Rodent Proofing & Exclusion Services
Rodents are a nightmare for most home and business owners that have to deal with them. They invade roughly 21 million homes a year in the United States and cause billions of dollars in damages. If that weren’t enough, they pose a serious health threat to your family and businesses. Ensuring that rodents are unable to gain access to your home and business is critical to ensuring that your family is safe and that your business can operate without the threat of being shut down or getting bad reviews. At EcoGuard Pest Management, we have a team of licensed rodent control experts who know how to identify rodent access points and implement rodent exclusion strategies that will rodent proof your home and business.
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Why is Rodent Exclusion Important?
Rodent exclusion is important because animals like rats and mice can cause serious damage and spread extremely harmful diseases. Having rodents inside your home or business increases the likelihood of food contamination with pathogens like salmonella. Their feces and urine can contain hantavirus and if they bite someone, they can pass on rabies. This doesn’t include the structural damages that both household rodent types are capable of doing. Rats and mice are notorious for chewing through just about any building material in their path. They are capable of tunneling through drywall, wood, plastic, and rats are even capable of chewing through soft metals. In addition, they will shred soft materials like insulation, paper, and clothing to make their nests. Speaking of nests, rats and mice are prolific breeders and will produce a new litter of babies every month or two which can cause a rapid increase in the number of rodents in a short period of time.
Reasons Rodents Enter a Home or Business
Rodents like rats and mice will enter a home or business in search of 3 things: food, water, and shelter. Food being the main attractant will draw them in, but they will also make their way inside to avoid the rain, or temperatures that are too hot or cold. It doesn’t take much for a rodent to gain access so any points of entry, gaps, cracks, or crevices will need to be sealed to prevent rodents from accessing your home or business.
Rodent Exclusion Process
EcoGuard Pest Management is an expert in rodent exclusion.
Identify the Gaps
Where to Look for Access Points
- Crawl spaces: This is a good place that rodents like to use to hide from predators. Given enough time, they will use this space to find or create an access point to the inside of your home or business where food is kept.
- Attics: Roof rats in particular find their way into a home through overhanging tree branches. Once they make it to the roof, they are able to access the attic through access points like gaps in the eaves or air vents that release hot air.
- Recessed lighting: For businesses, roof rats will access a home and make their way through the space above an office where the lighting and wiring are held.
- Basements: Sewer rats like being below ground so they may find their way into your basement through cracks in the foundation and even through exposed plumbing.
Seal the Gaps
This step ensures that rodents are stopped from entering a structure. EcoGuard’s rodent control experts ensure that:
- Exterior doors are fitted with door sweeps that prevent rodents from sneaking in
- Seal all gaps and cracks in the foundation
- Seal all pipe and plumbing outlets and intrusions
- Install vent covers over dryer and stove vents
- Install steal mesh gable and vent covers over access points that allow airflow into the attic
- Cover open exterior pipes with plumbing caps
- Install a chimney cap
- Replace broken window screens
- Seal any existing rodent pathways using a steel wool hole patch
Minimize Bridges
The final step of rodent proofing a home or business is to remove or minimize the bridges that connect the outside environment to places where rodents can gain access. This usually requires cutting back branches of trees that might extend over a structure which provide roof rats access to a home or business or trimming back shrubs and bushes that might provide mice and sewer rats the coverage they need to find a crack in the foundation. Ensuring that these bridges are maintained will help reduce the likelihood that rats and mice are able to gain access into your home or business.
For immediate service for all of your rodent control concerns please call 866-326-2847 or complete this form.
Pest Exclusion Considerations
Account for Durability
Certain tools that can be implemented to stop rodents can easily be overcome so it is important to remember that rodents, and rats in particular, are capable of destroying things that are not durable. Things like plastic door sweeps & vent covers and foam insulation to fill gaps will typically be a temporary fix only. It requires a little more effort to ensure that exclusion strategies can withstand the destructive nature of rodents in search of food. This means that instead of plastic door sweeps and vent covers, door sweeps with steel fabric and metal vent covers would be more effective. Also, holes that are filled with foam insulation should also be reinforced with steel wool.
Account for Breathability
Sometimes a sealed access point is not the solution because that point of access still needs to allow the flow of air or water to pass through. In the event that there are access points that need to breath, a steel mesh or grate can be applied to rodent proof that point of entry.
Call EcoGuard Pest Management if You See Signs of Rodents
Seeing signs of rodents is never a good thing and it is important that you call a licensed rodent control expert to come inspect your property. Our team at EcoGuard Pest Management will implement exclusion strategies in addition to completing other aspects of our rodent control program. Be sure to call today to get a licensed professional out so we can create a customized treatment plan that will rodent proof your home or business.