The wet and cold of a Pacific Northwest winter makes staying indoors with the heat on and cozy blankets to nest in very appealing. The problem is that it’s not just humans who crave warm shelter in winter but also rats and mice. These little furry creatures might be cute to some, but they can cause damage to your home and introduce disease to your family. Sharing space with rodents, just isn’t an option.
The good news is that mice and rats leave plenty of signs that they’ve moved into your home and those signs can even indicate if they lived there last year or just recently arrived. Rough gnaw marks, soft droppings, and fresh tracks that haven’t yet been obscured by dust, mean you have a problem right now. If those gnaw marks are smoother and droppings hard, your rodents may have been here but likely left town. An interesting fact about rodents is that they have 4 toes up front and 5 on their hind feet so their footprints are a dead giveaway as to what is running around.
Other signs to look for are rub marks and runways in places where the mice or rats frequently travel. They are creatures of habit and follow the same paths over and over again. Fresh tracks are greasy instead of dry and dusty. Of course, a sure sign of an infestation is if those bags of cereal, grains, dog food, and even fruits and vegetables have gnaw marks made by something other than the humans in your home.
If you see the signs, call in pest control experts to rid your home of whatever is living and eating there. The key to control is to identify the problem, sanitize the area, remove the pests, and add rat proofing both inside and outside your home.
You can help by looking around the inside and outside of your home for gaps and holes that a mouse can easily squeeze through. Doors, windows, garages, outlets, vents, and fireplaces, can all have small open spaces perfect for a mouse doorway. Fill the gaps with weather seal tape, caulk, or even steel wool. Keeping rodents out is much easier than getting rid of them once they’ve moved inside.
Northwest Pest Control will thoroughly inspect your home for not just signs of pests but also to determine where and how they are entering. We’ll work with you to seal off your home to unwanted pests and rid the premises of any rats or mice we find. Rodents have survived for centuries living outside. Let’s keep them there. Call us today.