Common Pests in New Brighton, 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 

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Mice are dependent on the weather and temperature in New Brighton, Minnesota. In the winter, they are drawn indoors due to the cold. In the summer, mice can be found entering homes during heat waves to feel cooler. When mice build nests inside homes, they often nest inside insulation. It’s a myth that insulation needs to be replaced that is infested by mice. The diseases and breathing problems are only going to affect someone who is inside the insulation, forcing the urine and fecal particles airborne. Mice can multiply quickly while living in temperature-controlled areas. They do not have a breeding season and will have 2-10 litters a year if their nests are protected from the weather and predators.

Most mouse services in the pest control industry use poison. Using poison will only kill the mice inside the home. The poison itself won’t keep the mice from getting inside. Our mouse service is effective because we focus on sealing all the entry points from the outside. The materials we use to seal these entry points are long-lasting and often backed up with multiple sealants. We make sure the mice have no chance of chewing through our seals. After sealing the house from the outside, we set traps up inside. The snap traps we set up will catch any mice living inside that can no longer get out. After the seal-up is done, it takes 30 days to catch all the mice trapped inside the home.

Minnesota Mouse Identification 

Carpenter ants can sometimes be seen with wings. The ants that have wings are male and female ants. These ants mate together in the late spring and summer. That mating ritual is known as nuptial flight. After mating the male dies and the female flies to locate a new nest site. The female lays her first few eggs and eats her wings to give her larvae the protein they need to grow into worker ants. The worker ants will leave the nest to forage for protein and sugar-based foods. The protein foods are given to the larvae and the sugar-based foods are eaten by the worker ants.

Pavement ants can also be seen with wings. Seeing winged pavement ants inside most likely means there is a pavement ant nest inside the home. In the summer the ants are mostly foraging ants. Foraging ants will come inside to find food and bring it back to their nests outside. These ants have large diets and are attracted to any food that is spilled or dropped on the floor. They are attracted to human foods like jam, cereal, juice, and others. These sugary foods provide the worker ants with the energy necessary for them to continue working towards benefiting their ant colony.

The ant services we provide in New Brighton are interior and exterior treatments. The interior service we provide is done in the winter or for severe infestations. During this service, we use a foam product that fills cracks and crevices the ants are crawling out of. During the spring and summer, we apply the product on the exterior of the home. We treat around the foundation and ground that touches the home. This product and the interior product both have the same effect. The ants that cross over it carry it back to their nests outside. Once the product reaches the nest, the foraging ants spread it to the rest of the ants in the colony. Only around 10% of ants ever leave the nest; the rest stay underground, hidden and protected from any over-the-counter ant killer products.

Minnesota Ant Identification

The most common social wasps in New Brighton, MN are: paper wasps, yellow jackets, and bald-faced hornets. Each wasp builds its nest from scratch every spring. The papery material of their nests is found in dried-out wood. They chew thin layers of wood and mix it with their saliva. The foraging wasps that leave the nest search for protein-based foods to feed the larvae. They get most of their protein from insects, meat, and various human foods. The worker wasps feed on sugary foods to provide them with the energy they need to support the colony. 

The wasp services we provide are for preventing wasps from building nests and exterminating active wasp nests. The preventative service consists of us spraying around the soffits, foundation, doors, and windows. The product sticks to the surface. Any wasps that land on the treated surface will die before they can build a new nest. We use a different product for exterminating active wasp nests. For large wasp nests, we use a product that doesn’t kill the wasps on contact. The product allows the foraging wasps that leave the nest to stay alive long enough to carry it back inside the nest to spread it across the entire colony. It can take at least 2 weeks to exterminate an entire wasp nest.

Minnesota Wasp & Bee Identification

Spiders in New Brighton serve an important role in keeping the ecosystems healthy. Spiders feed on insects that spread diseases and damage plants and trees. Without spiders, these insects would become overpopulated and hurt the habitats and ecosystems they live in. Spiders either catch their prey in webs or hunt. The most common web-building spiders are: cellar spiders, common house spiders, and harvestman spiders (aka daddy long-legs). Spiders that don’t build webs hunt for their prey. The common hunting spiders are: wolf spiders, jumping spiders, and sac spiders.

Spiders are attracted to habitats that provide them with the most insects to eat. These habitats are often near bodies of water or wooded habitats. Insects that live near water include mosquitoes, ticks, flies, and beetles. A variety of moisture pests are attracted to wooded habitats. Insects live underneath leaf litter, helping break down dead organic matter. A few of these insects include: silverfish, springtails, ants, and sowbugs. Spiders will also follow these insects into parts of homes with high moisture.

Our spider service uses a product that stays effective for 2 months after sticking to the surface. Keep any pets and kids off the exterior of the home for at least an hour to let the product dry. This applies to our interior services as well. When we spray on the exterior, we spray around the foundation, windows, doors, soffits, and corners. When we do interior treatment, we mainly focus on unfinished rooms, corners, and under appliances and furniture. Most interior treatments are not necessary, as all the spiders inside the home came in from the outside. One interior service a year is more than enough. For homes that are near bodies of water and wooded habitats, multiple exterior treatments may be necessary to stay ahead of the spider life cycle.

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

Boxelder bugs in New Brighton are live around female boxelder trees. These trees produce helicopter seeds, which are their main source of food. They mate and lay their eggs on the leaves and branches of the trees. At the end of summer, boxelder bugs start searching for places to overwinter. They will cluster on the south side of homes and buildings to absorb the sun’s rays.  In the winter, the bugs that are inside may become active on sunny winter days. The sun warms up the windows, roof, and walls enough to wake them up. The active bugs in the winter do not mate or lay eggs inside the home.

Stink bugs in the spring and summer spend their time inside gardens and crop fields. They lay their eggs on the leaves of different plants and feed on the fruits and seeds the plants produce. The most common plants include: grapes, tomatoes, apples, and sweet corn. Their larvae hatch and feed on the leaves and other small aphids that land on the plant. At the end of the summer, they overwinter inside homes. They occupy spaces like attics, chimneys, and wall voids.  In the winter, some stink bugs will become active again due to the roof and windows warming up. These bugs will not mate or lay eggs inside homes in the winter.

Our New Brighton boxelder bug and stink bug removal service takes place in the fall. The fall is when both bugs start swarming toward buildings and homes. The service is significantly more effective when applied before the first frost. Once they are already visible on the siding, there is most likely a population of them inside. We treat each home from the foundation up to the soffits, or as high as our equipment 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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