Mice Rats and Rodents Oh My!

It is definitely getting cold around the mountains here in Sevierville and Knoxville areas. With the cold air comes all the rodents. Mice, rats, and other rodents will be looking for warmer places to call home than their current outside housing. Be on the lookout for evidence of mice, rats, or other rodents and take precautions to help prevent them from getting into your home.

What To Look For?

• Mice rats and most rodents will be chewing through boxes, walls, duct work/insulation, and other home set ups in order to keep warm and find food.
• Holes in food bags or boxes. It isn’t always human food, but you might notice a hole in dog food, bird seed bags, even landscape materials. If they can eat it they more than likely will. Holes in food boxes or bags in your pantry are a strong alert that a mouse rat or other rodent are deeply entrenched in your home.
• Droppings along the grounds or shelving. If you notice poop droppings along the perimeter of the walls or on shelves (really anywhere) then you more than likely have a rodent problem. The more poop the bigger, and longer, the problem.

How To Stop Mice Rats From Getting In?

• Trap and bait. There is not a sure fire way to keep out mice rats and other rodents, they are sneaky creatures. However, putting out traps and bait around your house or in areas you suspect a lot of activity will start to help the problem.
• Seal the house. If you can stop the points of entry then you can keep the rodents out of the house.
• Keep doors shut. In summer and fall in the south you and I might be prone to leave open a garage door, basement, crawl space, or enclosed patio to circulate some fresh air or let pets have access to those parts of the home. It is a good idea to close those doors off and insulate them to keep potential access points for rodents to a minimum.

Keeping rodents out can be tough, especially if you live near fields or woods that have a large population of rodents. They will sneak in through the smallest places and stay hidden really well. Will some vigilance and preventative measures, though, you can keep your home from being one of the 21 million homes that are invaded by rodents each winter.