Pest Control in Eden Prairie, MN

Ponds everywhere: what that means for summer

Retention ponds and wetlands are part of how a suburb like this handles rain, and they are also a source of mosquitoes. The Metropolitan Mosquito Control District treats public wetlands across the seven counties from spring to about October. Small private water, such as a clogged gutter, a rain barrel without a screen, a kids' wading pool or a buried drain, is what you manage yourself.

After a wet year the season has run heavy, and news reports have described a resurgence in fall when warm weather follows heavy rain. A yard treatment, described on the mosquito control page, supplements draining rather than replacing it.

Ponds also bring wildlife near homes. Geese, muskrats and raccoons use the edges; raccoons especially will test a deck, a trash can or a loose vent.

Are newer houses really safe from mice?

Safer, not safe. A 1990s two-story has a tighter foundation than a 1920s bungalow, but mice need about a quarter inch. They find it at garage doors with worn seals, where plumbing and gas lines pass through the rim, at dryer vents and around the sliding door of a walkout basement.

The pattern is autumn: nights cool and mice look for warmth. Boxelder bugs and Asian lady beetles arrive on sunny walls at the same time. In a subdivision where every house has the same siding and the same weak points, one neighbor's problem often shows up in the next house. See mouse control for what a technician checks first.

Voles in the lawn, ants in the deck

Subdivision lawns are large, and voles love them under snow. University of Minnesota Extension describes damage that shows after the melt, with runways in the grass and chewed bark on shrubs; the grass usually recovers slowly, but woody plants can die. Mulch pulled back from the base of trees and shrubs helps. Vole and field mouse control covers how the work is approached.

Carpenter ants work moist wood, such as a deck ledger or a window frame where flashing has failed. They restart in spring. The page on carpenter ant control explains why finding the moisture matters more than spraying the ants you can see.

Apartments and townhome associations

Townhomes and apartment complexes bring a different decision-maker. An association or manager usually arranges pest control for common areas and sometimes for units, so check your documents before calling. Shared walls let ants and cockroaches cross between units, and a coordinated schedule works better than separate ones.

For a manager, general pest control on a seasonal schedule, with a visit before the autumn move-in and another at the spring thaw, fits the calendar better than an even spread across the year.

What the river valley adds

The south edge of the city drops toward the Minnesota River valley, with bluffs and floodplain woods below. That brings the usual woodland animals: squirrels in the trees, raccoons along the creek and deer in the yards. Homes backing onto these edges see more wildlife at the deck and the trash than homes in the middle of a subdivision.

For the house, the question is whether an animal has already found a way in. Look for scratching on fascia boards, chewed vent screens and a dark stain on insulation. Do not enter a dark attic to check; call and describe what you saw.