Simple and Effective Ways to Keep Your Home Rodent-Free

Not only do they bother homeowners, but mice and rats can pollute food, transmit diseases, cause allergies, bite wiring and weaken a house’s structure.

Indoor rodents look for the same things we value in our homes: heat, a plentiful supply of food and a peaceful spot in the dark, so making it difficult for them starts with where and what they like. Below are some easy ways for homeowners to use together to make their homes unattractive to rodents.

Identify and seal all the ways pests can enter your home. A young mouse can manage to fit through a gap just big enough for a dime and a rat can slither through a hole that’s only half an inch wide.

Begin beneath the home and check the foundation with a flashlight and then examine around doors, windows, rooflines, vent areas and any where utilities come through the house. Whenever light gets in, rodents can also get inside..

Plug the holes around your house with materials known to be indigestible by rodents. A simple tube of caulk or container of spray foam isn’t enough; mice will easily chew through them overnight. If there is less than half an inch of space between boards, tightly pack stainless-steel or copper mesh (avoid steel wool because it rusts) and seal the edges with silicone caulk.

Add expanding foam only to fill in the space behind the tough plug. Whenever siding or foundation openings are large, apply galvanized hardware cloth, sheet metal or cement mortar to patch them.

Place your food in containers that will keep rodents out. As a result, glass, ceramic or deep metal should be used with lids that close tightly. It doesn’t matter whether it’s plastic or cardboard—a determined incisor will still try to get at cereal, flour, pasta or pet food..

Try not to leave many bowls of fruit on counters, immediately clear up cuts on your boards and be sure to clean drainers at the end of each day.

Put natural scent deterrents to work right away, not just when things are bad. The strong odor scrambles a rodent’s orientation and makes the area unavailable to other animals. A few times a week, try dabbing peppermint,

clove or eucalyptus oil on cotton balls, using pouches of dried lavender or putting a little ammonia in a dish—place any of these in spots animals can’t reach them—to stop a mouse from making your home its own.

Keep both your kitchen and pantry as tidy as you can. Sweep the floors each night, vacuum the difficult places each week and remove anything under the refrigerator or range at least once a month.

Graham-cracker crumbles and pasta elbows that get left behind the appliances make a good meal for rodents. Always remember to clean the inside of cabinet doors as well, as mice are drawn to the film of grease these spots can collect.

Clear away clutter inside your home to take away nesting opportunities. An accumulation of newspapers, bags of clothes or an untidy attic provides ideal living conditions for rodents. Place any holiday decorations or spare bedding from cardboard boxes into see-through, sealed containers;

leave some space between the stack and the wall so you notice any droppings right away. If possible, use closed-cell foam in the insulation instead of fiberglass in basements and crawl spaces, because these panels repel termites better.

Place traps in the right spots from the start of the game. Checking daily, snap traps are both speedy and kind ways to trap a rodent. Spread a small bit of peanut butter or some dry pet food as bait and place the trap so that the trigger is nearest to the baseboard—rodents will usually run along the edges, not over the open floor.

Large Norway rats caught in garages or crawl spaces are humanely dispatched by electronic traps and the carcasses are easily contained. Only use poison baits in secure and locked containers when kids or dogs may reach them.

Use ultrasonic devices to support your existing security. These small devices send out high-frequency sounds that scare off rodents, but won’t annoy your cats, dogs, birds or family members. Arrange your cameras to see directly through the house,

putting them in each different room or near entrances in garages and utility areas. Change the place where the animals are kept every few weeks and remember that pets won’t replace other precautions or cleanliness.

Put up things to make it hard for burglars to navigate your yard. Cut the branches of nearby vegetation so they don’t touch the roof, remove leaves and mulch from around the perimeter and mow your lawn so it is short. Stack firewood on a firewood rack no lower than 18 inches and at least 20 feet from your house.

Tight closures and a wire base below ensure your compost bin is not accessible to rodents. A short row of mint, lavender, marigold or daffodil plants prevents rodents while perfuming the garden.

Check for problems each season and handle them soon after you notice something unusual. Noticing droppings, bites on your door frames, grease or dust marks along baseboards or noises in the drywall before dusk are the first signs. If you notice a mouse, put out more traps that same evening, as a pregnant mouse may have up to six babies after three weeks and it only takes five to six weeks for them to reproduce.

Be aware of when it’s time to contact a professional. A persistent snapping of traps and signs of chewed wires or insulation in the walls or ceiling likely mean termites are already living in your home. Private pest-control technicians own specialized rodenticides, use several baiting methods and have thermal imaging tools that can find nests within wall cavities. Mainly, they propose a plan for blocking all routes and future monitoring to keep rodents away.

Since no method of prevention lasts, it’s important to be watchful, as not cleaning and maintaining habitats will lead to rats and mice returning. Use effective barriers, keep the house clean and organized, watch for the first signs and act right away when you notice anything. The benefits are create a healthier space, avoid expensive repair costs and know that the strange sounds you hear at night are just timbers moving—rodents never got past your defenses.