Keeping Your DC-Area Home Rodent-Free in 2019

01/09/2019

Rodents   

Long before spring of 2019 arrives, rodents could decide to enter your home. If they do, they'll be more than happy to stay in your home throughout the winter and well into the new year. So, now is the time of year to really consider how those rodents act and think, what drives them inside a home and, most importantly, how to keep them out.

How Rodents Think

Do you know how you feel on a nice summer day? That's how rodents feel on a gloomy day or in a day that doesn't have a lot of sunshine. This is because rodents prefer the cover of darkness. They are primarily nocturnal in nature. That means that in the fall and early winter rodents are going to be more active than they are in the summer months. This will give them more opportunity to enter your home as they explore your yard and landscaping.

What Drives Rodents Into Homes

Cold is a strong motivator for a rodent. While a nest of rodents all huddled together can stay nice and warm, a rodent exploring your property can be lured into a home by the promise of heat. As they're out exploring, they're cold. If they walk past a dryer exhaust that comes out underneath a porch or deck, they may decide to create a nest in this sheltered and warm location. If they sense heat leaking out of a gap in a door frame, they may chew on that gap to make it large enough to squeeze in and explore the warm space beyond. It only takes a hole the size of a nickel to give mice access to your home.

How To Keep Rodents Out

The process of keeping rodents out is multi-tiered. It starts with an alteration of the conditions around a home that promote rodent activity. When rodents come into your yard, there are some things they look for.

• Still water pools near your home will give rodents a drink.
• Objects stacked near your home will offer them a hiding place or harborage.
• External structures that they can get under will provide cover and the dimly lit environment they prefer.
• Tall grass and overgrown areas feel safe to rodents.
• Accessible trash can provide a meal.

Correcting and altering conditions that provide food, water, and hiding places, will help reduce the number of rodents that are near your exterior walls and foundation.

The second tier is to seal up holes and gaps. When you seal up holes, gaps, and cracks on the outside of your home, not only do you keep the heat from attracting rodents to chew their way in, it also makes your walls feel less breachable. A rodent isn't likely to chew through a sound window or door frame without a good reason. It is impractical. Rodents are opportunists that take advantage of vulnerabilities. And our homes provide many opportunities for them to get in.

The third tier is monitoring and control. It is impossible to make your yard completely uninviting to mice and rats without making it uninviting to you as well. That is why ongoing monitoring and control is important. It bolsters your defenses and makes your barrier complete. This is best performed by a pest management professional. Professionals like American Pest use state-of-the-art rodent control devices placed in strategic locations to ensure effective results.

At American Pest, we're pretty proud of the technologies we employ to stop rodents. Anticimex SMART devices are cutting-edge, electronic traps that have digital sensors and cameras that track rodents and eliminate them without the use of pesticides. It is like having an intelligent system around your home that keeps a watchful eye on things you don't want to see. When rodents are captured, your American Pest technician removes them and takes appropriate measures to counter rodent pressures around your home. We don't wait for rodents to get into your home and spread illness, and parasites, or do damage to your belongings and your equity.

If you want to keep your DC-Area home rodent free in 2019, now is the time to reach out to American Pest and get your rodent protection in place.