Replace the Outdated With the Modern
Here are your tips for preventing rodents this fall.
Are your home’s outside vents for the dryer, attic, roof damaged, outdated, or both? Now is the time to replace them. To get into your attic or house, rodents and squirrels don’t have any trouble tearing through vents.
Never Suspend Bird Feeders
Both mice and squirrels are known to eat from bird feeders. Due to their remarkable climbing skills, squirrels like breaking into bird feeders.
Even if squirrels don’t touch your bird feeders, birds will. While they eat, birds scatter seeds, creating mounds on the ground. This convenient feeding source draws mice and rats to your property. Next stop? Within your home.
Close It Up
Go on a stroll around your house’s exterior. Look for fissures and cracks that can be filled with steel wool or sealed with foam. It’s crucial to get it correctly the first time since mice cannot eat through steel wool. Mice have compact bodies and can squeeze through openings as small as 14 inches. Mice build their nests in wall cavities, insulation, attics, refrigerators, under stoves, and dishwashers once they have gained access to your house. It is preferable to respond proactively as soon as you discover these risks.
Don’t Use Essential Oils
They are useless for controlling pests. Pest control firms would go out of business if it were that simple. Sealing the entry point is necessary if mice or squirrels enter your house. Consider it in this manner. Would you fix the window if a bird kept flying through it, or would you spray essential oils into the broken opening?
Keep Things Tidy
Regularly sweep up crumbs within your house. Make sure to pay particular attention to the challenging areas that are simple to overlook, like under stoves and dishwashers. Put grass and bird seeds in Tupperware or other containers with tight lids in garages.
Store Pet Food Properly
Mice that have gotten into your home can get to the dog and cat food. Make careful to discard pet food at night rather than leaving it out during the day.
Keep an Eye on Your Garage
Garages provide convenient entryways into your home. Small cracks around your foundation and gaps under garage doors allow water to enter your garage. Mice may frequently fit through a carport and into the basement with ease. Have you noticed droppings in your basement? It might be your attached garage’s fault.
Cover Your Gutters
You can prevent open gaps that mice and squirrels can chew through to enter your attic by covering your gutters and fixing or replacing damaged drains. Even more pests, like mosquitoes, prefer to breed in standing water, such as gutter clogs or neglect, which cause issues.
Don’t Trap & Release
Even though it may seem like a gentle way to get rid of squirrels, this method does more harm than good. A squirrel will almost certainly perish if you move it. The squirrel will be disadvantaged if left in an unfamiliar location without any means of obtaining water, food, or shelter. As a result of being pushed out of the region, squirrels risk being left vulnerable to predators and without access to rapid protection. You might unintentionally separate parents from their children, leaving them defenseless and unprotected.
Maintain Frequent Inspections
Go on a stroll around your house’s exterior. Inspect your basement’s utility pipes for any holes that may have gone unnoticed. Follow the line to look for potential spots if you see cracks in your home’s foundation. Do you have any trees on your land that produce fruit? To keep squirrels away, throw away fallen fruit and firmly shut trash cans. Put a flashlight in your basement and enter. Examine any cracks you come across, then look outside for a sight line. It’s presumably big enough for a mouse to fit through if you can see out. To prevent potential infestations, cover every one of these spaces.
