Rodent Control in Maryvale

Maryvale was one of Phoenix's first big master-planned communities. John F. Long started building here in the 1950s, turning out homes fast on the west side, and today it's long blocks of single-story houses, block fences and yards that have had sixty-plus years to fill in.

Houses that age usually have worn garage door seals, cracked stucco and old roof vents. Mice come in at the bottom. Roof rats come in from the fruit trees and palms, using the block walls to get from house to house. Calls here run all year, from the American Family Fields area down to McDowell Rd., with a bump every fall when the fruit trees load up.

Old swamp cooler holes and converted carports

Most Maryvale homes date from the 1950s and 1960s: low roofs, block fences, carports and patios. Since then a lot of them have picked up patio covers, converted carports, new AC lines and the leftover hole from a swamp cooler nobody uses anymore. Every one of those can leave a gap. An old cooler duct can lead straight into the attic, so it's worth asking a roofer or HVAC contractor about taking a dead cooler off and closing the opening properly.

Garage and kitchen mice are the most common call here, so mouse control for older block homes is often first, and it works a lot better with sealing the cooler openings and garage gaps. The walk-around rodent-proofing checklist is a good place to start.

• Old swamp cooler openings and roof jacks
• Garage doors with worn bottom seals
• Cracks where stucco meets the slab
• Converted carports and patio rooms

One block wall, twenty backyards

Maryvale is flat and laid out in long grids, and the block walls connect yard after yard. A rat can cross a whole block on the wall tops, and mice move garage to garage along the slab line. Fruit trees planted decades ago now reach over a lot of roofs, so roof rats come next on the call list. That's roof rat service on the west side, and often trimming and trapping in the fruit trees too.

Bring pet food in after dark, keep alley bins shut and clear stacked wood and junk away from the walls. One house sealing up helps. A block working together helps more. If the house next door has a grapefruit tree nobody's picked in three years, a friendly word about it does more good than another round of traps. Landlords can ask about plans for rentals and apartments, and next door, Glendale has houses of the same era with the same problems.

Around Maryvale: Grand Canyon University Golf Course · Desert Sky Transit Center · American Family Fields of Phoenix · Indian School Rd. and 75th Ave. · McDowell Rd. · Thomas Rd. and 59th Ave. (ZIP 85031, 85033, 85035, 85037)

Also serving Arcadia, Ahwatukee Foothills, North Central & Sunnyslope, Encanto & Willo, Paradise Valley Village & Desert Ridge, Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale, Mesa.