Checking Now Can Discourage Rodents

This time of year, it's nice to be outdoors and see birds, wildlife and flowers. It's also a great time to look ahead to next autumn. Not in terms of the eventual winter, perhaps, but some inexpensive home improvements made now can save you from sharing your home with some furry pests when the beauty of spring and summer is just a memory.

I'm talking rodents – little pests that can squeeze through holes as small as a 5p piece, or their larger counterparts, the rats – a space the size of a 10p piece is all they need to gain access to your home.

So, now, while the weather is pretty nice, and the bugs haven't yet descended upon our area in force, is a great time to go on the offensive and seal up all the little nooks and crannies.

Rodents can cause some pretty nasty infections in humans, so eliminating them from our living spaces is critical. A professional can help if the infestation is severe, but trapping is often the safest option for the homeowner if there are children or pets in the home.

Once an area is cleared of rodents, however, it's important to keep them from gaining access again. Homeowners should especially check the following spaces for evidence of cracks or crevices where rodents could gain entry:

• Inside, under, and behind kitchen cabinets, refrigerators and stoves.
• Inside closets near the floor corners.
• Around the fireplace.
• Around doors.
• Around the pipes under sinks and washing machines.
• Around the pipes going to hot water heaters and furnaces.
• Around floor vents and dryer vents.
• Inside the attic.
• In the basement or crawl space.
• In the basement and laundry room floor drains.
• Between the floor and wall juncture.

Where to look for gaps or holes outside your home:

• In the roof among the rafters, gables, and eaves.
• Around windows.
• Around doors.
• Around the foundation.
• Attic vents and crawl space vents.
• Under doors.
• Around holes for electrical, plumbing, cable, and gas lines.

Do not use expandable sealants to fill spaces. While those have insulating properties, rodents will easily gnaw through. Instead, you can try stuffing the spaces with steel wool, or copper mesh wool, using sealant to keep the wool in place. Use hardware cloths or sheet metal to fill larger spaces.

It's critical to remove incentives for mice to get in and set up house, which means keeping a clean home and removing as much of their potential food and water supply as possible.

Transfer foods such as cereals, grains, seeds and nuts to airtight glass containers, rather than leaving them in easily gnawed cardboard or plastic. Common jars that you can find at the supermarket or grocery store work, or you can find glass storage jars in other retail shops.

Don't leave pet foods out all day. Have a meal time for pets, and take the food up after about 20 minutes if it wasn't consumed. That teaches animals to eat on a schedule, which is easier for house training, and also for noticing when the pet is really "off its feed" and may need to see the vet, plus it reduces the likelihood that mice will be finding an easy food supply, or contaminating the pet's food.

Water bowls should be taken up from the floor each night at bedtime, as that is when rodents are more active. Put a fresh bowl down each morning for your pet and leave it down for the day.

As we head toward warmer weather, rodents may exit our homes, too, but they may decide to become unwelcome guests again in the autumn, unless we take some steps now to stop them.

Article provided by SDA Pest Control