Rodents such as rats, mice, and squirrels can cause extensive damage to homes by chewing through wood, drywall, insulation, wires, and more. Keeping these unwanted critters out of your house is essential but challenging. Implementing DIY rodent-proofing techniques and seeking professional pest control services is the best way to defend your home against rodents.
Ten DIY Rodent-Proofing Ways To Protect Your Home
1. Seal Up Entry Points
Rodents can squeeze through tiny spaces to gain entry inside homes. Seal any potential access points with metal, concrete, wood, or steel wool. Pay close attention to areas where utilities and pipes enter the house. Caulk and fill gaps around windows, doors, attic vents, and the foundation. Stainless steel mesh under 1⁄4 inch can also cover up holes and cracks.
2. Install Door Sweeps
Door sweeps or weatherstripping at the bottom of exterior doors prevent rodents from entering through gaps underneath. Ensure the sweep extends across the door and seals tightly to the threshold on both sides. Sweeps made of rubber or metal are very effective and easy to install.
3. Use Metal Flashing
Rodents have sharp teeth that can gnaw through plastic and wood. Metal is much harder for them to chew through. Install metal flashing or wire mesh around the base of exterior walls, beneath doors, around vents and pipes, and anywhere else an entry point is identified.
4. Seal Garages and Shed Doors
Attach weatherstripping around and under the garage door to fill in any crevices—place sheet metal or wire mesh under the shed and garage doors close to the ground. Mice can squeeze under small door gaps. Automated garage door closers are helpful to prevent these doors from being left open.
5. Clean Up Vegetation
Mice and rats often live in woodpiles, thick vegetative cover, and debris piles. Prune back vegetation that touches the home. Clear away any brush, leaves, grass clippings, or trash piles close to the foundation. Eliminating their hiding spots discourages rodents from sticking around.
6. Store Food Properly
Food attracts rodents, especially open bags of food, snacks, grains, and pet food. Keep all food sealed tightly in chew-proof plastic, glass, or metal containers to limit access to rodent temptations. Clean up any spills right away and avoid leaving pet food out overnight.
7. Use Natural Repellents
Mice and rats dislike certain smells. Placing peppermint, pepper, garlic, or vinegar-soaked cotton balls around areas where rodents are seen can drive them away. Avoid using mothballs or ammonia, which are toxic inside homes. Coffee grounds, dried chili peppers, and human hair clippings in mesh bags are other effective natural repellents.
8. Adopt a Cat
When finding ways to perform rodent-proofing tactics in your know, did you know that cats are excellent hunters and will prowl after mice and rats around the home? Some cats can also catch and kill rodents that make their way inside. Adopting one or two felines can provide substantial rodent control benefits.
9. Use Humane Traps
For minor mouse problems, setting humane traps is a DIY approach. Peanut butter, chocolate, or bacon grease work well as bait—place traps along baseboards or walls where there are signs of mice. After catching, release the mice at least 5 miles from the home to prevent them from returning.
10. Remove Nesting Sites
Mice and rats need places to build nests for breeding. Regularly clean out garages, attics, basements, and sheds. Remove old furniture, appliances, woodpiles, insulation, and debris. Keeping these storage areas clean and clutter-free removes ideal rodent nesting sites.
When Do-It-Yourself Measures Fail, Call the NJ Pest Control Experts
Persistent or severe rodent infestations often require professional pest control services. NJ Pest Control effectively eliminates rodents from homes using the latest and safest methods, as they can identify all possible entry points and nesting sites.
With quarterly, biannual or customized preventative treatments, NJ Pest Control stops rodents from returning. There is no need to stress over rodent-proofing you home and live with the damages of an ongoing rodent problem. Contact NJ Pest Control today for an inspection and estimate to control and eliminate your house of destructive mice, rats, and squirrels for good.
