Rodent Prevention

All homes need rodent prevention. Rodent prevention is proactive. Rodent infestations cause thousands of dollars of damage due to contamination from rodent urine and feces. If replacing your insulation and sanitizing your home is not expensive enough, rodents chew on electrical wires and cause house fires.

There are three main areas of focus for rodent prevention.

Make your home and it's environment less attractive.

Usually this involves clearing away things in your yard or around your house that give them areas to nest or food to eat. Very simply: clean up and de-clutter your exterior and remove food sources. Food sources for rats include bird and squirrel feeders, grass seed, pet food and pet feces, and fallen fruit.

Get out the pruning shears and get busy.

The more you can limit or remove vegetation from your structure the better. Pests use vegetation as a highway to and from your home. Pests sometimes make homes in exterior vegetation and move from those nests into your home later.

Many types of pests get their food from insects that live on vegetation - so cutting back makes them go further for food. It also makes it easier to see if you have pests and easier to control. If rats can get to your roof - they will get in. Vegetation is a major access route to your roof and from there - inside your home.

Vegetation against your structure traps moisture against your structure that makes it rot faster, think very expensive repair bills, and moisture in your structure is a huge draw for many types of pests (Carpenter ants, moisture ants, termites, etc....

We recommend trees, shrubs, and vines be maintained at least 3 feet from roof, gutter, and eave. Grass is kept trimmed back from siding and decks (consider installing gravel beds), and vegetation is trimmed back and thinned out from around your siding allowing for air flow.

See more at pest prevention

Rodent exclusion.

The average home has a minimum of 5 areas that rats, squirrels, and mice can use to gain access to the interior of the home. These holes can occur on or above roof level, on the exterior below the floor level, or under your home via drains and foundation faults.

Many of these areas can be very had to find. We recommend having an experienced professional do the inspection as it is just too easy to miss access areas. Rats can get in through areas as small as a quarter -or a half inch wide, and mice can get in through areas as small as a dime - or a quarter of an inch wide.

Examples of some common areas can be found here rodent exclusion