Hear from Our Customers
Howell’s landscape is part of what makes it worth living in — the lakes, the trees, the open space. But that same environment creates real, year-round pest pressure that doesn’t take a season off. Wooded lots and mature tree canopies invite carpenter ants. Properties near Lake Chemung deal with mosquito populations that build fast and stick around. And when fall hits, mice start looking for somewhere warm — your home is exactly what they have in mind.
When pest control is handled right, you stop reacting and start staying ahead of it. No more discovering a rodent problem after it’s already inside your walls. No more spraying the same spots every summer and wondering why the ants keep coming back. A real pest control solution looks at your specific property — your entry points, your yard, your seasonal exposure — and builds a plan around that, not around a generic treatment checklist.
For Howell homeowners, that kind of personalized approach matters more than most people realize. A Victorian-era home near the Historic District has different vulnerabilities than a newer build off Grand River Avenue. A lake-adjacent yard needs different mosquito management than a subdivision lot. When your pest treatment services are actually tailored to where you live, the results are different — and they last.
We founded First Choice Pest Control on May 31, 2005 — which means 2025 marks our 20th year serving Howell and Livingston County families and businesses. Roger, who leads the company, brings 26 years of hands-on pest control experience to every job. This isn’t a franchise. There’s no rotating cast of seasonal workers showing up at your door. We’re a family-owned operation built on the kind of accountability that only comes when the people running the company are the same people standing behind the work.
We hold Integrated Pest Management (IPM) training certification — the EPA-recognized standard that prioritizes the least invasive treatment first. That matters if you have kids, pets, or just a preference for not having unnecessary chemicals applied throughout your home. We’ve also earned awards through Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor, which are based on verified customer reviews, not self-reported claims.
Livingston County homeowners — from Howell’s historic in-town neighborhoods to the newer developments along M-59 — have trusted First Choice because our service is consistent, our technicians are experienced, and we don’t treat your address like just another stop on a route.
It starts with understanding your property. Before any treatment goes down, a trained technician walks your home — inside and out — to identify what’s active, what’s at risk, and where pests are getting in. In Howell, that inspection looks different depending on where you live. An older home near the Howell Historic District gets a close look at wood-to-soil contact points, aging utility penetrations, and moisture-prone areas that attract carpenter ants and termites. A newer build on the city’s edge gets assessed for exterior entry points and proximity to wooded or open land.
From there, we build a personalized pest control program around what your property actually needs — not a preset package pulled off a shelf. If mosquitoes are the priority, your program includes flea and tick treatment at no extra charge, because those three problems share the same outdoor environment and it makes no sense to treat them separately. If rodents are a concern heading into fall, exclusion and bait placement are part of the plan before you ever see one inside.
Once treatment is underway, the same technician returns for every visit. That continuity isn’t a small thing — it means the person coming to your home already knows your property, your pest history, and what’s worked before. You’re not re-explaining yourself every time, and we’re not starting from scratch.
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We handle the full range of pest control for home and business — ants, rodents, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, bed bugs, stinging insects, overwintering pests, and more. For Howell residents, that covers the seasonal reality of living in Livingston County: carpenter ant pressure from spring through summer, mosquito and tick season that now starts earlier than it used to thanks to Michigan’s warming winters, and rodent activity that picks up every fall as temperatures drop.
On the bed bug side, we offer something that no identified local competitor in Howell currently provides: certified canine bed bug detection. Fewer than 100 companies in the entire United States offer this service. Detection dogs find infestations with 95–98% accuracy, compared to just 50% for visual inspections alone. For Howell residents who commute regularly to Detroit or Lansing — or anyone who travels, stays in hotels, or shops secondhand — that level of accuracy is the difference between catching a problem early and dealing with a full infestation.
We also offer commercial pest control for Howell businesses, restaurants, and professional offices that need to maintain health code compliance and protect their reputation. We provide price matching for reasonable competitors’ rates, and discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders — because those aren’t categories of customer, they’re members of this community.
Howell’s environment creates a rotating cast of pest pressure depending on the season. Spring brings carpenter ants — especially in older homes near the Historic District where wood-to-soil contact and moisture damage give them easy access. Mosquito and tick season follows close behind, and with Lyme disease cases in Michigan up 168% over the last five years, ticks aren’t just a nuisance anymore. Summer keeps the mosquitoes active, particularly for properties near Lake Chemung and other water sources throughout Livingston County.
As fall arrives, rodents become the priority. Mice and rats start moving indoors when the temperatures drop, and homes along the wooded edges of Howell — especially those adjacent to open farmland or tree lines — are the first targets. Overwintering pests like stink bugs, cluster flies, and boxelder beetles also start appearing in wall voids and attics. Bed bugs are a year-round concern, with no seasonal break, and Howell’s commuter population — regularly traveling to Detroit and Lansing — faces higher exposure risk than most people expect.
Yes, canine bed bug detection is available for Howell residents through First Choice Pest Control — and it’s one of the most significant advantages we offer in this market. Fewer than 100 companies in the United States provide this service. Certified detection dogs are trained to identify the specific scent of live bed bugs and viable eggs, and they do it with 95–98% accuracy. A visual inspection by a technician, by comparison, catches infestations at roughly 50% accuracy — which means a lot of early-stage problems go undetected until they’ve grown into something much harder and more expensive to treat.
For Howell homeowners who commute regularly to Detroit or Lansing, travel for work, or stay in hotels, the risk of bed bug exposure is real and ongoing. Michigan ranks second in the nation for bed bug infestations, with multiple Michigan cities in the top 25 worst in the country. Canine detection gives you a definitive answer — not a maybe — so if there’s a problem, you catch it early when treatment is simpler, faster, and far less disruptive to your household.
Repellent protects you while you’re wearing it. It does nothing about the mosquito population breeding in your yard, your neighbor’s low-lying areas, or the standing water near Lake Chemung that’s within range of your property. Michigan’s mosquito season has been starting earlier in recent years — some years seeing activity as early as February — and it runs well into fall. Personal repellent doesn’t address that scale of exposure, and it doesn’t protect your kids or pets when they’re outside without it.
Professional mosquito control targets the source — breeding areas, resting spots, and the conditions that allow populations to rebuild after rain. Our mosquito program also includes flea and tick treatment at no extra charge, which matters for Howell families with pets or kids who spend time in the yard. Ticks in Livingston County carry real risk; Lyme disease cases in Michigan have more than doubled in recent years. Treating mosquitoes and ticks together, in the same outdoor environment where both thrive, is the more complete and cost-effective approach.
Carpenter ants are one of the most common structural pest concerns in Howell, particularly in older homes near the Historic District and any property with mature trees close to the structure. Unlike termites, carpenter ants don’t eat wood — they excavate it to build their galleries, which means the damage is real even if it develops more slowly. The most common signs are seeing large black or reddish-black ants inside your home in spring, finding small piles of sawdust-like frass near baseboards or window frames, or hearing faint rustling sounds inside walls.
The challenge with carpenter ants is that the colony you see inside is almost never the main colony — it’s usually a satellite. The primary nest is typically outside, in a decaying tree stump, wood pile, or moisture-damaged wood near your foundation. Treating just what you see inside rarely solves the problem. A proper inspection identifies where they’re entering, what conditions are attracting them, and where the exterior colony is likely established — so the treatment addresses the actual source, not just the visible symptom.
The honest answer is that the best time is before you have a problem — which, in Howell, means late winter or early spring. Carpenter ants become active as soon as temperatures consistently rise above freezing, which in Livingston County can happen earlier than most people plan for. Mosquito season follows quickly. If you wait until you’re already seeing activity inside your home or swatting mosquitoes in your backyard, you’re already behind.
That said, starting at any point in the year is better than not starting at all. Fall is actually a critical window for rodent prevention — mice and rats begin looking for entry points before the first hard freeze, and sealing those points before they’re inside is far easier than removing an established indoor population. A recurring pest control program covers you across all of these seasonal shifts, so you’re not scrambling to react every time a new pest season begins. For Howell homeowners managing properties near water, wooded areas, or older construction, year-round coverage is the most practical and cost-effective approach.
Yes. We offer discounts for seniors, veterans, and first responders — and it’s straightforward. Howell is a community with deep roots and a real civic identity. It’s the county seat of Livingston County, home to people who’ve spent careers serving others, whether in uniform, in a firehouse, or simply as longtime residents who’ve built their lives here. Offering a meaningful discount to those groups is a reflection of how we operate, not a promotional line item.
If you’re a senior homeowner in Howell managing a property on a fixed income, a veteran who’s settled in Livingston County, or a first responder working out of one of the local stations, ask about the discount when you call. We also price-match reasonable competitors’ rates, so if you’ve gotten a quote from another Howell-area pest control company, bring it up. The goal is to make sure cost isn’t the reason you end up with a less experienced company or a one-size-fits-all treatment that doesn’t actually fit your home.
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