Tips for Making Your Home Inhabitable to Rodents

What attract rodents to your home? In this article, we will be discussing on the different things that makes your home attractive to rodents and what are the ways you can do to prevent them from invading your home?

Rodents, which include rats and mice, are pests that you don’t want to ever invade your home. They are dirty pests that bring health risks and physical damage to any property they occupy.

To keep them away from your home, it is important to understand what things compel them to find their way into your sanctuary and make a warm comfortable nest for themselves.

What Attract Rodents to your Home?

Some of the things that your home has that appeal to rodents are:

  • Food
  • Water
  • Shelter
  • Water
  • Waste
  • Plants
  • Nesting Materials

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Tips to Keep Rodents Away from your Home

Though rodents prefer to stay outdoors, they are also known to enter homes and establish nests there if there is plenty of food and water. Rodent activity picks up with the approach of fall and winter, looking where to shelter and ride out the cold months.

Aside from being vigilant about the things that attract rodents to homes, there are preventive measures you can implement to keep rodents out.

Seal all entry points. Rodents can squeeze into a gap in your home, even if it is as tiny as a coin. Make sure to check your house regularly for any gaps or holes and seal them using materials that even rodents can’t gnaw on.

Common entry point:

  • Cracks and crevices in foundation, walls, basement, etc.
  • Gaps and cracks around doors and window frames
  • Holes around pipes that lead to appliances
  • Open insulation that may be used as a nesting place
  • Exterior lines leading through walls

Rodent-proofing materials:

  • Caulk
  • Coarse Steel Wool
  • Concrete
  • Copper or Aluminium Wire Mesh
  • Hardware Cloth – 19 gauge
  • Sheet Metal – 26 gauge

Keep food in tightly-sealed containers. Rodents’ teeth are so strong that they can chew through thin plastic and cardboard. Keep your rice, cereals and other grains in thick containers with tight lids, so they won’t be contaminated by rodents

Install baits and traps. There are easy-to-use rodent baits and traps available in stores or online. Do some research to make sure you’re buying the right one for your home as there are different types of traps in the market.

Not sure what you’re dealing with? Identify swarms with a pest inspection.

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Common Hiding Areas for Rodents

These nocturnal pests wait until the house is quiet before coming out of hiding in search of food and nesting materials. It may be difficult to spot a live rodent, but they leave signs of their presence, such as droppings, greasy marks, evidence of food tampering, gnaw marks and a musty odour.

Rodents are small and agile, allowing them to dart in and out of your house. But no matter how quick they are, rodents are still creatures of habit, so they would often be discovered hiding in these places in your home:

Attics. Rodents are good in finding access points around roofs and eaves, thanks to their tiny bodies, which they can flatten to allow them to squeeze through even the tiniest of cracks.

One of the first signs that you have a rodent problem is the noise coming from your roof or attic, especially at night.

Check your roof and eaves regularly to make sure there are no holes where rodents can enter.

Inside Walls. Rodents can use openings or holes in your baseboards to get inside your walls. If you hear rustling or squeaking inside your walls, rodents are most likely the culprits.

Basements, Garages, Storage Closets and Sheds. These areas have clutter and have little traffic, making them perfect hiding places. Additionally, they are dark and quiet, and provide various materials that can be used to build a nest.

Keep rodents away from these places by keeping them neat and well lit. Store items in thick plastic containers with tight lids to prevent rodents from accessing the items inside.

Kitchens. Rodents prefer quiet and isolated areas, but the kitchen is an exception. Kitchens are appealing to them because of the smorgasbord of food.

They can hole up in hard-to-reach places behind appliances. They can also build a home under cabinets that are rarely opened.

Make sure to keep your kitchen clean and free of leftover food or food scraps, and store food properly, to discourage rodents.

Because they are quick and pose a health risk, trapping and removing rodents from premises can be challenging. If you suspect or discover a rodent problem in your home, contact a licensed pest control company immediately to treat the problem.

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