Hear from Our Customers
You didn’t move to East Highland to spend the summer swatting mosquitoes off your deck or worrying about what’s getting into your walls. But between Duck Lake, the wetlands along Duck Lake Road, and 5,900 acres of Highland Recreation Area right on your back doorstep, the pest pressure here is genuinely different from most of Oakland County. The water, the woods, and the wildlife don’t stop at your property line.
Mosquitoes breed in standing water, and with 26 lakes across Highland Township, that’s not a seasonal nuisance — it’s a consistent seasonal problem. Deer ticks come with the trail access. Mice and voles migrate from the recreation area edges into homes every fall. Carpenter ants thrive in the mature trees and moisture-rich conditions that come with lake-adjacent lots. These aren’t random problems. They’re predictable, local, and very fixable with the right approach.
When you work with a licensed exterminator who actually knows East Highland, you get a treatment plan built around what’s actually happening on your property — not a generic package designed for a different kind of neighborhood. The result is fewer pest issues throughout the year, a yard you can actually use, and a home that stays protected season to season.
First Choice Pest Control was founded on May 31, 2005 — and in 2025, we celebrate 20 years of continuous, family-owned operation serving southeast Michigan, including Oakland County communities like East Highland. Roger, our owner, brings 26 years of hands-on pest control experience to every job. That’s not a corporate bio line — that’s two and a half decades of knowing what actually works in Michigan homes and on East Highland properties specifically.
We hold MDARD Pesticide Application Business License #250081, valid for Oakland County operations, along with a Nuisance Animal Control License that covers the wildlife pressure East Highland residents deal with from the Highland Recreation Area. Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor awards reflect the kind of consistent service quality that earns repeat customers, not one-time transactions.
What sets us apart in a market full of national chains isn’t a slogan. It’s that the same technician comes back to your home year after year. They know your property. They know your history. And they’re not a part-time student filling a route — they’re a career professional who takes this work seriously.
It starts with a thorough inspection of your property. Every home in East Highland is different — a lakefront property on Duck Lake has different entry points and moisture conditions than a wooded lot backing up to the recreation area or a newer subdivision home on freshly disturbed soil. The inspection is how your technician figures out exactly what’s going on before anything is applied.
From there, we build a personalized pest control program around your specific situation. We use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods, which means treatments are targeted, applied only where needed, and designed to minimize exposure to your family, pets, and the surrounding environment. For families with kids playing in the yard or horses on equestrian properties — which are more common in Highland Township than almost anywhere else in the county — that matters.
Once the initial treatment is complete, your program is maintained on a schedule that accounts for the seasonal pest patterns specific to this area. Mosquitoes and ticks peak from late spring through early fall. Rodent pressure picks up in September as temperatures drop and mice migrate from the recreation area edges. Carpenter ants emerge in spring. Your technician knows when to show up and what to look for — and because it’s the same person every visit, they’re not starting over from scratch each time.
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We handle the full range of pest challenges that come with living in western Oakland County. General pest control covers ants, spiders, wasps, stink bugs, and the cluster flies and boxelder bugs that work their way into wall voids every fall and emerge in late winter. Rodent control addresses the mice and voles that consistently migrate from the Highland Recreation Area into homes along Duck Lake Road and throughout the township. Wildlife removal is covered under a separate Nuisance Animal Control License, so raccoons, squirrels, and groundhogs are handled properly and legally.
Our mosquito program includes flea and tick treatment at no additional charge — which is a meaningful difference for East Highland families who use the recreation area trails, have children playing in wooded yards, or own horses with trail access. Michigan’s Lyme disease cases have risen sharply in recent years, and tick control here isn’t an upsell. It’s a legitimate health consideration for anyone spending time outdoors in this community.
For bed bug concerns, we’re one of fewer than 100 companies in the entire United States offering certified canine detection — achieving 90 to 98 percent accuracy in locating live bugs and eggs inside walls, outlets, and furniture that a human inspection would miss entirely. We offer discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders, and we’ll match any reasonable competitor’s rate. Every program is built around your specific property — not a one-size-fits-all package.
East Highland sits in one of the most mosquito-prone environments in Oakland County. Highland Township contains 26 lakes covering nearly 1,500 acres of water, and Duck Lake alone is 253 acres. Add the wetland areas adjacent to the Highland Recreation Area and the natural low-lying depressions common to this morainic terrain, and you have ideal mosquito breeding conditions from May through September. Standing water doesn’t have to be a pond — a clogged gutter, a decorative feature, or a low spot in the yard is enough.
Professional mosquito treatment breaks the breeding cycle rather than just knocking down adult populations temporarily. Our mosquito program treats the areas where mosquitoes rest and breed, and it includes flea and tick treatment at no extra charge — which is particularly relevant here given the recreation area’s high deer population and Michigan’s documented rise in Lyme disease cases over the past several years. If you’re spending time outdoors in East Highland, a single program covers three of the most common warm-weather threats at once.
Carpenter ants are larger than most common ants — typically a quarter inch to half an inch long — and they’re often black or dark brown. The bigger tell is where you find them. If you’re seeing large ants near window frames, door frames, baseboards, or anywhere close to wood that stays damp, that’s a carpenter ant situation until proven otherwise. You might also find small piles of frass — a sawdust-like material — near wood structures, which indicates active tunneling.
In East Highland, carpenter ant pressure is higher than average because of the wooded lot conditions throughout the area. Mature trees, wood decks, and the moisture that comes with lake-adjacent properties create exactly the environment carpenter ants look for. They don’t eat wood the way termites do, but they hollow it out to nest — and over time, that causes real structural damage. The earlier you catch it, the simpler and less expensive it is to resolve. A licensed exterminator can confirm the species and identify the moisture source that’s attracting them, which is the real fix.
The honest answer is that year-round coverage is more effective than treating one season at a time, because pest pressure in East Highland doesn’t follow a single calendar. Spring is when carpenter ants emerge from overwintering sites and stinging insects start building nests. Summer is peak mosquito and tick season, especially near Duck Lake and the recreation area trails. Fall is when mice and voles begin migrating from the wooded recreation area edges into homes as temperatures drop. Winter is when rodents that entered in fall are most active indoors, and bed bugs have no season at all.
If you’re starting from scratch, the most impactful time to begin is late winter or early spring — before the seasonal activity ramps up. That gives your technician a chance to inspect the property, identify entry points, and set up a program before the first wave of problems hits. Starting in the middle of an active infestation is always harder and more expensive than preventing it from establishing in the first place.
This is one of the most common questions from East Highland homeowners, and it’s a fair one. We use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods, which means treatments are applied in targeted locations using the least toxic effective product for the situation. The goal is to eliminate the pest problem without unnecessary chemical exposure to the people, animals, and environment around the treated area.
For families with children, dogs, or cats, your technician will walk you through any post-treatment precautions — typically a brief period before re-entering treated areas, depending on what was applied and where. For equestrian properties, which are more common in Highland Township than almost anywhere else in Michigan, the same principle applies: targeted, responsible application that accounts for the animals on the property. If you have specific concerns about a product, ask. A career professional with 26 years of experience can give you a straight answer about what’s being used and why — not a scripted reassurance.
Canine bed bug detection uses a trained dog — certified to the same standard as detection dogs used in other professional fields — to locate the scent of live bed bugs and viable eggs. The accuracy rate is 90 to 98 percent, which is significantly higher than what a human visual inspection achieves. Bed bugs can hide inside wall voids, behind electrical outlets, inside furniture joints, and in spaces that are physically impossible to inspect by sight. A trained dog doesn’t need to see them — it can smell a single bug through a wall.
East Highland residents travel. Oakland County International Airport is about 17 minutes from the area, and the community’s income level correlates with more frequent travel — hotels, vacation rentals, and airline seats are all common exposure points. If you come home from a trip and have a concern, or if you’ve purchased used furniture and want certainty, canine detection gives you a definitive answer rather than a best guess. We’re one of fewer than 100 companies in the entire country offering this capability. Most exterminators in the area simply don’t have it.
Yes — we offer discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders. Highland Township has a strong community identity, and a meaningful portion of residents in the area include retired homeowners on fixed incomes and veterans who’ve settled in the township for its quality of life, outdoor access, and proximity to Oakland County’s amenities. These discounts aren’t a footnote — they’re a straightforward acknowledgment that these residents deserve straightforward value from the companies they hire.
If you or someone in your household qualifies, mention it when you call. We also offer price matching for reasonable competitor rates, so if you’ve gotten a quote from another licensed exterminator serving the East Highland area and it’s lower, bring it up. The combination of a 20-year track record, the same technician every visit, certified canine bed bug detection, and IPM-trained professionals is a difficult comparison to make against a national chain — but the price doesn’t have to be the reason you settle for less.
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