wRodent exclusion is the method used to reduce the conditions that may be attracting rodents to your property, therefore preventing future infestations from occurring. The first step in rodent exclusion is to eliminate possible entry points for rodents.
You usually don’t have an abundance of rodents without enough food and shelter provided.
Where there is an abundance of rodents you have an abundance of shelters and food provided. It will have a great impact on reducing the rodent populaion if you remove or reduce these factors.
- All openings greater than 5 cm should be sealed to exclude mice, but it may be impossible to seal all openings.
- All openings greater than 7 cm should be sealed to exclude rats.
- Likely access points for rodents are where utility lines come into walls, as well as openings around air conditioning, drain pipes and vents.
- Look for broken basement windows, warped doors, and unscreened vents as possible points of entry. All spaces beneath doors should be checked if the opening is too large and reduced if needed.
- Roofs should be checked to see that shingles are tight and sheathing is complete. Also check roof ventilators, screen vents and louvered in wall vents.
Exclusion Materials
Hardware cloth may be used to seal openings such as attic vents as shown in the picture. Install 1/4-inch wire mesh (hardware cloth) over attic, roof, and crawl space vents in order to prevent entry of birds, bats, squirrels, rodents, and other wildlife.
Wearing gloves, when cutting hardware cloth would prevent cuts since the cloth is sharp.
Chimney caps exclude birds, squirrels, raccoons and other nuisance wildlife.
Metal flashing may be used to seal up openings around the gutters( in picture)Without removing possible food sources and shelter resources, a trapping and bait program would be unsuccessful. By using only rodent poison baits and traps on an intermittent basis to control rodents, without any attempt to control other factors these rodent populations would quickly and repeatedly rebound. Even the highest quality of rodent baits would not be able to compete well with the available foods the current rodent population is already and comfortably accustomed to feeding.
Sanitation
- All garbage and refuse need to be eliminated.
- Landscaped areas need to be properly maintained with wood piles elevated off the ground and away from structures.
- All garbage containers and dumpsters should have a tight fitting cover.
- Rodents can live on the spilled and surplus food from bird feeders and pet food.
- It is difficult to completely eliminate all food and shelter sources for some rodents because of their lesser food requirements due to their smaller size. However the more food and shelter the mice have, the higher a mice population or infestation could occur. With the higher population, the harder it will be to control . Rats require a lot more food and water. They also require more shelter. When there is a severe infestation of rats, it is usually indicative of a sanitation problem.
