Many people deal with rodents in their homes, and many people understand how frustrating it can be to keep rodents off of their property. However, the facts that get lost in the shuffle are how dangerous a mice or rat infestation can really be, along with the need for professional treatments to eradicate them completely.
Mice And Rat Dangers
If you see a mouse in your home, it will most likely be light brown to light gray in color. At about three inches long, not including the tail, mice are much smaller than their darker, larger rat counterparts. Most rats in our Burlington area are at least six inches long, not including the tail. While mice and rats don’t infest the same home at the same time, they have a lot of troubling characteristics in common.
First of all, mice and rats spend most of their time in the nastiest places around town. This includes areas like landfills, sewers, dumpsters, or anywhere else where they could gain access to a consistent food source. Even once they leave these areas, they’ll bring the bacteria with them, putting you at risk of dangerous diseases in the event of an infestation. Even mice and rat feces are highly toxic, so be careful when cleaning them up.
Another troubling quality that mice and rats share is their sharp teeth. Their front incisors are always growing, so these rodents always want to be chewing on something. That’s bad news for homeowners with an infestation. The constant chewing of mice and rats not only puts your stored food at risk but also your linens, laundry, cardboard boxes, and electrical wires. Severe infestations can cost homeowners hundreds of dollars worth of damage in a very short period of time. It may be time to call in the experts at American Pest Solutions!
Prevention Methods
As you begin focusing on prevention in your Burlington home, you’ll find that their sharp teeth make them incredibly difficult to keep out of your home. Mice prevention proves difficult because of their sharp teeth and their small, flexible bodies. They’re able to squeeze through very small spaces, like under doors or through cracks in the foundation. Any spaces that are too small to fit through, they’ll use their sharp teeth to chew through, even if it is a wooden structure or drywall.
Rats, on the other hand, are highly intelligent. They’ll wait for the right moment to sneak in through an open garage door or vent, even using their sharp teeth to damage shingles and roofing materials to find a way in. While they may be difficult to keep out, the following prevention strategies can help limit the factors within your home that will attract them:
- Moving lawn decorations around to spook them
- Storing food (including pet food and birdseed) properly, both inside and outside
- Having tightly secured lids on all indoor and outdoor trash cans
- Clearing up the clutter in the yard and low-traffic areas in the home
- Proper cleaning habits to eliminate loose crumbs
Eradication Headaches
Once you do incur a rat or mouse infestation, there is not much you can do about it on your own. You see, mice and rats have one more troublesome quality in common: their high rates of reproduction. If you rely on poison or traps to kill one or two here and there, you will have a hard time keeping up with the rate at which they’ll be reproducing within your walls.
If you notice the signs of rodent infestation, chewed-up items, feces laying around, and scurrying within the walls, it’s time to call the professionals. Rather than allowing the risk of illness and home damage to hang around for months on end, go with the solution that can guarantee a rodent-free home: Contact the professionals at American Pest Solutions today.