The Key To Total Rodent Control For Chesapeake Property Owners

Homeowners who want a green, lush lawn know to apply weed control before the growing season to prevent crabgrass, dandelions, and other unsightly plants. Failure to gain control early over weeds will mar the appearance of the yard and will make it more difficult to stop them from spreading once they emerge. Controlling weeds has an aesthetic value, but there are some items that a homeowner has to maintain control over for the health and safety of their family, and rodents are one of those things.

If you see rodents around the house or suspect they are hiding in the crawl space, attic, or inside walls, you need help from the Chesapeake pest control experts at Hawk Mosquito & Pest. Because a full-time fireman operates our family-owned company, we focus on safety, and rodents threaten your safety. Organizations like the Better Business Bureau and HomeAdvisor have acknowledged our commitment to excellence by awarding us an A+ rating and recognizing us as an Elite Service provider. We promise to remove rodents from your house with quick, budget-friendly service. 

One component of gaining the upper hand is understanding the issue when a homeowner sees the need to control weeds or rodents. As part of our commitment to educating our community, this article provides the information you need to gain control over a rodent invasion. So, please keep reading.

Types Of Rodents Common To The Area

There are two types of rodents in the Chesapeake area; wildlife and commensal. Wildlife rodents are mammals that avoid humans, but commensal rodents live with or nearby humans. In some cases, commensal rodents practically depend upon humans for their survival. The rodents that are the focus of this article are the ones that invade Chesapeake homes.

What is a rodent? A rodent is a warm-blooded mammal with four legs, two eyes and ears, a tail, and a pair of ever-growing upper and lower incisor teeth. The teeth have a soft dentine backside and a hard enamel front with a sharp edge where the two substances meet. Squirrels, moles, voles, beavers, and other wildlife rodents use these teeth to chew through roots, cut down small trees, and eat nuts, but commensal rodents create holes in walls and floors, damage furniture, and chew through wiring inside homes with their teeth.

By now, you probably have a good idea of what constitutes a commensal rodent. Commensal rodents that invade many Chesapeake homes are rats and mice. There are many species of rats and mice, but the following are the ones that enter homes in our area:

• Norway rats
• Roof rats
• House mice

Norway rats have plump 16-inch furry bodies (including the scaly tail) with brown hairs interspersed with black hairs on the topside and a creamy or white underbelly. These rats typically live on the ground floor or basements of homes in undisturbed areas underneath the debris. 

Including the tail, the topside of a roof rat has the same coloration, and it has the same body length as a Norway rat, but its underside is grey, black, or white. In addition to differently colored bellies, the bodies of roof rats are slender. Unlike Norway rats, roof rats live in the upper levels or attic.

A quick way to distinguish between a rat and a mouse is body size. House mice have a dusty grey or light brown 4 to 6-inch round body (including the tail) with a cream-colored belly. When they invade a home, house mice create nests from paper, fabric, and insulation and live inside walls, unused storage boxes, and clutter in secluded locations.

Rats and mice are omnivores and are content to live off of crumbs, pet food, and other exposed foods inside a Chesapeake home. Roof rats prefer fruits and vegetables, Norway rats eat anything, especially dog food, and house mice have a fondness for grain-based products. 

If you keep reading, you will quickly understand why you need Hawk Mosquito & Pest to remove these different types of rodents when they invade your home.

Rats, Mice And Other Rodents Can Be Very Dangerous

Rodents forage for food in sewers, drains, exposed trash, and compost piles, and these areas breed viruses and bacteria. As the rodent eats organic plant and animal matter in these areas or travels through, their oily fur picks up the disease-causing pathogens. Also, as they consume food in these unsanitary areas, they ingest the pathogens into their system. Rodents also attract fleas, ticks, and other parasitic insects in these locations that jump or crawl on the animal to hitchhike in their coat.

Leptospirosis, tularemia, and salmonellosis are diseases spread by rats and mice. Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) is a viral infection spread exclusively by house mice that causes fever and muscle aches; if the disease enters a second phase, brain swelling occurs. Furthermore, rats spread rat-bite fever, jaundice, cowpox virus, and trichinosis. Rodents transmit these diseases through unprotected direct contact, biting, scratching, contaminating surfaces, and defecation.

Fleas, ticks, and other parasitic rodent hitchhikers spread some of the same diseases and additional viral and bacterial infections and parasitic worms. Cat and dog fleas transmit tapeworm, murine typhus, and tungiasis, while ticks spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, Powassan virus, and other ailments. 

Feces from rodents in Virginia present another health hazard to homeowners. When these four-legged mammals urinate or defecate on utensils, eating containers, and household items, they contaminate them with disease-causing pathogens. Eventually, the pepper-like or rod-shaped fecal matter dries, and particles become airborne. When young children or senior adults inhale the floating fecal matter, it can trigger itchy or burning eyes, a runny nose, and other allergic reactions. Asthmatics may experience breathing difficulties or a tight chest from airborne fecal matter.

Rodents often create nests inside wall voids and appliances among electrical wiring. Due to their ever-growing incisor teeth, rats and mice must constantly gnaw on wood, metal, concrete, and even glass to keep their teeth trimmed and from becoming unmanageable. When they reside in walls, they often resort to chewing on wiring, thus exposing the bare wires to moisture and each other. As a result, rodent infestations often cause short circuits, electrical or internet service disruption, and even fires.

Protect your family by securing effective rodent control from Hawk Mosquito & Pest. Our technicians know the signs of a rodent infestation, and we will take immediate action to remove them from your property.

Simple Rodent Exclusion Tips That Work

When our highly-trained technicians remove rodents from your Chesapeake home, you can keep rats, mice, or other rodents from controlling your property again by implementing these rodent prevention suggestions:

• Remove debris, junk, and overgrown vegetation from the yard
• Pick up animal feces and rotting fruit from the yard
• Seal openings in the foundation
• Close gaps between incoming pipes and wires with steel wool
• Install wire mesh over the crawl space and attic vents
• Place a spark arrestor over the chimney opening
• Repair gaps between the siding and frames or masonry
• Prune tree branches and shrubs away from the house
• Elevate firewood stacks and relocate them 20 feet from the home
• Fix leaking pipes in the crawl space or basement
• Keep outdoor and indoor garbage containers closed
• Seal food items in thick plastic or glass containers
• Store pet food in containers
• Declutter the garage and house 
• Vacuum the house regularly
• Suction the corners and cracks to remove crumbs

These tips deter house rodents from moving onto your property and into your Chesapeake home. When you schedule a visit from Hawk Mosquito & Pest, we can identify other exclusion techniques specifically for your situation.

The Most Effective Rodent Control For Chesapeake Properties

When most people see rats or mice inside the house, they attempt to keep the infestation under control by purchasing traps. Although it is satisfying to catch a few rodents, gaining control over a rodent infestation with store-bought traps does not usually work due to their quick reproduction rate. A single female house mouse can deliver six babies every three weeks, roughly 36 offspring in one year. If you have two or three female mice producing offspring, you can see how you can quickly lose control of the situation.

If you found this article because you searched for "the best rodent control near me," then Hawk Mosquito & Pest is your answer. A trained and experienced technician will inspect your home for signs of a rodent infestation. If we find those indicators, we investigate to identify attractants. We use a specially-trained rodent-detecting dog to help us determine where they enter and exit the house and nesting locations. Once we gather data, we create a comprehensive strategy that targets rodents using baits, traps, and other rodent control products.

Upon discovering rodent entry and exit locations, we will close those areas using exclusion products and techniques that prevent rodents from returning. If the rodent infestation is in the crawl space or attic, we clean those areas so the fecal matter will not circulate through the home; we also sanitize those locations to remove contamination.

Hawk Mosquito & Pest provides comprehensive rodent control in Chesapeake. We find the rodents, remove the rodents, prevent reentry, and sanitize infested areas. Contact us today to learn more about our rodent control program, 100% satisfaction guarantee, and free inspections.