Rodent Control

There’s no such thing as just one mouse.  As The Family Handyman has reported, one female mouse is able to have as many as 10 litters in a single year, with 6-7 new mice in each litter. Rodents can pass into even the best-sealed homes, with mice entering spaces as small as a dime and rats fitting into spaces the size of a quarter.

Rodents carry a variety of bacteria and viruses, including hantavirus and salmonella, and they can also spread parasites such as mites, ticks, tapeworms and ringworms, according to Pennsylvania State university experts. 

Mice and rats can deal a lot of damage to a home, with Real Simple warning that they can gnaw through wires, chew through drywall, and become a foul-smelling and unhealthy hazard once they’ve died behind your walls and beneath your floorboards.  And wherever mice and rats go, they leave a scent trail behind that will attract other mice to the area.

Rats are larger, more intelligent and much more sophisticated than mice, and they can be extremely difficult to remove.  In an article on post control within the food industry, Poultry World has shown that rats live in clans, with a dominant male leader, and they can even recognize one another by the smell of their breath.  Rats are able to swim for two days, and they can smell objects as much as 82 feet away.  Their teeth and jaws are strong enough to chew through almost anything but steel.  In short, they’re stubborn, resourceful, and determined survivors that are planning on living in your home for a very long time.


Mice and rats like dark, temperate spaces to build their homes, and if your basement or crawl space is not protected, it’s like an open invitation for them to set up camp.  Seal the crawl space vents off and install a vapor barrier, and the door is no longer open.

Installing a car alarm doesn’t prevent a robber from breaking in to your car, but it helps.  Likewise, installing a thick plastic liner in your crawl space or basement won’t guarantee that mice or rats won’t enter the space.  However, it certainly lowers the likelihood that these pests will find their way in, as they will first have to chew through the airtight (and smell-tight) vapor barrier.  Along with helping to protect your home from humidity, rot, and high utility bills, they are a great first line of defense against rodents, and a great choice for your home.  Encapsulate your crawl space today!