Hear from Our Customers
You stop second-guessing every itch. You stop pulling back the sheets before bed. You stop wondering if that spot on the mattress means something. That’s what changes — and it’s worth more than most people realize until they’ve lived with the alternative.
Here’s what we’ve learned serving Russellville and Richfield Township: the older the home, the harder bed bugs are to find. The housing stock out here was built mostly between the 1950s and 1990s. That means aged baseboards, wall cavities with gaps, plumbing penetrations that were never sealed tight, and furniture that’s been in the family longer than anyone can remember. Bed bugs don’t need much space. They need time — and older homes give them plenty of places to disappear.
That’s exactly why the detection method matters before anything else. A human visual inspection has a 17–40% accuracy rate. That’s not a knock on anyone — it’s just the reality of trying to find something the size of an apple seed inside a wall cavity. Our K-9 team finds what human eyes can’t, which means the treatment you pay for is actually targeting the right places. No retreating the wrong rooms. No wondering if we got it all.
We’ve been operating in Genesee County since May 31, 2005. That’s two decades of serving the kinds of homes that make up Russellville — rural, owner-occupied, and built to last. Roger Chinault, who owns and runs First Choice Pest Control, has 26 years of hands-on pest control experience. He’s not managing from a distance. We built this business on the idea that the person who shows up at your door should actually know what they’re doing.
One thing that separates us from the larger regional providers is the technician model. You get the same trained professional assigned to your home, year after year. Not a rotating crew. Not a part-time hire filling a schedule gap. Someone who knows your property, knows your history, and knows what to look for the next time around. That kind of consistency is hard to find — and in a community like Russellville, where people value reliability, it matters.
We hold Integrated Pest Management (IPM) training credentials, have earned recognition from both Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor, and are fully licensed through the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
It starts with detection — and not the kind where someone walks through with a flashlight. We use a certified K-9 bed bug detection team to locate live bugs and viable eggs throughout your home. The dog can cover ground that no human inspector can access without tearing into walls, and it does so with 90–98% accuracy. That step alone changes everything, because you’re not treating based on assumptions. You’re treating based on confirmed findings.
Once the infestation is mapped, treatment is built around what was actually found — not a one-size-fits-all spray-and-hope approach. In Russellville homes, that often means paying close attention to baseboards, wall voids, older furniture joints, and the kinds of structural gaps that accumulate in homes built before modern construction standards. Our treatment plan accounts for all life stages of the infestation, including eggs, which is where a lot of DIY attempts fall short. Killing the adults without addressing the eggs just delays the problem by a few weeks.
After treatment, you’ll know what to expect and when. Follow-up is part of the process — bed bugs aren’t always resolved in a single visit depending on the severity, and we’re straightforward about that from the start. No contracts required, no pressure to commit to a long-term program you don’t need.
Ready to get started?
Our bed bug control service includes certified K-9 detection, targeted treatment across all confirmed areas, and follow-up to verify results. That’s the core of it. But what makes it different in practice is the level of attention that goes into each job — because no two homes are the same, and out here in Russellville, that’s especially true.
Russellville sits right in Genesee County, and Flint has ranked among the top 25 worst cities in the country for bed bug infestations in multiple Orkin reports. That regional pressure is real. Residents commuting into Flint for work, visiting McLaren Genesee or Hurley Medical Center, or picking up second-hand furniture at a local estate sale are all exposed to the same vectors that drive those numbers. We understand that context — and our treatment approach reflects it, not just for the current infestation but for reducing the likelihood of reintroduction.
We offer service for both residential and commercial properties. We also offer price matching for reasonable competitor rates — so if you’ve gotten a quote from another provider serving the Russellville area, bring it. Discounts are available for seniors, veterans, and first responders, which in a township with a median age of 44.5 and a strong tradition of community service, is something worth knowing. No binding contracts. No surprises.
The honest answer is that most people can’t tell for certain without professional detection — and that’s not a failure on their part. Bed bugs are small, fast, and exceptionally good at hiding in places that don’t get disturbed often. Common signs include small rust-colored stains on bedding, tiny dark spots along mattress seams or baseboards, a faint musty odor in the bedroom, or waking up with small red welts in a line or cluster. But none of those signs are definitive on their own.
This is where our canine detection makes a real difference. In Russellville homes — many of which were built between the 1950s and 1990s — there are simply more places for bed bugs to hide than in newer construction. Gaps behind baseboards, aging wall cavities, older furniture with loose joints — all of it creates cover. A certified K-9 inspection cuts through that uncertainty with 90–98% accuracy, giving you a confirmed answer before any money is spent on treatment. That’s the starting point, and it’s a much better one than guessing.
Yes — completely. This is one of the most common misconceptions about bed bugs in Michigan. People assume the cold winters do something to reduce infestations, but bed bugs are an indoor pest. They live where you live, at the temperatures you keep your home. A house in Russellville in January is still 68–72 degrees inside, and that’s more than warm enough for bed bugs to feed, breed, and spread.
Michigan winters don’t slow them down. If anything, colder months can accelerate detection because people spend more time indoors and are more likely to notice signs they might otherwise overlook during busier seasons. The infestation doesn’t pause for winter — and neither should the response. If you’re seeing signs of bed bugs in November or February, that’s not a reason to wait until spring. The longer an infestation goes untreated, the more rooms it can spread to, and the more complex — and costly — the treatment becomes.
Because most over-the-counter products kill adult bed bugs on contact but don’t address eggs. Bed bug eggs are resistant to most consumer-grade sprays, which means you can eliminate the visible population and feel like the problem is solved — right up until the eggs hatch two to three weeks later and the cycle starts over. It’s one of the most frustrating parts of dealing with this pest, and it’s why so many people end up calling a professional after spending money on store products first.
There’s also the issue of scatter. When bed bugs are disturbed by a partial treatment, they move. They go deeper into wall voids, migrate to adjacent rooms, or hide in furniture you haven’t treated yet. What started as a bedroom problem can spread to a guest room or living room simply because the bugs were pushed rather than eliminated. Our professional treatment is designed around all life stages — eggs, nymphs, and adults — and accounts for the hiding patterns specific to the type of home you have. In older Russellville homes, that matters more than most people realize.
The cost varies depending on the size of your home, the severity of the infestation, and how many areas need to be treated. A single-room treatment in a smaller home will run significantly less than a whole-house treatment for a larger property with a well-established infestation. That range can span anywhere from a few hundred dollars on the lower end to over a thousand for more complex jobs — which is exactly why getting a proper inspection first is so important. You shouldn’t be paying for treatment in rooms that don’t need it.
We offer price matching for reasonable competitor rates, so if you’ve already gotten a quote from another provider serving the Russellville area, you can bring that number to the conversation. The goal is to give you an accurate scope of work based on what the K-9 inspection actually finds, not an inflated estimate based on worst-case assumptions. Discounts are also available for seniors, veterans, and first responders, which can meaningfully reduce the out-of-pocket cost for qualifying Russellville residents.
It depends on the treatment method being used. Some approaches require you to vacate the home for a period of time — typically several hours — while others allow you to remain with minimal disruption. Our technician will walk you through exactly what’s required before treatment begins, including any preparation steps for the specific rooms being treated, how long to stay out if needed, and when it’s safe to return to treated areas.
For households with young children, elderly residents, or pets — all common in Russellville’s homeowning demographic — preparation instructions are especially important to follow carefully. Things like washing and bagging bedding, removing clutter from treated areas, and temporarily relocating pets during treatment make a real difference in how effective the service is. We’ll give you a clear, specific list of what to do before the technician arrives so there’s no confusion on the day of service. The more prepared the home is, the better the treatment performs.
Yes. We offer discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders. Russellville has a median age of 44.5 years — noticeably higher than both Genesee County and the state average — and a meaningful portion of the community includes retired residents and those who have served in the military or in public service roles. These aren’t token gestures. They reflect a straightforward recognition that the people who have spent decades building and protecting communities like Russellville deserve a fair deal when they need professional help in their home.
If you or someone in your household qualifies, just mention it when you call. The discount applies to bed bug control services, and combined with our price-matching guarantee, it’s one of the more practical ways we keep professional pest control accessible to Russellville-area residents who might otherwise hesitate on cost alone. No complicated enrollment, no paperwork — just ask when you reach out.
Local Resources
Useful Links
