Mira Mesa grew almost overnight in the 1970s, when tract after tract of single-family homes went up on the mesa north of Miramar. Most houses are one- and two-story stucco homes on slabs with attached two-car garages. Apartments and condo complexes fill in along the main roads.
The housing is younger than in the older city neighborhoods, but it has had fifty years to wear. Garage door seals curl in the inland sun. Weep screed gaps at the base of stucco walls open up. HVAC replacements and solar installs add new holes in walls and roofs, and not every installer seals them well. House mice come in through the garage and work their way into kitchens. Roof rats climb the backyard fruit trees and enter through vents and eaves.
Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve runs along the north side of the neighborhood, with a creek, oak woodland and grassland. Carroll Canyon cuts across the south. Homes along those edges see more rodents, including deer mice in some spots near the preserve. Summers here run hotter than at the coast, which pushes rodents toward shade, water and irrigated yards.
Mira Mesa Boulevard is one of the busiest restaurant corridors in the city, lined with strip centers full of food businesses that share back alleys and trash enclosures. Rats move along those corridors at night, and nearby homes feel it. Restaurants there fall under county health rules that can close a kitchen for rodents. See restaurant rodent control.
If you call from Mira Mesa, mention whether you are near the canyon, and whether you see signs in the garage, kitchen or attic. Ask the technician to check the garage door seals, the weep screed line and every pipe and line that enters the house. See how small a hole mice can fit through. If you rent, report the problem to the owner or manager in writing first.