Don’t “Gimme Shelter” to Rodents as Winter Sets In!

As the weather begins to cool here in Palm Beach County, rats and mice start moving indoors in larger numbers looking for food and dry, protected shelter. Haggerty Pest Control receives calls for rodent control throughout the year, but these pests cause far more problems now before the holidays and during the months ahead than at any other time. Even homes and businesses that are usually rodent-free can start having problems.

Rats and mice eat and contaminate a good deal of stored food with their urine, numerous droppings, and their shed hairs. They also damage property by chewing and digging. In addition, about 25 percent of all fires of unknown cause are due to rats and mice gnawing on electrical wires. In fact, house fires tend to occur most frequently in autumn when rats and mice move indoors seeking shelter. Rats and mice also transmit a wide variety of diseases.

More than 200 kinds of disease-causing micro-organisms (including those causing salmonella food poisoning, hantavirus, murine typhus, and plague), as well as parasitic worms (such as those that cause trichinosis) are commonly associated with rats and mice.

Rodents also can have blood-sucking insects and mites feeding on them, including fleas, ticks, mites, and lice. These blood-suckers are one of the ways many disease-causing organisms get transmitted from rats to people and pets. Not all mice and rats are infected with all diseases, but every rat and mouse is infected with some of them. The fact that they can transmit these diseases to us means that if you or your neighbors or friends have them, it is important to call us to control them.

Here are some tips to keep your home and yard free from mice and rats:

• Seal all structural cracks and crevices in with steel wool or caulk.
  • Check screens and door sweeps.
  • Make sure any fittings such as the air-conditioning exhaust is plugged with steel wool.
  • Look for a wider-than-usual opening near the dryer vent (including the roof).
  • Utility boxes for telephone and electricity often have gaps.
  • Check screens and door sweeps.
  • House mice can get through an opening the size of a quarter!
• Keep food in air-tight sealed containers, preferably glass and plastic.
• Don’t store food in the garage unless it’s also in glass or plastic containers. Rodents (and roaches) will happily feast on unopened cereal or pasta boxes. Wash any used containers that go into the recycle bins.
• What won’t be of much help to prevent rodent infestations are peppermint oil, cayenne pepper, pepper, cloves and mothballs. You would need such immense quantities to be practical.

If you do find mice or rats in your home call Haggerty.  We are trained to safely and effectively remove them with professionally targeted methods.