In our East Texas service area, we have three types of rodents that present quite a bit of trouble for homeowners. They are the common house mouse, the Norway rat, and the roof rat. Each has its own behavior patterns, abilities, and preferences for harborage. The Norway rat, for instance, is a burrowing rodent. It creates burrows in the soil near man-made structures and prefers to create its home under stacks and piles of debris. The entry points they will use are typically low to the ground. Roof rats, as their name suggests, are more inclined to target vulnerabilities on roofs. The common house mouse is smaller than a rat. So it will be able to utilize smaller entry points. As we share some of the many ways rodents can get into your Texas home, keep these points in mind. It could help you to figure out what type of rodent has invaded your home.
Doors
No two homes are exactly the same, but every home has a door, and your doors can give rodents many ways to get in. A mouse or rat can chew on a door sweep or the rubber seal on your door to create an opening large enough to get through. Rats can usually fit through a hole the size of a quarter. Mice can get through a hole as small as a dime.
Rodents sometimes target the frame around a door. They can chew through the wood to access the frame void or they can chew through the seal on the outside of a frame. Not every door frame has a seal. A seal is applied when gaps form around a door frame. It is usually a silicone caulk material, which is easy for a rodent to chew a hole through. The mouse or rat will then chew the gap big enough to get through and, voila! They have an entry point into the home.
Doors that are in basement walls, low to the ground, in secluded locations, and in areas where there are potted plants and other objects to give the rodent cover, are more vulnerable to rodent damage. Most rodents aren’t going to be comfortable climbing up your front steps and chewing on a door frame out in the open.
Windows
If you have windows in your basement walls, these can be quickly targeted by rodents, especially if they are obscured by landscaping. The bushes and other plants in your landscaping will give rodents the cover they need. These windows are also likely to get damp from the watering of landscaping, which can soften the wood and make them easier targets for rodents.
Rodents will get in through frames, frame seals, and broken window panes. Once inside, they’ll have complete access to your home through your wall voids.
Gaps
There are many ways gaps can form in a home and give entry to rodents. You may have a gap around some plumbing pipes or a hole in the seal around plumbing pipes that gives access to the gap. On your roof, you may have a ventilation pipe that can have a gap around it. This gap is usually sealed by rubber or tin, which can be chewed through by a rodent, giving access to the gap.
Weep Holes
If you have a brick home, you probably have a unique vulnerability. Between the bricks of your exterior walls and the wood frame of your interior walls is a ventilation gap. In this gap, moisture can accumulate. So designers of brick homes create weep holes for moisture to run down and leak out of the walls. This prevents moisture damage. If your weep holes aren’t properly protected, this is an easy way for a mouse to get inside and chew a hole into your wall voids.
What To Do About Rodents In Your Home
If rodents are getting into your Texas home, reach out to the rodent control experts here at Innovative Pest Control. We use field-tested products and methods to monitor for rodent activity, capture rodents, and remove them. This process can be used to arrest an infestation or prevent an infestation from taking root in your home. Don’t trust the safety of your family and your home to DIY rodent control; contact the rodent control experts today.
Categories:
- Rodent Control,
- Rodent Prevention
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