Rodent Control on the South Side Flats and Slopes

The South Side is two neighborhoods stacked on top of each other. The Flats sit along the Mon with brick row houses, tight streets and East Carson Street, which is wall-to-wall bars and restaurants. The Slopes climb the hill behind it. Frame houses on steep lots, streets that switch back on themselves, and city steps instead of sidewalks on some blocks.

Down on the Flats it's rats. Up on the Slopes it's mice. Same phone number.

Why Flats rats like the alleys

The Flats pack a lot of food waste into a small area, especially Friday and Saturday night. Rats live under stoops, in gaps along the alleys and in the brush by the river trail. The houses are old brick on stone or brick foundations, and lots of them share walls. The tech will look at the basement drain, the party wall and the alley side of the house. That's straight-up rat control, and it runs all year down here, not just in the cold months. Floor drains in these basements tie into old laterals, same as the rest of the city, and a missing cover is an open door.

Homes a block or two off Carson feel the restaurants. Rats that feed behind the bars travel to nearby yards and basements. Keep your own cans lidded and the alley side of the house sealed and they'll keep moving past. Bars and restaurants on Carson usually want commercial service with a visit log.

Woods behind the house on the Slopes

Slopes houses often have a wooded hillside right out back and a foundation that's half exposed on the downhill side. Mice and rats use that cover. Porches and decks built out over the grade leave open space underneath for nesting. Sealing under the deck and along the exposed foundation is a big part of the work up here, the kind of thing on our proofing page. Burrows under retaining walls are common too, and those get yard burrow treatment.

Calls from the Slopes spike in the fall when the mice come in out of the woods. Getting to a Slopes house takes some planning. Some face a set of city steps instead of a street, parking off Arlington is tight, and some lots have no driveway at all. Mention it on the call so the tech knows where to park and what to carry up. Steps also mean the tech will want to see the stoop and the retaining walls along them, because rats like those for cover. Across the river and up the hill, Mount Washington has the same wooded slopes.

• Open space under hillside porches and decks
• Exposed foundation on the downhill side
• Retaining walls along steep yards

Around South Side Flats and Slopes: East Carson Street · South Side Riverfront Park · SouthSide Works · South Side Park · 18th Street · Arlington Avenue · South Side city steps (ZIP 15203)

Also serving Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Mount Washington, Polish Hill, Brookline, Mt. Lebanon, Millvale.