October: Season of the Rodent

How to prevent rodents in the fall in Atlanta GA - Active Pest ControlFall is considered by most people to be one of the nicest times of the year. Cooler temperatures not only signal the start of the holiday season but also the beginning of rodent season. Every October, rodents become a serious problem in Atlanta GA as temperatures drop. Like many other types of pests, mice and rats begin to seek shelter from the weather outside, which is why they make their way indoors. Read on to learn five main ways you can keep rodents outside this fall.

How to Rodent-Proof Your Home

To prevent rats and mice from getting inside during the fall, there are a number of things you can do to protect your home. Five ways you can keep rats and mice out of your home this season include:

  1. Seal windows and doors. Rodents are known for their ability to squeeze through the tiniest of openings, which is why it’s important to seal any cracks or openings in your windows and doors.
  2. Place screens over chimneys and vents. Rats and mice may feel the warm air escaping your chimney and vents, and make their way indoors. Properly cover your vent systems and chimney.
  3. Fix or replace faulty pipes. Rodents are great swimmers and can make their way through your plumbing. Always fix any broken pipes in a timely manner to keep rats and mice from getting in.
  4. Store food properly. Rats and mice will seek out food inside of homes. Always keep food stored in airtight containers and clean up messes or spills after meals.
  5. Keep a tidy home. Rodents are a big fan of clutter and are attracted to messy basements and attics. Even worse, they’ll use the clutter to build their nests. Always clean up messes and avoid excess clutter.

Rats and Mice in the Fall

By protecting your home and eliminating their chances of getting inside in the first place, you can avoid dealing with a rodent infestation in the fall. Unfortunately, rats and mice are infamous for making their way indoors by any means, especially when temperatures drop. Once indoors, they can be difficult to get rid of without professional help from a rodent control company. There are a number of DIY solutions to controlling rats and mice, but they are not reliable or good for long-term protection. As soon as you notice a mouse or rat inside your home, it’s important to enlist the help of a rodent exterminator.

How to Get Rid of Rats

Getting rid of rats always requires exclusion efforts. If you followed the aforementioned tips for protecting your home and still find yourself with a rodent problem, it’s time to call a professional. Rodents aren’t just gross—they are carriers of filth and disease and need to be controlled in a reliable and timely manner. Active Pest Control knows not only how to get rid of rodents, but also how to keep them from ever returning.

Why Mice Will Not Leave on Their Own

If you lived outside in the cold where there were dangers around every corner, and someone allowed you to come inside into a nice cozy den, would you want to stay? How about if they brought you food and water and kept your area nice and warm all winter? Would that make you want to hang around? If you said, “Yes,” then you should know that mice feel the same way. If your home is open and inviting and provides everything a mouse needs, then that mouse will be more than happy to set up housekeeping right inside your attic or wall voids.

Why Do Mice Enter Homes?

Mice, like all animals, are drawn to three basic things: shelter, food, and water. If your yard has lots of shelter, places to hide inside or under, then mice will be drawn in. If there are places to hide right up close to your foundation, like thick bushes or items, then they may come right in close. If there are food and water sources near your home, they will love you for it. And if there are areas in your foundation or walls where there are holes where they can squeeze into your nice warm basement, wall voids or attic, then they will love you even more.

Problems In Homes Caused By Mice

Being scared out of your wits and jumping up on a chair because there is a mouse loose in the kitchen is only the beginning of your worries if mice have infested your home. Mice, like all rodents, chew on anything and everything. This not only can damage the home itself, but it can be damaging to stored belongings, and could possibly cause a house fire if an electrical wire is chewed. Not only do mice chew, but they are possible vectors of several diseases and they also carry parasites. Mites, fleas, and ticks bring a whole new set of problems into the home.

Once Inside Mice Do Not Want To Leave

If a mouse or several mice have found their way inside, they will come and go freely, but it is unlikely that they will ever move their nests back outside, even in springtime when the weather warms up. If mice are cozy in their nests and have plenty of food and water in your home, they will not want to leave. One other reason they will be happy to stay inside your home is the protection your home provides from natural predators. In nature, mice will hide inside holes in trees, or underneath logs, or in any other place that provides protection. What better place is there to hide than a nice cozy attic space, wall void or crawl space?

How To Remove Mice From Your Home

While there are a number of steps you can take to try to keep mice from invading your home, once they are established, they can be very difficult to completely eradicate. Mice multiply quickly and can learn to avoid traps. To know for sure that all the mice have been safely removed and that no additional mice are going to make their way in, it is best to employ the help of a professional pest control company. For problems with mice, or any other household pest, reach out to Active Pest Control today.

Are Rodents Dangerous?

Have you ever had someone excitedly say to you, “Hey, guess what! A whole bunch of rodents have moved in with us!” No? Why not? Could it be that no one in history has ever enjoyed having rodents invade their space? After all, they are creepy, dirty–and they steal food while you’re sleeping. But rodents, even if they are only outside your house, are not only a nuisance, they can pose some pretty serious dangers.

Rodents bring parasites and disease:

Rodents are foraging animals, and their travels bring them to places such as garbage dumps, trash cans, sewers, dumpsters and the like. This means they pick up all sorts of filth, harmful parasites and bacteria, as well as diseases. Do you really want these nasty creatures hanging out in your yard or inside your home?

Mice and rats can carry a whole host of parasites both on and inside their bodies. Some of these parasites are fleas, fur mites, lice, ticks and worms. The worst of these are fleas because fleas have the capacity to transmit the plague which, although relatively rare today, killed 25 million people in less than 5 years during the middle ages. And, even if it doesn’t kill you in these modern days, it is still no fun to have.

Rodents also carry some pretty scary diseases, some being fatal in extreme cases. A few of the diseases rodents can carry include hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, plague (as mentioned), rat-bite fever, salmonellosis, and tularemia. Some can be contracted simply by breathing in dust that is contaminated by rodent urine or droppings. Others are contracted by eating food that is contaminated. And some require direct contact with a dead, infected, rodent carcass, or an actual bite from the infected animal.

Dangers rodents pose to your home:

When rodents such as mice, rats, or squirrels, make their way into your house, not only do they chew holes in the walls, they can cause all sorts of other problems. They leave their urine and droppings which can build up and cause a terrible odor, and they chew on everything in sight. Since they have teeth that never stop growing, they have to chew. They chew on insulation, walls, treasured keepsakes in your attic and wires. The worst of these is wires because there is a distinct possibility of fire risk if these rodents chew on live wires.

Dangers rodents pose to your car:

Did you know that hundreds of thousands of vehicles are damaged by rodents each and every year? It’s true. Mice will make nests under the hood and happily chew away at wires, creating all sorts of problems. One article in 2011 reported a vehicle that required over $3,000 in repairs because rodents chewed up the body harness. That’s some pretty serious cash to be shelling out!

If you are seeing rodents, or rodent signs, in or around your property, it is time to call in the professionals. It is possible to avoid the costly damages that rodents can cause by getting year-round pest control from Active Pest Control. With this convenient plan, not only will we take care of rodents on your property, but a whole host of other household pests as well.

Mouse-Free Thanksgiving

Before you know it, your doorbell will be ringing, and your house will be filling with family and friends gathering to share in the joy of the holidays with you. Can’t you just smell the turkey as it slowly roasts in the oven? Your nose fills with the tantalizing scent of the sausage, onion, bread, rosemary, thyme, garlic, and sage as they join together in harmony slowly perfecting that holiday stuffing. Then there is the abundance of vegetables that are all adorned with a hefty heap of butter as they slowly steam filling the air with the smell of yum! And who can forget that sweet, delectable scent of the warm apple pie, blueberry pie, or pumpkin pie that tries to entice you to have a dessert first? There is absolutely nothing in the world as wonderful to the senses as Thanksgiving!

All of this, however, only serves to remind you of all the work and preparation that is still left to do; and all of it must be completed in just a few short days. There is shopping to do and baking to bake, and, Oh that dreaded housework that must be done to perfection. Let’s see, vacuuming, washing windows, scrubbing floors and bathrooms, making up the guest rooms……so much work, so little time! Now to the kitchen! The refrigerator must be cleaned and polished to a shine and so does the stove. The china must be taken from the hutch, washed, and stacked for display. Then off to the pantry to organize so the relatives don’t see the disorganized mess that usually lives there.

You think you are on the last bit of housekeeping, when all of a sudden you see it! The side of the tapioca box has a little chew mark on it. At first, you wonder if you accidentally tore it when you opened it, but then you realize something used teeth on that tear. You frantically begin to sweep boxes and cans side to side searching, and then you find it! Those little blackish, oval pieces of yuck – that mice deposited after eating your dry goods – are right there in plain sight. Why hadn’t you noticed them before you wonder as you go to work disinfecting the pantry cupboards?

Once you disinfect, deodorize, and eliminate all the germs you possibly can, you pick up your cell phone and call Active Pest Control. You realize that if there are signs of mice, then there are mice; and mice are too social for there to be just a few. There is no way that you can serve those you love knowing that those germy little disease carrying rodents have invited themselves for dinner and have been crawling all over your dishes, food, and silverware! You also know that the professionals here at Active Pest Control have made our company one of the top 25 pest control companies in the country and that Active Pest Control is known for fast, effective, safe, Eco-friendly pest control services.

That doorbell rings – for real this time -, and your house is soon full of guests for Thanksgiving dinner. As you pull that turkey, steaming hot, from the oven, you think back to that phone call to Active Pest Control. You remember how Active Pest Control showed up the very next day and completely took care of those mice, and now that you have the Active Pest Control Complete plan working for you, you never have to worry about pests ruining your day again! A smile breaks over your face as you realize that a huge crisis was quickly and safely averted by the trusted hands of the Active Pest Control family.