It’s Coming On Fall! Time for Rodent Proofing Your Home and Business!

David Bennett

In approximately 180 BC, the comedian and playwright Titus Macchius Plautus observed this about the mouse, (which is true also of rats):

Cogito, mus pusillus quam sit sapiens bestia, aetatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam : quia si unum ostium obsideatur, aliud perfugium gerit.

But ne’ertheless reflect, the little mouse, how sage a brute it is! Who never trusts its safety to one hole : for when it finds one entrance is block’d up, it has secure some other outlet.—Plautus in Truculentus, Act IV, sc. iv, line 15

Although the ancient Romans were no strangers to rodent infestation since the pesky little rodents seemed to have followed their path of trade and conquest, they seem to have used weasels for rodent control. In fact, according to the website “Sententae Antiquae,” the literature of the day speaks for the mouse and the weasel as pest control agent: “It seems that in ancient Greece, a weasel (probably closer to our ferret) was domesticated and used for rodent control. In fact, in the Batrakhomuomakhia(the “Battle of Frogs and Mice), when the mouse speaks of its greatest fears, it does not, contrary to what we might expect, mention a cat.

“But I do fear two things over the whole earth:
the raven and the weasel who bring me great grief
and the grievous mousetrap where a deceptive fate awaits me.
But I fear the weasel more than anything, that beast who is best
At ferreting a hole-dweller out of his hole.]”

Last week’s quiz question! What is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat?

Answer: The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat, known to the Maori as Kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat.

This week’s quiz question: Which Rat can survive up to ten years without drinking any water?

While we are not advocating you go out and adopt a ferret (on the contrary, we are going to recommend partnering with your local pest control company (and us too! We can help you with your immediate trap and exclusionary products like RodeXit strips for rodent proofing your home, production facility, warehouse, restaurant, public facility like schools, public housing, hospitals and more! Sergey Nemykin, owner of Industrial Pest Elimination in Silver Spring, MD (somebody you can partner with for implementing exclusion around your home and business if you live near Silver Spring) had this to say about our RodeXit door sweeps:

“I used your sample door sweep last night (see pictures), it was so easy to install, fits perfectly. It took no time at all to install it , this is what I like about it . I’ve spent 5 minutes on installation, it took more time to get the tools!! Speaking about tools: pair of diagonal cutters, marker and electric screwdriver, not much at all!!!I replaced a brush type door sweep that was installed 6weeks ago, mice chewed right through in no time. This restaurant is located inside of apartment building that we don’t service, so exclusion is very important here and RodeXit will do the job!! Now all mouse traffic should stop.”

Why Do Mice and Rats Move Into Your Home in the Fall?

It’s getting colder, and just like you and me, rodents seek warmth, safety, food and water. And like Plautus says, mice will come in from more than just one place. If you haven’t kept up with the following, you’re extending an open invitation for rodents to take up residence in your home:

You haven’t been regularly inspecting and maintaining your home inside and out

If you haven’t been replacing cracked weatherstripping, or fixed cracks and holes in windows, eaves, roofs and doors, (including garage doors), basements and foundations, these things present an open door for pests to get into your home. Do the maintenance! Part of a good IPM program includes doing regular maintenance on your home. Black and brown rats and mice aren’t the only rodents you need to worry about. You need to also worry about roof rats, and squirrels. If you’ve had any recent installations of cable or plumbing, check to make sure that holes for cable wires and plumbing have been properly sealed. Check vents and put screens on them to keep rodents out. Make sure you check your chimney for cracks and holes, and consider a cap for your chimney to keep rodents, squirrels and other animals out.

You haven’t been cleaning up your yard and practicing good exclusion measures around your home:

Place bird feeders away from the house. Clean up rubbish in your yard, move your woodpile away from the house, and seal up any holes or cracks around windows or in the foundation of the house. They can squeeze through holes the size of a nickel. You’ll generally know they’re around when you discover droppings in cabinets or closets, but you can also sometimes see them walking power lines, and if you leave fruit out on the kitchen counter you’ll be able to tell they’re the culprits hollowing out the fruit. You may also see gnaw marks on the insulation of wires. Your dogs and cats may also act anxious, nosing around at corners or cupboards. Of course, suggested methods of control are similar to that of Norway rat control—poisons, snap traps, rat zappers placed strategically in the attic, and live traps. According to various sites, glue pads do not seem to work well for roof rats, so their use is discouraged. Consider industrialized strength humane Fenn traps and tunnels Keep tree limbs and ivy trimmed back from your house to help eliminate entry points. Avoid trellises and not planting shrubs or other greenery too close to your foundation. Store firewood or stacks of debris far away from your home. Pick up pet food and water at night, if possible, indoors and out. Make sure indoor and outdoor trash cans are tightly sealed. Vacuum and mop regularly, especially in areas of the home where food is prone to being spilled. Wipe down counters, tables and stovetops after meals, making certain to clear crumbs out from under toaster ovens and similar appliances. Pick up doggy doo in your yard too as rats love eating it!

Make your home inhospitable to rodents

Put quality and humane snap traps in rodent hotspots to rid your home or business of existing rodent infestations, install RodeXit proofing strips to keep them out for good! RodeXit’s rodent proofing for exclusion is made with flexible polymer composite material Santoprene™ from Exxon Mobil. Santoprene™ is both flexible and sturdy and is also used for automotive and industrial seals and gaskets and automotive bumpers and plugs, Embedded with a rodent proof barrier of 10 stainless steel wires with a diameter of 1 mm, it is guaranteed to provide effective pest protection even against sustained rat attacks without using harmful chemicals. For commercial accounts where pallet jacks of fork lifts are used, adding the RodeXit stainless steel shielding protection option, results in long term effective robust solution in traditionally problematic area.

Why Exclusion and Rodent Proofing? According to Food Quality and Safety, “rodents eat or contaminate at least 20 percent of the world’s food each year. Their ability to contaminate on such a large scale is due in part to their “nibbling” habits, wherein they come into contact with far more than they actually consume. In addition, in just one year a rat can shed more than half a million body hairs, and a mouse can produce up to 18,000 fecal droppings. In that same year, a pair of rats can produce over 1,200 descendants. Within three years, that can grow to half a billion descendants! Rodents have been linked to asthma and transport fleas, lice, and ticks. The CDC also points out that they carry diseases including rat bite fever, hantavirus, leptospirosis, salmonellosis, murine typhus, and even the bubonic plague.” Rats also carry rat lungworm disease, which has affected people in multiple states, including Hawaii. Rats are no respecter of persons, and invasions happen on every economic level of society. Daily headlines make the news all over the world of rats that got into restaurants, bakery cases, grocery stores, apartment buildings, hospitals and private residences. You don’t want a rat scurrying across a room in your home destroying a perfect romantic evening in front of the fire or that great dinner with friends and family for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Rat and mouse doesn’t really go with the turkey and mashed potatoes after all…

Exclusion IS NOT OPTIONAL

If there is anything we want you to take home with you and remember about us, that’s the importance of exclusion in your rat, mice, rodent control program. Because the reality is, rats have been with us for a millennia, and they will continue to be with us. With the issues that LA have been having and the state of California contemplating banning 2^ndgeneration rat poisons, the point we are making is this: Exclusion cannot be overlooked. Setting traps without exclusion or setting poison bait or bait boxes alone isn’t going to eradicate rats. In fact, complete eradication really isn’t realistic. There’s plenty you can do to control rats without using poisons. We hope the above article will help you to rodent proof your home and business no matter how large or small, and that we have convinced you to use our quality rodent proof RodeXit door sweeps (our straight strips can also be used on fencing) to keep your property rodent free! You’ll save money and labor, and rodents won’t be getting in! To learn more contact us for more infomation