Tips To Avoid Summer Mice Problems

Tips To Avoid Summer Mice Problems

When people hear the phrase “summer pest problems” most think of insects like flies, mosquitoes, and ants, but did you know that rodents are actually a threat for homeowners during the summer season as well? That’s right, rodents aren’t just a fall and winter pest; they will take advantage of any food, water, and shelter that your home and property provide them throughout the year! Don’t let your summer be ruined by rodent problems; instead, learn how to prevent your home and property from being targeted by these furry pests this summer!

You may think that rodents would be happy living outside during the warmer months and have no desire to come inside your home, but the temperatures in our area can get extremely hot, driving rodents into our air-conditioned, temperature-controlled homes that provide shelter from the heat. Once inside, rodents can usually be found living in the attics, but during the summer months, it may become too hot for them to keep living there; however, cool basements and crawl spaces can make the perfect summer home for mice and other rodents.

To help prevent rodents from choosing your home and property to invade this summer, it is important to understand what attracts them to your property. Below is a list of a few things that can attract rodents to properties.

  • Unsecured garbage and compost piles
  • Fruit trees and vegetable gardens
  • Overgrown trees and shrubs
  • Woodpiles and other organic debris
  • Pet food that is left out between feedings

Once rodents have been attracted to your property, it is only a matter of time before they find an opening in the exterior of your home and enter inside to forage for the food and water sources that our homes provide; this is why it is important to make sure that exterior windows and doors close completely and have functioning screens in them, especially in the summer. A few other things you can do to help prevent rodent infestations include the following:

  • Sealing any cracks or openings found in the foundation of your home
  • Making sure that chimneys have tight-fitting caps on them
  • Repairing any holes found along your homes roof line and replacing any missing or broken roof shingles
  • Trimming back overgrown vegetation away from your home
  • Removing trash from your home regularly; washing dishes on a daily basis
  • Keeping outdoor trash cans a distance away from the exterior of your home and make sure they have locking lids on them
  • Keeping your basement and other storage areas in your home free of clutter in order to limit the places that rodents have to hide

Rodents are more than just nuisance pests, and keeping them off of your property, out of your home, and away from your family is important for many different reasons. Rodents leave trails of urine and excrement wherever they travel and will contaminate the surfaces of your home and food sources as they scurry around looking for food. Rodents also transmit serious diseases that can make people very ill, including hantavirus, leptospirosis and lymphocytic diseases, murine typhus, and salmonellosis. In addition, rodents can cause a lot of structural damage, introduce parasites, and create an unpleasant, musty odor inside homes. There are no positives to having rodents living on your property or inside of your home, which is why it important to quickly and completely eliminate rodents from your home.

If you are currently experiencing problems with rodents or would like to prevent problems with these dangerous and destructive pests this upcoming summer, give the rodent control experts at Russell’s Pest Control a call today. At Russell’s Pest Control, we offer ongoing home pest control programs that address rodent concerns and keep these pests and other household invaders away from homes and families throughout the entire year!

What Mice Are Looking For

What Mice Are Looking For

Are you hearing strange noises in your walls? Have you discovered little black pellets in the back of your food cabinet? Are there tiny footprints in the dust on your pantry shelves? It wouldn’t be surprising. This is the time of year when mice enter homes to escape the bitter cold of winter. But those cold temperatures aren’t the only reason mice come in. Besides warmth, here are some of the things mice look for inside your home.

Safety

When those little, furry intruders breach your exterior walls, the first thing they’re going to notice is that it is safer inside your home. Mice like confined spaces that give them protection. In nature, they’ll hide in a tree, log, rock crevice, or a hole in the ground to keep birds from swooping down and carrying them away. Your wall voids are the perfect hiding place.

Quiet

These are skittish creatures. In your home, they’re going to settle in locations that are secluded, like your attic, storage room, pantry, basement, or wall voids. When they hide in these areas, they can get into stored boxes, taint food, damage insulation and other items, and leave their urine and feces everywhere.

Something To Eat

Your home is filled with food options. Mice have teeth that allow them to get into cardboard or paper packaged foods. They nibble on remnants left on plates. They can leap as far as 2 feet into the air and gain access to your trash. They’re happy to dine on leftover pet food, and bread that is not left inside a bread box is fair game. These are only some of the many food resources your home can provide a mouse.

Dark

Mice are mostly nocturnal. And your home has the perfect places for these critters to explore at night. When they do, they’ll spread bacteria and disease in your home, and carry ticks, fleas, mites, lice, or some other parasite to every corner of your home.

Since your home has a lot of things mice look for, when mice get in, they don’t usually leave. Reach out to Russell’s Pest Control, if you’re in our Tennessee service area, for industry-leading mouse and rat control. We offer one-time service and ongoing rodent control as part of our year-round pest service for residential customers. For more information, or to establish service for your Tennessee home, drop us a line. Our QualityPro Certified team looks forward to assisting you.

Why You Should Turn To The Rodent Control Professionals

Why You Should Turn To The Rodent Control Professionals

Fall is a beautiful time year, but it is also that time of year that mice will start looking to get inside our homes. Even though mice can be a nuisance all year long and Knoxville, Tennessee does not experience the extreme cold weather that all of the northern states do, the mice in Tennessee still take notice of the changing temperatures and will seek refuge.

Most commonly, you will experience the ordinary house mouse that will find a convenient entry point into your home in the fall. Your humble abode offers everything that the house mouse needs to survive: warmth, shelter, food, water and all kinds of things to chew on. Don’t be fooled by their cuteness, these pests are dangerous to your health and can seriously damage the inside of your home.

These mice can grow up to 7 inches, including their tail, have large ears, tiny beady eyes, and gray or brown fur, with a light gray to light brown underbelly. Another type of mouse that you might encounter are the deer mice, they are slightly longer in length,  will have a  slimmer body and have a white underbelly.

At no time do you want to share your home with a single mouse or a multitude of mice. They can be extremely dangerous to live with. They are known to carry diseases like hantavirus and leptospirosis, as well as introduce other pests and parasites into your home, such as fleas, ticks, and mites. Mice urine can cause allergic reactions in some people, not to mention the smell of mice urine and feces can be atrocious. They can contaminate your food sources in your kitchen and pantry, so be sure to check for footprints, mouse droppings, or ripped and torn food packages. Mice can cause fires by chewing electrical wires and cause water damage by chewing on plumbing. They can damage insulation, drywall, photo albums, furniture, clothing, flooring and much more, nothing is safe from the insatiable gnawing of mice. Having a mouse in the house can cause a homeowner a lot of headaches and a lot of money in repairs.

You cannot control a mouse population on your own. You need a professional pest control provider to do the job for you, and preferably before any damage has been done. They will remove existing mice, and prevent any new infestations in the future. At Russell’s Pest Control, We are a full-service pest management company that offers residential and commercial pest control solutions in Knoxville and Eastern Tennessee. Give us a call today, we would be happy to answer all of your pest control questions and take care of all of your pest control needs.