Contact BOGO for all your Elk River Minnesota Pest Control Needs.
Elk River is just North of Minneapolis. The Mississippi River runs through it and is surrounded by protected land and parks.
These are the most common pests found in Elk River
(Click on the names to keep from scrolling)
To protect your home from all these insects and more our Insect Protection Plan or IPP is the best option
If you have any questions or concerns or would like to schedule an appointment call or send us an email
Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)
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Ants in Elk River Minnesota
Carpenter Ants
Winged carpenter ants are often misidentified to be winged termites. Luckily for Minnesotans termites are rare to find this far up north. Some easy differences include their body shape and antennas. A termite’s body is rectangular. Carpenter ants have bodies that are broken up between the head, thorax, and abdomen. Their bodies are unevenly shaped like an “8”. The antennas on a carpenter ant are elbowed and longer than a termite’s. Carpenter ants are also only known to chew small tunnels through wood that is already damaged. They pick wood that is water damaged since it’s softer to chew through. Termites will eat through any wooden material no matter what condition it is in.
Pavement Ants
Pavement ants do not cause structural damage like carpenter ants do. They build nests by digging tunnels underground. Their nests outside can be found under driveways, sidewalks, pavers, stoops, and curbs. In the wintertime, some pavement colonies find temperatures controlled areas to help them survive. They find areas underneath heated floors, cement slabs, or insulated foundations. When it’s winter their diet is focused on sugary foods. These foods help to make energy to help keep their bodies warm. In the warmer months worker ants start focusing more on building up the colony. They use protein-based foods to feed their pupa and larva.
Ant Service
Our ant service changes depending on the time of year. In the winter our ant service needs to be done inside the home. We use a foam spray that we put inside cracks, crevices, and in rooms where the ants are the most active. The interior spray only kills the ant colony living inside the home. When it’s warmer outside we want to focus on the exterior of the home. This will keep all ants out of the home. We offer a one-year warranty after our ant services because of how effective the product is. It allows the foraging ants to carry the product back to their nest and colony before it kills them. Each service takes 30 days to kill an entire ant colony.
Click below to learn about our ant services
To learn more about ants in Minnesota visit our ant identification page
Mice in Elk River Minnesota
Mouse Behavior
Mice in Minnesota behave in similar ways. Mice have 2 main jobs. The first is to breed and the 2nd is to find food to eat and to hoard for the winter. By spring most of their stockpile is gone so they need to start building it up again. Most mice will spend a lot more time outside in spring and summer as that is where a majority of their food is located. The most common foods that they eat are seeds and nuts. Each mouse works towards benefiting the entire group. They all help with raising their offspring by milking and searching for food. Mice live in groups of multiple females, their offspring, and 1 or 2 males. Their group’s territory expands around 30 yards away from their nest. In the fall when temperatures start to drop most groups start relocating their nests from outside to inside buildings and homes.
Mouse Service
The service we offer for mouse-proofing homes is based on science. After we seal a house it takes 30 days to trap all the mice that can no longer get outside. It takes 30 days in case there is an active nest inside. It takes 30 days for a new litter of mice to leave the nest. Mouse-proofing a home also consists of conducting a thorough inspection around the outside of the home. Our professional pest techs know what to look for when it comes to locating entry points and signs of mouse activity. We are always 100% honest and transparent with how large the problem is or how easy of a fix it may be. All of our services are so effective that we can back them up with one of the best warranties in the pest control industry. We off a full 2-year warranty to customers that have no limitations around their homes. This kicks in 30 days after the house is sealed. If any mice are still getting caught after that we come back free of charge to seal any entry points that we missed.
Click below to learn more about BOGO’s signature mouse service
To learn more about mice visit our mouse identification page
Wasps in Elk River Minnesota
Yellow Jackets
Yellow jackets are the most common wasp to sting people in Minnesota. They can be very aggressive near the end of summer and in the fall. This period is when their nests are at their largest size. They can grow their nest to have between 1,000-4,000 wasps. As temperatures drop it is hard for all the wasps to find food to eat. They also can sting as many times as they want. Yellow jackets can be dangerous pests to treat without the proper safety equipment and pesticides. Their nests can vary in many different locations. They build them outside in trees, underground, and inside man-made structures.
Paper Wasps
Paper wasps build nests that are commonly circular or oval-shaped. The material they are made out of is very papery. They retrieve the materials to build their nests by chewing thin layers off of dried-out wood and mixing them with their saliva. Many homeowners with wooden decks or cedar shakes will often see a higher wasp population around their homes. The wasp builds unique nests that are not enclosed around an outer layer. This means the hexagonal cells that all wasp and bee hives have been visible from the outside. Each cell is designed to be a cocoon for the wasps to go from a larva to a pupa and eventually a worker wasp. This process takes around 3 weeks.
Wasp Service
Our wasp service uses a pesticide that only licensed pest control technicians can use. The reason for this is based on the effectiveness of the product. This product lets one wasp carry the product back to its nest before dying. When back inside the nest it spreads the pesticide throughout the rest of the colony living inside the nest. If this product was to be used by someone unaware of its effectiveness it could get on a flower. If one bee lands on that flower the bee could bring the product back to its hive and kill their entire colony.
Click below to learn about our wasp services
To learn more about wasps and bees visit or identification page
Spiders in Elk River Minnesota
Spider Behavior
There are two different kinds of spiders in Minnesota. There are web-building spiders and hunting spiders. As the name suggests the web building spiders build cobwebs. They use their cobwebs to catch flying and crawling insects to eat. The second type is hunting spiders. These spiders don’t use webs to catch their prey. They often live in small burrows under rocks, trees, and inside homes. They leave their home to hunt for insects to eat. The most common web-building spider include; the cellar spider, common house spider, and daddy long legs (aka harvestmen spider). The most common hunting spiders are; the wolf spider, jumping spider, and sac spider.
Spider Habitat
Spiders play an important role in our ecosystems. They are necessary for keeping ecosystems from being overpopulated with disease-carrying insects. The habitats that they choose to live in are all in places that attract other insects. Outside these areas are near bodies of water or in wooded areas. Some of the most common insects that live in these habitats include; mosquitos, ticks, flies, and aphids, and insects that decompose organic matter. It’s not necessary to kill spiders in these environments. But they are commonly seen living in homes that are near bodies of water or woods. Once they start appearing on the outside and inside of homes they can be treated for and killed.
Spider Service
Our spider service follows the science behind a spider’s favorite habitats and behavior. For homes that are near water or in wooded areas, we highly advise having multiple spider treatments done or signing up for an insect protection plan (IPP). Our spider service uses a product that stays effective for 2 months on the exterior of the home. After the product is no longer effective if a house is in a natural habitat for spiders the spiders will come back. Spiders lay egg sacs where each egg sac can hatch out hundreds of baby spiders. Being able to reapply the product allows BOGO to keep the spider population from exploding again.
Click below to learn more our Spider Service
To learn more about spiders read our blog “We Love Living Near Woods and Water and so do Spiders!”
Boxelder Bugs and Stink Bugs in Elk River Minnesota
Boxelder Stink Bug Behavior
Stink bugs and boxelder bugs are fall pests that overwinter inside buildings and homes. In the fall they can be found in swarms searching for entry points to get inside for the winter. They are often attracted to the south-facing walls of homes as that is often the warmest area of the home. The insects absorb the sun’s rays to have the energy to search for food, mate, to and fly. Both bugs do not mate in the winter. They start mating in the spring or summer. Stink bugs mate and lay eggs on various plants. They are usually plants that grow some type of fruit or crop. Stink bugs feed on crops such as; sweet corn, tomatoes, grapes, and, apples. Boxelder bugs mate and lay eggs on female boxelder trees. They also use the trees as a food source by eating the helicopter seeds the trees produce.
Boxelder and Stink Bug Treatment
Our boxelder and stink bug service is more effective when applied before the bugs start to appear. The product we use stays effective for 2 months. This means that after spraying the siding and foundation any stink bugs or boxelder bugs that land on it will die for up to 2 months. Once both bugs are spotted swarming around the property there is a good chance that there is a population of them living inside. In the winter killing any boxelder bugs or stink bugs by spraying inside is no longer effective. One reason is that on the exterior we can cover a larger surface area making the entire home a death sentence for any bug that lands on it. Second the bugs fly and on the inside, there are only so many areas that we can spray so the chances of them landing a on treated surface is very unlikely. Second, on the outside, we can mix a stronger solution to better combat, the large number of insects. Inside solutions are often too weak to kill stink bugs and boxelder bugs.
To learn more about boxelder bugs and stink bugs read our blog “Minnesota Fall Pests”
Ash Tree Service in Elk River Minnesota
Benefits of Treating Ash Trees
Emerald ash borers lay their eggs on the bark of ash trees. When they hatch their larvae feed on the cambium layer. By damaging this layer of the tree the tree slowly loses the ability to spread nutrients and water to the entire tree. The cost of cutting down an ash tree is much higher than the cost of getting it treated. Many different variables can make cutting down a tree expensive. How sick the tree is, how big the tree is, how close the tree is to the house, and if the tree is in the backyard. When we treat a tree you need to pay every 2 years but the cost of each treatment is much lower than paying 1000-10,000 dollars out of pocket. Another obvious benefit of keeping a tree is the environmental impact. One mature ash tree can absorb 1000 pounds of carbon dioxide from that atmosphere in one year.
Ash Tree Treatments
The ash tree treatment we use is the most effective treatment option in the industry. We use pneumatic micro-injections. This service starts by drilling multiple holes around the bottom of the tree. Each hole is used as an injection point. The machine we use injects the product into each injection point individually. This allows for the tree to take up the same amount of product into each injection point making the product more effective in protecting the entire tree.
For more information about the emerald ash borer in Elk River
Learn about the benefits of treating your ash trees and about the emerald ash borer
To protect your home from all these insects and more our Insect Protection Plan or IPP is the best option
BOGO Provides Pest Control Services For the Twin Cities and Beyond! Just a Few Cities We Service For Include
Anoka|Apple Valley|Bloomington|Burnsville|Coon Rapids|Champlin|Chanhassen|Deephaven| Delano|Eagan|Eden Prairie|Edina|Elk River|Excelsior|Golden Valley|Independence|Lino Lakes|Long Lake|Maple Grove|Maple Plain|Medina|Minneapolis| Minnetonka|Minnetrista|Mound|New Brighton|North Oaks|Orono|Prior Lake|Plymouth|Ramsey|Rogers|Shoreview| Shorewood|Stillwater|St. Louis Park|St. Paul|Victoria|White Bear Lake| Wayzata|Woodbury|
If you have any questions or concerns or would like to schedule an appointment call or send us an email
Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)
