How to Prevent Rodents From Entering Your Home

Rodents in your home can bring with them numerous problems that can poorly affect the condition of your living space, as well as the overall health of you, your family and your pet animals. With no real ability to know where rats and mice have lived before entering your home, rodents can bring disease and pests into your home that derive from unsanitary conditions. In this article, you’ll learn how to maintain the wellbeing of you and others in your home by preventing rodents from entering your home.

Both rats and mice can consume just about anything, including human and pet food when given the chance. The easier it is for rodents to identify a source of food in your home, the more inclined they are to find the easiest way into your home and to the source to then bring back to their nest or colony. With pet animals, food and water in your home is commonly left out for easy consumption which can make it easy for rodents to get to as well.

Rats and mice will chew through drywall and cause immense damage to your home in pursuit of food and water which is why it is important to prevent rodents from entering your home in the first place.

Especially during the winter season, mice and rats will find their way into your home any way that they can to build a nest in a warm and cozy environment. Rodents are known to nest in areas of the home that are not frequented by humans and pets in order to be left alone and hidden from plain sight. Some common places that rodents will find shelter in your home are:

• Drawers and cabinets
• Gaps inside of walls
• Gaps underneath floor cabinets
• False ceilings
• Inside of refrigerators and other home appliance
• Within garage clutter
  

In order to prevent rodents from entering your home, ensuring that your property is of no interest to them is the easiest way of making sure mice and rats never come back. Although it may require some short term adjustments and additional changes in your daily habits, the long-term outcome is worth it for the wellbeing of you, your family and your home.

• Be mindful of food and water that is left out for your pets which rodents can also feast on. Leaving food bowls out for pets under your own supervision and cleaning soon after will make it difficult for rodents to reach the food.
• Storing all of the food in your home in tightly sealed containers will not only make it impossible for rodents to chew through, but also make it extremely difficult to smell the food from afar.
• After every meal, it is important to clean dishes and store leftovers immediately to make sure that there are no extra pieces of food that rodents can get to. Keeping a clean living space makes it difficult for rodents to hide and find food easily.  

1. Remove boxes and paper documents that are no longer needed.
2. Organize belongings in cabinets and drawers to maintain some visibility into those areas.
3. Clear out your basement of items you no longer need.
4. Regularly manage garbage and recycling in your home and store them in outdoor bins frequently.
5. Store items away from walls and elevated off the ground when possible to reduce places for rodents to hide.

• Keeping all of your recycling, garbage and food garbage bags tightly knotted will reduce the chance of garbage spillage and the potential for rodents to bite their way through your garbage.
• Being mindful of when the garbage gets picked up from your home helps in avoiding the potential of leaving garbage out for rats and mice to get into. Rather, store your garbage somewhere secure to then bring curbside on garbage day so that your waste does not attract nearby rodents.
• Avoid leaving garbage bags exposed to rodents by having enough garbage bins to securely store bags. Using only tightly sealed garbage bins will reduce clutter and make it difficult for rodents to find their way into when garbage bags are enclosed in a bin.

Rodents only require a mere crack in the corner of your home to begin finding their way into your living space. Industrial tubing, pipes and broken window screens are easy entrances into your home that mice and rats can easily make use of. Sealing these types of entryways are essential to preventing mice and rats from entering your home.

Maintaining a well-kept yard and garden will not only naturally force you to frequent areas of your home’s exterior, but it will also reduce the chances of rodents hiding in these areas. Overgrown weeds and shrubs in your yard are notorious places for rodents to frequent as it gives them enough space to hide and burrow underneath to set up their nest.

It is important to keep tall grass, bushes, shrubs and mulch away from home and building foundations to reduce the chance of rodents chewing into your home while remaining hidden from plain sight. Large weeds and shrubs can also be used to hide burrowed holes from exposure to humans and pet animals which makes them safe environments for mice and rats to thrive

Burrowing holes that lead to rodent nests can be found near the root stems of tall grass and shrubs in situations where the rodents have identified that very little activity occurs there. Burrow holes that are no longer in use typically have cobwebs, shrubs and debris that rodents would have cleaned up. Burrow holes that are no longer in use should be covered up with fresh soil to avoid future rodents occupying the space.