Common pests in Minneapolis, 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)

Most homes in Minneapolis have had mice living inside. It just comes with the seasons. When temperatures begin to drop mice will start looking for places to keep warm. They do not hibernate and will stay active all year long. This also goes for breeding. Mice do not have a breeding season. One female mouse is capable of having between 1-10 litters in one year. With each litter capable of birthing 2-8 pups. A mouse problem not taken care of right away can get out of hand quickly!

BOGO offers a seal-up mouse service. Our technicians are thorough, knowledgeable, and successful in keeping mice out of homes and businesses. Before the seal-up is scheduled, we conduct an inspection. We walk around the home looking for entry points, signs of mouse activity, and limitations. We are honest and set realistic expectations. If the home has structural damage, we will say what needs to be fixed before solving the mouse problem. After the inspection and quote, if the customer decides to move forward, we will seal up the home. The products we use are construction-grade, making it impossible for mice to chew through them. 

Minnesota Mouse Identification

Ants can be misidentified as termites. Termites cannot survive in states with long winters. There are key differences between winged ants and winged termites. Termites have rectangular-shaped bodies, while ants’ bodies are broken up into three parts. A head, thorax, and abdomen. Termites have different wings and antennas. Their wings are all the same size, while ants have 2 symmetric,l larger wings and 2 symmetric, smaller wings. Ants’ antennas are different in that they are longer and elbowed. Termite antennas are straight and shorter.

All ants have similarities in how they behave. From their diet, nesting locations, and how they breed. For a majority of ants, their diets focus on foraging for foods containing sugar and protein. They receive sugar from eating juices inside fruits and honeydew. Their source of protein is satisfied by eating other insects, but they will also get it from meat and seeds. Their nests can vary in location, but most outdoor nests are underground or underneath rocks, logs, or inside trees. Inside homes, their nests are located in areas with high moisture. Inside basements, under baseboards, and in the foundation.

BOGO offers ant services for every season in Minneapolis. Some ants stay active in the middle of winter. In the winter, we do an interior treatment. In the spring/summer, we spray a barrier around the exterior. This barrier keeps any foraging ants from getting inside. Worker ants move into the home to forage for food to bring back to the nest. Both treatments, whether interior or exterior, take 30 days to exterminate any nests inside or outside the home.

Minnesota Ant Identification

Paper wasps are commonly found around homes in Minneapolis. They are built in areas where they can stay dry when it rains. Each nest shows a hexagonal pattern on the outside. The nests are made out of paper pulp that is harvested from unstained, dried-out wood. The wasps will land on the wood to chew on it and mix it with their saliva to bring it back to the nest. The nests are not reused. They will build a new nest each spring.

Yellow jackets are the most aggressive wasps in Minneapolis. Their nests vary in location, size, and material. Their nests can be found underground, inside buildings, and in aerial nests. They do not reuse nests the following year. These wasps become more aggressive at the end of summer. When temperatures decrease, so does their food. You will commonly find these wasps foraging around human food at this time of year.

The wasp service we provide is based on science and safety. Social wasps live in colonies where only the foraging wasps leave the nest. The rest stay behind and help with feeding the larva and queen. It’s important to use a spray that allows the foraging wasps to bring the product back to spread it throughout the rest of the colony. Over-the-counter products will kill the wasps before they get back to the nest.

Minnesota Wasp & Bee Identification

In Minneapolis, spiders behave in similar ways. There are web-building spiders, and there are hunting spiders. The web-building spiders build nests to trap flying insects inside the nest for the spider to eat. Some of the most common web-building spiders in Minneapolis are: the common house spider, the harvestman (aka. daddy long-legs), the garden spider (in photo), and the common house spider. Hunting spiders hunt for their food instead of building a web. These spiders include the wolf spider, the jumping spider, and the sac spider.

Spiders are drawn to the same environments. They are drawn to environments that attract a large number of insects for them to eat. Insects are drawn to bodies of water such as lakes, marshes, and ponds. There is also an abundance of insects for them to eat in wooded habitats. Homes that are near any of these ecosystems will have an increase in spider activity.

Our spider removal service in Minneapolis is focused on the exterior of the home. We will first ensure any cobwebs are knocked down to the best of our ability. We are restricted by how high our brush can reach. The product we use on the outside of the home will stick to the surface for 2 months. After 2 months, the product loses its effect. These treatments are designed to kill any spiders before getting inside or are able to build more cobwebs. By only treating the outside, there will be a significant decline in the population of spiders inside the home. Homes that are near bodies of water or wooded habitats may require multiple services to provide the home with a continual barrier.

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

Boxelder bugs are commonly seen clustering on homes and buildings in the fall in Minneapolis. The clustering happens in the fall when the temperatures start to drop. As it gets colder, the bugs are driven to locate a place to overwinter. On certain sunnier days in the winter, the walls, roof, and windows get warm enough to allow some boxelder bugs to become active. The bugs that are inside for the winter do not lay eggs or breed. They do not start breeding until late spring. They breed and lay their eggs inside female boxelder trees. They also feed on the helicopter seeds that those trees produce.

Stink bugs are an invasive species from Asia. They were first spotted in Minneapolis in 2010. Since then they have spread all across the state. These bugs spend winter inside attics and chimneys. Like boxelder bugs, they do not mate or lay eggs in the middle of winter. In the spring, they move to agricultural fields. They feed on tomatoes, apples, grapes, and sweet corn. They lay eggs on the leaves of various plants in the late spring and summer. As the temperatures drop, they fly to look for buildings and homes to overwinter.

BOGO’s boxelder and stink bug treatments are more effective when done at the beginning of the fall season. It’s important to get the treatment on before the bugs start landing on the home. As the swarms become more visible, there is most likely a population already inside. The treatment, when placed on the exterior of the home, will absorb into the siding and foundation and stay effective for 2 months. Our techs also spray as much of the house as possible. Every inch of the foundation and as high up on the siding as our backpack sprayers will reach.

Read Our Blog: “Minnesota Fall Pests”

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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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