Rodent Control in Kenmore, Akron

Kenmore grew fast between 1910 and 1920, so fast that it ran as its own city with its own business district on Kenmore Boulevard. Salt mining and rubber work brought the people, and in 1929 residents asked to become part of Akron. Today the Boulevard is on the National Register of Historic Places and known for its music scene, with the Rialto Theatre and a handful of guitar shops. Manchester Road, the neighborhood's oldest road, follows the line of the old Portage Path.

Most of the homes are modest frame houses from those boom years, on narrow lots with detached garages. Summit Lake and the towpath are close by on the east. Put that together and Kenmore sends plenty of calls about both mice and rats.

Rats by Summit Lake and the canal

Rats like water, and homes near Summit Lake and the Ohio & Erie Canal corridor see more of them than most. They dig along banks, under garages and beside fences, and they cross the alleys around dusk. If you're seeing burrows in the yard, that's a rat control job that starts outside. When it's several houses on the same block, Summit County Public Health takes rat complaints and can bait problem areas after an inspection.

Older sewer lines are part of the picture too. Rats use broken sewer pipe as a highway, and the county notes that sewer rats are a problem where lines are in disrepair. If a rat ever comes up through a floor drain or a toilet, you need a plumber and a pest tech, not just traps.

Mice in the boom-years houses off the Boulevard

Mice are still the bigger day-to-day problem in most Kenmore homes. A century-old foundation, a sill that's shifted, a basement window that doesn't latch and gaps around the utility lines all let them in every fall. Most jobs here start with basement and crawl space work. The houses sit close together, so a mouse problem on one lot is often on the next one too. The detached garages that sit behind so many Kenmore houses get covered on the garage and outbuilding page.

Barberton is just down the road to the southwest and was built for factory workers in much the same era, so Barberton homes have a lot in common with these. For the do-it-yourself side, read the old Akron basement guide, then call when you want a second set of eyes.

Where Kenmore mice spend the summer

Interstate 277 and Route 224 cut right through Kenmore, and the grassy, brushy banks along them hold plenty of mice in the warm months. So does the big open field at Prentiss Park, behind Innes Middle School. When the grass browns and the nights turn cold, the houses closest to that open ground are the first to hear scratching in the walls. If you back up to a highway slope or a ballfield, treat late September as your deadline for sealing up. Our guide to getting ahead of mice before winter walks through what to check.

Kenmore filled in fast along the trolley line, so the houses sit close and the fence lines run tight between them. Rats that settle under one garage rarely stay put. They tunnel along the slab, cross under the fence and start on the next garage over. Any big dig nearby, from a sewer job to a teardown, can push rodents out into the surrounding blocks for a few weeks, so watch the garage and basement windows while it's going on. Our page on rodents in garages and sheds covers what to look for.

Around Kenmore: Kenmore Boulevard · Rialto Theatre · Manchester Road · Summit Lake · Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail (ZIP 44314)

Also serving Highland Square and West Akron, Firestone Park, Goodyear Heights, North Hill, Ellet, Merriman Valley, Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Barberton.