cobwebs are egg sacs that hatch into hundreds of baby spiders. The product we use on the exterior stays effective for 2 months. If a home is near water or woods, it would be advisable to reapply the product to keep the population to a minimum. We never promise our services will kill 100% of the spiders. If a treatment is needed inside, we will spray in the basements and unfinished rooms

Read Our Blog: “We Love Living Near Woods and Water and so do Spiders!”

Boxelder bugs spend the warmer parts of the year mating and laying eggs. If you ever see any inside in the winter, they are not reproducing. They mate and lay eggs on the leaves, branches, and bark of female boxelder and maple trees. When their eggs hatch, the nymphs cannot fly and feed on the helicopter seeds that the trees produce. Adult boxelder bugs also feed on the seeds, but can fly to search for other food. They eat other plants, including grass and fruits. In the fall, they start searching for places to overwinter. You can find them swarming on south facing walls that get het with lots of sun.

Stinkbugs spend the warmer months living inside agricultural fields and fruit trees. They lay eggs and mate on various plants that they feed on. Some of their favorite foods include: tomatoes, sweet corn, apples, and grapes. Just like boxelder bugs, if they are seen inside in the winter, they are not reproducing. They only reproduce in the spring and summer. The fall is when they start looking for areas to overwinter. Most stink bugs have been noted entering homes through air vents, chimneys, and soffits that lead into the attic. 

The treatment that we apply to exterminate boxelder bugs and stink bugs is done in the fall. During the treatment, we cover the entire building or home. These bugs can fly and find their way inside through the smallest cracks. Some of the most common entry points are: soffits, vents, chimneys, foundations, windows, siding, and weather stripping under doors. The service becomes significantly more effective if it is applied before the swarms of bugs appear. If there are swarms already landing on the building or home, there is most likely already a population that made its way inside. Interior treatments are not effective, as most insects are dormant behind the walls or in the attic.

Read Our Blog:  “Minnesota Fall Pests”

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To protect your home from insects, join our Insect Protection Plan (IPP)

If you have any questions, concerns or want to schedule an appointment

Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)

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