Whether you fear them or think they’re cute, rats and mice are pests for any homeowner. They can spread disease, damage your home, and contaminate your food. 

Have a mouse or rat problem? If you live in East Tennessee, Pest Shield offers expert rodent removal services. With our rodent control experts, we help you kiss your rodent problem goodbye.

In the meantime, here are some tips and tricks to prevent a rodent infestation in your home and how to perform rodent removal on your own.

How to Keep Mice and Rats out of Your Home

The first step to preventing rodents from entering your home is to cut off their entry points. As even the largest rats can fit through tight spaces, this can be difficult. To get started, fill in any obvious gaps, cracks, and holes around your home.

You’ll also need to make your home less attractive to rodents. This means cleaning up after yourself. Rats and mice are always looking for a free food source. So keep crumbs off the ground, and don’t let trash pile up. As soon as fruit goes bad, throw it away and get it out of your house. It’s also a good idea to store food in containers that rodents can’t chew through. That means eliminating cardboard where possible.

Speaking of cardboard—rodents love it! If you’ve got it, they want it for their nests. So don’t leave cardboard sitting around. Use it and get it out of your house as soon as possible.

Finally, rats and mice need water. Cut off their supply, and you’ll get rid of the rodents. Granted, this can be difficult, since rodents don’t rely on fresh, clean water. However, taking any step you can to not give rodents water is a good thing to do.

Signs of a Rodent Infestation

Many types of rodents can make their way into your home. Whether you’re dealing with a single deer mouse or house mouse or a full-blown rat infestation, here are common signs of rodent presence:

• Rodent droppings, which can show up anywhere mice or rats travel
• Scratching sounds, which may come from inside walls, in the attic, crawl space, or anywhere else
• Bird feeders empty out faster than usual
• Plastic, cardboard, and other materials are chewed through
• A stale, bad smell
• Nests of paper, wood, fabric, and other random things

When you’ve got rodent activity, it’s not long until you wind up with rodent damage. Getting your rodent population under control before it gets out of hand is the easiest way to avoid a serious infestation.

Creating a Rodent-Free Home

While rodent season typically occurs when the weather turns cold, rodents can make their way into your home any time of the year. With quality pest control services, you can get your mice and rats under control fast.

Want to take care of your nuisance animal yourself? You’re going to need traps and treatments.

Traps: Snap and glue traps are the most commonly used and are very effective. Just be sure to put them in the path of your rodents. Once you catch mice or rats, you will need to dispose of the dead animals.

Treatments: Poison and baiting is the other arm of a successful rodent control program. This is most often used when dealing with a full-blown infestation in your living space.

Once you get rid of your pest issues, takes steps to  prevent future infestations.

Tired of battling rodents in your home? Not sure where they’re getting in and how to get rid of them? Contact Pest Shield today. We go above and beyond to get rid of mice and rats, and our happy customers prove it.