Common pests in Medina Minnesota

Mice

Ants

Wasps

Spiders

Boxelder Bugs

Stink Bugs

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

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

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

Mice base their natural behavior on changing temperatures. During the spring and summer, mice spend more time living outside. They build nests inside trees, underground burrows, and inside overgrown shrubs. As temperatures drop, they spend more time inside. When inside a home, they rarely spend time on the floor. They usually live on top of the foundation and inside the void above the basement ceiling. Mice do not hibernate, and if they have a nest inside during the winter, they will continue to breed. One mouse is capable of having 2-10 litters a year.

Our mouse seal-up service is the most effective in the pest control industry. We stand behind our service by also offering one of the best warranties in the industry. The type of warranty depends on the limitations of the home. If the home has 0 limitations, we give a full 2-year warranty. Some examples of limitations include low decks and porches, cedar shakes, and townhomes. Our warranties start 30 days after a seal-up service. After 30 days, if mice are still inside, we will come back to seal the remaining entry points. 

Mouse Identification

Carpenter ants can vary between black and dark brown. They are one of the larger ants found in Minnesota.  Carpenter ants get their name from their attraction to rotted or water-damaged wood. They do not eat the wood; they chew small tunnels through it. The tunnels they chew are used to store their eggs, larvae, and food. The wet wood releases pheromones that attract the ants to the wood. 

Pavement ants are smaller than carpenter ants. Their nests are located under sidewalks, driveways, patios, and porches. They also live indoors in the winter. They have a very broad diet. To provide for their larvae, they find protein-based foods. They get protein from dead insects, seeds, meat, and pet food. The rest of the worker ants feed on foods with sugar and carbohydrates. These foods provide them with the energy they need to continue working. They feed on fruits, plant nectar, sugary human foods, and beverages.

Our Ant service comes with a full 1-year warranty. Each service uses a product with a delayed effect. It allows the worker ants that leave the nest to bring the product back inside the nest. Once inside, the product spreads. It takes 30 days for the product to get to every ant in the colony, including the queen. Without killing the queen, the colony will continue reproducing and infesting the home. Over-the-counter ant-killer products kill the ants too quickly and will only kill the ants roaming around the inside, and not the queen.

Ant Identification

The most common social wasps in Medina, Minnesota, include bald-faced hornets, paper wasps, and yellow jackets. Social wasps all build their nests from scratch each spring.  In the late spring and early summer, they start searching for places to build new nests. They find nest material from dried, unstained wood. It’s common to see wasps landing on wood decks, cedar shakes, and playsets. They chew thin layers off the wood and mix it with their saliva to make the papery material that their nests are made of. By the end of the summer, the queens stop reproducing workers and make new queens. The new queens then overwinter and start the process all over again.

We offer 2 different services for wasps. One service is designed to be preventative. The product we use sticks to the surface and stays effective for 2 months. Any wasp that lands on the treated areas will die before they can build a new nest. The second service we offer is to exterminate an active wasp nest.  For yellow jackets or bald-faced hornet nests, we use a product that doesn’t kill the wasps on contact. Instead, the product keeps them alive long enough to spread it to the rest of the colony living inside the nest. 

Wasp & Bee Identification

Most Minnesotans are scared of spiders. Luckily, there aren’t any venomous spiders to be scared of this far up north. The sighting of the venomous black widow is extremely rare. The rest of the spiders that live here aren’t dangerous. Spiders play an important role in Minnesota’s natural ecosystems. Without spiders, insects that spread diseases and destroy plants and crops will become overpopulated. Some of the more common insects they feed on are mosquitoes, ticks, flies, and moths.

Spiders thrive in areas where insects also thrive. Habitats, where insects thrive, include wooded habitats and ecosystems near bodies of water. Many insects, like mosquitoes, ticks, and flies, are all attraced to moisture and water. When spiders are seen inside homes, they are inside because the home has other insects for them to eat. Clearing out any leaf litter or trimming back plants and trees away from the house will keep insects from entering your home. 

Our spider service focuses on the exterior of the home. All the spiders that get inside the home find their way in from the outside. Our treatment focuses on treating around the soffits, foundation, corners, doors, and windows. When the product sticks to the surface of the home, it stays effective for 2 months. Before we treat the home, we first walk around the property to knock down any spider webs. This causes the spiders to start to move around. As they start moving, they will cross over our product and die.

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

Boxelder bugs hibernate inside homes in the winter. When the sun heats the windows and walls, their bodies warm up just enough to start moving around. When they are inside in the winter, they are not mating or laying eggs inside the home. They start mating in the late spring and summer when they leave the nest. They lay their eggs on the branches, bark, and leaves of the female boxelder trees. When the eggs hatch, the young nymphs feed on the helicopter seeds the tree produces. Adult boxelder bugs also feed on helicopter seeds, grass, and fruits.

Stink bugs are an invasive species that was first spotted in Minnesota in 2010. They can be found swarming toward buildings and homes searching for places to overwinter. They often make their way inside through chimneys and soffits high off the ground. Once inside, they don’t mate or lay eggs in the winter. They start mating and laying eggs in the spring and summer. They lay their eggs on various plants. Some of the most common include: grapes, sweet corn, tomatoes, and apples.

Our boxelder bug and stink bug service is in the fall. When we treat the home we spray the foundation up the soffits or as high as our backpack sprayers will reach (25-30ft). These bugs are both capable of flying and entering the home through small cracks high off of the ground. When the product sticks to the surface it stays effective for 2 months. It’s better to get the service done right before the swarms of them appear on the exterior of the home.

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, concerns, or want to schedule an appointment

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

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