If you want to keep rats and mice out of your home, firstly you need to make your home less attractive to rodents and then you need to carry out rodent proofing measures.
Make your home less attractive to rodents
To make your home less attractive to rodents it’s important to know what their looking for – they are looking for food and shelter.
Remove potential food sources
In the urban environment, rats will eat a range of foods, not just grain, but also fruit, meat and petfood. Mice too are omnivores, and although they will occasionally eat meat (carrion and insects), they prefer grains, fruits and seeds. Whilst rats do need access to water daily, mice can go without water for prolonged period, as they can get most of their water requirements from the food they eat. However, in periods of warm, dry weather, both rats and mice will see out water.
The key actions to remove potential food sources:
- Make sure food spills are cleaned up straight away
- Keep cooktop, grill and oven clean (free of fat, oil and food)
- Don’t leave dirty dishes out overnight
- Don’t leave petfood out
- Store opened food in sealed, rodent proof containers
- Place garbage in bags and put in garbage bins with well fitting lids (as far away from the building as possible)
Eliminate hiding and nesting spots
Rodents are very nervous creatures – they are nocturnal and prefer to move under cover, for protection from predators. It’s why they will move around buildings in the roof cavity, wall voids or by using utility pipe conduits. If they do have to cross a room, they will run around the edges of rooms, rather than traverse the open space. In their natural environment, Norway (sewer) rats and mice, prefer to high and nest in dense vegetation, often in burrows. Roof rats tend to build their nests in trees.
So, if you think like a rat or mouse, you don’t really want to hang out in an area where there is no protection from predators.
Keep the perimeter of the building free of vegetation. Not only will this eliminate hiding and nesting spots, but it then creates a clear area which rodents will be hesitant to cross to access the building.
Inside the building (and in the sub-floor and roof void), reduce clutter and stored items. Lots of cardboard boxes allow for plenty of rodent hiding and nesting places. If there is the need to store good, the use of sealed, plastic (rodent proof) boxes is a better option.
Prevent rodents entering your house
Even once you’ve taken measures to make your house less attractive to rodents, you will still need to carry out rodent proofing measures to prevent rats and mice entering your house.
To carry out effective rodent proofing it’s important to understand the size of rodents (how small a gap they can squeeze through) and their behaviours.
Mice Proofing
Mice are able to squeeze through gaps as small as the end of your little finger! So, to make your house 100% mouse proof can be a challenge. However, here are the key actions:
- Make sure all doors and windows (and screens) are well fitting
- Fill any gaps around utility pipe entry points with a suitable rodent proof material
- Prevent (where possible) enter of mice into the sub-floor (if you have one). Typically, this will mean placing mouse proof mesh behind any vents and eliminate gaps around sub-floor entry door
- Block any access point from the sub-floor to the low floor of the house (e.g. pipe entry points
Rat Proofing
Rats are able to squeeze through caps as small as the end of your thumb – so still a small gap! It’s important to understand that the two different pest rats – the roof rat and sewer rat – have very different behaviours. Whereas, mice proofing solutions will work for the sewer rat, to prevent roof rats entering the building, it is necessary to prevent access to the roof.
There are 2 key actions to prevent roof rat access:
- Cut back any branches that overhang the roof
- Place metal (rodent proof) collar around any vertical construction elements that the rats could climb up to access the roof
Rodent proof materials
When we discuss rodent proof materials, there are two considerations
- Is the material strong enough to prevent them gnawing through the material
- Are the holes in the material (e.g. mesh), small enough to prevent the rats and mice squeezing through
For wire mesh, the holes need to be of a certain maximum size and the wire specification a minimum thickness to make it rodent proof. Check the specifications before purchasing.
Protecting chickens from rats and mice
For homeowners, that keep chickens, rats can be a significant problem – not only eating their food but also eating their eggs.
Avoid spreading food around the yard. The use of rat proof chicken feeders is a good option to minimise freely available food which is attractive to rats.
When building any chicken run, the use of rodent proof mesh is essential. With rodents capable of burrowing, it is also important that there is an underground barrier around the edge of the chicken run.
Rodent treatments
Even with good rodent prevention measures, sometimes a rodent problem still occurs, especially if 100% rodent proofing is not possible or there is a rodent problem on a neighbouring property. If you have a rodent problem, Termites VIC Termite and Pest Control can provide professional rodent control to eliminate the problem quickly and safely.