Hear from Our Customers
You stop guessing. No more wondering if that scratching in the wall is a one-time thing or the start of something bigger. No more setting traps that catch one mouse while three more find the gap you didn’t know existed. When pest control is done right, you get your home back — and you stop thinking about it.
For homeowners in Newark and the surrounding Holly Township area, that peace of mind carries a little more weight. Your property borders real habitat. Seven Lakes State Park sits less than a mile away. The wooded lots, the lake edges, the brush lines — they’re beautiful, and they’re also exactly where carpenter ants, deer ticks, field mice, and mosquitoes thrive. Pest pressure here isn’t random. It’s seasonal, it’s predictable, and it needs a plan that accounts for where you actually live.
The right exterminator doesn’t just treat what’s visible. We look at your property the way a pest does — where’s the entry point, what’s attracting them, and what’s going to stop this from happening again next fall. That’s the difference between a one-time spray and a program that actually holds.
First Choice Pest Control is a family-owned business founded on May 31, 2005 — which means 2025 marks 20 years of protecting Michigan homes. Roger, our owner, has 26 years of hands-on pest control experience. This isn’t a franchise with a rotating crew. It’s a small operation where the people doing the work are career professionals, not part-time hires filling a summer schedule.
We serve residential and commercial customers across the region, including Newark and the broader Holly Township area in northern Oakland County. We’ve worked properties along the wooded corridors near Belford Road, dealt with the rodent pressure that comes every fall when temperatures drop, and handled the tick and mosquito calls that spike every summer when the park trails get busy. We know Newark because we’ve worked it.
You’ll have the same technician every visit. That’s not a selling point — it’s just how we operate. Someone who knows your property does better work than someone seeing it for the first time.
It starts with a real assessment. Before anything gets treated, your technician walks the property and looks at what’s actually happening — not just where you’ve seen activity, but where pests are likely entering, nesting, or staging. For homes in Newark, that often means checking the foundation perimeter, crawl spaces, wood contact points near tree lines, and any moisture-prone areas that attract carpenter ants or rodents coming in from the surrounding natural areas.
From there, we build a treatment plan around what your property actually needs. We’re IPM-trained, which means we use the least-toxic effective approach for each situation. Products go where they’re needed, not everywhere. If you have kids, pets, or you’re just mindful about what gets applied near a property that backs up to Oakland County parkland, that matters — and it’s built into how we work.
After treatment, you get a clear picture of what was done, what to expect in the days following, and what the follow-up plan looks like. If you’re on a recurring program — which most Newark homeowners with wooded lots benefit from — your same technician comes back on schedule, already knowing your property’s history. No re-explaining. No starting over.
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We handle the full range of pest problems Newark homeowners deal with — rodents, carpenter ants, mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, stinging insects, bed bugs, spiders, and wildlife intrusion. Our mosquito control program includes flea and tick treatment at no additional charge, which matters when you’re living near Seven Lakes State Park and your yard backs up to the kind of habitat where deer ticks are genuinely active from spring through fall.
For bed bug concerns, we’re one of fewer than 100 companies in the entire United States that offer certified canine detection. Our dogs locate single bugs and eggs inside wall voids, mattresses, and furniture that human inspection misses. If you’ve had guests, traveled, or bought used furniture and something feels off, this is the most accurate detection available — not just in Oakland County, but anywhere.
Pricing is flat-rate with a full workmanship guarantee, and we match reasonable competitor rates. Seniors, veterans, and first responders receive discounts. Our technician holds an active MDARD Pesticide Application Business License (No. 250081), so you’re working with a fully licensed, compliant operation — not someone running a spray route without credentials. If you’ve been burned by a company that treated once and disappeared, this is a different experience.
This is one of the most common calls we get from homeowners in the Holly Township area, and the answer is pretty consistent. As temperatures drop in September and October, mice that have been living in the surrounding fields, wooded lots, and park-adjacent habitat start looking for warmth. Your home is the closest option. They don’t need much — a gap around a pipe, a crack in the foundation, an unsealed dryer vent — and once one finds a way in, others follow the scent trail.
The issue in Newark specifically is that the surrounding natural habitat keeps rodent populations high. You’re not dealing with a few stray mice from a neighbor’s yard. You’re dealing with pressure from the tree lines, brush borders, and open land that defines this part of northern Oakland County. A trap on the kitchen floor addresses what’s already inside. A proper program addresses the entry points and the exterior conditions that keep drawing them back. That’s the difference between a temporary fix and a fall that stays under control.
Size is the first clue. Carpenter ants are noticeably larger than common household ants — typically a quarter to half an inch long, sometimes bigger. They’re often black or dark reddish-brown. But the more telling sign is where you’re seeing them. If they’re showing up near window frames, door frames, baseboards, or anywhere with wood that’s been exposed to moisture, that’s a red flag. Carpenter ants don’t eat wood the way termites do — they tunnel through it to nest, and they prefer wood that’s already soft or damp.
For homes in Newark and the surrounding wooded areas of Holly Township, carpenter ant pressure is real. Mature trees, wooded lot borders, and older structures with any moisture history are exactly the conditions these ants seek out. Seeing a few in the kitchen in summer might be foragers passing through. Seeing them consistently near structural wood, or finding small piles of sawdust-like frass near baseboards, means there’s likely a nest nearby — possibly inside the wall. That’s when you call us, not when you reach for a can of spray.
Yes — and honestly, if you live near the park, you’re in one of the higher-exposure situations in Oakland County. Seven Lakes State Park covers over 1,400 acres with more than 230 acres of water. The campground, the trail systems, the lake edges — all of it is prime mosquito breeding and tick habitat. The park’s own guidance warns visitors to watch for ticks because they can be prevalent in the area. If you’re spending time in your yard, letting your kids play outside, or just sitting on your deck in the evening, you’re in the exposure zone.
Professional mosquito control treats your yard with a barrier application that significantly reduces active populations throughout the season. Our program includes flea and tick treatment at no extra charge, so you’re not paying separately for each pest. One program, one visit, three problems addressed. For a property in Newark that borders this kind of natural habitat, that’s not a luxury — it’s a practical decision for anyone who actually uses their outdoor space.
A standard visual inspection catches what a trained human eye can see — bugs or evidence of bugs in accessible areas. The problem with bed bugs is that they hide. They get into wall voids, behind electrical outlets, deep inside furniture joints, and inside mattress seams that don’t open for visual inspection. By the time a visual inspection confirms an infestation, it’s usually well-established.
A certified detection dog works differently. Their nose can locate a single bug or a cluster of eggs that’s completely out of sight. The accuracy rate for certified canine detection is 90 to 98 percent — significantly higher than human inspection alone. We’re one of fewer than 100 companies in the United States with this service. For Newark homeowners who’ve had guests stay over, recently purchased used furniture, or returned from travel and want to rule out an issue before it becomes a real problem, this is the fastest and most accurate way to get a definitive answer. It’s not a gimmick — it’s genuinely a different category of detection.
It depends on what you’re dealing with and whether you want a one-time treatment or an ongoing program. A single-service visit for a common pest like ants or spiders will run differently than a rodent exclusion job or a full mosquito season program. Bed bug treatment — especially with canine detection — is a more involved service and priced accordingly. Most homeowners in the Holly Township area who are dealing with recurring seasonal pressure find that a recurring program is more cost-effective than calling reactively every time something shows up.
What we can tell you is that our pricing is flat-rate, so you know what you’re paying before we start. We don’t add fees mid-job. We also match reasonable competitor rates, so if you’ve gotten a quote elsewhere, bring it up — we’ll tell you honestly whether we can work with it. Seniors, veterans, and first responders receive discounts. The goal isn’t to be the cheapest option on the list. It’s to be the one that actually solves the problem so you’re not calling again in six weeks.
Yes. We serve Newark and the surrounding Holly Township area, including properties throughout northern Oakland County. Whether you’re off Belford Road, closer to the Village of Holly, or out near the park-adjacent lots on the western edge of the township, we cover the area. Newark is an unincorporated community, so there’s no city boundary that cuts anyone off — if you’re in Holly Township, you’re in our service area.
Northern Oakland County has its own pest profile compared to the more developed parts of the county further south. The wooded lots, the proximity to state recreation land, the older housing stock in some parts of the township — these are factors that affect what pests show up, how they get in, and what it takes to keep them out. We’ve worked this area long enough to know the difference between a property that needs a one-time treatment and one that needs a seasonal program to stay ahead of what the surrounding environment keeps sending. If you’re not sure which applies to your situation, a call is the right first step.
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