10 Steps you can take to rodent proof your home this fall

We may have a comfortably warm day here and there during this fall, but let’s face it: it’s getting cold! We are not the only one noticing it, either. Insect seasonal invaders are well on their way seeking out cracks and cervices (check out our Preventative Maintenance Program) and rodents are preparing for the winter as well. Here are 10 important things you can do to prevent rodent issues this season.

Make your home and property less attractive

1. Hold off on the bird feeders – At least wait until there’s a bed of snow on the ground! We love the birds too, but they are great at finding food or migrating when they need to. Birds make a mess and spill a lot of seeds at your feeders, encouraging mice, rats, and other problem rodents to move in closer to their food source.
2. Clean up pet waste – Believe it or not, pest waste is a competing food source for nasty rodents!
3. Reduce vegetation and harborage –Mice like to hide, and they will use any pile or bush you let them have to hang out, make a home, and bring food near your home. This gets them one step closer to being able to infest inside. This also serves as a threat to introducing ticks and the diseases they carry.
4. Secure outdoor trash – Our food waste serves as encouraging sustenance to unwanted animal pests. Secure in containers that close tightly, stored away from your home, and only exposed to potential rodents for a short period of time.

Make your home less vulnerable to entry

1. Check doors, window, and trim – Common entry points for rodents are not too far away from your common entry points. Check for gaps and weaknesses around your doors, windows, and also the corner boards of your home.
2. Seal penetrations and gaps – Penetrations where utilities enter or exit the home are often left more open than should be. Safely close these openings with long-lasting material that are fit for the area and type of penetration.
3. Tighten the garage door – One of the toughest door to have seal tightly is your garage door. Weather stripping, trim, bottom gasket, and other moving parts can serve as entry points for rodents. Tighten these points as much as possible, reducing enticing warm air drafts which invite rodents to explore more. Going a step further, pay some mind to closing gaps within your garage to prevent entry to the rest of your home if they do access your garage.

Make your home more protected

1. Engage in regular inspections – Inspect your home for signs of gnawing, droppings, food scraps, or other evidence of rodent infestation. Catch a problem early and it won’t have a chance to grow.
2. Monitor for signs inside your home – Do you hear scuttling in the attic or scratching within the walls? Are you finding stores of pet food, seeds, or snacks inside your home? Are there dark marks showing up along walls in your basement? Any of these signs may prove an existing infestation.
3. Join a preventative protection program – Having a trained professional visiting your home proactively multiple times per year, and having a trusted company on call if needed can give you the assurance you deserve.

Bonus Tip

Especially if there’s an existing infestation that needs to be controlled, store food in tight-closing glass or metal containers. Plastic can be chewed through for hungry rodents. This goes for pet food as well. Mice and rats are known to grab kibble and store away for later consumption. This is also why timed feedings rather than grazing is preferred during a time of elimination.

Fun (Or not so fun) fact:

Mice populations can get out of control quickly. Gestation periods for mice are as low as 19-21 days, with litter sizes ranging from 3-14 pups. Average litters are closer to 6-8 over 20 days, but given ideal conditions, you could be dealing with 818 mice within 3 months! If breeding at the maximum, level, we’re talking over 1,000!

Ongoing Preventative Maintenance with year-round warranty coverage for rodents and common pests is your most powerful tool. We can prepare to prevent infiltration into your home, but when the inevitable happens and animals do what they do best (survive and reproduce) at your expense, do you have someone you can call on and trust? At Colonial, we want to be that reliable partner in your pest control journey.

We have a wholistic perspective when it comes to pest control, especially in dealing with mice.

• Exclusion – Preventing rodents from gaining access into your home is the first and last line of defense. If rodents can’t gain access inside, then every other issue is just a side-note.  While not all homes can be fully sealed, we attempt to limit rodent entry points as much as possible. Older home with fieldstone foundations, home with low decks potentially hiding deficiencies, and structural damage are a few conditions which may impede on excluding all openings, but the goal is to allow as few rodents as possible from entering your home. These critters are tenacious, though, gnawing their way through tough materials.
• Elimination – If proactive measures either were taken too late or were not completely successful, the infestation needs to be remedied. We can use a variety of tools to eliminate existing numbers and maintain controls and monitors to catch any infiltration that might occur in the future. Rodenticide baits, snap traps, adhesive traps, concussive traps, gravity traps, tracking powder, and multiple-catch traps are some of the tools we may engage in to eliminate your rodent infestation.
• Education – The importance of pest education starts with our own training and education. Our customer service staff and technicians receive regular training and information sharing. We can use our insights to help communicate with our clients effectively. We want to convey what we did and why, what to expect, and how to best prevent future pest infestations.

Our dedicated team can give you custom information, tailored to your home and needs. This top 10 list is just the beginning, so reach out for more expert advice today!

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