Mice and other rodents are not necessarily an uncommon problem in households, but they are not pleasant ones. Some homeowners may not realize they have an infestation until they’ve noticed droppings and other markers inside their home and at that point, rodent-proofing your house will not work as a method of removal. If mice are already in your home, you will need to implement removal methods or contact a wildlife and pest management service.
However, if you have not necessarily noticed any markers inside of your home yet, but you have neighbors with rodents present, it may be time to inspect your home for entryways and rodent proofing your roof and home. If there are rodents in the area or some are infiltrating your neighbor’s house, it is a good idea to go ahead and inspect your home to see if there are any animals in your space or entry points they could eventually use to let themselves in.
Whether you know that you currently have rats in your home or you think there may be the potential for an infestation, it is always smart to inspect your home for potential ways they could find their way in. East Tennessee Wildlife Management has the expertise to help guide you through an inspection you complete on your own and the time to come out to your space to complete an inspection for you. Inspecting your home whether you are sure you currently have an infestation or not is a key way to help prevent a looming infiltration of your space. Make sure you check out even the tiniest of nooks and crannies in your space.
Trails
Rodents and mice are creatures of habit. They use the same pathways to get to certain places because of their terrible eyesight. Because all of the present mice will often use the same path to find their way back to the area they are inhabiting, they often leave a trail of footprints, trash, dirt, or grease. Look for these trails. They can often help you find the area they are inhabiting as well.
Feces and Urine
Inspecting your home and finding droppings and stains from urine is an easy way to identify whether or not you have rodents in your home. Search cabinets, drawers, closets, and dark corners of your home. These droppings can also help you figure out where they are entering and exiting the home.
Teeth Marks, Trash, and Food Scraps
Rodents will chew on nearly anything. If you are seeing teeth marks or wood shavings around certain areas of your home, rodents have likely found their way in. You may also find scraps of torn and chewed through paper and small pieces of chewed-up food. These bits of trash may often lead to potential entry points.
Entry Points
One of the key ways to inspect your home for rodents? Search your space for holes, cracks, and other ways they could find their way into your home. These might be holes that they have chewed through themselves or they may be cracks or holes that have developed in parts of your home over time. Either way, they need to be covered or filled in to prevent further infestations.
This is also a key way to rodent-proof your roof and home. Having a rat-proof roof is an easy way to eliminate the ways pests can make their way into your space. Make sure there are no possible entry points that current rats or rodents are using or any potential entry spaces for future rodents. Check doors, windows, corners of walls, corners of the roof, chimney, and air vents. Even the smallest of holes can eventually be used as an entryway. They can chew through almost anything and create a hole or entry the perfect size for them to enter through.
