Chicagoland Pest Control & Exterminators Who Pick Up the Phone

Old Housing, Cold Winters & a Big City: The Perfect Setup for Pests

Chicago is regularly ranked as the most rat-troubled city in the country, and the city's 311 system logs tens of thousands of rodent complaints each year. That is not just a downtown problem. The same conditions that support rats in the alleys of Logan Square and Bridgeport show up in the older inner-ring suburbs, and the woods, rivers, and forest preserves that ring the metro area push wildlife into backyards from Oak Lawn to Orland Park to Libertyville.

Housing stock that gives pests a way in

Much of Chicago and its first-ring suburbs was built before 1950. Brick bungalows, greystones, frame two-flats, and three-flats have settled foundations, shared walls, original basement windows, and utility lines that have been re-run several times. Every one of those is a potential entry point. Mice travel between units through pipe chases. German cockroaches spread through shared plumbing walls in courtyard buildings. Norway rats burrow along garage slabs and under back porches that border the alley.

Lake-effect weather and hard freezes

When overnight lows drop in October, rodents, crickets, and spiders move indoors. The humid summers near Lake Michigan and along the Des Plaines, Fox, and DuPage rivers are ideal for house centipedes, silverfish, millipedes, and earwigs, which thrive in damp basements and window wells.

Termites below, wildlife above

Eastern subterranean termites live throughout northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, and spring swarms often surprise homeowners who assume termites are a southern problem. Termite inspections are routine during home sales in DuPage, Will, and Kane counties. Up top, mature trees across the North Shore and western suburbs give squirrels and raccoons an easy path to roofs, soffits, and chimneys, while big brown bats roost in attics and behind shutters from May through September.