How To Safely Get Rid Of A Rodent Infestation In Chesapeake

Are rodents a threat to your Chesapeake home? It’s possible that they are and you’re not necessarily aware of what’s attracting them. Luckily, the pros at Hawk Mosquito & Pest are here to help. We provide local homeowners with top-quality, five-star work that is built to last. All of our Chesapeake pest control methods are centered around Integrated Pest Management methods, which allows us to eliminate rodents and keep them from returning to your property. In this quick but comprehensive guide, we’ll help you understand how to identify the presence of rodents on your property, the impact they can have on your health, what the safest way to eliminate them is, and a few easy steps that you can take every day to further deter them from your property.

For more information on how pest control in Chesapeake can deal with your rodent concerns, contact us today.

Are There Rodents In My Home?

Rats are masters of entering homes without the knowledge of homeowners, which can be a stressful thought. They’re able to access your home in a multitude of ways that can be as simple as leaving a door open or having a drain in your shower. Nonetheless, you still might be left with a rodent outbreak that can take some time to fully realize, given that mice reproduce approximately eight times a year and rats will have about six litters over the same course of time. In order to determine if you have a rodent problem in your home, look for some of the following signs:

• Smear marks along the lower portion of your walls, which rodents leave behind from the oil on their fur
• Piles or scatterings of fecal matter, usually on countertops, inside of pantries, or above garbage bins
• Odd behavior from household pets
• Subtle scratching noises from inside of walls
• Holes in walls, sheds, or around molding
• Insulation that doesn’t seem to be as effective as it once was
• A strong smell from rodent urine, which contains potent pheromones
• Gnaw marks on everything from cereal boxes to furniture and personal belongings
• Noticing any rodents around the inside of your home or the backyard
• Nesting materials like leaves, plants, or bits of fabric in places like bulkhead stairs

If you’re not sure if there are rodents present in your home, the best call you can make is to Hawk Mosquito & Pest. Let our highly trained professionals inspect your entire property, both inside and out, for any signs of rodent activity, past or present. We are intimately familiar with the subtle and overt signs of rodent infestations and we have the tools and professional knowledge to keep your home rodent-free throughout the year.

For more information on our rodent control services in Chesapeake, please call us today.

The Health Impacts Of Rodent Infestations

While most rodents in Chesapeake are rather small pests, some only measuring an inch in size, they have the ability to bring a significant number of health issues to the homes that they infest. To start, rodents are usually responsible for secondary infestations that are health-related. They often serve as hosts to parasites like ticks, fleas, and mites because of the varied and unsanitary conditions that rodents live in before entering local homes. The pests that they carry can be especially harmful to household pets, causing illnesses like murine typhus, Lyme disease, tularemia, anemia, hair loss, and heartworm, all by excessively feeding off of their blood. Pests like these are usually detrimental to a pet’s health because they can go undetected for extended periods of time due to their nearly microscopic size, numerous crafty hiding spots, and ability to be covered up by a pet’s coat. Pests like ticks, especially, can be harmful to human health as well, causing things like Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, and Eastern equine encephalitis.

Then, there are the health issues that rodents are very clearly responsible for, which can include leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, hantavirus, tularemia, and salmonellosis, to name a few. The way that the illness-causing pathogens tend to spread is when rodents either infest food and beverages or simply leave behind tiny piles of their feces in kitchen drawers. For example, hantaviruses are spread when people breathe in the particles from these byproducts. This is also very similar to how rodent droppings are often responsible for an increase in allergies, because when they dry out, the particles that spread throughout the air can disrupt the respiratory process. While mice tend to be very shy, rats are less fearful of humans, which is how they end up attacking people and spreading rat-bite fever.

For more information on rodent protection, contact Hawk Mosquito & Pest for more information.

The Safest Way To Get Rid Of Rodents In Chesapeake

Rodents have an uncanny ability to detect the presence of food or warm conditions very easily and this leads them directly inside Chesapeake homes. Once they enter the home, either through dime-sized openings or by walking through the sewer system, they proceed to reproduce nearly every couple of months, which means that there can be a large family of either rats, squirrels, or mice, taking up shelter in the attic before homeowners know that there’s an issue. But rather than waste time and money on do-it-yourself methods that don’t address the root cause of issues or eliminate the whole thing altogether, trust professional help and exclusion installation.

At Hawk Mosquito & Pest, we specialize in bringing homeowners the most reliable and health-oriented rodent services around. Everything that we do is guided by our commitment to integrity, so we will never use products in our customers’ homes that we wouldn’t use on our own. Additionally, every rodent control offering that we provide is based on the principles of Integrated Pest Management. What this means for homeowners is that we provide comprehensive treatments that actually target the root cause of rodent infestations, eliminate active problems, and take a proactive stance against future issues.

Our three-step process begins with a complete home inspection by one of our highly skilled pest professionals. During this time, we address every nook and cranny in the home and around the yard for where rodents could be hiding, and we even enlist the help of our specially-trained canine crew. We aim to identify scratch marks, piles of droppings, and other signs of rodent activity. Based on our findings, we’ll set bait stations, traps, and other eco-friendly control items, as well as seal up entry points, which is designed to ethically lock rodents from entering the home. This is part of the Integrated Pest Management approach of limiting chemical application. We also provide sanitizing solutions that address crawl spaces, insulation, and the attic and eliminate any potentially hazardous material that rodents left behind. All of these services are backed by our 100% pest-free guarantee as well.

For more information on five-star rodent prevention, contact us today.

Five Tips To Prevent A Rodent Reinfestation

Rodent infestations are the type of pest problem that is absolutely worth doing everything possible to prevent. If homeowners fail to keep rodents out effectively, they can soon end up with a large family of rats or mice living in their attic or basement. In order to successfully prevent rats, try these five tips:

1. Look for openings. Rodents don’t need much space to slide their way inside of a home, so any cracks or holes in foundations are fair game. Fill them with materials like liquid foam, wire mesh, and silicone-based caulk. It’s also important to keep window screens free from tears or holes. 
2. Keep a tidy yard. These pests are determined to access homes and because they’re talented climbers, they’re able to do so very easily if there is greenery nearby. Scale back any trees, bushes, or plantings that rats can climb to enter the home, while also eliminating any debris piles from the yard as well. 
3. Practice proper food storage. Rodents want food and they’ll take it in any form. Try to eliminate the use of original boxes and bags, rather, store snacks and pastas in sealed containers, as well as leftover dinners. Also, homeowners with pets should always store dry food in locking bins and wet food in airtight, fridge-safe containers. 
4. Address moisture issues. Rodents often seek isolated, damp, and dark areas of the home to call their own. The level of humidity that’s present in a basement or crawl space could be enough of a driving factor to lure them in the first place, which is why it’s important to always use a dehumidifier where required and redirect any condensation that arises. Additionally, fix leaky faucets, pipes, and other plumbing. 
5. Bring in a professional. The most effective rodent control comes in the form of professional help because it gives homeowners access to top-shelf products, professional installation, tips from expert technicians, and a worry-free guarantee. Rodents are not the type of pest that people want to encounter or to try to evict on their own, so professional assistance is there to lend a hand. 

For more information on reliable rodent prevention, contact Hawk Mosquito & Pest today.