I have been a professional Pest Control Operator for 24 years and I have found people really hate Rodents. Not only are they gross and disgusting, but they are known to carry diseases and contaminate food and structures.
What most people do not know is that they can be eradicated quite easily if you know just a few important things. With this in mind I will give you five steps to rid your home of rodents.
Before I go into these steps I need you to remember something. Rodents are just small warm blooded animals that need the same basic things all warm blooded animals need. Food, water, and shelter. Us humans supply these things to them all the time without realizing it. These disgusting critters are just opportunists taking advantage of what we give them. They are know as “Commensal Rodents.”
Which means they live in harmony with and around man.
If you really think about it what I will talk about here is really common sense. By following these five steps the problem can be quickly resolved.
The Steps:
1.Eliminate all food on outside of the home. This might be fruit trees, pet food, vegetable in gardens, full trash cans etc.
2. Eliminate water sources. This could be leaking faucets, poor drainage, ponds, pools, puddles, pet dishes etc. Rats need one once of water per rat per day.
3. Eliminate enter points to the house. This could be attic or crawl space vents with holes, openings caused by plumbing or wiring penetrating the structure. gaps under doors, etc.
4. Eliminate potential harbor areas. This could be palm trees, ground cover (like ivy), untrimmed bushes and shrubs, open crawl spaces, under decks, garages, sheds, etc.
5. Kill the rodents. This is done using snap traps, glue boards, baits, toxic tracking powder, mechanical traps etc.
Some good attractant baits are peanut butter, nuts, sardines, apples, persimmons, cotton balls. Never use cheese it does not work. Also use whatever the rodents have been eating. (this is the best)
I you following these five steps and do them completely you will be successful in ridding your home of the rodents.
Save your money. You can do this. If doing this just grosses you out you can have someone in your family or a friend to help out. They can reset traps or remove dead rodents. You can save yourself between $250 to $1000 by doing this job yourself. You can locate everything you need to do this job at most hardware stores.
Some suggestions:
To plug holes use 19 gauge small mesh screening (galvanized). Do not use steel wool as it is flammable.
Another good solution for rodent proofing structures is presurized foam in a can to plug entry points. Also, you can get door sweeps to seal gaps under doors. (very cheap at the hardware store) To attach baits to the snap traps a good solution is to use scented dental floss.
Using these five steps to rid your home of rodents I know you can be successful and frugal at the same time.