Pest Control in Elkridge, Maryland

Elkridge is the oldest settlement in Howard County, a colonial tobacco port on the Patapsco where planters loaded ships at the river wharves. The Thomas Viaduct, the curved stone railroad bridge built in 1833, still crosses the river here, and Lawyers Hill keeps a cluster of older homes. Since then, Elkridge has grown fast, with new townhouses and subdivisions along Route 1, I-95 and Route 100.

That puts some of the oldest and some of the newest housing in the county side by side, and pest control in Elkridge covers both.

Old river houses and new townhouse rows

Older homes near the river and on Lawyers Hill have stone and brick foundations, wood porches and damp lower levels, which bring carpenter ants, camel crickets and mice. Newer townhouse rows are tighter, but the shared walls let mice travel from unit to unit, and the mulch beds and slab edges invite ants and termites. A spring swarm in a two-year-old townhouse garage is not unusual. Ask about a termite inspection if you see winged insects near the slab.

For mice in either kind of house, sealing the gaps and trapping beats poison every time. In a townhouse, let your HOA or neighbors know. And when woods and fields get cleared for a new section, the mice that lived there go looking for shelter, and the newest houses at the edge are the closest thing around.

Rats along Route 1 and ticks by the river

The commercial strip along Route 1 has restaurants, warehouses and dumpsters, and Norway rats follow. Homes backing onto that corridor sometimes see rat burrows along fences and under sheds. Down by the river, the Avalon Area of the park and the wooded valley bring deer and ticks right up to the back yard, and mosquitoes breed in anything holding water. Tick and mosquito treatment helps on lots that back onto woods. The older houses on Lawyers Hill sit among big old trees, and the shade there brings carpenter ants and stink bugs in numbers closer to what the historic district sees than to the newer rows. If your yard runs down toward the river or the park, give the leaf litter along that edge a rake in spring, and keep the woodpile off the ground and away from the house.

Elkridge connects to Columbia's villages by Route 100, and upriver the valley leads to Old Ellicott City. Our guide to deer ticks in local yards is worth a read if your yard backs onto the park.

Around Elkridge: Thomas Viaduct · Lawyers Hill Historic District · Elkridge Furnace · Avalon Area, Patapsco Valley State Park · Washington Boulevard (US 1) · Route 100 (ZIP 21075)

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