How to Keep Rodents Away From Insulation
With the cold weather rolling in, rodents are looking for places to nest for the winter season. Unfortunately, your home is the perfect place for rodents to stay, especially in areas with insulation. Here’s how to keep rodents away from your home this winter:
- Step 1: Perform a visual inspection of the exterior of your home, looking for any points of entry. Keep an eye out for small holes, cracks, and any openings within the siding, roofing, foundation, and around plumbing pipes or electrical wires leading into the house.
- Step 2: Rodents can fit through a crack as small as a quarter-inch, so begin sealing any cracks, holes, or gaps you may come across.
- Step 3: Start with gaps around drain pipes and any other wall openings with a wire mesh and a quick-dry concrete to hold it in place. Openings like these ones are the “welcome mat” of your home to rodents and other pests.
- Step 4: For any other gaps on the exterior of your home (usually around windows and doors), apply an expanding foam insulation to fill the space.
- Step 5: Fill cracks in siding, around windows and doors, and the foundation with an exterior caulking.
- Step 6: Have any missing or damaged roof shingles replaced, so rodents won’t gain easy access to your attic space.
- Step 7: Trim tree branches so none hang too close to your home. Rodents can easily climb trees and use the branches as bridges to your roof and windows on the second story.
- Step 8: Make sure all garbage is thrown away in scented garbage bags, and that those are placed in garbage cans with secure lids. Any exposed trash can attract rodents to your property where they will eventually look for an entry point to your house.
- Step 9: Store all unused clothing and paper products inside of plastic, airtight bins in the attic. Most clothing materials and paper products make for the perfect nesting material, so it’s important to keep all of it hidden from possible rodents.
- Step 10: If you notice any signs of rodents that might be currently residing in your home, place snap traps along walls in areas you’ve seen them or their droppings in the past. These are the best type of traps to use — a timeless, yet simple classic.
Keeping rodents out of your home isn’t difficult, but seeing them isn’t out of the ordinary if you’re not taking the proper precautionary steps to prevent them. When your home or business experiences an infestation of mice or rats, contact Knockout Pest Control. To learn more or to schedule an inspection, give us a call at (800) 244-7378.