Two Housing Eras, Two Sets of Entry Points: Avalon Park Pest Control

Houses on stilts, Hog Lake and the 1910 sewer

In the 1880s, German and Irish railroad workers who settled this stretch built some of their houses raised on posts above ground that flooded regularly. Old maps show a body of water called Hog Lake roughly where the neighborhood park now sits. Johnathon Pierce began selling lots here in 1888 under the name Pierce's Park, and a local congregation founded in 1896 later pushed for a more dignified name. In 1910 the area officially became Avalon Park, and the same year a sewer system drained the marsh and made steady building possible.

Most of the bungalow blocks went up in the following two decades. A second wave came after World War II, when Marynook was laid out on curving streets near 83rd and Stony Island. The community's population peaked at about 14,400 in 1970 and was close to 9,000 in 2024, with a high rate of homeownership and a predominantly Black population since the 1970s. In August 2023 the Avalon Park Bungalow Historic District joined the National Register, with roughly 500 contributing buildings. For pests, the key fact is that most homes here are either about a century old or about 65 years old, and those two ages fail in very different places.

Marynook garages: where most mouse calls begin

In Marynook the attached garage is the front door for rodents. Garage doors on houses from the late 1950s and 1960s have usually been replaced at least once, but their bottom seals wear out, curl or get chewed, and the gaps at the side jambs widen as tracks shift. A house mouse needs an opening only about the width of a pencil. Once inside the garage, mice nest in stored boxes, bags of birdseed or grass seed and the insulation of any finished wall. From there the door into the house, often poorly weatherstripped, and the utility penetrations in the shared wall lead straight to the kitchen or the lower level of a split-level.

The fix is mostly mechanical. A new bottom seal with a rodent-resistant retainer, brush seals or rubber gaskets on the side jambs, a tight sweep and weatherstripping on the house door, and sealed gas and electrical penetrations through the common wall close the route. Inside, a provider sets traps or tamper-resistant stations along walls in the garage and basement, removes the population already present and returns to check. Keeping seed, pet food and grass seed in metal bins and stored items off the floor removes the reason mice settle in the garage at all.

Bungalow foundations on the old marsh

The bungalow blocks share the city-wide weakness of raised basements, but Avalon Park's soggy past makes it worse. Basement windows sit just above grade in brick walls whose mortar joints have eroded over a century, and the soils here hold water after heavy rain. Wet mortar crumbles faster, frames swell and shrink, and utility entries drilled and redrilled for each new service leave gaps around the pipes. Mice slip in through all of them each October and November, nesting in basement insulation, in the sill area at the top of the foundation wall and behind paneling. Older bungalows often still have a filled-in coal chute or an abandoned laundry vent at the rear wall, and those patched openings are among the first places a technician checks with a flashlight.

Many of these bungalows also have finished attics with knee walls, and mice climb through wall cavities beside chimneys and plumbing stacks to reach them. Scratching overhead at night in winter is a common complaint. Lasting treatment combines trapping or baiting indoors with exclusion outside, using copper mesh, hardware cloth and mortar rather than foam. Sealing should follow removal of the mice already inside, so none are trapped in the walls, and it should be checked again the next fall.

Centipedes, millipedes and the water table

The 1910 sewer drained the marsh, but it did not raise the land. Heavy summer storms still leave water standing in some yards and push moisture into older basements and the crawlspaces of Marynook split-levels. House centipedes, millipedes, earwigs and silverfish follow that moisture indoors. Millipedes in particular can appear by the dozens on basement floors after a soaking rain, and centipedes stay year-round wherever humidity stays high. Basements that were finished decades ago with carpet over the slab tend to hold the most, since the carpet stays damp underneath long after the floor looks dry.

These occasional invaders rarely breed in dry conditions, so the most effective treatment is environmental: a dehumidifier in the basement, a working sump pump with a battery backup, downspout extensions that carry water several feet from the foundation and window wells kept clear of leaves. A crawlspace with exposed soil benefits from a heavy vapor barrier. A provider can apply an exterior perimeter treatment when invasions are heavy, but without the moisture work the insects return with the next storm. Springtails, tiny gray jumping insects, are another giveaway: they gather in sump pits, around floor drains and on damp window sills, and they disappear almost entirely once humidity falls below about 50 percent.

Pavement ants, carpenter ants and termites

Ants are the steady summer complaint. Pavement ants nest under sidewalks, driveways and the slab foundations and garage floors common in Marynook, pushing up little mounds of sand along cracks in early summer and trailing into kitchens through gaps where the slab meets the wall. Odorous house ants march indoors after rain, and their crushed bodies give off a rotten-coconut smell. Carpenter ants prefer moist or decaying wood, such as rotted window sills, porch posts, old stumps and the wood trim around Marynook picture windows where caulk has failed.

Eastern subterranean termites also live in this soil and can reach wood that touches the ground: porch steps, fences, deck posts and the sill plates of older bungalows. Both ants and termites swarm in spring, and the winged forms are easy to confuse. Termites have straight antennae, thick waists and wings of equal length. Ants have elbowed antennae, pinched waists and front wings longer than the back pair. Saving a few in a sealed bag for a provider to identify avoids paying for the wrong treatment.

Skunks under decks and the wildlife around the park

Striped skunks are the wildlife call Avalon Park residents mention most. Marynook's houses, with their low porches, rear decks and patio slabs, offer exactly the dry, dark cavities skunks like for dens, and the larger lots give them lawn to dig for grubs. Females give birth in May and June, so a strong smell and new holes along a foundation in spring usually means a den with young. A specialist waits until the young can follow the mother out, then uses a one-way door and installs buried mesh skirting so they cannot return.

The neighborhood park's trees and open lawns support gray squirrels, rabbits and the occasional raccoon, and homes facing it see a little more traffic. Mature trees planted when Marynook was new now overhang many roofs, giving squirrels a path to soffits and attic vents. Vegetable gardens, compost and bird feeders add food. A covered compost bin set on hardware cloth, feeders hung well away from the house and fallen fruit picked up promptly cut down on night visitors around bungalows and Marynook homes alike. Opossums turn up under the same decks now and then, and they are harmless, but they leave when the cavity is skirted the same way.

Avalon Park through the year

The calendar here blends old-marsh moisture timing with the usual Chicago wildlife and rodent seasons, and the two overlap more than most owners expect. A wet spring can bring millipedes, ant swarms and nesting squirrels in the same week. Plan exclusion and masonry work for late fall and winter, when dens are least likely to hold young and the ground is firm enough for crews to work along foundations without trampling wet lawns.

• March to April: millipede and earwig invasions after the first heavy rains, squirrels nesting in attics
• April to May: termite and ant swarms on warm, humid days
• May to June: skunk births under decks and porches, pavement ant mounds along drive cracks
• July to August: thunderstorms push moisture pests back into basements and crawlspaces
• Late August to September: wasps peak around eaves and squirrels start caching food
• October to November: the main mouse push through bungalow foundations and Marynook garages
• December to February: sealing season for foundations, garage seals and attic vents

Checklist by housing type

Most of these items cost little, and done in early fall they remove the easiest entries before mouse season starts. Done again in spring, they limit moisture pests and wildlife dens. The list is split by housing era because a Marynook split-level and a 1920s bungalow fail in different spots. Bungalow owners in the historic district should use materials that match the original brick and mortar for anything visible from the street.

• Marynook: replace worn garage door bottom seals and add side-jamb seals
• Marynook: weatherstrip the door from the garage into the house and seal shared-wall penetrations
• Marynook: lay a vapor barrier over exposed crawlspace soil and screen crawlspace vents
• Bungalows: pack gaps at basement window frames and pipe entries with copper mesh and mortar
• Bungalows: check finished attic knee walls for droppings each winter
• Both: run a dehumidifier and keep a working sump pump with backup power
• Both: extend downspouts several feet from the foundation
• Both: skirt porches and decks with buried mesh, and remove stumps and rotted wood

What a visit looks like on each kind of block

Providers tend to read the block before the house. On the bungalow streets, a technician will circle the foundation looking at every basement window frame, mortar joint and pipe entry, then spend most of the inside time in the basement and, if there are droppings overhead, the knee-wall spaces of a finished attic. In Marynook, the inspection shifts to the garage door and jambs, the door into the house, the crawlspace and the cavities under decks, porches and patio slabs, where skunk dens and pavement ant colonies are common finds. Termite mud tubes and burrows get checked on both.

Mouse work normally combines removal of the animals already inside with sealing, plus at least one return visit. Skunks and squirrels are handled by licensed wildlife specialists under Illinois rules, generally with one-way doors and exclusion. Same-day visits are often possible because many providers keep a few slots open for urgent calls. Request a written list of entry points with photos; it helps if activity returns and doubles as a repair list for a contractor.