Parts of Koreatown we cover
- Wilshire Center
- Wilshire Park
- Harvard Heights
- The Wiltern
- Wilshire and Vermont
- Sixth Street
- Olympic Boulevard
How rodents get into Koreatown buildings
Brick buildings from the 1920s
Old brick and masonry walls develop gaps where mortar has worn away, where pipes and conduits were added over the decades, and around basement and boiler room doors. Mice need only a small opening to get from the street into a building, then into the walls.
Kitchens that never close
Restaurants that stay open late put out food waste around the clock. Rats come to the bins and grease areas behind businesses on Sixth Street, Western and Olympic, then look for ways into the kitchens and the apartments above or beside them.
Garages, alleys and trash rooms
Apartment blocks have parking garages, trash rooms and alleys where dumpsters, utility lines and landscaping sit against back walls. Roof rats climb the lines and trees to upper floors, and Norway rats burrow and nest at ground level near the bins and planters.
Wilshire Park houses
The houses in Wilshire Park are about a century old, with raised wood floors, wood siding and attic vents. Worn vent screens, gaps at the eaves and spaces around old pipes are common openings on houses of this age, especially along the back.
Age matters here: vent screens, eaves and foundations open up over the decades, and those small gaps are how mice and rats get in.
