Pest Control in Inver Grove Heights, MN

When the fields are cut, what heads for the house?

Harvest strips the cover from a field. As nights cool, mice, voles and sometimes rats look for new ground, and the houses at the edge of a subdivision are the nearest. They travel along fence rows, drainage ditches and the line of a gravel drive. Mice are often reported moving in from about October, but the real date follows the weather and the harvest.

A technician looks at the boundary between field and lot. Is there tall grass up to the foundation? A woodpile against the wall? A shed with feed? Vole and field mouse control deals with animals that stay in the lawn, and mouse control deals with those that come indoors.

Farmsteads and larger lots

An older farmstead house usually comes with outbuildings: a barn, a machine shed, a granary. Each is a shelter for rodents, and each is a short run from the kitchen door. Rats can colonise feed storage if it is left open, and mice use anything dry.

Squirrels, raccoons and bats are also found on larger lots, where tree lines meet roofs. A call for any of these may require a look at several buildings, not just the house. See rat control and squirrel and raccoon exclusion. Tell the dispatcher what buildings you have.

River bottoms, ponds and mosquitoes

The river bottoms and the ponds in newer subdivisions hold standing water, and mosquitoes use it from spring through summer. The Metropolitan Mosquito Control District covers Dakota County among its seven, with crews on public wetlands until about October. Draining your own containers and cleaning gutters finishes the job the district leaves. For a yard treatment see mosquito control.

Industrial and rail land along the river

Businesses beside rail lines and in older industrial buildings see rodents more than most. Docks, drains and rail beds offer cover, and food-processing or storage sites offer a reason to stay. A commercial pest control route with tamper-resistant stations and written notes is the usual approach, and managers can ask what the technician found at each visit.

Sunny walls on any building collect boxelder bugs and Asian lady beetles in October; sealing in autumn is the lever, per University of Minnesota Extension.

What a winter looks like at the edge of the fields

Snow lies on the fields, cover is gone and food is scarce. Anything that is still outdoors is hunting for shelter, and the animals that came in earlier are settled. In a house at the city edge, that means mice in the walls and the attic and occasionally a rat in the garage or the outbuilding.

Snow also protects voles. They move in tunnels under the snow, feeding on grass and bark, and the damage is revealed in March or April. University of Minnesota Extension says grass usually recovers slowly while woody plants can be killed, so protect young trees and shrubs with guards before the snow, not after the melt. Our guide on voles under the snow explains the signs.

If you notice droppings in a feed bin or a gnawed corner of a shed in January, call. Winter is a hard time to trap outdoors, but indoors a technician can place traps and monitors where you can keep checking them.

Newer subdivisions and what they share

In the subdivisions from the 1960s onward, most houses have basements, an attached garage and similar siding. The same weak points repeat from one house to the next, so a pattern in one block often turns up in the next. Garage door seals, dryer vents and pipe sleeves are the first to check. A neighbor who has had a mouse problem is a reason to look at your own garage.