Pest Control Along St. Johns Lane
St. Johns Lane runs north and south through the middle of Ellicott City, from Old Frederick Road down to Montgomery Road, and the neighborhoods along it are a real mix. You'll find older single-family homes on bigger lots, '70s and '80s colonials and split-levels, and newer townhouse communities, often within a few blocks of each other. St. Johns Lane Elementary sits along the road, and plenty of people know the area by the school.
Because the housing varies so much, so do the calls. Pest control near St. Johns Lane can mean mice in a forty-year-old split-level one day and termites in a newer townhouse the next.
Split-levels with the garage under the bedrooms
Split-levels and raised ranches from the '70s and '80s put the garage and a family room on the lowest level, partly below grade. That lower level is where most pest trouble starts. Garage door seals wear out, the space where the slab meets the block wall opens up, and the dryer vent and hose bib holes loosen over the years. Mice come in through the garage and climb inside the walls to the bedrooms, which is why you hear them overhead at night. Sealing the garage and the lower level against mice fixes more than trapping does.
Those same lower levels can be damp. Camel crickets, spiders and the occasional carpenter ant trail are common, and a dehumidifier goes a long way.
Older lots along the lane also tend to have the bigger trees, the sheds and the woodpiles, and that's where carpenter ants and yellow jackets set up before they move closer to the house. A shed full of birdseed and grass seed draws mice, too. Keep seed in metal cans with lids, stack firewood off the ground and away from the siding, and walk the shed line once in early fall. If there's steady traffic at a hole in the lawn by late summer, it's probably a ground nest, and yellow jacket removal is safer left to the tech.
Newer townhouses and slab edges
Townhouse communities near St. Johns Lane are tighter, but they share walls and often back onto a strip of common woods. Ants come up through slab cracks and along the mulch line, and termite swarmers sometimes show up in a garage or basement in spring. If you see winged insects by the slab edge, have the swarmers looked at before assuming they're ants. The sunny end units also collect stink bugs every fall.
Homes here have plenty in common with the older ranches in Dunloggin and the townhouse villages of Columbia a few minutes south. Our stink bug guide is a good read before September.
Around St. Johns Lane: St. Johns Lane · St. Johns Lane Elementary School · Old Frederick Road · Montgomery Road · Frederick Road (Route 144) (ZIP 21042)
Questions We Get
Why do I hear mice upstairs when they're getting in through the garage?
Mice climb inside wall cavities. In a split-level, the garage sits right under the bedrooms, so they come up through the walls and end up overhead.
Also serving Old Ellicott City, Dunloggin, Turf Valley, Valley Mede, Columbia, Catonsville, Clarksville, Woodstock and Marriottsville, Elkridge.
