How To Rodent Proof Your Home For Winter

As winter approaches, rodents that have been living outside look for ways to enter your house.  As the weather worsens so do signs of rodents inside your home.

What follows are practical steps that you can take to keep rodents from coming inside to escape the cold.

1. Do not leave food out.  If you have been storing snacks, cereals, fruits and the like on top of the refrigerator relocate them to the inside of the refrigerator.
2. Seal off all entryways and outside accesses to your home or apartment. Block any exposed pipes with steel wool or sanded cement.  Survey for other less obvious entry points by looking for gnaw marks or droppings.
3. Plug in sonic repellent.
4. Set traps.
5. Look for gaps or flaws along your homes exterior walls.  These gaps provide easy entry for rodents and need to be filled.
6. Trim back tree branches from over your roof to cut back on rodents accessing your house by jumping onto the roof.
7. Keep all pet food and wild bird seed in sealed metal containers.
8. Get rid of clutter.  Rodents like clutter.  It provides a lovely place for them to live.
9. Clear out the garage.  Again, rodents like places that they can live undisturbed and clutter inside the home and outside in the garage provides the perfect place.
10. Thoroughly check and secure crawl spaces.

To find out whether or not you have an infestation of mice, lay talcum powder of plain flour along floor edges by walls.  If a nest is close by tracks will begin to appear.

If you still have a problem with rodents after trying everything above then perhaps it is time to contact pest extermination experts.  Qualified professionals are available to help and they will know how to get rid of your rodent problems once and for all.