Preventing and controlling rodents

Here we will separate rodents into to non scientific classes: Outdoor rodents, such as moles and gophers, and indoor rodents like rats and mice. We have discussed the outdoor type in several other places, and will focus on the indoor type here.

Both rodent types are really outdoor rodents, since all of the creatures we are dealing with come from outside your home. What we need to focus on, is the way that they get inside.

Preventing Rodents

They obviously don't just materialize inside your home. They have to have an opening of some type. The size of the opening needed for mice and rats to get inside is not all that large.

In fact, a field mouse can get through a hole about one quarter inch in size. That is the size of a standard pencil! A large rat can squeeze through a hole twice that size, or roughly the size of an old grade school pencil or crayon. That's all it takes. A gap in weatherstripping, an ill fitting door, or door sweep, a cable tv opening that might have been done a bit too aggressively, or a small plumbing or electrical opening will do.

The rodents you are attempting to prevent, are coming inside for the same reason you live indoors. They seek protection from the elements, food and water. If you have exposed food, nice dark hiding places, and a small plumbing leak, they will be happy campers in your residence.

The trick is to keep them on the other side of the wall. Rats and mice are notorious nibblers, and if they find a hole too small to gain entry, they will naw and nibble away until it is large enough to get inside.

A few basic  rodent prevention precautions

• Seal all the holes in your abode. A little stainless steel wool shoved and packed into the holes or crevices of an exterior wall followed by a nice bead of caulk will do nicely.

• Changing poorly fitted weather stripping, and repairing doors that don't quite fit, and worn door sweeps will keep the rats and mice from using them as a gateway.

• Check your roof, and roof vents to make sure that they are in good shape as well, and if not repair them. Soffit and eve vents should be screened with a fine mesh on the inside, and anything larger than an eighth of an inch repaired.

• Tree limbs touching the roof, or overhanging the roof should be trimmed to prevent rodents from riding them onto your roof, and into your home.

• Repeat the applicable steps listed, on the inside of your home. Keep food sealed inside containers, and fix any water leaks, and of course, keep everything tidy.

If you already have a rodent or two wandering around in your home, the next section should be of some help.

Trapping Rodents Rodent Control

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am not sure in exactly what context these words were penned or spoken, but have always assumed that it was somehow related to innovation as it relates to basic human needs being the chief way to success. If I am wrong about that, please forgive me Mr. Emerson.

I have looked at a lot of mouse trap innovations, and have yet to see any that actually top the good old spring loaded mechanical apparatus that we have have all been accustomed to seeing from childhood.

These traps have been maligned by users for not being efficient, but the problem is not with our traps, the problem is in the implementation.

Let me put it this way: The mouse trap didn't work because of operator error!

These tips should help.

The old cheese on the mousetrap, made famous by innumerable cartoons is really not the best way to use it.

Peanut butter on the trap is now the common standard, but if you are like me, you have come back to traps to find them licked clean.

1. The best method I have found, is to glue a nut to the trap. This has resulted in a much higher rate of catches than any other method I have used. They can't lick it off, they can't steal it and make a run for the hole with the cat in hot pursuit.
2. If this method does not suit you, try this: take some white bread, squeeze it together in a small ball, and then press it around the bait holder in such a way that it cannot be easily removed.
3. In either method, set more than one trap per location. If one makes a catch, leave the other until you are sure that no others are scouting the same area.

Dealing with the mouse afterward.

This can be the most difficult part of the process. Let me offer a couple of suggestions for the squeamish:

1. When you hear the clap of the trap, don't rush in quickly. In most cases, the unfortunate little critter may have a little kicking and squirming to do. Wait until this is over.
2. If you use plastic grocery bags, get a couple of them, double them, put a hand inside, release the trap, and pick the mouse up with the bag. Pull the bag around the rodent, and tie it off. Drop the whole mess into another bag, and tie it off as well. Dispose of it in a suitable manner.

I do not recommend the use of glue traps. They can lead to some pretty nasty results.