Common pests found in Anoka, Minnesota

Mice

Ants

Wasps

Spiders​​

Boxelder Bugs​

Stink Bugs

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

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

Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)

In Anoka, Minnesota, mice locate warmer areas to nest in the fall and winter when the temperatures drop. They start searching for insulated areas to build nests. Mice don’t hibernate in the winter, so they will continue to stay active and need to eat and search for food. They will spend more time inside homes at this time. They will also periodically leave their nests to find food outside. They forage and hoard food to help feed the entire group. In the spring and summer, many mice prefer to live outside in trees and burrows. When outside, they use scent trails to mark their group’s territory and to help them find their way back to their nests.

There isn’t a pest control company in Anoka with a mouse service like BOGO pest control. Most companies sign their customers into yearly contracts that consist of placing poison or traps inside the home. But that doesn’t stop the mice from getting inside. They are still getting inside to eat the poison. Our service is designed to stop all the mice from getting inside without poison and without signing any contracts. We seal all the entry points on the exterior of the home. Our warranties are good for 2-years. Each warranty starts 30 days after the seal-up service is completed.

Male and female carpenter ants both have wings, while worker carpenter ants do not. The males and females mate in the summer in nuptial flight. After mating, the males die, and the females fly to locate a place to build a carpenter ant colony. Winged carpenter ants are often misidentified as winged termites. Termites can not survive the cold temperatures in Minnesota. If your Anoka home has termites, they were brought in from out of state. They can hitchhike on furniture, construction materials, or inside other packages.

Pavement ants are extremely common in Minnesota. They will forage for any foods that contain sugar and protein. They can be found foraging for food in the middle of winter. They build nests inside homes that allow them to stay active inside.  Including under-heated floors, inside insulated foundations, crawl spaces, and under cement slabs. When outdoors, their nests are often found under sidewalks, driveways, and patios. Their nests are always easy to identify. Each nest will have a pile of sand and dirt that is visible above the ground.

Mouse Identification

 Our Ant Removal Service in Anoka uses products designed to affect the entire colony and not just the ants that you see above ground. The product, when used inside, is a foam that fills cracks and crevices that the ants crawl out of. After an ant crosses over the product, they don’t die on contact. They stay alive long enough to bring the product back into the nest to spread it to the entire colony. The exterior service works similarly but is applied across the foundation. The product comes out as a water-based substance and sticks to the surface. Any ant that crosses over the sprayed areas will bring it back to the nests that are outside.

Ant Identification

Paper wasps have been nicknamed the umbrella wasp based on their uniquely shaped nests. They are rounded, flat, and have hexagonally shaped cells visible from the outside. These cells are where the queen lays her eggs and where the larvae stay in cocoons before becoming worker wasps. Each nest is built from scratch each spring, and any old nests will not be reused. By the end of the summer, one paper wasp nest can have between 30 and 70 workers living in it.

Bald-faced hornets received their names from their white faces. They also have white stripes on their abdomens. The hornets build aerial nests that are at least 3 feet off the ground. The nests are tear-drop shaped, which is larger on the top and narrows on the bottom where the entrance is located. Each nest is built from scratch each spring. By the end of the summer, the nest can have between 400 and 700 workers living inside.

We offer two separate wasp services in Anoka. One service is a preventive treatment to keep wasps from building nests on the exterior of the home. We use a product that kills any wasp or insect that lands on the sprayed areas instantly. During this service, we spray soffits, corners, window frames, door frames, and anywhere that will keep wasp nests dry when it rains. The second service we offer is to exterminate active wasp nests. During this service, we use a product that keeps the wasps that leave the nest alive long enough to carry it back into the nest to spread and kill rest of the colony.

Wasp & Bee Identification

Spiders are classified as arthropods. This name plays into the word arachnophobia. People who are afraid of spiders should know that spiders play an important role in Anoka, Minnesota’s ecosystems. They hunt and catch insects that would otherwise become overpopulated. Many of the insects they eat destroy crops, kill plants, and spread diseases. The two different spiders that live in Anoka, Minnesota, are web-building spiders and hunting spiders. The most common web-building spiders are: the common house spider, daddy longlegs (aka harvestman spider), and cellar spider. The most common hunting spiders are: the wolf spider, sac spider, and jumping spider.

Because spiders survive by eating other insects, they thrive in areas with high insect populations. In Anok, Minnesota, there are numerous bodies of water. Whether it’s a swamp, lake, river, or marsh, these areas attract insects of all shapes and sizes. Some of the most popular include mosquitoes, ticks, flies, and moths. With this same logic, spiders also thrive in areas with thick vegetation,n including long grasses and wooded habitats. Any homes built near a body of water or wooded area will see an increase in spider and insect activity.

Our spider service in Anoka, Minnesota, is focused on the exterior of the home. We start each service by knocking down as many spider webs as we can (we are limited to the length of our brush wands). Many of these webs have spider egg sacs inside them. Each egg sac, when hatched, can release hundreds of baby spiders. Knocking down the webs, it will also force the adult spiders to start moving around. Most spiders stay in one place. By getting them to move around, they will be more likely to cross over the product. The product we use sticks to the home and stays effective for 2 months. After two mmonthss it is highly recommended to treat again if a home is near a body of water or wooded habitat.

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

In the fall in Anoka, Minnesota, boxelder bugs fly toward buildings and homes to search for places to overwinter. They are often seen on the south-facing walls where they can soak up the heat from the sun. In the winter, the bugs that made their way inside will start to become active on sunny days. They wake up from their frozen state and crawl toward doors and windows that are radiating heat. In the winter, none of the boxelders are laying eggs or mating inside the home. They mate in the spring and summer and lay eggs on female boxelder trees. The young larvae grow into nymphs and eventually adults by feeding on the fluids found inside the tree’s helicopter seeds.

Stink bugs were rumored to be brought to America by hitchhiking inside shipping containers from Asia. They were first seen in Anoka, Minnesota, in the 2010s. Since then, they have become a huge nuisance pest in the fall and winter. In the fall, they start searching for places to overwinter. They find their way inside homes through chimneys, soffits, vents, around windows, and cracks in the siding. They become more active in the winter on sunny days when the sun warms their bodies up enough to move around. They don’t mate or lay eggs in the winter. They start breeding in the spring. They lay their eggs on various leaves of plants, including sweet corn, tomatoes, grapes, berries, and apples.

Our boxelder and stink bug service is done in the fall. Because both insects are great flyers, they can find their way inside multiple entry points. Because of this, we have to cover the exterior of the home. Once the product dries on the home, it sticks to the sprayed areas and stays effective for 2 months. For those 2 months, the product will kill any insects in 30-45 minutes after landing on the sprayed areas. The service becomes significantly more effective if done before any boxelder or stink bugs are seen on the house. When they are already swarming on the home some bugs have already made their way inside for winter.

Read Our Blog: “Minnesota Fall Pests”

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

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

Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)

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