In the fall, as cooler weather nears, rodents like rats and mice start looking for warmer homes to spend the winter in. A rat can squeeze through a hole the size of a half dollar and a mouse can squeeze through a hole as small as the size of a nickel. To keep rats and mice out it’s important to inspect your home for possible points on entry, so that you can seal them off.
Here are some places to look for gaps and holes in and around your home:
- Inside, under, and behind kitchen cabinets, refrigerators and stoves.
- Around pipes under the sinks and washing machine.
- Around the pipes going to hot water heaters and furnaces.
- In the basement or crawl space.
- Inside the attic.
- Around the house foundation.
- Around windows.
- Around doors.
- Under doors.
- Around holes for electrical, plumbing, cable, and gas lines.
For small holes use steel wool to fill in, then add some caulk to keep it in place. Use lath screen or lath metal, cement, hardware cloth, or metal sheeting to fix any large holes. These materials can be found at your local home store or hardware. Outbuildings and garages should also be sealed to prevent the entrance of rodents. If you don’t remember to seal up entry holes in your house, rodents will continue to get inside.
If rodents have found their way into your home and you need to get rid of them, a trained, licensed and certified pest-control professional is your safest bet to remove rodents and prevent re-infestation. Pest control professionals are trained to identify even the trickiest entry points into your home so that they can be sealed off, and to recognize signs of mice, rat trails, and nesting locations.
At Earth Guard Pest services, our licensed pest control technicians are trained to work with you and your family to find the more effective means of controlling rodent infestations in your specific situation. Contact us today for a free inspection and estimate: 916-457-7605 or [email protected]