Rodent Control in Squirrel Hill

Squirrel Hill North and South fill the high ground between Schenley Park and Frick Park. Big brick, stone and stucco houses from the early 1900s on tree-lined streets, apartment buildings near Forbes and Murray, and two of the biggest wooded parks in the city on either side.

Living next to the woods has a cost. Mice from the park edges move into houses every fall, and the deep basements and big attics give them a lot of room once they're in.

Fall mice off the Frick Park edge

Frick Park holds the wooded hollows along Nine Mile Run. Schenley has Panther Hollow. Plenty of streets slope down toward those park edges, and the houses on them back right onto trees and brush. Those homes get hit first when it turns cold. Sealing before the first cold nights is the right timing. Late August into September is ideal. By Halloween you're catching up.

A lot of Squirrel Hill houses have a detached or tuck-under garage off a back alley or a shared driveway. Bird seed, grass seed and recycling in the garage make a nice winter spot for mice, and from there it's a short trip to the house. Get the seed into metal cans and seal up the corners of the garage door. Firewood stacked against the garage wall is another mouse hotel. Move it out and up off the ground. Most homeowners here end up needing mouse trapping in the walls and attic and a careful look at the roofline.

Three floors, slate roofs and a lot of edges

Bigger house, more to check. More foundation, more windows, more roofline. Slate roofs, box gutters, porch roofs tied into the main house and old dormers all leave gaps a mouse can climb into. In the basement, stone walls and old utility openings are the usual suspects, and deep basements here often need their own look.

Three floors plus a basement means a lot of wall voids, pipe chases and attic. If you hear mice in the attic but never see them, they're probably coming up a wall void from the basement or in at the roofline, living in the insulation. Once they're up there the mess builds quietly, and attic cleanup is a common follow-up. Because these houses have so many edges, sealing is often the bigger part of the bill.

Near Forbes and Murray it changes. Restaurants and apartment buildings bring rats into the alleys, and buildings there usually run on commercial plans. Shadyside next door has the same attic and roofline story.

• Rooflines, dormers and box gutters
• Porch roofs tied into the main house
• Stone basement walls and old utility openings
• Detached and tuck-under garages off the alley

Around Squirrel Hill: Forbes Avenue · Murray Avenue · Frick Park · Schenley Park · Nine Mile Run · Beechwood Boulevard (ZIP 15217)

Also serving Lawrenceville, South Side Flats and Slopes, Bloomfield, Shadyside, Mount Washington, Polish Hill, Brookline, Mt. Lebanon, Millvale.