Sanitation and Rodent Exclusion

You usually don't have an abundance of rodents without enough food and shelter provided.

Where there is an abundance of rodents you have an abundance of shelters and food provided. It will have a great impact on reducing the rodent populaion if you remove or reduce these factors.

Without removing possible food sources and shelter resources, a trapping and bait program would be unsucessful. By using only rodent poison baits and traps on an intemittent basis to control rodents, without any attempt to control other factors these rodent populations woudl quickly and repeatedly rebound. Even the highest qualtiy of rodent baits would not be able to compete well with the available foods the current rodent population ia already and comfortably accustomed to feeding.

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SANITATION

1. All rubbish piles and refuse need to be eliminated.
2. Landscaped areas need to be properly maintained with wood piles elevated off the ground.
3. All garbage containers and dumpsters should have a tight fitting cover.
4. Rodents can live on the spilled and surplus food from bird feeders and pet food.
5. It is difficult to completely eliminate all food and shelter sources for mice, because of their lesser food requirements due to their smaller size. However the more food and shelter the mice have, the higher a mice population or infestation could occur. With the higher population, the harder it will be to control .
   Rats require a lot more food and water. They also require more shelter. When there is a severe infestion of rats,it is usually indicative of a sanitation problem.

RODENT EXCLUSION

1. All openings greater than 1/4" should be sealed to exclude mice, but it may be impossible to seal all openings.
2. All openings greater than 1/2" should be sealed to exclude rats.
3. Likely access points for rodents are where utility lines come into walls, as well as openings around air conditioning, drain pipes and vents.
   

   Look for broken basement windows, warped doors, and unscreened vents as possible points of entry. All spaces beneath doors should be checked if the opening is too large and reduced if needed.

   Roofs shold be checked to see that shingles are donw tight and sheathing is complete. Also check roof ventilators, screen vents and luvered in wall vents.

4. 
   View Larger Image  Hardware cloth may be used to seal openings such as attic vents as shown in the picture. Install 1/4-inch wire mesh (hardware cloth) over attic, roof, and crawl space vents in order to prevent entry of birds, bats, squirrels, rodents, and other wildlife.
   Wearing gloves, when cutting hardware cloth would prevent cuts since the cloth is sharp.
   Chimney caps exclude birds, squirrels, raccoons and other nuisance wildlife.
5. 
   View Larger Image  Metal flashing may be used to seal up openings around the gutters( in picture)
6. 
   View Larger Image Use Stuff It Copper Mesh around pipes and utility lines stuffing into the openings such as openings where pipes and wires enter the foundation and siding, e.g., around outdoor faucets, receptacles, gas meters, clothes dryer vents, and telephone/cable TV wires.
7. Check to see that shingles are tight.