Exterminator in Highland Park, Birmingham — one call to a licensed operator.

Highland Park is one of Birmingham’s oldest surviving residential neighborhoods, laid out in the 1880s along the sweeping curves of Highland Avenue that follow the natural contour of the ridge below Red Mountain. The Victorians and grand apartment blocks that still line streets like Highland Avenue, Milner Crescent and Rhodes Circle date to that first building wave through the 1920s, anchored by Rushton Park and the Highland Park Golf Course — two of the oldest green spaces in the city, laid out not long after the neighborhood itself.

It is worth being clear about what this page covers and what it does not: Highland Park is the residential crescent east of Five Points South, a distinct cluster with its own housing stock, and its pest calls run differently than the dense bar-and-apartment district a few blocks west. Anyone looking for coverage of Five Points South itself should check that page directly rather than this one.

The apartment blocks that fill much of Highland Avenue put a shared-wall building at the center of the neighborhood’s roach problem. A German roach infestation that starts in one unit’s kitchen spreads through wall voids and shared plumbing chases to the units next to it, which means treating a single apartment without accounting for its neighbors rarely holds. Alongside that, the century-old sewer laterals running under these blocks are exactly the kind of aging infrastructure that carries American roaches indoors through floor drains and basement penetrations.

The original Victorians raise a different question: termite pressure on sills that have sat in place since before 1920, and, on more than a few of these houses, a termite bond that was taken out decades ago and has since lapsed without anyone noticing. A homeowner unsure whether an inherited bond is still active is worth a look at the neighborhood’s bond-specific guide before assuming coverage still applies, especially on a house that has changed hands more than once since the original bond was written.

The mature canopy over Highland Avenue, Milner Crescent and Rhodes Circle — among the oldest street trees in Birmingham — supports both smokybrown roaches, which move between soffits and attic vents, and roof rats, which use overhanging limbs as a direct route onto rooflines that a younger, smaller tree simply cannot offer. Neither pest is unique to Highland Park, but the density and age of the canopy here concentrates both in a way newer Birmingham subdivisions rarely see.

The golf course and Rushton Park add a wetland-adjacent edge to the neighborhood’s mosquito pressure — irrigation ponds, low spots on the fairways, and the park’s shaded, still corners all hold water through the warm months in ways that dry residential lots further from either green space do not.

An operator who works Highland Park well has to read a Victorian’s century-old sill, an apartment block’s shared walls, and a canopy-shaded lawn near the golf course as three different problems on the same short walk.

• “Are you treating just my apartment, or the shared wall too?” German roaches move through shared plumbing chases and wall voids in Highland Park’s apartment blocks. Ask whether the operator is coordinating with the building or property manager.
• “What’s your ADAI license number?” Every legitimate Alabama operator carries one, and the Pesticide Management Section in Montgomery can confirm it. A pro expects the question and answers without hesitation.
• “Is my termite bond still active, or has it lapsed?” Decades-old bonds on Highland Park’s original Victorians lapse quietly when ownership changes. Ask the operator to check the coverage before assuming a past bond still applies.
• “Is this roof rat or Norway rat activity?” Canopy access from the old street trees versus ground-level entry changes the exclusion plan. Ask the operator to identify which species and where they think it’s getting in.
• “Are you treating the golf-course-edge moisture or just the yard?” Mosquito pressure near Rushton Park and the golf course often starts at a shared low spot or irrigation pond, not just a private yard. Ask what the barrier treatment actually covers.

None of these questions slow down an operator who actually works Highland Park’s mix of Victorians and apartment blocks every week — the answers tell you who you’re dealing with before anything is signed.