Rodent Season in Virginia Beach
Fall is rodent season in Virginia Beach. Rodent season is when rats and mice will begin searching for a warm, safe place with a source of food and water to settle down in for the winter, typically starting at the beginning of fall when the weather cools off. The typical rodents that will be trying to invade your home during the fall are mice, roof rats and Norway rats. You can tell if you have these rodents by looking for the signs, like brush marks on baseboards, chewed holes in wooden structures and wires, and droppings left around the house. The invasion of mice and rats during rodent season can also pose several health risks, as these animals can spread rabies and parasites, as well as contaminate food supplies and spread illness through their urine and feces. Thankfully, a licensed pest control company like Summit Pest Control can help you prevent rodent infestations through exclusions and preventative treatment, and if you already have rodents on your property, Summit Pest Control can offer rodent control treatments to handle the problem.
Mice, Roof Rats and Norway Rats
The three main species of rodent you will find invading your home in the fall are the house mouse, the roof rat, and the Norway Rat. Mice infestations are more common than rat infestations, as mice are smaller and can hide in more places. Mice are typically light brown to gray, active at night with large, floppy ears and a hairy tail. Roof rats are typically black or dark brown in color, with a hairless tail that is always longer than the length of the body. Roof rats will make their way into attics, while the Norway rat is more ground-dwelling, often digging burrows in yards underneath wood piles or alongside foundations. Norway rats are larger than roof rats, with a shorter tail and a brown-gray coat. While there might be different types of rodents invading your home during rodent season, many of the signs, damage and health risks are the same, no matter the rodent.
Signs of a Rodent Infestation
There are a few obvious telltale signs of a rodent infestation in a home. Rats and mice will often use the same pathways through the house, and they often carry dirt and grease in their fur, so if you see brushes of dirt or grime on the baseboards in your home, it’s a dead giveaway that rodents are present, and more importantly, it gives away where they are treading. If you see footprints in areas with dust, that is also an easy way to tell you have rodents. You might find shredded insulation and cardboard packed tightly together to create a nest in the attic from a roof rat or mouse, or you might find burrows in your yard from a Norway rat, running alongside foundations or underneath woodpiles. The entrances to these burrows are called “rat holes”, and they are one of the most common signs of rats. Finding holes chewed by rodents in walls, wooden beams and structures, cabinets, attics, doors and more is another sign of a rodent problem. If you notice a foul, musky smell in your home, that might be from rodent urine. The most obvious sign of rodents is the presence of their droppings. Mouse droppings look like small grains of rice, and rat droppings are a similar shape but much larger.
Rodent Damage and Health Risks
Mice and rats can cause serious damage in your home, and having rodents is a massive health risk. Rodents have teeth that never stop growing, so in order to keep it manageable, they will gnaw on anything and everything. This includes various wooden structures and support beams in your home, doors, cabinets, furniture, and more. Rodents will also rip up insulation to make their nests, and mice will tunnel inside insulation to nest. Mice and rats will also soil your insulation with their urine and feces, which will require removal and replacement of the insulation, as well as sanitization of the affected area. Mice are known to chew on the rubber covering that surrounds wires, which will expose the bare wiring, which can cause house fires in some cases, especially when they chew wires in an attic or otherwise near insulation.
However, the most glaring problem with rodents in your home is the health risk they pose. Mice and rats will often feed on food they find in kitchens, and they tend to urinate and defecate where they eat, which can contaminate food supplies. Rats and mice are also known to spread a variety of diseases, including hantavirus, leptospirosis and salmonella. Rats are also credited with the spread of the Black Plague that killed millions of people in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, which was actually caused by fleas that lived on rats. Rats carry fleas and a whole host of other parasites like ticks and mites, which can spread even MORE diseases to people like Lyme disease and tularemia.
Rodent Prevention
The best way to eliminate a rodent infestation is to prevent one from ever happening in the first place. Rodents are attracted to homes for a source of food and water, so eliminating these is a good first step to rodent prevention. Seal all food in airtight containers and don’t leave pet food out overnight. Fix any plumbing leaks or roof leaks to take care of a water source. Rodents love having cover, so you can attack this problem from two sides. Indoors, remove any clutter in your home that gives them a place to hide. Outdoors, remove woodpiles and keep grass length to a minimum. Calling a professional pest control service like Summit Pest Control to provide preventative treatments for rodents can also help prevent an infestation.
Rodent Control & Exclusion
During rodent season, when mice, Norway Rats and Roof Rats begin invading homes in search of a safe place to ride out the winter, they will cause costly damage to your home. These rodents will gnaw on wooden beams, rip up and soil your insulation, spread diseases and contaminate food supplies, and you can tell you have a rodent infestation by the presence of gnawed holes in structures around your home and droppings left behind. Preventative treatments can keep rodents out, but if you already have a full on infestation, then it’s time for rodent control treatments. A licensed pest control professional like Summit Pest Control can offer effective rodent control treatments to eliminate the mouse and rat populations in your home. Summit Pest Control can also offer rodent exclusions. Exclusions are a method of rodent control that involves finding their entry point and sealing it up, which will not allow the rodents to get back inside.
If you need rodent control, rodent exclusion or preventative rodent treatments in the Virginia Beach or Hampton Roads area, contact Summit Pest Control today at https://www.sespestcontrol.com/virginia-beach/rat-control/