Pest Control in Dunloggin, Ellicott City

Dunloggin is one of the first big suburban neighborhoods in Ellicott City, built out mostly in the 1950s and '60s with ranches, split-levels and capes on generous lots. The trees are the thing people mention first. Decades in, they've grown into a full canopy over Dunloggin Road, Northfield Road and the side streets, and a lot of yards back onto a strip of woods or a small stream.

For pest control in Dunloggin, that canopy is both the charm and the challenge. Big oaks and tulip poplars drop branches onto roofs, shade the siding so it stays damp, and give carpenter ants, squirrels and stink bugs a highway to the house.

Sixty-year-old sills under a full canopy

A house built in 1960 has had a long time to develop small problems. Block foundations crack, the sill plate settles, original windows get drafty and the gaps around old pipe and wire holes widen. Mice find those gaps every October. If you're hearing scratching in the ceiling of a ranch or the knee walls of a cape, mouse control that includes sealing the foundation is usually the answer, not just traps.

Shade and leaf-clogged gutters keep wood damp, and that's what carpenter ants want. Spring calls here are often about big black ants on the kitchen floor, traced back to a wet window sill, a porch post or a tree touching the roof. Tracking down the carpenter ant nest and trimming the branches back usually go together. The many windows of a split-level also make it a stink bug magnet in the fall.

Ticks in the back corner of the lot

Deer cut through Dunloggin's back yards on their way between wooded pockets, and they leave ticks behind in the leaf litter. The back corner of a shaded lot, the ivy along the fence and the leaf pile behind the shed are prime spots. A yard treatment along the wooded edge, plus raking leaves away from the play set and patio, cuts down on ticks where your family spends time.

Dunloggin sits between the older town to the east and the newer neighborhoods further out. Homes here have a lot in common with the 1960s-and-later streets in Valley Mede, and the walking paths around Centennial Lake are a short trip away. Our Howard County tick guide covers how ticks move through yards like these. Yellow jackets like the same back corners. Old stumps from trees taken down years ago, and the rotted root holes under them, are a favorite ground nest site by late summer, and they're usually found with the mower.

Around Dunloggin: Dunloggin Road · Northfield Road · Dunloggin Middle School · Centennial Park and Centennial Lake, nearby · Frederick Road (Route 144) (ZIP 21042)

Also serving Old Ellicott City, Turf Valley, Valley Mede, St. Johns Lane, Columbia, Catonsville, Clarksville, Woodstock and Marriottsville, Elkridge.