These are the most common pests found in Orono Minnesota

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Ants

Mice

Wasps

Spiders

Boxelder/Stink Bugs

Emerald Ash Borer

To protect your home from all these insects and more our Insect Protection Plan or IPP is the best option

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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)

Swarms of winged carpenter ants can be spotted flying around Orono Minnesota during late spring to mid-summer. These swarms are necessary for the ants to survive as that is how they reproduce and start new colonies. People often misidentify winged carpenter ants as termites. Some key differences include a termite has a straight square-shaped body while the ants are uneven, irregular, and shaped like the number 8. Carpenter ants also do not eat wood like termites do. Carpenter ants find already damaged wood that is rotted and water-damaged. Once they find it they chew small tunnels inside the wood. It takes much longer for a carpenter ant colony to do structural damage compared to a termite colony.

Pavement ants, also known as sugar ants, are among the most common ants to infest homes in Orono. They can make nests inside a home where they can stay active in the winter, or infest homes in the spring and summer. Their nests can be found underneath sidewalks, driveways, patios, and curbs. They always have a small mound of dirt and sand shaped in a circle above all their outdoor nests. They get inside their nests usually under a heated floor, cement slab, or insulated foundation. Sometimes foraging ants will make their way inside to search for food and water. Their diets cover a wide range of different foods including; dog/cat food, fruits, insects, sweets, sugary liquids, meat, seeds, and cheese. It’s important to note any crumb or small spill inside or outside is most likely food for a pavement ant.

Ant services that are taken care of without a professional pest technician may make the ant problem worse. Ant colonies can be made up of 10,000-100,0000 worker ants. Out of the entire population, only around 10% of the ants leave the nest. Ant sprays or baits bought at a local department store are marketed to kill the ants on contact and for customers to immediately notice a difference. These attributes can backfire as they are only designed to kill the 10% of the ants that leave the nest. When this happens the rest of the colony will send out more ants to offset the ants that didn’t come back.

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Mice are creatures of habit and they almost all behave the same way. They are nocturnal rodents that don’t hibernate and have no designated mating season. They are known to live in groups of multiple females, their litters, and 1 or 2 male mice. Each female mouse is capable of having between 1-10 litters in one year. They work together for their group by foraging for food and hoarding it away for winter. Mice are the most active at night and depend on their sense of smell more than their eyesight. They use their sense of smell to find food and to help find their way back to their nest. Mice only travel around 10-30 feet away from their nests. As they do the same route each day they leave rub marks on the materials they continue to climb on. The rub marks are a mix of the grease and mud on their fur and their urine.

Mice in Orono Minnesota live in a variety of habitats. Homes that are near wooded areas or bodies of water will usually have more mouse activity. When mice make their way inside they are often drawn to unfinished rooms that stay dark and unoccupied by people. Mice will also use the exposed wires and pipes to find their way around the home and to get outside. In the winter mice use insulation to keep warm and to build their nests as most mice can have multiple litters each summer.

Pest control companies take advantage of their customers who pay for their mouse service. Solving a mouse problem means prolonging the problem instead of solving it for good. They make contracts for replacing poison bait inside the home each month. The poison that’s placed inside results in mice dying in places that will be hard to reach. This can make the entire home stink. The mice will continue living inside the home since it’s impossible to kill 100% of the mice that live outside. The mouse service we provide is much more effective. We focus on sealing the entry points on the outside of the home. Our techs aren’t trained to rush through a job like other companies. We take our time at each job to make sure the home is completely sealed up to the best of our ability. But we realize not everyone is perfect. It’s easy to miss a crack or hole the size of a pinky on the first service. This is where our signature 2-year warranty or 2-year 2-visit warranty kicks in. No other company offers a warranty like ours.

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Paper wasp nests are built in areas that keep the wasp nest dry. They are under soffits, vent hoods, garage doors, porches, etc. The nests are unique by the fact the hexagonal pattern is visible from the outside. Other wasp nests have a protective papery pulp outer layer or are built in the ground or inside man-made structures. Paper wasps get the material to build them by chewing on dried-out wood and mixing it with their saliva to make it into paper. This is why many people with wooden decks can notice an increase in wasp activity. They also rebuild new nests each year.

Yellow jackets are the most aggressive wasps in Orono Minnesota. A nest of yellow jackets can grow to have 1,000-4,000 workers by the end of the summer. Their workers vary between 0.5-0.6 inches. Yellow jackets, also are capable of stinging multiple times without losing their stinger and dying. This can make finding and treating a yellow jacket nest very dangerous. It’s highly recommended especially in mid to late summer to call a professional pest control technician to eradicate a yellow jacket nest. Yellow jackets can build nests in a variety of areas which makes them hard to find. They build them underground, inside cracks in the foundation and siding, under cement slabs and they even build circular aerial nests.

Bald-faced hornets are one of the larger wasps that live in Orono Minnesota. They are around 3/4 inches long and are off-white and black. Their nests are built in the shape of a teardrop. They build an aerial nest that is at least 3 feet off of the ground. Their nests can grow to have 400-700 wasps. Each year they build a new nest. No matter how large of a nest they build the year before they will not reuse it. Their diet consists of eating other insects. Some of their favorite insects that eat include; caterpillars, and aphids. They will even prey on honey bees and other pollinating insects.

Identifying a honey bee nest is important as it should not be treated like a wasp nest. To know that you have a honey bee nest you should first know how to identify the bee itself. Their workers are a similar size to a yellow jacket averaging 0.5-0.62 inches. They have a unique look of a golden yellow color with brown stripes. But to tell them apart look for the short hairs that cover their thorax and abdomen. Their nests also vary in a location similar to yellow jackets. They build them above and below ground. Their nest can grow to have 60,000 bees!

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Spiders play an essential part of the ecosystems in Orono. They eat insects that spread diseases to trees and animals. The bugs that make up most of their diet include; mosquitos, ticks, grasshoppers, and flies. There are two different ways that spiders hunt for their prey. There are web-building spiders that wait for the insects to come to them and get caught in their webs. Some of the most common of these spiders in Minnesota include the harvestmen (daddy longlegs), common house spider, and cellar spider. The other half of spiders hunt for their prey. They live under rocks, trees, and sometimes underground. These spiders include the; sac spider, wolf spider, and jumping spider.

Spiders that live in Orono can be found living in habitats such as; woodlands, grassy meadows, and near bodies of water. These habitats attract a variety of other insects that they can feed on. When spiders live inside they can be found in rooms that also attract other insects. These rooms are commonly unfinished or have a considerable amount of moisture like basements. Spiders prefer to live in places that are untouched for long periods such as corners and behind furniture. Just keeping a house relatively clean with low amounts of clutter will have a significant impact on the populations of spiders living inside.

Our spider service in Orono is essential in keeping spiders from nesting in homes. We do not advise or treat spiders on the lawn. Cobwebs that are left untouched and holding egg sacs can result in a huge increase in spiders. Even if they are currently living on the exterior they can easily make their way to the interior of a home. One spider egg sac can hatch out hundreds of small spiders. We make sure we knock down all the cobwebs off of the home to the best of our ability to offset the chance of spiders hatching out of egg sacs. The spray we use will kill any spiders living outside the home in 30 minutes. The product will be effective for 2 months depending on the habitat the home is surrounded by multiple treatment plans may be necessary to keep the population of spiders at a minimum level. We never guarantee that our service will kill 100% of the spiders outside or inside the home.

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Boxelder bugs are categorized as fall pests in Orono Minnesota. They spend most of their lives living inside female boxelder trees. Boxelder trees are the trees that produce helicopter seeds. The bugs lay eggs on the leaves, bark, and branches. When the eggs hatch they become aphids and then nymphs. The young bugs eat the seeds. In the fall they leave the trees and gardens and start moving toward homes and buildings to find areas to overwinter. In the winter the bugs can be seen roaming around inside. This happens on sunny days when the sun warms up the windows, roofs, and siding. Active boxelder bugs in the winter do not mate or lay eggs inside.

Stink bugs just like the boxelder bug are also considered to be fall pests. They can be found swarming on buildings and homes in Orono in the fall. They look for places to overwinter. In the winter they can be spotted crawling around inside windows, chimneys, and interior walls that are south-facing and get hit by the winter sun. When the temperatures start warming up again they leave their overwintering homes and start mating almost right away. They do not mate inside in the winter. They lay eggs on various plants in the spring. In the warmer months, they damage crops by sucking liquefied juices leaving bruises on the fruit and vegetables that they feed on.

The fall treatment we offer in Orono is specifically designed to kill boxelder bugs and stink bugs. We time the treatment so that it is applied before they start landing on buildings and homes to overwinter. At the time the bugs start landing on buildings and homes there is most likely already a population of boxelder bugs and stink bugs living inside. It’s important to know that neither of these insects will breed or lay eggs inside in the winter. But unfortunately, an interior insect treatment in the winter will have little to no effect. Our fall treatment is done on the exterior of the home where we cover a significant amount of surface area.

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The emerald ash borer has spread across Minnesota infecting thousands of ash trees every year. An infected tree needs to either be cut down or treated to save it. Saving a tree has many benefits. One is that it’s much cheaper than cutting a tree down. Cutting down a mature ash tree can cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. It can add up quickly depending on how large the tree is and if it’s growing close to the home or in the backyard. Another important benefit of keeping a large mature ash tree alive is the environmental impact. Every tree plays an important role in the ecosystem it’s living in. They absorb carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxides from the atmosphere.

There are many different treatment options to save ash trees from the emerald ash borer. Not each treatment is as effective as the next. The treatment we use during our ash tree service is the most effective treatment option in the industry. Most companies use treatments that focus on being fast and efficient to make more money. The health of the tree is just an afterthought. Our treatment takes extra time because we want to make sure that the product is measured and spread throughout the entire tree. Each injection is done individually and measured accordingly. Every injection point that is made around the tree receives an equal amount of product.

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To protect your home from all these insects and more our Insect Protection Plan or IPP is the best option

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(Click on the cities to learn about what pests to watch out for in your area)

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)