Rodent Control in Briargate

Before it was Briargate, a lot of this ground was the Reverse J Diamond Ranch. The Gazette's Side Streets column described it as roughly 4,500 acres of Hereford cattle country, running from what's now Dublin Blvd. north to Old Ranch Road, east of I-25. After R.E. Johnson died in 1960, the ranch was eventually sold for the master-planned community that became Briargate.

Ranch land turned subdivision means houses that back onto grass, trails and drainage ways. Mice and voles were here first, and every fall some of them try the houses.

Garages and basements

Most Briargate calls start in the garage. A worn bottom seal, gaps at the door corners and a bag of dog food on the floor make an easy first stop. From there, mice find the gap where the water heater vent or a utility line runs into the house, and the basement storage room is next.

Fix the garage door seal before the first freeze, put pet food and bird seed in metal cans, and get boxes up on shelves. If droppings are already showing up inside, see mouse removal.

• Daylight at the corners of the garage door
• Gaps where the gas line and AC lines enter
• Window wells with leaves and debris piled up
• Basement storage boxes sitting on the floor

Lawns along the open space

Backyards that meet grassland and trails tend to see voles. When the snow melts and you find narrow runways and small holes all over the lawn, that's them. Vole and gopher control explains how to tell voles from pocket gophers and what helps.

Field mice from the same grass are the ones that show up in garages in October. Some of them are deer mice, so clean up droppings the careful way described on the deer mouse page.

Landmarks and roads: Briargate Pkwy. · Union Blvd. · Old Ranch Road · Research Pkwy. · Powers Blvd.

Nearby areas: Rockrimmon, Black Forest, Monument and Tri-Lakes, Falcon and Peyton, Broadmoor and Cheyenne Cañon, Manitou Springs, Old Colorado City and the West Side, Fountain, Security-Widefield, Powers and Stetson Hills.