Hear from Our Customers
When pest control actually works, you stop thinking about it. You let the dog out without scanning the tree line for ticks. You use the back patio in July. You don’t hear anything in the walls when the house goes quiet at night. That’s what a real pest management program delivers — not a one-time spray and a hope.
For homes along Hickory Ridge Road, where wooded lots and mature trees are part of the appeal, carpenter ants are a legitimate structural threat. They don’t just show up on counters — they work quietly inside moisture-prone wood in decks, outbuildings, and wall voids. Catching them early and treating the right way makes the difference between a minor inconvenience and an expensive repair.
The same goes for mosquitoes and ticks. With Hickory Ridge Pines Park nearby and the Highland State Recreation Area essentially in your backyard, the pressure doesn’t let up from May through October. A program built for this specific environment — not a generic spray schedule — is what actually moves the needle. When your outdoor space feels usable again, you’ll know the difference.
We founded First Choice Pest Control on May 31, 2005, and we’ve been serving homes in Highland Township and the surrounding western Oakland County area ever since. Roger, who leads our company, brings 26 years of hands-on pest control experience to every program we build. This isn’t a franchise. There’s no rotating cast of unfamiliar technicians showing up at your Hickory Ridge property each season.
That consistency matters more than most people realize. When the same trained professional comes to your home year after year, they learn it — the entry points, the history, the spots that need attention before they become problems. That kind of institutional knowledge about your specific property doesn’t happen with a company that sends whoever’s available.
We hold IPM certification, have earned recognition from Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor, and carry BBB Accreditation. For seniors, veterans, and first responders in the Hickory Ridge area, we offer dedicated discount programs — because we were built on community values, not just service calls.
It starts with an honest assessment of your property. Because Hickory Ridge homes sit in a high-pressure environment — wooded lots, proximity to the Highland State Recreation Area, and the kind of standing water that comes with living in a township that has 26 lakes — the starting point isn’t a product. It’s a conversation about what you’re actually dealing with and what conditions on your specific property are driving it.
From there, we build a personalized pest management program around your home. We use Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which means our approach starts with the least invasive treatment that will actually solve the problem. That’s not just a philosophy — it’s the right call when you’re treating properties adjacent to natural habitat and water. You’re not getting maximum chemical application by default. You’re getting a targeted, strategic response to what’s actually happening.
Ongoing visits follow a schedule designed around Michigan’s seasonal pest cycles — the spring carpenter ant surge, the summer mosquito and tick peak, the fall rodent push as temperatures drop. If pests show up between scheduled visits, we come back. That’s our guarantee. The goal isn’t a single treatment — it’s a property that stays protected.
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We handle the full range of pest pressures that Hickory Ridge homeowners actually face — carpenter ants, mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, rodents, stinging insects, bed bugs, and more. Every program is built around your specific property and pest history, not a one-size-fits-all package pulled off a shelf. And because no two homes along Hickory Ridge Road deal with exactly the same conditions, that personalization isn’t a selling point — it’s just how the work gets done correctly.
One detail worth knowing: when you sign up for our mosquito control program, flea and tick treatment is included at no extra charge. For households with dogs that spend time near Hickory Ridge Pines Park or on trails adjacent to the state recreation area, that’s a meaningful addition — not an upsell you have to ask for.
We’re also one of fewer than 100 companies in the entire United States offering certified canine bed bug detection, which reaches 95–98% accuracy compared to roughly 50% for a standard visual inspection. Michigan consistently ranks among the worst states in the country for bed bug infestations, and that’s true regardless of whether you live in a city or a rural community like Hickory Ridge. If there’s a question about bed bugs, this is how you get a real answer. We also match reasonable competitors’ rates — so if you’ve already gotten a quote, bring it.
The pest profile in Hickory Ridge is shaped heavily by the surrounding environment. Wooded, tree-lined lots create ideal conditions for carpenter ants, which are one of the most structurally damaging pests in Michigan — not because they’re dramatic, but because they work quietly inside moisture-prone wood for months before you notice them. Homes near mature trees, firewood stacks, or older outbuildings are especially vulnerable.
Beyond carpenter ants, mosquitoes and ticks are a consistent seasonal problem given the proximity to the Highland State Recreation Area and the 26 lakes within Highland Township. Mice become a major concern in fall as temperatures drop and they start looking for interior harborage — garages, crawl spaces, and wall voids are common entry points. Stinging insects, fleas, and bed bugs round out the list of pests that show up regularly in homes throughout this part of Oakland County. A pest control program for Hickory Ridge needs to account for all of these, not just the most obvious ones.
Size is the first thing to look at. Carpenter ants are significantly larger than common household ants — usually a quarter-inch to over half an inch long — and they’re often black or dark reddish-black. But the more telling sign is where you’re seeing them. If they’re appearing near window frames, door frames, baseboards, or anywhere wood has been exposed to moisture, that’s a red flag. Carpenter ants don’t eat wood the way termites do — they excavate it to build galleries, and the damage can be extensive before it becomes visible.
In Hickory Ridge, the risk is elevated because of the wooded lot character throughout the community. Decks, wooden outbuildings, and homes with crawl spaces near the soil line are common harborage points. Finding sawdust-like material (called frass) near wooden structures is another indicator that a colony has established itself. If you’re seeing large ants consistently inside your home from spring onward, it’s worth having someone assess the situation before assuming it’s minor.
This is one of the most common questions we get from homeowners in rural, nature-adjacent communities — and it’s a fair one. Living near the Highland State Recreation Area means you’re already mindful of what goes into the environment around your property. We use Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which is an EPA-recognized methodology that prioritizes the least invasive, most targeted treatment before moving to any chemical application.
In practice, that means our technician isn’t defaulting to a maximum-spray approach. Products are selected and applied based on what’s actually needed for the specific pest and the specific location on your property. Re-entry times after treatment are communicated clearly so you know when it’s safe for kids and pets to be back in treated areas. For homeowners in Hickory Ridge who are close to water and natural habitat, this approach isn’t just a preference — it’s the responsible way to do the work.
Pest control pricing in Hickory Ridge depends on a few things: the size of your home, the specific pests you’re dealing with, and whether you’re looking at a one-time treatment or an ongoing program. Ongoing programs — which are what most homeowners in high-pressure environments like Hickory Ridge actually need — are typically structured as quarterly or monthly visits with a per-visit rate that’s lower than repeated one-time calls.
We match reasonable competitors’ rates, so if you’ve already gotten a quote from another pest control company serving the Highland Township area, that number is worth bringing to the conversation. The more important cost consideration for most Hickory Ridge homeowners isn’t the price of a single visit — it’s the cost of not treating a carpenter ant infestation early, or dealing with a rodent problem that’s been running unchecked through the winter. A consistent, properly scoped program is almost always less expensive than catching up after the damage is done.
Rural doesn’t mean lower risk — in Hickory Ridge, it often means the opposite. The wooded character of the community, the proximity to the Highland State Recreation Area, and the 26 lakes in Highland Township create a year-round pest pressure that doesn’t take a winter break. Mice don’t stop being a problem when it snows — they’re actively seeking warm interior spaces from October through March. Bed bugs are completely unaffected by cold weather. And carpenter ant colonies that established themselves over the summer don’t disappear; they overwinter inside the wood of your home and resume activity in spring.
Year-round pest control in a community like Hickory Ridge isn’t about treating problems that don’t exist — it’s about staying ahead of the ones that are always present. A program calibrated to Michigan’s actual seasonal pest cycles means you’re not reacting to an infestation after it’s established. You’re preventing it from getting there in the first place.
Yes — we offer dedicated discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders. Highland Township has a well-established homeowner base, and a meaningful portion of the residents in and around Hickory Ridge have been in their homes for many years. For longtime homeowners on fixed incomes, or for veterans and first responders who’ve spent their careers serving this community, the discount is a straightforward acknowledgment of that — not a promotional add-on.
If you fall into one of those categories, just mention it when you call. There’s no complicated process. We were built as a family-owned business with community roots in this part of Michigan, and our discount programs reflect that. Combined with our price-match policy for reasonable competitors’ rates, there’s a genuine effort here to make professional pest control accessible to the people in Hickory Ridge who need it most.
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