Rats and rodents are common household pests. It would help if you spotted rodent infestations early because these pests are carriers of many deadly diseases. According to experts, rodents and mice can spread up to 35 diseases today. Some are leptospirosis, Hantavirus, hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever, plaque, rat-bite fever and salmonellosis.
While these are the direct diseases that rodents carry, these pests are also responsible for the indirect transmission of certain diseases like Babesiosis, Colorado Tick Fever, Lyme Diseases, Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever, Scrub Typhus, Powassan Virus and more. Hence, it is important to keep rodents as far as possible from your homes.
When you spot rodent infestations, some of the common strategies you can try are sealing, trapping and cleaning. Let us look into each of these strategies in the below sections:
Sealing
Rats, mice and other pests belonging to the rodent family enter your homes through the small cracks, crevices and holes. So, the first strategy you have to follow to stop rodents from entering your homes is to seal up the cracks and holes inside and outside your homes.
Some of the cracks you need to seal inside your homes are located at the back of the refrigerators, inside attics, near all internal pipes, inside basements, behind doors and other remote-to-access areas. The areas you need to watch out for outside your homes are inside the roofs, inside the electrical and plumbing vents, near doors & windows and inside the attic vents. Once you spot these holes, you need to seal them properly using a lath screen, metal sheeting, cement and other related materials.
Trapping
Once you have sealed the cracks, the next step you should do is to trap the rodents inside your homes to keep infestations at bay. You can use bait traps, chemical and other non-chemical methods to trap rodents. If you spot a lot of infestations from rodents in our home, we recommend you hire a professional Vancouver pest control expert to keep the rodent population at bay. Choosing strategic locations to place bait traps is one of the most important steps to trap rodents. Also, another important point to remember is that using live traps or glue traps may not be a good idea when trapping rodents. This is because, these traps scare away the rodents and make them urinate. The urine of rodents may increase the spread of germs inside your homes.
Cleaning
Prevention is one of the keys when it comes to keeping rodents at bay. Keeping food sources well-sealed, outside cooking areas clean and floors clean of crumbs, using thick metal-based garbage cans with a thick and tight lid, stopping the use of bird feeders, putting uneaten animal food back into the containers with lids, etc. are some tips you can follow to keep rodent-prone areas clean.
Ensure that your garbage cans are cleaned regularly, because these are the places that rodents visit frequently. If you have a reasonably-sized garden, ensure that you trim the grass regularly, and keep it as short as possible. The growth of shrubbery should be controlled so that it doesn’t get too close to your home.
For professional assistance in stopping rodent infestations, contact an expert rodent control Vancouver company.
