Rodent Control Services in Creston, Grand Rapids

Living near the river

The Grand River and the green space around Riverside Park give wildlife a long corridor through the neighborhood. Norway rats like loose soil near water, brush piles and the bases of retaining walls. When the river runs high, as it did during the April 2013 flood, burrows near the bank can get pushed out and the animals move uphill toward houses.

That does not mean every riverside block has rats. It means that when rats do show up here, we look past your yard to the paths they might be using between the water and your foundation.

Mice follow the river too, in their own way. Deer mice and white-footed mice live in the brushy edges and wooded strips near the water, and in fall they move into garages, sheds and boats stored for the winter. If you open a stored cushion or camping bin in spring and find a nest of chewed foam, that is usually the culprit.

Rail lines, industry and the Plainfield corridor

Creston mixes houses with light industrial strips along the rail lines and Monroe Avenue, plus shops and restaurants on Plainfield. Each of those brings its own rodent pressure:

• Rail embankments with gravel and weeds that hide burrows
• Loading docks and pallet stacks near warehouses
• Grease and food waste behind Plainfield Avenue eateries
• Vacant or seasonal storage buildings that see little foot traffic

We handle commercial properties along the corridor and the homes beside them. Most residential calls come back to the same short list of fixable entry points.

The upside of a mixed neighborhood is that rats here are usually traveling along predictable lines: the rail edge, the alley, the back fence of a commercial lot. Once we know which line your house sits on, the job gets much more focused.

Bungalows and the garage out back

The house

A lot of Creston's housing is early to mid-twentieth-century bungalows and modest two-stories, many with block or stone basements. Common entry points include gaps around the dryer vent, the gas meter line, and cracked mortar near basement windows. Here at Grand Rapids Rodent Control we check every one of those before setting a single trap.

The detached garage

Detached garages on alleys are where we find rats most often on the north side. A dirt floor along one wall, a gap under the overhead door, or a chewed corner of the side door is all they need. Stored lawn seed, pet food and trash carts kept inside complete the setup.

How we seal a north side bungalow

1. 01

   Find the burrows and runways

   We walk the lot and alley, then the basement. Fresh soil at a burrow mouth or grease marks on a sill tell us where to focus.

2. 02

   Trap to reduce numbers

   Our rodent trapping uses snap traps in secured boxes, checked on a schedule so nothing is left to decompose.

3. 03

   Close the gaps

   Steel mesh, concrete patching and metal flashing go where chewing would defeat foam or caulk. Garage doors get proper bottom seals.

4. 04

   Recheck

   We come back to confirm activity has stopped and nothing new has opened up.

5. 05

   Point out the next weak spot

   Every older bungalow has a spot that will open up again in a few years, often a basement window frame or a sagging back step. We show you where it is so you can keep an eye on it.

For more on what goes into closing up a house, see our exclusion page.

Keeping the garage boring

A garage that offers nothing to eat and nowhere to nest is one rats ignore. That sounds obvious, but north side garages often double as workshops, storage for the summer cottage gear and a pantry for the dog's food. Here is the short version of what we tell people after a job:

Move birdseed, grass seed and pet food into metal cans with tight lids. Get cardboard boxes up onto shelving so you can see the floor along the walls. Keep firewood outside and off the ground. Patch the dirt strip along any wall with concrete if you can, because rats will dig under a slab edge again and again if the soil is soft.

None of this replaces sealing, but it takes away the reason a rat would work hard to get back in. Combined with a solid door seal and patched walls, it keeps a Creston garage quiet through the winter.