"How to Keep Mice and Rats Out of Your Home: Prevention Tips and Surprising Fun Facts"

Hello! Welcome to our Blog! This month we're focusing on Rodents, specifically mice and rats. Our hopes for our blog is to educate you on certain pests and give you helpful preventive tips or solutions if an infestation occurs.

Let's start out with fun facts and work our way towards preventive tips.

Did you know that rodents have the same five senses people do; touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Can you guess which one is their strongest sense?

You might be surprised to know, Rodents have a highly developed sense of smell. This helps them find food, nests, pathways, and mates. They will chew through containers, trash bins, anything they smell food through.

Their hearing comes in at a close second for their strongest sense. They can detect sounds at the range of 100 hz to 90,000 hz. In comparison, humans can hear in the range of 20hz to 20,000 hz. They tend to avoid noisy areas and nest in quiet places. Can you imagine having that excellent of hearing?! Would be intense, I bet.

Out of all their senses, sight is their weakest one. It is probably why they are mostly nocturnal, they can avoid more predators under the cover of the dark. However, they do have good peripheral vision that allows them to detect movements.

I bet, your wondering if they can't see very well how do they get around so well?

Well, through their touch senses, mostly from their whiskers. They prefer to be up against walls and edges. Since one side of their body is touching, the wall, no predators can be coming from that certain direction. They quickly run down runways, pathways, and wall using muscle memory more than sight.

Amazing Fun Fact: Fully grown mice need just a 1/4 inch opening to squeeze through and rats need as little as 1/2 inch to gain entry into your home or anywhere!! When I found that out, I was astounded!

Now that we have covered our bases let's talk about some things you can do to prevent a mouse or rat infestation.

Rodents are attracted to food and water sources, they're always looking for the most convenient places to hide, too.
Clean up garbage around your home. Keep cooking areas and grills clean. Put pet food away after use and sealed up in a tight container.
Clean up brush and weeds around your home, especially around the foundation.
Remove potential rodent nesting sites from your property, including leaf piles and deep mulch.
Seal up any small holes inside using caulking, foam seals, or spackling.
For exterior holes, you can get instant cement, patching compounds, and waterproof caulking to fill in any gaps to prevent rodents from coming in. Rodent steel wool can be used as a deterant in gaps or holes.
( Please check with your pest control technician before filling in holes if you have or recently had an infestion).
Trim back overhanging trees that enable rodents to hop onto your roof. Also, keeping your trees properly pruned gives rodents one less place to hide from predators.
Keep food and animal feed in rodent proof containers. They should be made of thick plastic or metal and have a tight fitting lid.
Be proactive, call us Behr Pest Solutions if you have a problem. Don't let the infestation get out of hand. Rats and mice can bred quickly and a lot! The average liter size for a mouse is 3-14 pups, 10 litters per year, 50-120 offspring per year. Rats can have up to 18 pups in a single birth & they can start reproducing from 6-12 weeks of age. The sooner you call us the better. =)