Hear from Our Customers
Living on a wooded lot or near agricultural land in Howell Township means pests aren’t a seasonal inconvenience — they’re a recurring reality. When fall temperatures drop, field mice don’t just pass through. They find a way in, and once they’re inside, the problem compounds fast. Getting ahead of that cycle — sealing entry points, eliminating nesting conditions, treating the root cause — is what actually changes the outcome for a Fleming homeowner.
The Livingston County Health Department has documented human cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis in the county, and county health officials have issued public advisories about mosquito and tick-borne disease risks including Lyme disease. If you have a yard, a tree line, or kids and pets that go outside, that’s not a distant risk. It’s your backyard. A pest control program that includes flea and tick treatment alongside mosquito control — at no extra charge — isn’t a bonus feature here. It’s the baseline you should expect.
What you actually gain is simple: a home that isn’t being quietly damaged, a yard your family can use, and a technician who knows your property well enough to catch something before it turns into a full infestation. That’s the difference between pest control that reacts and pest control that prevents.
We founded First Choice Pest Control on May 31, 2005 — which means this year marks 20 years of continuous operation across mid-Michigan, including Livingston County communities like Fleming. This is a family-owned business, and Roger, who has 26 years of hands-on pest control experience, is directly involved in how every job gets done. That’s not a tagline. It’s how we operate.
What that means for Fleming residents is accountability. The same technician comes back to your property year after year — someone who knows where the mice came in last October, which corner of the garage the wasps favored, and what your property actually looks like. No rotating strangers. No starting from scratch every visit.
We hold Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor awards, are trained in Integrated Pest Management, and offer discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders. For Fleming-area homeowners along Grand River Avenue and throughout Howell Township, that kind of consistency and community commitment isn’t something you’ll find from a national franchise.
It starts with a real assessment of your property — not a quick walkthrough, but an actual evaluation of where pests are entering, what conditions are attracting them, and what your specific situation requires. For a home in Fleming, that means looking at the field edges, the wooded lot lines, the outbuildings, the foundation gaps, and any moisture sources that could be drawing rodents or insects in. The assessment drives the program. Not the other way around.
From there, your technician builds a treatment plan specific to your property. In Howell Township, that often means addressing the fall rodent migration from surrounding agricultural land, treating for ticks and mosquitoes in wooded border areas, and targeting carpenter ant activity in older structures or wood piles. Michigan’s seasonal cycles are factored in — because a spring treatment and a fall treatment serve very different purposes here, and a good technician knows the difference.
All commercial pesticide applicators serving Fleming are required to hold valid Michigan state certification through MDARD, renewed on a regular schedule. Every First Choice technician meets that standard. After your first service, your program is maintained by the same technician — someone who already knows your property and can spot changes before they become problems. That continuity is built into how we operate, not offered as an upgrade.
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We offer residential and commercial pest control services across Fleming and the broader Howell Township area. That includes rodent control and exclusion — critical in a community where deer mice and white-footed mice are documented by the Livingston County Health Department as potential hantavirus carriers. It includes mosquito control with flea and tick treatment included at no extra charge, which matters when your yard borders wooded acreage or a drainage corridor. And it includes carpenter ant treatment, which is particularly relevant for Fleming’s mix of older farmhouses and newer builds sitting adjacent to tree canopy and wood debris.
One service that genuinely sets us apart: certified canine bed bug detection. We are one of fewer than 100 companies in the entire United States offering this. Trained dogs detect infestations with 95 to 98 percent accuracy, compared to roughly 50 percent for a standard visual inspection. If you’re dealing with a bed bug concern — or just want to know for certain before spending money on treatment — that level of accuracy changes everything.
Every program is personalized. There’s no standard package that gets applied to every Fleming home the same way. If you find a lower quote from a reasonable competitor, we’ll match it. The goal is to make sure the right service, delivered by the right technician, is accessible to the people who actually need it — including seniors, veterans, and first responders who receive additional discounts.
Fleming’s position within Howell Township — where residential properties frequently border agricultural fields, wooded lots, and drainage corridors — creates a specific set of pest pressures that differ from what you’d see in a dense urban or suburban market. The most common issues for homes in this area are rodents, carpenter ants, mosquitoes, ticks, and stinging insects like wasps and hornets.
Rodents are particularly active in the fall, when dropping field temperatures push deer mice, white-footed mice, and house mice toward warm structures. The Livingston County Health Department specifically identifies deer mice and white-footed mice as potential hantavirus carriers — so this isn’t just a nuisance issue. Carpenter ants are a consistent problem in properties with wooded borders, wood piles, or older structures with any moisture damage. And mosquito and tick pressure is elevated in areas with tree lines, standing water, and the kind of edge habitat that defines much of Howell Township’s residential landscape.
The most common signs are droppings along baseboards, in cabinets, or near appliances; gnaw marks on wood, wiring, or food packaging; and scratching or movement sounds inside walls or ceilings — particularly at night. In a rural area like Fleming, where homes often sit near open fields or wooded land, rodent activity tends to spike in September and October as temperatures drop and mice begin seeking shelter.
One thing worth knowing: mice don’t need a large opening to get inside. A gap the size of a dime is enough for a house mouse. That’s why exclusion — physically sealing entry points — is just as important as treatment. A rodent control program that only addresses the mice already inside your home without identifying how they’re getting in will have you dealing with the same problem again next fall. A proper inspection looks at the foundation, utility penetrations, garage doors, and any structural gaps that give field mice a path indoors.
Yes — when it’s applied correctly by a certified technician using an Integrated Pest Management approach, which is exactly how we operate. IPM is the EPA-recognized methodology that prioritizes the least invasive treatment first, targets the source of the problem, and minimizes exposure to non-target species. That matters when you have children playing in the yard, dogs or cats that roam outside, or other animals on the property.
For Fleming-area homeowners, the Livingston County Health Department has documented Eastern Equine Encephalitis cases in the county — in humans, deer, and horses — and has issued public health advisories about mosquito and tick-borne diseases including Lyme disease and West Nile virus. That context makes mosquito and tick control a genuine health decision, not just a comfort preference. The professional-grade products used by a certified applicator are applied at precise concentrations and locations — which is meaningfully different from consumer sprays applied without training. After treatment, your technician will let you know when it’s safe to resume normal yard use.
Canine bed bug detection uses specially trained dogs to locate bed bug infestations with 95 to 98 percent accuracy. A standard visual inspection by a human technician — even an experienced one — catches infestations at roughly 50 percent accuracy. The difference matters because bed bugs are extremely good at hiding in places a visual inspection won’t reach: inside wall voids, behind outlet covers, deep in mattress seams, and inside furniture frames.
Michigan ranks second in the nation for bed bug infestations, and that risk doesn’t stop at the Livingston County line. Fleming-area residents commuting along I-96 to Lansing or the Detroit metro area, traveling overnight, or purchasing used furniture face real exposure risk. We are one of fewer than 100 companies in the entire United States offering certified canine detection. If you want to know with near-certainty whether you have a problem — before spending money on treatment — this is the most accurate tool available. It’s also useful after treatment to confirm the infestation has been fully eliminated.
For most homes in Fleming and Howell Township, a recurring program — typically quarterly — is the most effective approach. Michigan’s four distinct seasons drive four distinct waves of pest activity: spring brings carpenter ants and stinging insects; summer brings peak mosquito and tick pressure; fall triggers the rodent migration from surrounding fields; and winter, while quieter outdoors, is when rodents are most active inside structures.
A one-time treatment addresses the immediate problem but doesn’t account for the next seasonal wave. In a rural community like Fleming, where your property is surrounded by the kind of habitat that continuously generates pest pressure — field edges, wooded lot lines, drainage areas — a single visit won’t hold. A recurring program with the same technician means your property is monitored over time, and issues are caught early before they escalate. That consistency is what separates pest control that works from pest control that temporarily works.
Yes. We offer discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders. Livingston County has a strong mix of established homeowners, military families connected to the broader mid-Michigan region, and community members who have spent careers in public service. These discounts exist because Roger and the First Choice team believe the people who have given the most to their communities shouldn’t have to choose between protecting their home and staying within budget.
If you qualify, just mention it when you call. There’s no complicated process or form to fill out. The discount gets applied to your program, and your service runs exactly the same as it would for any other customer — same certified technician, same personalized program, same standard of work. We also match reasonable competitors’ rates, so between the price match policy and any applicable discount, cost doesn’t have to be the reason you settle for a lesser service.
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