How to Prepare Your Home for Winter in Virginia Beach

Fall is known to most pest control operators as rodent season, because it’s during this time of year that we often see a dramatic uptick in calls about rat and mouse infestations ahead of winter. During autumn, the days get shorter and the temperatures drop, and rodents will naturally pick up on that and decide that it’s time to find a safe, warm place with plenty of food to ride out the winter. Unfortunately, your home is often the best available option. Mice and rats will nest inside your attic and crawl space, and in the process, they can chew through wires and drywall, shred your insulation, and leave their waste behind everywhere. That’s not all, as rodents can also contaminate your food stores and your food preparation surfaces, running across them and leaving behind their droppings as well. It’s important not to ignore a rat or mouse infestation, as they breed extremely quickly, and their populations can explode in a seemingly short time. 

Squirrels are another common nuisance rodent during this time, but these critters won’t be looking inside your pantry for food. Squirrels spend fall gorging themselves to build up their fat reserves, and whatever nuts and seeds they don’t eat, they store in several different caches around their territory for retrieval later in the winter. Squirrels can sometimes even store nuts and seeds inside your attic space or wall voids, building up large piles if undisturbed. Similar to other rodents, squirrels can cause quite a bit of damage to your property – they will shred your insulation and add it to their nests inside your attic, chew through wires, and leave their droppings behind everywhere as well.

There are a few ways you can prep your home for rodent season: 

• Having a licensed pest control company like Summit Environmental Solutions take care of regularly treating your home for mice and rats can prevent them from settling in and multiplying on your property. 
• Storing your food in hard, plastic containers that rodent teeth can’t chew through can also help keep them away from your house.
• It’s also important to make sure all the entry points that rats, mice and squirrels can use are all sealed and fortified to keep them from getting inside.