Common Pests in Golden Valley, Minnesota

Mice

Ants

Wasps

Spiders

Stink Bugs

Boxelder Bugs

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

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

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Mice in Golden Valley behave differently based on the temperature and season. In the fall, as the temperatures start to drop, they become motivated to go inside homes to get warm. When inside a home, mice are most active in unfinished rooms, crawl spaces, and attics. These areas are the darkest and quietest rooms. Unfinished rooms and attics also have exposed insulation that they use as nesting material. They create scent trails on the foundation and exposed wires and pipes to help them navigate around the home at night. These scent trails can become visible rub marks when multiple mice use the same entry points over time.

Our mouse service is a one-and-done service. We don’t use contracts, and we don’t use poison bait inside the home. Our service is done entirely on the exterior of the home. We go around the outside, sealing up any entry points that the mice are using to get inside. We use construction-grade materials to seal the holes that mice can’t chew through.  After all the entry points are sealed on the outside, it takes 30 days to catch all the mice inside the structure. We will install snap traps and place them inside the home.

Mouse Identification

Two of the most common ants in Golden Valley are pavement and carpenter ants. Both ants live in large colonies and are often seen inside homes. Carpenter ants are found inside homes that deal with moisture or water issues. These ants build their nests inside soft, rotted wood. They do not eat the wood to survive like termites. They chew small tunnels and galleries inside the wood to store eggs, food, and other ants. Pavement ants live underground and make their nests using the sand found under garages, driveways, sidewalks, and foundations. When inside, they nest under heated floors, unfinished basements, or inside insulated foundations.

Our ant service is designed to exterminate the entire ant colony and not just the ants inside. The ants above ground are foraging ants and only makeup 10% of the entire colony. The products you buy at your local department store only affect 10% of the colony. When this happens, the rest of the colony thinks they are under threat. They then send out even more foragers than before to offset the number of them that died. Our product takes 30 days to kill an ant colony. This is because our product allows the foraging ants to carry the product back to their nest and spread it through the rest of the colony, including the Queen.

Ant Identification

A few of the most common social wasps in Golden Valley include the yellow jacket and bald-faced hornet. The yellow jacket is the most aggressive of the two. These wasps build their nests in a variety of different locations. They build ground nests, inside trees, inside foundation cracks, inside retaining walls, and even aerial nests. They will build nests in any area that is just big enough for their bodies to fit inside. Bald-faced hornets are unique in that their bodies are white and black instead of yellow and black. Each colony builds the same type of nest. They only build aerial nests that are at least 3 feet off the ground. Their aerial nests are identifiable by being tear-dropped and shaped. This means the top of the nest is always the widest part and narrows near the bottom, where the entrance inside the nest is located.

Our wasp services are extremely effective in exterminating large social wasp colonies. The product we use allows the wasps that leave nests to stay alive long enough to carry it back inside the nest. We also offer a preventative wasp service. This service uses a product that prevents wasps from building nests on the exterior of the home. The product dries and sticks to the siding and soffits where wasps commonly build their nests. When a wasp lands on any of the treated surfaces, the wasp dies instantly or before they can start building a nest.

Wasp & Bee Identification

There is a variety of spiders in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Each spider helps kill and eat insects, including mosquitoes, ticks, flies, and beetles. Many of these insects are attracted to high-moisture environments. Habitats near bodies of water and woods are usually heavily populated with these insects and spiders. Some spiders catch their prey in webs, and some catch them by hunting. Common web-building spiders include the cellar spider and the common house spider. Some common hunting spiders are wolf spiders and jumping spiders

Our spider removal services include exterior and interior treatments. The exterior treatment is by far the most effective in keeping spiders from entering the home. But in the winter, when there are no insects outside, an interior treatment is our only option. Our exterior treatment starts with us wiping down any cobwebs on the home. We then spray along the corners, soffits, foundation, and around windows. The product sticks to the surface, and any insect or spider that crosses over it will die before they can get inside. An interior treatment focuses on spraying inside any unfinished rooms and basements.

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

Boxelder bugs in Golden Valley become a problem in the fall. During this time, they start searching for places to overwinter. They find their way inside through cracks in the foundation, siding, and around windows. They also find their way under damaged weatherstripping below doors. In the winter, their bodies stay dormant for the majority of the time. The ones found walking around the home in the winter become active when the sun heats the roof, siding, and windows. When they are active in the winter, they are not mating or laying eggs inside the home.

Stink bugs behave similarly to boxelder bugs. They also overwinter inside homes and buildings. One thing that is different about stink bugs is that they are invasive to the United States. They came from eastern Asia, traveling inside shipping crates and airplanes. In Golden Valley, their population has exploded. They spend their winters inside attics and soffits. But like boxelder bugs, they also can become active in the winter if it’s sunny outside. When they are active in the winter, they do not mate, lay eggs, or cause structural damage.

This service is only done in the fall is when these insects start making their way inside homes to overwinter. When spraying the home during this time of year, we prevent these insects from getting inside during winter. The service is most effective when it is done right before the large swarms of bugs start to appear on the outside of the home. When this happens, it is more likely that a population is already inside. During the service, we spray around the foundation, most of the siding, soffits, chimneys, and around windows.

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 questions or concerns, or want to schedule an appointment 

Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)

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