Pest Control in Toronto

Toronto is the pest capital of the GTA, and it comes down to two things: old housing stock and ravine systems. The Victorian homes in Cabbagetown have fieldstone foundations with gaps that mice have been using for a hundred years. The century semis in The Junction share walls and basements, so one neighbour's mouse problem becomes everyone's mouse problem. The post-war bungalows in Scarborough and East York have settling foundations and original aluminum soffits that raccoons tear through like paper.

Then there are the ravines. The Don Valley runs from the harbour forks near Dundas Street all the way up through Riverdale, Leaside, and into North York. The Humber cuts through the west end from Rexdale down to the lake. These corridors deliver raccoons, skunks, and squirrels directly into the backyards of some of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the city — Rosedale, Forest Hill, the Kingsway.

Toronto's high-rise corridor is a different beast. The waterfront condos, the Yonge and Eglinton cluster, the towers along St. Clair — bed bugs and cockroaches in these buildings travel through wall voids and plumbing risers. Treating one unit without addressing the adjacent ones is money wasted. The waterfront construction boom has also stirred up rat populations that had been living undisturbed under old industrial sites for years. PestRecord connects Toronto residents with professionals who know the pest dynamics of each neighbourhood — from the ravine-backed homes of Leaside to the dense streetscapes of King West.