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Archive for the ‘Rodents’ Category

Preventing The Damage Caused By Norway Rats

Norway rats can cause a lot of damage in the home. They are known to gnaw on everything, including electrical wires, and steal insulation from inside the walls in order to build their nests. Both of these activities can be dangerous and costly to repair, which is why it’s important to prevent rats from entering the home in the first place.

Blocking off access to the home

If there are no access points into the home, rats can’t get in. These access points will be found in the exterior wall of the home, and they can be any cracks or gaps that are wider than half an inch. So if you want to stop rats from entering the home, you will have to perform an inspection, especially around doors, windows, the foundation of the home, and in spaces where pipes or wires enter the home. Once you’ve performed this inspection, you will need to take steel wool and some sealing material, and then fill these openings up.

Removing incentives to come inside

Rats have several incentives to come indoors, and if these incentives are present in your home, the odds of an infestation go up. One of the main incentives is food, so you will have to store all the food items in the home in sealed containers and be careful with leaving out leftovers and dirty dishes. Rats are also looking for shelter, and clutter is perfect for them. This is why you should try to keep clutter to a minimum in your home, garage, basement, attic and in your yard.

Controlling an existing Norway rat infestation

If a Norway rat infestation is underway in the home, then it’s time to move onto control. These infestations can be controlled using either traps or poison, depending on their size. Traps can handle small infestations, while poisons can be used against large ones. Poisons are very effective, but the problem with using them is that you will have to find and clean up the dead rats, and you have no idea where they could die. This is why hiring a pro for the job is the best course of action. Not only will a pro be able to implement the most effective measures against the rats, he will also handle the entire control process from start to finish.

For more information on how to prevent the damage caused by Norway rats, or if you have an infestation in the home and you need professional help to get rid of it, contact us today.

Identifying A Mouse infestation

Mice are stealthy, paranoid animals that will attempt to stay hidden in any environment that they inhabit. This trait helps them survive outdoors, and it allows them to go undetected in the home for long periods of time. However, if you know what to look for, you are more likely to identify an infestation early on and get rid of it before it does too much damage.

Signs that you’re likely to notice

As the infestation grows, one of the first things that you will start to notice are their droppings. Mouse droppings are very small and black, and they can be differentiated from rat droppings due to the size difference between the two. If the droppings are smaller than a grain of rice, then you are dealing with mouse droppings, and if they are about that size or slightly bigger, then you have a rat infestation.

In fact, the two species share many similarities when it comes to their behavior in the home, so you are likely to encounter the same signs when you are dealing with either one of them. For example, both rats and mice leave gnaw marks and you can see a trail form on pathways that they use regularly. However, since mice are much smaller, these marks and trails will reflect the size difference.

What to do after you’ve found a mouse infestation

If you come across any of these signs, the next step is to call over a pest control pro. The pro will initially perform an inspection to see if the pests are still present in the home, where they are located, and to identify the species responsible. Once the inspection is out of the way, the pro will move onto the control stage.

The control stage is fairly straightforward in principle. Simply lay traps and poisons around the home and wait for the mice to take the bait. However, mice can be clever and it takes experience to completely remove an infestation. This is why it’s best to hire a pro for the job, who will have the knowledge and the tools needed to make sure that mice are removed from the home and that they do not come back any time soon.

For more information on how to detect a mouse infestation that is in your building, or if you have a mouse infestation that should be removed, contact us today.

Most Effective Rat Prevention Measures

When trying to prevent rat infestations, there are several measures that you can take to ensure that your home is safe, and some of these measures are more effective than others. In this article, we’re going to go over the measures that have been shown to work time after time.

Exclusion measures

A big part of the prevention process is the implementation of exclusion measures. As the name suggests, these measures are all about keeping the rats out of your home and off your property. One such measure is a rat proof-fence, which rats cannot climb over or dig under. Another exclusionary measure is finding and sealing all the entry points on the exterior wall of the home. Basically, if there are holes and cracks large enough in the wall for rats to get through, these will need to be sealed.

Hygiene and food denial

Exclusionary measures can be quite effective, but you can’t always make sure that every single tiny crack is closed off. For example, there may be a loose shingle on your roof, and the rats will use it to gain access. So to further improve the efficiency of your preventive measures, you want to remove as many incentives as possible for rats to get in. These incentives include a suitable environment and food sources. Rats thrive in messy environments that are filled with clutter. It doesn’t mean that they are repelled by a clean home, but they are less likely to find it attractive.

Rats also have a very strong sense of smell to the point where they can smell food inside the home from the outside. This is why you want to keep all food sealed and all leftovers and food that you throw away in lidded trash containers.

Devices

Traps and poisons are well-known, effective rat control tools, but they can also be used for prevention. If you can entice a rat with traps and poisons before it builds a nest, you have stopped an infestation before it even begins.

When used to remove an existing infestation, traps and poisons are tools best handled by a pest control professional.

For more information on how to prevent a rat infestation in the most effective manner, or if you are dealing with an infestation and you need professional help, contact us today.

Dealing With A Smart Rat? Here’s How To Catch It

Rats may come across as stupid animals – after all they fall for obvious traps all the time. But as it turns out, they are quite intelligent. First off, they are very paranoid of any object that is new to their environment. Second, they will avoid areas where other rats have died, and foods that have killed other rats. This makes the rat control process a lot more difficult than first meets the eye. Here is how professionals deal with the natural intelligence of rats.

Use the proper bait

With rats, it’s very easy to use improper bait, because of the cheese myth. Contrary to popular opinion, rats are not really that fond of cheese. They’ll eat it, just like they eat trash, but they’re not very excited about it. In fact, they will go for grains or pet food over cheese, and if cheese is the only reward waiting outside the rat’s comfort zone, the rat would rather stay comfortable. So instead of going with cheese try something like candy, sausage or peanut butter.

Get them used to the control methods that you are implementing

Rats are naturally weary of any changes in their environment. In the wild, these changes could point to the presence of a hidden predator, such as a snake. This is why it’s important to acclimate the rats to any control method that you plan to use. If you are using traps, bait them, but do not arm them, and if you plan on using poisons, just use the clean bait for a few days.

Use tracking powders

Placing the traps or poisons in the right position is essential to their effectiveness, and in order to do this, you have to figure out where mice are most active. Sometimes, this is a simple task – you just have to find the droppings. At other times, you will have to get a bit ingenious. By using tracking powder you can find out the various paths that the rats use to travel through the home, and then place your traps or poisons close to these routes.

These are just a few of the tips and tricks pros use to make sure that their control method of choice is as effective as possible. For more information on how to deal with rats effectively, or if you have an infestation that should be removed, contact us today.

What Does A Mouse Infestation Smell Like?

There are many ways to detect a mouse infestation, but did you know that mice generate a specific smell around the home when they are in large numbers. If you can smell the odor that they leave behind, you could be able to detect a mouse infestation before it gets any bigger.

The smell

One mouse won’t give off too much of a scent when it’s in the building, but as the infestation grows, you will start to notice a strange scent. This scent is coming from the mouse urinating throughout the home. In a way, they are marking territory like many other mammals do, and as more and more mice do it, the smell will start to be felt around the home. However, it may take a long time until the infestation reaches this point, and it’s better to identify an infestation earlier so you can remove it before it gets to do any damage or spread diseases.

Other signs to keep an eye out for

Some of the earliest signs of a mouse infestation include the presence of droppings, gnaw marks, and noises at night. Droppings are usually the easiest and most common way to detect an infestation. They will be grouped up in a dark, hidden area, or in several areas around the home. Gnaw marks are made by the mice biting various surfaces in order to file down their teeth. Check for these on your baseboards and furniture. Finally, you may hear the mice crawling around and squeaking at night.

Removing the infestation

No matter how you discover the infestation, it’s important to remove it as soon as possible. While they may seem harmless, mice are capable of spreading many dangerous diseases through contact alone. So what you want to do is get in touch with a pest control pro who will help you get rid of the rodents. DIY might seem like a good idea at first, in order to save money, but it can be hard to completely remove an infestation using DIY methods, and if the entire mouse population is not destroyed, the mice will simply repopulate and reinfest. With a pro, this is not a concern, and you may benefit from extra services such as a cleanup service after the mice have been killed, or a prevention service to mouse-proof your home. For more information about mouse infestation, or if you have an infestation that needs to be removed, contact us today.

Archive for the ‘Rodents’ Category

Preventing The Damage Caused By Norway Rats

Identifying A Mouse infestation

Most Effective Rat Prevention Measures

Dealing With A Smart Rat? Here’s How To Catch It

What Does A Mouse Infestation Smell Like?

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