Professional technicians certainly can eliminate rodents from your home in winter. Good thing since you’re probably inside more often during winter and there’s a higher number of rodents seeking warm refuge. Ideally, though, rodent control would be year-round so that infestations never become an issue.

The Dangers of Rodents Inside Your Home

Mice are more common in suburban and rural areas, while rats tend to make their homes in cities. Both types of rodents can transmit viruses and diseases and cause house fires. Rat bites can also injure children and others in the household.

The fires occur because mice and rats gnaw on all types of surfaces to wear down their teeth. Otherwise, their teeth would grow out of control. In the winter, rodents are more likely to gnaw on electrical wiring, HVAC ducts, and PVC pipes.

If you notice rodent droppings, don’t handle them. Instead, call in rodent control. Rodent feces break apart when someone touches them, and airborne particles get released. There’s a chance of infection if you inhale the feces from a rodent that carries a disease or virus.

Expert Rodent Removal in Winter

Winter rodent control presents several unique challenges. As mentioned above, rodents make your house more vulnerable to fire. Here’s another scenario: You’re planning a dinner party or get together, but all of a sudden, mice seem to lurk everywhere in your home. Not the best recipe for a gathering!

In the winter, mice and rats go indoors and hunker down once they’re comfortable. Professional, chemical-free removal keeps everyone in your household safe (including your pets). It also increases the odds of the infestation truly being gone.

Signs of Rodents in Your Home

The indicators of rodents living with you include:

• Dark brown or black droppings smaller than raisins
• Droppings around food and garbage
• Rips in cereal and rice boxes
• Food that is scattered about
• Scratching or gnawing sounds behind walls
• Urine drops showing up under black lights

These areas inside the home are popular with rodents: cabinets, pantries, ducts, inside walls, garages, basements, crawl spaces, attics, and insulation.

Professional Rodent Control in the Winter

Truly Nolen performs rodent control year-round. In all seasons, technicians work to eliminate individual infestations and to prevent future occurrences. This can take longer in winter due to the larger rodent population. For example, the trapping of rats takes a few days to a few weeks. Rats are smart creatures. When they notice something new in their environment, they become immediately wary of it. It can take them a while to get used to traps in their environment, but traps are much safer than poisons, especially for children and pets. Our technicians do the following:

• Eliminate access points to the home
• Check rodent traps diligently
• Sanitize surfaces with a sanitizing agent
• Use HEPA vacuum systems so feces doesn’t become airborne

Limiting home access and shelter is called exclusion, and it’s the most successful form of rodent control. Our professionals rodent-proof homes, sealing off tiny holes (rodents can enter a home through dime-sized gaps). We address holes, cracks, and crevices of varying sizes and use a monitoring program to track these efforts. Additional rodents should not be able to enter the home, and traps take care of these rodents already inside.

If rats are the rodent in question, it’s even more important to pinpoint where they lived before entering the house. Rats live in one main nest but branch out into satellite nests. They can enter homes through vents, drainage systems, chimneys, and other unlikely suspects. You can use valves and other barriers to block rats when necessary.

Get an Inspection Today

Truly Nolen identifies and eliminates rodent infestations in the winter. Our technicians develop customized plans based on each unique situation, but the general focus is on exclusion, trapping and sanitation. Get in touch today to schedule an inspection.