Rodent Control in Oakland, CA

Local Context

Fruit Trees Above, Culverted Creeks Below — How Rats Move Through Oakland

Oakland hands rodents two separate highways. Overhead, the flatland neighborhoods carry a heavy old tree canopy — plum, loquat, fig and citrus in back yards from Temescal to the Laurel — and roof rats climb it, cross to a roof on a branch or a utility line, and enter at a roof vent, a rotted fascia board, or the gap where a porch roof ties into the wall. They nest in the attic and come down inside the wall bays.

At ground level the story is water. Sausal, Peralta, Temescal and Lion Creek run largely in culvert beneath the flatlands before reaching the estuary and San Leandro Bay, and that Alameda County drainage network is a year-round Norway rat corridor with food, water and no weather. Properties on the shoreline flats near Hegenberger Road and the Damon Slough end of the bay feel that ground pressure first, and it enters buildings through sewer laterals, crawl-space vents and garage door gaps.

Then there is the housing itself. A raised Craftsman sits on a low crawl space over bare dirt, on a brick or concrete perimeter that has settled and cracked over a hundred years, and the older buildings around Adams Point and West Oakland add basements and utility chases that connect floors. Once rats reach the crawl space, plumbing and duct penetrations take them anywhere in the house. Closing those openings is the part that keeps them out.