Tenant Guides · Home Care
Pest Prevention
Pests don't move in for the architecture — they move in for the buffet. Close the buffet, and report the first scout before it brings friends.
The short version: sealed food, regular trash runs, no cardboard piles, and report the first mouse or roach you see — one visitor is an easy fix, a colony is a project. Under the lease, infestations we didn't cause are ours to treat; ones caused by housekeeping are billed.
Close the buffet
- Dry goods (cereal, rice, pet food) in sealed containers — a bag folded over is an open door with a welcome mat.
- Dishes done same-day; counters and stovetop wiped — grease splatter is roach fuel.
- Trash out regularly, in cans with lids — inside and out.
- Pet bowls picked up overnight.
Close the doors
- A mouse needs a gap the width of a dime. See daylight under a door, a gap around a pipe, or a torn window screen? Work order — sealing entry points is the highest-value pest control there is.
- Skip the cardboard-box archive in the basement — cardboard is pest housing and pest food in one. Plastic bins, up off the floor.
- Keep shrubs and debris from hugging the building (trimming is on your side of the lease) — vegetation against the wall is a highway.
Saw something? Report it now
One mouse, one roach, a line of ants — report at first sighting with a work order (note where and when). Early treatment is quick and cheap; waiting until "it's really a problem" multiplies both. Please don't fog or bug-bomb the unit yourself — it scatters pests deeper into the building and makes professional treatment harder.
Who pays (the lease angle)
Straight from the lease: an infestation not caused by the tenant is ours to treat; one caused by conditions in the unit (food, trash, clutter) is billed back. In practice: keep the habits above and report early, and this never becomes a conversation.
Questions? Call the office at (412) 555-0123.
First sighting, gaps to seal: Submit a Work Order