Service Area → Highland Park

Highland Park

We're in Highland Park multiple days a week, and Dan has lived here since 2013. Most of the houses are about 100 years old, and we know their habits well: brick foundations, crawlspaces, big trees, and small lots. Like anywhere else, we start with an inspection.

What are Highland Park houses like?

Most of the neighborhood was built between about 1910 and 1940, a lot of it in the 1920s. Many of the houses are Craftsman style, on brick foundations with a crawlspace underneath. They're beautiful old houses. Most of them also went through a rough decade or two along the way, plus several rounds of remodeling, with a few questionable choices mixed in.

A 100-year-old house isn't very airtight. There are gaps around the foundation, the windows, and the doors, and the brick foundations and crawlspace doors usually have a few holes a mouse can use. Add big trees dropping leaves and seeds on the roof, and you get the usual Highland Park list: ants, smokybrown cockroaches, and the occasional mouse.

What do you do most here?

Mostly Regular Service: seasonal treatments around the outside of the house that keep the ants and cockroaches outside where they belong. Highland Park is also one of the places we do the most mosquito control, and it's where termite protection matters more than people expect, because of the soil cleanup.

Why are there so many mosquitos?

Most blocks have at least one backyard that gets away from somebody: the grass gets tall, and toys or tools left out in the yard fill up with rainwater. In the summer, that's all mosquitos need. And on lots this small, about an eighth to a sixth of an acre, they cross property lines without a second thought.

So in Highland Park we usually pair targeted barrier treatments with In2Care stations: small buckets of water where the females lay their eggs. The water is treated so the eggs never become adults, and the females carry the treatment to other breeding spots nearby, even ones nobody can find. Because we service so many yards here, it's easy to join a few neighbors' yards into one program, and that works a lot better than one yard on its own. During the season, we're on those streets every week.

Part of the reason we do so much mosquito work here is selfish: Dan lives here too, and he hates mosquitos at his own house.

What does the EPA soil cleanup mean for termites?

When a lot of these houses were built, the lots were leveled and filled with sand from the local foundries, and that sand had lead in it. Highland Park is one of eight neighborhoods in the EPA's Southside Chattanooga Lead Superfund site. Under a cleanup plan approved in 2019, crews dig out up to two feet of yard soil, haul it away, and bring in clean soil and new grass. By Dan's guess, about half the yards in the neighborhood have been done so far.

The cleanup is a good thing. It just has a side effect most people never hear about. Over 100 years, most of these houses were treated for termites several times: maybe in the 1940s, again in the 1970s and 1990s, and again in the 2010s. The older treatments lasted for decades in the soil, so those layers around the foundation were quietly protecting a lot of houses, even when the owners had no idea and no warranty. When that soil gets dug out and hauled away, the protection goes with it.

It's rarely urgent, but it's not something we'd leave to chance. Once a yard has been redone, our usual answer is termite bait stations around the house. The fastest we've seen termites show up after a cleanup is about six months after the new sod went down.

Dan learned this one at his own house. After he moved a bunch of dirt next to the foundation, he waited about six months to put stations in, and he says he shouldn't have waited that long.

If your yard is on the list but hasn't been dug yet, it makes sense to wait and put stations in after the crews are done. If you're not sure whether your yard needs the cleanup, the first step is asking the EPA about testing. They test yards in these eight neighborhoods at no cost, with the owner's permission, and their contacts are on the EPA's site page.

What's the neighborhood like?

Highland Park is laid out on a grid, which makes it easy to get around, and the sidewalks stay busy with dog walkers and strollers. There's Shaw Park, a pocket park the neighborhood association owns; Tatum Park, a city park; and the BlueCross Healthy Place at Highland Park, a playground and sports field complex that opened in 2021. Every fall, Highland Park Porchfest turns front porches into stages for a day, and Pest Tech has sponsored it.

Dan bought a house here in 2013, when Highland Park looked a lot different than it does now.

Neighbors in Highland Park say

“These guys are the best. Good people, personable, professional, and prompt. Dan runs a great crew, couldn't be happier.”

“Say goodbye to your pests and HELLO to Pest tech!”

“They took care of our cockroach problem with a swiftness! We are very happy with the service and the value. Thank you, Dan and team!”

“I highly recommend Pest Tech. It's a service I am totally happy with. He does a good job of explaining what to expect and gives advice on what things you can do to avoid problems. Plus he responds quickly to inquiries. I actually had Cooke's before but they failed dismally. I'm much happier with Pest Tech. I freely admit I am sort of a hysterical nutty person when it comes to bugs and rodents. I just can not deal. If you are like me trust me when I say this is the service for you.”

“Dan and his crew are so efficient! I really appreciated the facts he shared about mosquitoes, their livelihood and how to avoid them too! Not to mention they got rid of all the nasty spider webs around the entire house and garage. Thank you Pest Tech! So glad to have your services!”

“Pest Tech is the best pest control in Chattanooga. I'm a real estate, have worked with A LOT of different pest techs...I use Pest Tech to service my personal home, because I trust Dan. I know he's honest and I know he's extremely proficient. Wish I could give him 6 stars.”

We're referral-based. If you send a friend or neighbor our way and they start Regular Service, your next invoice is on us. Just text us.