Rodent Control Tips

Mention some of the nuisance causing household pests and you will come across rodents in the top list. Once infested, they are very difficult to deal with. They contaminate food stocks, spread diseases and cause damages to cloths, shoes, electric wires, furniture, etc. In fact, there is hardly anything in the house that are left untouched by these mammalian pests. Check for signs of rat or mice infestation in the house, before you really take the plunge and follow rodent control tips.

Signs of Rodent Infestation

A thorough home inspection is a must to do step for deciding appropriate rodent control methods. With this step, you will be able to know the type of infesting rodent (mice, roof rat or Norway rat) and extent of infestation. The most notable sign is the presence of fecal pellets, which differ according to species. For example; the roof rat fecal pellets are much larger (½ inch length) than that of mice (¼ inch length) and Norway rat (¾ inch length). Regarding population size, the more fecal pellets you have encountered in the house, the more severe is the rodent infestation.

Tips on Rodent Control

The population of rodent will keep on increasing, as long as there is adequate supply of food items. Also, the chances of rodent multiplication are also increased, if they have a comfortable thriving place inside the house. So, the two most important strategies for controlling these nuisance pests are eliminating food supply and sanitizing the dwelling places. Listed below are some rodent control tips, with which you can get rid of these troublesome pests:

Seal Off Entry Points
Entry of rodents is most predictable when they have limited vegetables or other food sources in the garden. During such situations, you need to close holes, cracks and crevices (larger than ¼ inch, if any) in the home foundation to block their entry inside the house. Inspect the sump pump outlets and if required, use a strong wire mesh or a tight lid over them.

Store Foods Properly
Rodents mostly attack food grains and other stored vegetables. In simple terms, grains are the major food sources for these pests. So, keep these food items in airtight containers, so that they are not accessible for rodents. By depriving rodents of their food, you can starve them to death. Or else, they will leave the place and look out for other infesting areas.

Indoor Cleaning
Sanitation of the indoor rooms and corners is one of the rodent control tips. Regularly clean the kitchen countertop, underneath gas burners and refrigerators. Ensure that you do not leave any food and drink uncovered in the countertop area. If possible, store foods above the ground levels. Use an effective cleaning solution for moping the kitchen floor.

Outdoor Cleaning
Effective ways to get rid of rodents include keeping the outdoor area clean, especially the immediate boundaries of your home. If you have trash bins, remember to use tight covers. Prune down thick shrubs and trees, especially the lower branches. At any point, avoid piling up vegetation or plant remains in the vicinity of the house. Last but not the least, do not stack firewood in the ground or near the house.

Use Rodent Traps
If you encounter any suspected burrows in the garden, fill the burrows with soil and see whether they are reopened again or not. You can use homemade mouse traps near the burrows and in the corners of the rooms. Make sure that you check the traps daily for presence of rodent. If it is there inside the trap, wear hand gloves before handling them.

Rodent Control Products
Nowadays, many gadgets are available in the market, which are specially configured for controlling mice and rats. You might have already heard about electronic rodent control and ultrasonic rodent control methods. Such devices use ultra-high frequency sound waves to drive away all types of garden and household pests, such as mosquitoes, rodents and birds.

Truly speaking, controlling rodents is a challenging task for most homeowners. Hence, it is better to prevent their entry inside the house, instead of dealing them or using pesticides after infestation. If, at all, you are finding them very troublesome and your rodent control tips are not working, it is high time that you call professional pest control services.