Rodent Infestations For The Uninitiated
One aspect of living rurally is that animals like rodents are more plentiful. While city dwellers have to deal with rodents too, obviously, the control over rodent residences is often a little better there (rows of apartments and houses can take measures to exclude the rodent, whereas in a rural area, you're surrounded by open land that is hard to close off to rodents). If you're finding signs of a rodent infestation in your new home, here's what you need to know.
Sometimes It's Not the Mess That's the Problem
Those rodents aren't necessarily coming in because your home is messy. There's a stereotype that any home with a rodent infestation is filthy, but in reality, the rodents are coming in for warmth and to look for food and water. You could have the cleanest home on the planet, but if you have curious rodents in the woods behind your house, you could still see them try to get in, especially as winter approaches.
Keeping a clean house does help -- you see signs of trouble earlier on, and there are fewer piles of junk for the rodents to hide in. Write down the infestation clues you've seen and their locations, and then try to clean up any lingering spots. And then call an exterminator.
Don't Use Poisons or Glue Traps
If you've seen only one or two small animals like mice, you might think that you can handle the job yourself with baits or glue traps. Try to avoid these. Baits don't work immediately; the poison often kills the rodents once they're back inside the walls of the house. And you can imagine what a dead mouse carcass can smell like, and how difficult it is to extract it from a wall.
The baits also don't stop poisoning with just the rodents. If the rodent makes it outside and dies, any predator animals eating that rodent can be poisoned, too.
Glue traps are often inhumane. They don't kill immediately and instead make the rodent suffocate or starve to death.
Where There's One, There's More
Chances are, though, if you've seen one, there are more. Mice and rats can reproduce exponentially in a very short period of time, so it's important to take a sighting seriously. Contact a rodent pest control company now to get the whole infestation removed, rather than engaging in a long, drawn-out battle with rodents determined to be in your home.
