Hear from Our Customers
The worst part about bed bugs isn’t the bites. It’s not knowing how far they’ve spread. In a large, multi-bedroom home on a wooded lot off Hickory Ridge Road, an infestation can quietly move through two or three rooms before you ever connect the dots. By the time most people call, they’ve already lost weeks to DIY sprays that didn’t work and internet rabbit holes that made everything more confusing.
When treatment is done right, you stop waking up anxious. You stop inspecting the mattress every morning. You stop wondering if the guest room is safe for your kids. That mental weight lifts — and it lifts fast when the problem is actually solved, not just partially treated.
Highland Township’s lake community lifestyle is part of what makes Hickory Ridge such a great place to live. It’s also what creates a steady stream of guests, travel, and overnight stays — all of which are documented ways bed bugs move from place to place. Hickory Ridge homes tend to be large, private, and owner-occupied, which means an untreated infestation isn’t just uncomfortable — it’s a real threat to a property you’ve invested in. Getting it handled completely, the first time, is what protects that investment.
We founded First Choice Pest Control on May 31, 2005 — which means in 2025, we’re celebrating 20 years of serving Southeast Michigan, including Oakland County communities like Hickory Ridge and Highland Township. Roger, who leads the company, brings 26 years of hands-on pest control experience to every job. That’s not a number on a website — it’s the kind of depth that changes how a problem gets solved.
This isn’t a franchise with rotating regional managers. We’re a family-owned operation where the same trained technician comes to your home year after year. No part-time help, no strangers cycling through your property. The technician who treats your home on Hickory Ridge Road will know your layout, your history, and your household the next time you call.
We hold Integrated Pest Management credentials, have earned recognition from both Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor, and offer discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders — because the people who’ve given the most to this community deserve a company that gives something back.
It starts with detection — and this is where most companies get it wrong. A standard visual inspection misses the majority of an infestation. Human eyes catch bed bugs at a rate of 17 to 40 percent accuracy. We use a certified canine detection team, which finds live bugs and viable eggs with 90 to 98 percent accuracy. The dogs locate bed bugs behind walls, inside electrical outlets, under flooring, and inside furniture joints — places no inspector can access without tearing your home apart. In a large Hickory Ridge home with multiple bedrooms and older construction features common to the area, this matters enormously.
Once detection is complete, you get a clear picture of what you’re actually dealing with — which rooms are affected, how far it’s spread, and what treatment approach makes sense. We build a plan specific to your home, not a one-size protocol pulled off a shelf. Treatment is then carried out by your assigned technician, using IPM-based methods that are effective and appropriate for the size and layout of your property.
After treatment, you’ll know what to watch for and when to expect a follow-up. The goal isn’t just to knock the population down — it’s to eliminate it. That means follow-through matters, and we stay in contact until the job is done.
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The canine detection program is the headline — and for good reason. We are one of fewer than 100 companies in the entire United States offering certified K-9 bed bug detection. In the Highland Township and Oakland County market specifically, none of the competing pest control companies identified in local searches offer this capability. That’s not a small gap. When you’re treating a 4-bedroom home near Fish Lake and you need to know exactly where the infestation is before spending money on treatment, that gap is everything.
Beyond detection, every service is built around your specific property. We don’t use binding contracts — you’re never locked into anything. If you find a reasonable competitor rate, we’ll match it. And because the same technician handles your account year after year, the person treating your home actually knows it. That consistency matters in a private, close-knit community like Hickory Ridge, where trust isn’t something you extend to a stranger who shows up with a company logo on a shirt.
We serve both residential and commercial customers across our Southeast Michigan service area, and we’re fully licensed under Michigan’s MDARD requirements. Whether you’re a homeowner along the Clyde Road corridor or managing a commercial property near the M-59 business district in Highland Township, the service level doesn’t change.
Bed bugs don’t move in because a home is dirty — they move in because people travel, and travel is unavoidable. Hickory Ridge residents commute regularly to Southfield, Pontiac, and through Detroit Metropolitan Airport, which means hotel stays and business travel are part of life here. Every hotel room is a potential exposure point. Seasonal guests visiting Highland Township’s lake communities bring their luggage, and luggage is one of the most common ways bed bugs enter a home. Even a weekend trip to visit family can be enough.
The size and character of homes in this area also plays a role. Larger homes with multiple guest rooms, finished basements, and older construction features give bed bugs more places to hide and more time to spread before anyone notices. A well-kept home isn’t immune — it’s just a comfortable environment for an infestation to grow quietly. Knowing the risk exists is the first step toward catching it early.
Yes — completely. This is one of the most common misconceptions among Michigan homeowners. People assume the cold winters in Highland Township and the surrounding Oakland County area will naturally kill off any infestation. They won’t. Bed bugs live indoors, in heated spaces, and Michigan’s winters have zero effect on a population living inside your walls, mattress, or furniture. They don’t go dormant. They don’t die off. They keep feeding and reproducing at the same rate year-round.
What Michigan winters actually do is keep people indoors longer, which means an infestation that arrived in October during fall travel season can go undetected for months inside a warm, fully occupied home. By the time it’s noticed in February or March, it’s had all winter to spread. There’s no seasonal off-ramp for this problem — if bed bugs are in your home, they need to be addressed regardless of what time of year it is.
The difference is significant. A trained human inspector conducting a visual inspection finds bed bugs at an accuracy rate of roughly 17 to 40 percent. A certified canine detection team operates at 90 to 98 percent accuracy. Dogs can detect live bed bugs and viable eggs using scent — which means they find infestations behind walls, inside electrical outlets, under carpeting, and inside furniture joints that no human eye could ever reach without demolition.
For a large home in Hickory Ridge — the kind of multi-bedroom, multi-room property common to this area — this difference is especially meaningful. If a standard inspection misses 60 to 80 percent of an infestation and treatment is applied based on that incomplete picture, you’re not solving the problem. You’re treating part of it and leaving the rest to continue spreading. Canine detection gives you an accurate map of what you’re actually dealing with before any treatment begins, which makes everything that follows more effective and more efficient.
There’s no universal answer, and any company that gives you a guaranteed one-treatment quote before they’ve seen your home is oversimplifying. The number of treatments depends on the size of the infestation, how far it’s spread, the layout of the home, and how thorough the initial detection was. In larger homes — which are the norm in Hickory Ridge and throughout Highland Township — infestations that have gone undetected for several months may require more than one treatment cycle to fully eliminate.
What matters most is starting with accurate detection. When you know exactly where the infestation is concentrated, treatment can be targeted and effective rather than broad and speculative. We use canine detection to map the infestation before treatment begins, which reduces the likelihood of missed areas and follow-up treatments driven by incomplete information. After treatment, your technician will monitor and follow up to confirm the infestation has been eliminated — not just reduced.
It depends on the treatment method being used. Some approaches — particularly certain chemical treatments — require residents and pets to vacate for a period of time following application. Your technician will walk you through exactly what’s needed before treatment begins, including how long to stay out, how to prepare the home, and what to do with items like bedding, clothing, and furniture. None of this should catch you off guard on treatment day.
We’ll give you clear, specific preparation instructions ahead of time so you know exactly what to expect. For families in Hickory Ridge with children in Huron Valley Schools or pets, this preparation guidance matters. Knowing the timeline in advance — and having a technician who communicates it clearly — removes a lot of the stress from an already stressful situation. If you have questions specific to your household, ask when you call. The answers will be direct and honest, not vague.
Yes. We offer discounts for senior citizens, military veterans, and first responders. Highland Township has a meaningful population of residents who fall into one or more of these categories — retired professionals, veterans who settled in the area for its quality of life and Huron Valley Schools, and first responders serving Oakland County communities. If you or someone in your household qualifies, mention it when you call and ask about the discount.
We also offer price matching for reasonable competitor rates. So if you’ve already gotten a quote from another pest control company serving the Highland Township area, bring it to the conversation. The goal is to make sure cost isn’t what stands between you and getting the problem handled by the most qualified team available — one with 26 years of experience, a certified K-9 detection program, and a 20-year track record in Southeast Michigan.
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