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Waterfronts like Alki Beach present an appealing paradox: sun, sand and sea alongside surprisingly robust populations of urban rats. The same features that draw people—easy access to water, plentiful food, sheltered nooks and dense human activity—also create ideal conditions for commensal rodents. In places where city life meets shoreline, rats are not an incidental nuisance…

Seattle’s weather — a mix of mild temperatures, frequent rain, and pronounced microclimates — does more than shape the look of a neighborhood; it shapes where pests live, breed and move. Unlike cities with harsh winters that regularly suppress pest activity, the Pacific Northwest’s temperate, maritime climate allows many species to remain active year-round or…

Winter in Lower Queen Anne brings its characteristic grey skies, steady rain and temperatures that are cool but rarely extreme. Those mild, maritime winters make Seattle neighborhoods like Lower Queen Anne attractive not just to residents but to pests as well. As outdoor food sources dwindle and temperatures dip, rodents, cockroaches and other pest species…

January is a month when the city seems to slow down, but for many restaurants on Capitol Hill it brings an unwanted uptick in pest sightings. The combination of harsh outdoor conditions and the neighborhood’s built environment creates a push-pull dynamic: cold and snow drive rodents and other pests indoors in search of warmth and…

In dense, older neighborhoods like Belltown, winter fundamentally reshapes how rodents move through the urban landscape. Snow, freezing ground and the seasonal thinning of outdoor food sources push commensal species — chiefly Norway rats, roof rats and house mice — off the streets and into the built environment. Rather than dispersing randomly, these animals increasingly…

Winter changes more than the calendar — it reshapes how Georgetown homeowners need to think about their kitchens and pantries. Shorter days, colder temperatures, and the greater likelihood of storms and service disruptions mean that the window between buying groceries and consuming them tightens. What might be routine food handling in summer can become a…

Winter in South Park brings more than gray skies and rain — it brings a predictable uptick in pest-control calls. Nestled along the Duwamish River with a mix of older housing, industrial lots and low-lying yards, South Park’s microclimate and built environment create abundant entry points and shelters that many animals and insects find irresistible…

As Puget Sound and other temperate urban regions experience colder, wetter winters and a rising incidence of intense storm events, property managers in SoDo face a secondary—but no less serious—challenge: winter storms make pest problems worse. What might appear to be a short-term nuisance following a storm—a mouse darting into a warehouse, a surge of…

Pioneer Square’s narrow brick alleys, century-old buildings and proximity to the waterfront make it one of Seattle’s most characterful neighborhoods — and one of its most rat-prone. Each January residents, business owners and city crews frequently notice a spike in rat sightings and service calls. That apparent “peak season” is not magic but the result…

When an arctic blast slides down the Pacific Northwest and temperatures plunge, the most visible victims aren’t always the birds or plants but the urban wildlife that shares our homes and alleys. In Rainier Valley, a dense, diverse neighborhood in south Seattle with a mix of older housing, apartment buildings and narrow service corridors, winter…