Rodent Control in North Miami

North Miami started out as the Town of Arch Creek in 1926, took its current name in 1931 and became a city in 1953. The big growth came after World War II, when veterans and young families moved in. By 1951 it was reported as one of the fastest-growing towns in the country. A lot of the houses you see today date from that boom.

That means plenty of 1950s and 1960s ranch houses with low roofs, jalousie windows that have been replaced (or not), carports turned into rooms and yards with big shade trees. All of it is familiar ground for a roof rat.

Canals, the river and the bay

The Biscayne Canal was dug through this area in 1924 to drain flooded farmland. Oleta River State Park, the state's largest urban park at over a thousand acres, sits on the bay next to FIU's Biscayne Bay campus. Water and thick vegetation give rodents what they need. UF/IFAS notes roof rats will burrow along canal banks and travel around 150 yards to eat or drink, so a canal behind the house matters.

If your lot backs onto a canal or the river, expect the tech to check the back fence line, any boat or storage shed, and trees hanging over the water side of the house.

What gets in post-war houses

Low-slope roofs on 1950s houses often have a shallow space over the ceiling instead of a real attic. Rats still live there. Converted carports and garage rooms tend to have weak spots where the new walls meet the old slab. Look for droppings along the top of the water heater, in the garage and in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Rat control and rodent exclusion cover the usual fix.

• The seam where a converted carport meets the original house
• Gaps around old window AC units
• Branches over low roofs
• Holes where the AC line set enters the wall

Places we mention in North Miami: Biscayne Canal · Oleta River State Park · FIU Biscayne Bay Campus · MOCA North Miami

Other neighborhoods: Brickell, Wynwood and Edgewater, Upper Eastside and MiMo, Little Havana, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, Miami Beach, Surfside and Bal Harbour, Aventura, Hialeah, Miami Lakes, Doral, Westchester, South Miami, Kendall, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay.