Long Beach Pest Control:
Belmont Shore to Bixby Knolls, Same-Day on Weekdays

Call (562) 488-7455 for a free inspection and a written quote before any work starts.

Rats and Mice in Long Beach

Rodents are what we get called out for most in Long Beach, and the city hands them two completely different ways in.

Roof rats come in from above. Mature street trees through Bixby Knolls, Los Altos and California Heights put branches within reach of a roofline, and from the roof a rat needs only a small gap to reach an attic. That is why the usual first sign is something running overhead after dark rather than anything at floor level. Older bungalows with open eaves and unscreened attic vents are the easiest way in, and that is most of the housing stock inland of Broadway. Trimming the limbs that touch the roof is genuinely half the fix.

Norway rats come in from below. They work the alleys, the storm drains and the ground floor, and they show up where standing water and food waste sit together — the restaurant alleys downtown and behind Belmont Shore, and the older sewer laterals under pre-war houses. A cracked lateral beneath a raised foundation is a direct route into a crawlspace, and no amount of trapping upstairs will close it.

House mice need a far smaller gap than people expect, which is why they turn up in kitchens and garages in houses that look perfectly well sealed. In multi-unit buildings around Alamitos Beach and downtown they move between units through shared utility chases, so treating one unit on its own rarely holds.

What actually ends it

Trapping clears what is inside. It does not stop the next one, and in Long Beach there is always a next one. The part that lasts is exclusion — sealing the entry points, screening the vents, closing the gaps at utility penetrations and the roofline junctions. We do the inspection first, in the attic and the subfloor, because the entry point is almost never where the noise is.

If there is droppings evidence, chewed wiring or a smell in the attic, that also needs cleaning out and treating, not just sealing. Full detail is on our rodent control page.

Why the calls pick up in the fall

As the nights cool down in October and November, rats and mice move out of yards, trees and storm drains and into attics, walls and garages, which is why fall is when a lot of Long Beach homeowners first hear them. We can usually get out the same day on weekdays, and the inspection is free. Once we have sealed your home, if rodents get back in within 12 months we come back and fix it at no charge. Call (562) 488-7455.

Bed Bugs in Long Beach

Bed bugs are nothing like ants, and they are not treated like ants. They don’t come in from the yard. They arrive in luggage, secondhand furniture and on visitors, and in the apartment buildings around Alamitos Beach and downtown they travel between units along shared walls and plumbing. They hide in mattress seams, box springs, headboards and furniture joints close to where people sleep, and come out at night to feed.

Signs worth calling about

Small dark spots along mattress seams, rust-colored marks on sheets, pale shed skins, or bites in a line that appeared overnight. Bites on their own don’t prove bed bugs, because people react differently, so the first step is an inspection to confirm what you are dealing with.

Heat treatment or local treatment

We do both, and the inspection decides which fits. Heat treatment raises the room to a temperature bed bugs and their eggs can’t survive, which reaches places a spray can’t. Local chemical treatment targets the seams, cracks and furniture where they hide and keeps working after we leave, which suits a smaller, contained problem. Either way, you get the findings and the quote in writing before any work starts.

More detail is on our bed bug treatment page.

Termites in Long Beach

Long Beach’s termite problem follows the age of the house. The pre-war Craftsman and Spanish homes in Rose Park, California Heights, Bixby Knolls and Bluff Park still have original eaves, window trim and attic framing, and drywood termites can live inside that wood for years before anyone notices. The usual first signs are small piles of tiny, hard pellets under a window sill or along a baseboard, or winged swarmers at a window from late summer into fall.

Subterranean termites are the other half. They come up from the soil, and a raised foundation gives them a direct route to the wood. The first evidence is mud tubes on the piers and foundation walls in the crawlspace, so that is one of the first places to look on an older Long Beach house.

The inspection is free. We tell you which termite it is, how far it has gone and what treatment fits, and you get the findings and the quote in writing before any work starts. See how our termite control works, or call (562) 488-7455.

Call (562) 488-7455 and we will get someone out to look.