Control Rodents in your home RATS & MICE

If you have rats or mice in your home you will either hear them in the walls or you will see their droppings. INSPECTION Do a general inspection of the inside & outside of your home. Look for any hole or cracks that the pest can enter you home through. It doesn't take a large opening for a rat or mouse to get into your home. A Rat can get through a 1/2 inch opening & a mouse can get through a 1/4 inch opening. The only limiting factor is the size of the rodents skull. If he can squeeze his head through , he can get the rest of his body through with no problem Look along the ground & around pipe, around doors, along the roof line , & on the roof ( If you have easy & safe access to your roof) If your not sure what to look for. Call a pest control company & see if they will do a FREE INSPECTION. Have them come out & look around. Once they are done , They will point out all the areas that need attention & repair. IF these repairs are something you can handle DO IT YOUR SELF. EXCLUSION Exclusion means to keep them out of your house. Seal up all the holes & cracks around your home where the pest can get in. You can use screen , wood , expanding foam insulation in a spay can. Thin sheet of sheet metal cut to size. HABITAT outside your home Clear all heavy brush way form the outside of your home , don't have wood piles next to your home. Clear out all clutter around the out side of your home. Rats & mice like to live & hide any where they have some shelter. Piles of junk or wood are prime locations for them to hide. In & around heavy plant cover is another place they like to hide. Keep the wood pile out in the yard away from the house, trim up the plants around your house. & get rid of the junk piles around your home. TRAPS Now that you have sealed up your home so no more can get in. You will have to trap the ones that are already in your house. There are a number of different styles of mouse & rat traps on the market. Go to a home improvement center & see what they have . Buy at least 6 traps. Place the traps where you see the dropping. Bait the traps with peanut butter. Rats & mice love peanut butter & because it is sticky they can't just grab the bait & run of. They have to sit there & eat it off the trap. Check the traps every day , if you have trapped the rat or mouse. open the trap & discard the dead rat or mouse & re-bait & re-set the trap. Some people would rather just toss the trap & dead pest in the trash. That OK but you will need to keep buying traps. I clear & re-set the traps. Wash you hands well after handling a trap with a dead rodent. POISION BAIT TRAPS These work well also. BUT the rat will die in your house & it could cause a smell for a while. I like to use a bait trap outside the house along the edge of the walls. These traps/ boxes have an opening on 2 side were the pests can walk in eat the bait & die outside your home. The reason you use these bait boxes it to keep kids & pets from getting into the poison bait. When using these poison bait boxes look around the yard when your out there, if you see a dead rat , use a shovel to pick him up & discard him in the trash. Always wash your hand after handling poison bait or dead rodents. This is going to take some work & time to control the rats & mice in your home. If you think the problem is to much for you to handle , Call a Pest Control Company. It will cost you more , but that is the price you pay to have something done for you. Depending on where you live you will NEVER get rid of all the rats & mice. If your neighbors don't do their part to help control their area. The rats or mice in their yard will migrate into your yard from time to time. So this could be a full time job. But it only takes a few minutes to check all your traps & re-bait the poison boxes. CALL YOU CITY or COUNTY PEST CONTROL DEPARTMENT Lots of cites & counties have a full time pest control department. Most of the time the advice & help they give you is FREE. They will not work on your home , But they will inspect & tell you what you need to do & in some cities they will give you the traps & show you how to use them GET A CAT or DOG They may not totally get rid of your problem. But they can alert you if they see a rat or mouse. If they are an indoor & outdoor pet they will patrol the yard & tend to keep the pasts out of the yard.