Cemetery Lawns, a Working Farm and Postwar Brick Homes: Mount Greenwood Pest Control

Seven Holy Tombs and a village that joined Chicago late

The name came from a cemetery before there was a neighborhood. In 1879 surveyor George Washington Waite platted an 80-acre tract as Mount Greenwood Cemetery, and so many burial grounds followed that locals joked about the Seven Holy Tombs. Dutch and German farmers worked the rest of the land. Residents incorporated as a village, partly to resist efforts to make the area dry, and then voted to join Chicago in 1927. Sewers did not arrive until 1936, built by WPA crews, so most of the housing went up later than in the rest of the city, largely between 1940 and 1970.

Two things follow for pests. The homes are almost all postwar brick on poured or block foundations, which keeps out much of what troubles older frame neighborhoods. And the community never lost its open edges. Mount Greenwood Cemetery itself remains unincorporated land surrounded by the city, other cemeteries ring the area, and Peter Ouwenga's farm, often called the last farm in Chicago, became the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in the 1980s. Homeownership runs near 88 percent, so most calls come from owners dealing with wildlife and rodents that cross from that open land.

Striped skunks along the cemetery fence lines

The most common wildlife call here is a skunk, and the reason is on the other side of the fence. Mowed cemetery turf holds large numbers of beetle grubs, and striped skunks forage it at night, then wander onto neighboring lawns and dig the same way, leaving small cone-shaped pits and peeled-back strips of sod. They den under concrete stoops, garden sheds, low decks and the slab gaps beside detached garages. Mating season runs in February and March, and a female that settles under a porch then will usually have young there by May.

Removal is a two-part job. A licensed wildlife specialist confirms the den is active, often with a soft-soil track test at the opening, then either hangs a one-way gate the skunk can push out through but not back in, or traps under an Illinois nuisance wildlife permit. The part people skip is the barrier afterward: an L-shaped footer of galvanized hardware cloth buried about a foot deep and bent outward, run around the stoop or shed. Without it, the next skunk moves into the same cavity within a season.

Raccoons and Virginia opossums use the same green edges. Opossums are mostly a garage nuisance, coming in under a warped overhead door after dog food or birdseed and leaving once the food is gone. Raccoons go for garbage carts, grill covers and the roof returns on Cape Cods. Skunks and raccoons are both rabies vector species in Illinois, which is another reason to leave trapping to permitted professionals rather than attempting it with a rented trap.

Moles and grub hunters on lawns that face open ground

Blocks that border the cemeteries and the school's fields see eastern mole damage far more often than the inner streets. Moles feed on earthworms and grubs, and their raised surface tunnels can wander across a lawn in a single night after rain. Volcano-shaped mounds appear in spring and again in fall. Moles do not eat roots or bulbs, so chewed plants point to voles, rabbits or squirrels instead.

Grub treatments alone rarely stop moles, because earthworms remain. What works is targeted trapping along active runs, which a specialist identifies by pressing down a few tunnels and seeing which are rebuilt by the next day. Since skunks and moles both chase grubs, a lawn that draws one tends to draw the other, and treating grubs in late summer reduces skunk digging even if it does little for moles.

The 24-acre Mount Greenwood Park, bought by the Park District in 1949 and later given a fieldhouse, pool and ice rink, has open turf of its own, so homes across from it see the same pattern on a smaller scale. Repellent granules and vibrating stakes mostly push moles a few yards over. On a lot that faces open ground, expect a new mole to find the old runs within a year or two.

Field mice and the fall push from open land

Open fields and cemetery grounds support house mice and deer mice through the growing season. When crops come off the agricultural school's fields and the first hard frosts arrive in October, many of those mice look for shelter in the closest buildings. Homes along the edges of open land feel this push first, often a few weeks before the interior blocks. Deer mice, with their white bellies and bicolored tails, are more common near fields and are worth handling carefully, since their droppings can carry hantavirus; wet-clean droppings with disinfectant rather than sweeping them.

Brick construction helps, but postwar homes have their own gaps: weep holes and the joint where brick veneer meets the foundation, the line where a raised ranch's lower level meets its garage slab, dryer vent flaps, and the openings around air conditioning lines and gas meters. Detached garages with worn door sweeps are the usual staging area. Sealing these by early October, with traps indoors for any mice already inside, makes the biggest difference.

Garages deserve their own inspection. Many detached garages here have wood sill plates set on the slab, side doors that no longer close tightly and shelves of birdseed, grass seed and pet food. Mice and opossums move in during fall, and the garage becomes the base for attempts on the house. Storing feed in metal bins, replacing worn door sweeps and closing the gap at the slab edge removes that base.

Cape Cod knee walls, raised ranches and brick ranches

The postwar Cape Cod, with its steep roof and front dormers, has a weak spot built into the design: the knee-wall space behind the upstairs bedrooms. Those triangular voids run the length of the house along the eaves, often with little insulation and a soffit that is just a vented board. Mice that enter low climb inside the block wall to reach them, and squirrels chew in from the gutter line. Raised ranches have a different gap, where the half-buried lower level meets siding or the garage slab, and mice nest behind the furnace or inside finished paneling.

• Cape Cod: knee-wall access hatches, dormer cheeks and gable-end vents
• Raised ranch: the line where lower-level brick meets slab and siding
• Brick ranch: open weep holes and gaps around cooling lines and the gas meter
• Bungalow: basement window frames and attic soffits under parkway trees
• Detached garage: door sweeps, side-door thresholds and stored birdseed or pet food

Carpenter ants, yellowjackets and basement invaders

Mature parkway trees and wood decks give black carpenter ants plenty of nesting wood, and the large winged swarmers that appear indoors in spring usually come from a satellite nest in damp wood near a leaky window or roof valley. A provider finds the parent nest outdoors, often in a tree cavity or a rotted deck post, and treats both. In late summer, yellowjackets dig into lawns near the cemetery edges and build inside soffits, a job for someone with protective gear.

House centipedes, crickets and the occasional millipede move into finished lower levels as fall arrives, and pavement ants push up small mounds along driveway cracks all season. None of these damage the house, but a steady centipede population means there is other insect prey to feed it. The fix is usually moisture: a dehumidifier near 50 percent, a regraded window well and a door sweep on the basement walkout.

The year on the far southwest edge

The calendar here follows the open land rather than the alleys. Wildlife and digging dominate spring and late summer, and the field-mouse push defines the fall. Because the houses are brick and relatively young, insects play a smaller role than in older neighborhoods, and most of the calendar is about what crosses the property line from the cemeteries and fields.

• February to March: skunk and raccoon mating, often first noticed as a smell under a stoop
• April: mole mounds, carpenter ant swarmers and the first termite swarms in older garages
• May to June: wildlife young in dens, so sealing waits until a specialist confirms they are gone
• July to August: yellowjackets in lawns and soffits, ant trails along driveways
• September: grub season, when skunks and raccoons tear up lawns overnight
• October to November: the field-mouse push, timed with harvest and the first hard frosts

Prevention list for a postwar brick home here

Most of these tasks take an afternoon and cost little. They matter most on blocks facing the cemeteries or the school's fields, where pest pressure starts at the property line instead of the alley. Interior blocks near 111th Street can focus on the rodent items. Timing counts: barriers go in before late-winter denning season, and sealing should be done before the October push rather than after the first droppings appear.

• Bury a hardware-cloth footer around stoops, sheds and low decks before February
• Keep garbage carts lidded and stored against the garage, not loose in the alley
• Bring pet food and birdseed indoors at night
• Screen gable vents and check Cape Cod knee-wall hatches each fall
• Seal gaps where raised-ranch slabs meet siding with mortar or metal flashing
• Fit tight sweeps on the garage side door and overhead door
• Treat lawn grubs in late summer if skunks dug the yard the year before
• Trim branches back at least six feet from the roof edge

What a wildlife or rodent visit looks like on these blocks

Expect the provider to walk the whole lot before quoting, starting at the fence or alley facing the open ground. For a digging animal, they look for the den entrance, test whether it is active and ask how long the smell or digging has been going on. For mice, they check the garage, the lower level and the attic or knee walls in one visit, because a home here usually has more than one entry. Trapping and exclusion plans are written to the house, and follow-up checks in a week or two are common.

Skunk and raccoon jobs end with the barrier work and a final visit to remove any one-way gate once the animal is out. Mouse jobs usually include a return trip to check traps and confirm the seals held through the first cold snap. Providers who cover the far Southwest Side can often fit in a visit the day you call.

Before the provider arrives, note when you first smelled a skunk or saw fresh digging, where droppings turned up and whether your lot faces a cemetery, the school fields or the park. Photos of holes in the lawn help a specialist tell skunk pits from raccoon damage or mole mounds. If you share an alley fence with neighbors who are seeing the same thing, mention it, since a coordinated barrier along several yards works better than one.