Rodent Control for Miami Condos and Apartments

Living on the 30th floor doesn't keep rodents away. Brickell, Edgewater and Aventura are full of towers, and every one of them has a loading dock, a parking garage, trash rooms and pipe chases that run floor to floor. Mice and rats that get into the ground level of a building can travel a long way up.

This page is for unit owners, renters, property managers and condo boards. Whoever calls, the provider will want to know the same things: which unit, which floor, what you've seen and whether neighbors have reported it too.

Where it starts in a building

Activity in a tower usually starts low and spreads up. The trash chute and the trash room at the bottom collect food waste every day. Loading docks and garage ramps stay open for hours. Ground-floor restaurants and retail add more food. From there, rodents use the vertical chases for plumbing, electrical and trash to reach upper floors.

• Trash rooms and the base of the trash chute
• Parking garages, especially near dumpsters and storage cages
• Loading docks and service corridors
• Ground-floor restaurant and retail spaces
• Pipe and electrical chases behind kitchen and bathroom walls

Owner, renter or board: who does what

Your own unit and the shared parts of the building are usually handled separately. A company can trap and seal inside your unit, but if the source is the trash room or the garage, the association or the property manager has to deal with it. Read your condo documents or your lease, and let management know in writing that you have activity.

If you rent, tell your landlord or property manager first. They may already have a pest contract. If you own, you can call us for your unit and pass the provider's findings on to the board.

What a building program looks like

For managers and boards, a provider will usually suggest locked bait stations outside the building and in the garage, traps in trash rooms and mechanical rooms, sealing at the base of chases and door sweeps on service doors, and regular visits with a written log. Ask them to inspect units that report activity at the same time, so you can see where it's moving.

Restaurants inside a building are their own case. See restaurant and commercial rodent control.

More on this: Mouse Control, Restaurant and Commercial Rodent Control, Rodent Exclusion

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