Rodent Control in North Hill, Akron

North Hill sits just north of downtown, across the Little Cuyahoga valley, tied to it by the All-America Bridge on North Main. For a century it's been one of Akron's melting pots, first with a large Italian community and more recently with families who've arrived from all over the world. North Main Street and Cuyahoga Falls Avenue carry the shops, restaurants and markets.

The housing is dense and mostly old: doubles, frame houses and small apartment buildings on tight lots. Rodent calls from North Hill run toward rats outside and mice inside, and quite often both at the same address.

Rats, tomato gardens and tight backyards

Backyard gardens are a North Hill tradition, and rats love a tomato patch in August. On narrow lots, the garden, the compost, the trash carts and the garage all end up within a few yards of each other, and that's a very comfortable setup for a rat colony. Burrows show up under garage slabs, along fences and at the base of concrete steps. A rat exterminator works the outside first, with locked stations along the fence and foundation, then seals the garage and the house.

Older garages on these lots often have dirt or broken concrete along one wall, and rats dig straight under. Where a garage floor has sunk or cracked badly, concrete patch and a buried hardware cloth barrier along the outside edge may be part of the fix. It isn't glamorous work, but it's what keeps a colony from moving back in after the stations come out.

Rats ignore property lines, so one yard rarely solves it alone. If it's a block-wide problem, report it to Summit County Public Health, and talk to the neighbors about lids, feeders and compost.

Mice that travel through doubles

In a double or a three-unit house, mice use the shared basement, pipe chases and walls to move between apartments. Everyone has to be on the same page. Owners should think about mouse control for the whole building and sealing at the foundation, not one unit at a time. Landlords with several buildings in the neighborhood may do better with a regular service schedule like a business would use.

Cuyahoga Falls starts just to the north, and the older streets near the river there have similar houses. See the page on Cuyahoga Falls rodent calls for more, or check the rat or mouse guide if you're not sure what's been in the pantry.

Garden plots and hillside basements in North Hill

Akron Cooperative Farms runs a community garden in North Hill with about 140 plots on four acres, and plenty of families grow food in their own yards too. Gardens feed rats in summer, but what's left after harvest matters just as much. Squash and tomatoes rotting on the vine, an open compost heap and bags of seed in the shed can carry a colony well into fall. Pull spent plants by October. Keep compost in a closed bin with a solid bottom, and store seed and feed in metal cans with tight lids.

Much of the neighborhood filled in after the North Hill Viaduct opened in 1922, along with the older blocks that grew up around the Howard Street trolley line. Streets near the edge of the Little Cuyahoga valley sit on a slope, so some basements are buried on the uphill side and half exposed on the other. Water runs toward the low wall, softens the mortar and opens gaps. That's often where the mice come in. Those damp, cracked walls are what basement rodent work is built around. Neighbors east of here in Goodyear Heights deal with many of the same old foundations.

Around North Hill: North Main Street · All-America Bridge · Cuyahoga Falls Avenue · Little Cuyahoga River valley · Tallmadge Avenue (ZIP 44310)

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