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.

Prevention, whether it is accident prevention, fire prevention, or disease prevention, is always better than trying to control the problem after the fact. We have sayings about it: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”, and “A stitch in time saves nine.” are commonly used prevention proverbs, and timelessly true, but unfortunately, they are not often followed.

Pest control is often approached in a less than systematic way. It should be obvious to even the most disinterested and casual observer that the best place to start is pest prevention. With the emphasis now being placed on green pest control, we sometimes see the same problem at work. What could be more green than pest prevention?

What we have done instead, is to focus on the pests we already have by using pesticides, the over use of which, may have less than desirable results on the pests, on the environment, and on our health, or by using green pest products which although they may be more safe, still fail to deal with the issue. What is that issue? The issue is that pests are symptoms of poor planning, or poor implementation, and can be stopped by proper planning and proper implementation. Certainly, we may need to sometimes resort to green pest control products, or even commercial pesticides, but most pests can be prevented.

Would you rather prevent forest fires, or control forest fires? Would you prefer to control Ebola, or prevent Ebola? The same is true of any disaster or disease. Control is what we do after the fact. It is the methodology we use to manage a problem we did not prevent, or to minimize the bad results of something for which we did not plan. The best control for any problem is not to stop it with the least toxic means, but, to stop it before it starts! The best pest control, the most green pest control, is pest prevention. That is, the least toxic means in every case.

A shift from pest control to pest prevention

It is time to take pest control back to the drawing board! If we continue to do the same things, in the same ways, we will get the same results! Pest prevention is more logical than even the natural, botanical pest control products. Why should we invest so much time and money to control or kill something we could have stopped to begin with?

Systematic green pest control

The goal of this site, is to provide a systematic, “green” approach to pest control using pest prevention, in a logical way, as the foundation for further pest control efforts. We think we have done this. There has been little written on this subject of pest prevention, and what is available is unorganized, and difficult to sort through. We have changed that!

This site is laid out in a logical, systematic way. One page automatically proceeds to the next. It is a step by step pest prevention “how to,” “Do it yourself” guide to working through the problem of pests in a proactive way. There are separate articles on various pest control and pest prevention related topics as well. Many of these will be linked from pages in the prevention program for further information if needed or desired.
The “greenest” green pest control

There is more to it! Pest prevention is also the “green,” eco smart,” “environmentally friendly” method of pest control! What could be a more eco friendly way to control and manage pests, and consequently the use of pesticides, than to prevent the pests to begin with?

For more information on how to follow our green pest control system see: How To Use This Pest Prevntion Site.

Cheap Green Pest Control: Control Pest Control Costs

Even in hard times, mosquitoes sting, ants bite, weeds grow, and gophers will dig up your lawn!  Just because the economy is going sour, does not mean that bugs and weeds will give you a break, but, it does not mean that you have to put up with it either! We can help you control pest control costs!

Luckily, there is a lot that you can do to battle these problems, practice green living, and save money while doing so. The internet contains thousands of pages on doing just that, and there are many of them right here on this site!

The fact is, that pest control costs money. Sometimes, it can cost lots of money. By contrast, pest prevention costs little more than some light physical work, and and a tube or two of caulk and some weather stripping. It is also better for the environment, and  if you do everything right, there are many other rewards, like healthier living, and lower energy bills!

We tell you what to look for, and how to do it on pages like Prevent Bugs At Home, and almost every other page on this pest prevention site, and we have new information on pest prevention, exclusion, and green pest control served up often.

The fact is, that it is just cheaper to prevent bugs and weeds and other pests , than it is to treat them. You might just save some money during these hard times!

How To Prevent Bugs At Home

Most of this sites pest prevention information focuses on the interaction of plant and animal life, how they work together, and how to prevent them from working together to prevent weeds and bugs at home and on your property. Sometimes it can be beneficial to break this down separately as well, so we want to talk about a single issue, how to prevent bugs at home. Our focus will narrow a little bit, but remember, that there is always interaction between bugs and weeds and brush and all the other factors on and adjacent to your home and property.

To prevent bugs at home, particularly to prevent bugs from coming into your home is a matter of exclusion. Making sure that they have no way to get inside is how it is done. We want to offer some suggestions on just how to do this.

Homes have openings.

Homes have openings. How well those openings are sealed, determines how well you can prevent bugs at home, and how many pests will get inside. This article will help you to find those week spots in your defenses, and strengthen your homes border against the invaders. The more attention to detail that you give at this stage, the less likely it will be that you have unwanted visitors!

It is a necessary fact of life. You have to breathe. Stop doing it for more than a couple of minutes, and you are a goner! Your home has to breathe too, and In order to breathe, in order to allow entry for pipes and cables, in order to vent heat and harmful gases, there have to be openings in a home.

The primary openings are:

Vents:

• Attic Vents: For dissipating heat.

• Soffit Vents: For dissipating heat.

• Plumbing Vents: For dissipating fumes and allowing the air needed for proper function of drainage systems.

• Range vents: For dissipating the heat and smoke from cooking.

• Hot gas vents for ventilating the hot gasses from gas hot water heaters.

• Dryer vents for dissipating the hot air from clothes dryers.

• Fan vents, for removing nuisance odors from bathrooms.

• Weep holes are small vents for allowing the drainage and drying of condensate from natural heating and cooling in the walls of your home, to prevent mold.

Other openings:

Power, communication, and transmission lines and pipes:

• Air Conditioning Condensate drains: Very often, these are small copper pipes through the walls of the home. These allow the removal of moisture from air conditioning units.

• Plumbing pipe openings: Allowing plumbing into your home; In most cases today, this is done through the floor of the concrete slab, but sometimes in other areas for homes on blocks or pier and beam construction.

• Electrical lines. To allow electricity transmission: These are most often at the upper portion of an outside wall.

• Cable communications lines: For satellite or cable line entry: The location can vary.

A home with out some forms of ventilation would soon destroy itself. A home without electricity, plumbing and communication would not be much fun!

So, how do we accommodate all these holes in our homes, and still keep little critters out? Well, that is what this is about.

How To Close The Border:

• Vents:

Before central heat and air, there were devices in homes to allow for the adjustment of temperature through the use of ventilation. We still have them in most homes today where they often serve as nothing more than vestiges of the ancient past. These were known as windows. Often the doors were used for the same purpose in the summer.

How did they manage to open these ventilation devices without allowing bugs in? This was accomplished through window and door screens. Taking a lesson from the past, we might consider the use of screens over the vents. Most home builders now screen vents, but there is always a chance, and you should check yours. Sometimes some are omitted by accident. I have seen a number of cases where rodents gained entry through dryer vents, and then chewed through the vent hose to get to the cheese and crackers. Write yourself a note to periodically check these vent screens for clogging.

• Other openings:

For other entry routes into the home, pipes and cables, will need to be sealed using another ancient technology: Caulk. A tube of high quality caulk is one of the best tools in home pest prevention. Seal around those entries on the outside of your home. Even the very small cracks and holes. You might be surprised just how small an insect or a rodent can become when it is hungry, thirsty, hot dry, wet or cold. When you are done with the outside of your home, you are not done!

On the inside of your house, you should do the same thing. Give special attention to plumbing drains. Very often a box was used to to form around the bathroom piping for the plumbers to make all the connections. If this area is not filled before the walls are completed, there will be exposed soil on the inside of the wall. Most pretreatments for termites will lower the chances of anything coming into the home through these openings, but occasionally some do. If you have easy access to these areas through a pipe chase, filling the area with mortar or some other hardening substance is a good option, if not, the first time that a repair is made to your plumbing requiring a plumber to open up a wall, you might be able to do it. Otherwise, make sure that the inside wall is sealed well.

• Caulking around doors and windows, inside and out should be checked, and resealed if needed.

• Door sweeps should be checked and replaced if they do not reach the floor, or do not go all the way to the edges of the door.

• All weather-stripping around doors and windows should be checked.

• All screen doors should be in good order with no holes. The same is true of window screens. Look for a good fit. Check the window surface to surface seals where they open, make sure the seal is tight enough that the bugs can’t crawl between.

To see some photographs of typical problem areas, see: Bugs | Stop Them From Coming Inside

What else can you do?

OK, now you know how to prevent bugs at home, what else can you do? A lot! The more pests you stop from coming into your lawn, the more you can stop from coming into your home. If you stop them before they get to your lawn, you raise your chances of winning even more. Check out Prevention Starts Outdoors to get started, and don’t let pests get your best!

Green Living | Landscaping Landscape Pest Control

If you are already practicing green living, or just now going green, there is one singularly important aspect to creating and maintaining a green landscape, and practicing green landscape pest control. That is, the use of native plants in your landscape. Many people or moving away from the traditionally exotic laden landscaping practices of the recent past, and toward a more economical and earth friendly landscape using native plants in native habitats.

Environment and Economy

Why is it more economical and earth friendly? Well, it takes less water, fewer herbicides and insecticides, and less fertilizer, to keep native landscapes healthy, and that is better for everyone. It also requires less work!

Green native economics

There are a lot of other reasons that this is a great idea. On a practical level, your native habitat, or backyard habitat, as they are often called, if properly planted and maintained, will probably make your lawn space smaller, and lawns eat the lions share of your outdoor maintenance budget. Lawns consume more water, fertilizers, and require more pesticides than natural, native habitats. It saves you money.

Green native environment

With less fertilizer and pesticide needed, you will cut down the size of your carbon footprint, cause less environmental contamination, and preserve water, 3 things that are great for the health and safety of your family, and the health and safety of the environment.

Extra landscape pest control

By using plants native to your area in your landscape, you will also get an extra boost in pest control. You see, native wildlife, particularly native birds, love the plants of your area, and will want to spend more time in your new green living habitat, and the will want to eat a lot of unwanted insects while they are there.

These are just a few of the many reason that native plant landscaping is one of the best ways of going green in your outdoor environment. There are other green living tips on this site as well. Most of these tips deal with pest prevention which we consider to be the most environmentally correct way of dealing with pests. Our Main Directory is a great place to get started, we even have a complete, step by step Pest prevention Program for you, at no cost!

Green Living | Lawn Care Lawn Pest Control

Welcome to the green living section of our site! There are many things that you can do to enhance or develop your green lifestyle. To make a real impact for the planet, and for your neighborhood requires more than buying a certified green home, or buying low wattage light bulbs and recycling. Green living is much more. It starts with where you choose your home, if you have that luxury, and how you maintain your property.

We will begin by assuming that you may not have control of all the elements such as where you build or buy. Few of us have the money required to exercise complete control in those areas, but there is still a lot you can do to be green as it relates to lawn care, and lawn pest control.

More Green Less Green

To begin with, green living may involve having less green around your home. Green as in lush lawn grasses that is. The vast majority of the fossil fuel based chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers which are applied to home and private property, and our parks and athletic areas, are applied to lawn and turf grasses. Most of the water used to irrigate our landscapes goes on our lawns as well. Knowing this, we should begin to do two things:

• Lower the acreage that is covered in turf grass requiring lawn care.

• Change our methods of lawn care, irrigation, fertility and lawn pest control.

Lawn size and lawn pest control

Some of this can be accomplished by reducing the area of our outdoor habitat that are covered in lawn grasses, and replacing them with native plants and trees. We should pay special attention to the native part of the equation, because plants native to your area will be more resistant to the pests and diseases that inhabit your area, and will require less fertility, and less water.

Lawn type and lawn pest control

The types of lawn grass we use can go a long way toward providing a green living space without using as many pesticides, fertilizers, and as much water. Here again, the word native is important. Grasses that are native to your area will provide better results, using fewer resources and chemicals. When we use this practice, lawn pest control will be less of a problem for us. The native grasses will be less susceptible to insect invasion, they will need less water, so the chances of having fungus, disease and insects will be lessened by the lower moisture levels needed to allow the grasses to survive.

Lawn pest prevention and lawn pest control

This is lawn pest control at it’s best! It is the age old practice of pest prevention which is the purpose behind this website. The practices involved in using pest prevention as lawn pest control are outlined in detail on this site, starting with Lawncare Pest Prevention, Prevention Starts Outdoors, or How To Use This Site. For more green living tips on lawn pest control, landscape pest control, and home pest control using pest prevention, just dig into this site.