Rodent Control in Oakley, Asheville

The neighborhood at a glance

The City of Asheville describes Oakley as a very large neighborhood with more than 2,000 homes, bounded by Sweeten Creek Road, Thompson Street and I-240. It has its own library, Oakley Elementary, a fire station, a park and the Ray Kisiah baseball complex, plus churches and small businesses. The neighborhood association, the Oakley Watch, runs cleanups and works on local issues.

Housing is a mix: older cottages and bungalows, a lot of mid-century ranches and split-levels, and newer infill. Many lots back up to wooded slopes or small creeks.

Typical rodent calls

Most calls are mice. Mid-century homes here often sit on a crawl space or partial basement with a carport or garage at one end. Over sixty years, owners added heat pumps, new water lines, dryer vents and cable, and each left a hole. Mice find them in the fall.

Rats show up in yards with compost, chicken coops, bird feeders or stacked lumber, and near creeks. Neighborhood cleanups help, because junk piles and overgrown lots give rats cover.

Here is a short checklist for an Oakley house:

• Walk the foundation and look for holes the width of a pencil or larger, especially around the heat pump lines.
• Check the garage door seal and the corners.
• Make sure crawl space vents have intact screens.
• Store birdseed, pet food and chicken feed in metal cans.

Sweeten Creek Road businesses

Oakley's western edge runs along Sweeten Creek Road, where shops, restaurants and service businesses deal with the same mice as the houses behind them, plus rats around dumpsters and loading doors. A business here benefits from a simple program: door sweeps, sealed utility openings, closed dumpster lids and regular checks with written reports. Homeowners on the streets behind those businesses should keep trash carts closed and report dumping through the Asheville App, so rats from commercial lots have less reason to cross into yards.

Services people call about in Oakley

• Mouse Control
• Exclusion and Sealing
• Rat Control
• Crawl Space Rodent Control
• Rodent Inspection

Oakley rodent questions