Alabama is home to a great variety of rodents. Several species of mice, rats, chipmunks, gophers, and moles live in our great state. Though these animals are an essential part of the ecology of Alabama, they are considered pests whenever they begin to invade homes.

Because many of these animals are always looking for a hospitable environment to live, homeowners have to be vigilant in keeping these pests out of their homes.

Here are some tips on how to do that:

Keep a Clean Home

Rodents are always looking for the next food source. So, if your home has bits of food scattered throughout it, then you are asking for rodents to come and make their home with you.

Be sure to sweep and vacuum well, especially in dark corners of the house and near baseboards as these are the locations that rodents will most likely appear.

Do not leave food in your sinks or trash for too long. Not only do these cause repulsive odors that cause an undesirable environment to live in, but they also send signals to rodents that there is a food source ripe for their taking.

Make Sure That Your Crawl Space, Slab Foundation, or Basement Is Properly Sealed

Crawl space encapsulation works primarily to keep moisture from harming your home’s foundation. It also is an effective way to prevent rodents from making their home with yours.

It prevents rodents in two ways.

First, encapsulations keep your home’s foundation from being structurally degraded by excessive moisture. If the materials that make up your foundation are compromised by moisture, then rodents can more easily bore holes into them. Once a rodent creates a hole into your home, it and other rodents following it have access to the interior of your home.

Secondly, encapsulations not only keep moisture out, but they also are an additional physical barrier that rodents have to get through in order to get into your home.

Make Sure to Keep the Exterior of Your Home Free of Accumulated Brush

Rodents nest and have their offspring in areas that are best protected from predators and harsh natural elements.

If they can’t immediately get inside your home, then a large brush pile lying against your home will be the next best thing.

This will give rodents more opportunities to find ways to get into your home. So, make sure to keep your home’s exterior tidy in order to prevent rodents from nesting there.

Set Traps in and Around Your House

If your home has a rodent problem, be it rats, mice, chipmunks, etc., you can quell their population and spread by setting traps to catch and kill them.

There are various animal traps that you can purchase that will cause little to no physical harm to the animals if you do not want to kill them.

There are also several traps, like the traditional mouse trap, that will cause debilitating harm to or kill the rodent that has invaded your home.

Either one of these options can be effective means for controlling your home’s rodent population. However, it is worthy of noting that the two methods mentioned earlier are much more effective as they work to diminish the cause of a potential rodent infestation while traps are reactionary solutions merely dealing with the symptoms.

Call a Pest Control Expert

If none of these tips work for you, call a pest control company that has more resources, knowledge, and time than you do.

Pest control companies like S&S Pest Control have been working to control rodent populations in residential and commercial buildings for years. When you hire them, you can be sure that they will work to solve your rodent control problem.

Contact S&S Pest Control today to get a free quote for your home’s rodent problem.

Get a FREE quote now!