Most people don’t want to have rats or mice wandering freely through their home. However, keeping your home free of rodents requires a little preventive maintenance. Here are six steps you can take to keep these unwanted visitors out of your home for good.
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1. Make Your Home Unappealing
Mice and rats are looking for an easy meal. Protect yourself by keeping the food put away, maintaining a reasonably clean house and keeping trash cans covered with tight-fitting lids. Taking away the food source is an excellent way to deter these invaders from entering your home.
2. Close Off Entrances
Take a walk around your home and look for any holes in the siding or foundation. Remember that they can squeeze flat to fit into even tiny holes and cracks. Fill small holes with stainless steel scouring pads and cover them with caulk to prevent the mice from chewing their way in. Use screens in all of your windows, and make sure that you keep doors closed. If there is a problem with sealing off your windows or doors, you may consider investing in new ones from companies like Comfort King Ltd.
3. Clean the Crawlspace
Debris and junk piled up in the crawlspace invites mice to come in and investigate. Keep the space clean. It will be easier to catch signs of an infestation, and you’re less likely to attract them to begin with.
4. Trim the Trees
Rodents are excellent climbers, and they can use overhanging branches to drop onto your roof and find a new entry point in your home. In addition to sealing off the gaps and cracks, trim back the trees.
5. Put Screens Over Vents
All vents should be fitted with metal mesh screens to allow steam or air to escape while keeping rodents out. This is particularly important with dryer vents that are located near the ground.
6. Use Traps for Monitoring
Leave a few traps set up in the attic, crawlspace and garage. Check them occasionally to make sure that rodents aren’t getting into the home. A rodent problem is easier to address in the early stages than after they’ve had a few months or even years to breed and take over.
Follow these steps to make your home rodent-proof and minimize your risk of invasion. It will take time to check the entire exterior and foundation for cracks, and cleaning out the crawlspace is a chore you’d rather avoid. However, you’ll be rewarded with a home that’s less attracted to rodents and less likely to harbor any of these invaders.
