The leaves and temperatures are beginning to drop and that means more time cuddled up in your cozy home. But you know what isn’t cozy? The sound of little mice feet running through your home or the sight of little droppings on your kitchen floor. Yeah, that’s right we are talking home invasion by small unwanted critters. Not such a cozy thought, huh? Don’t fret, we’ve got some tactics to keep this nightmare from becoming your reality.
Let’s talk critters. The most common invaders are mice, rats and squirrels. Once in, they all chew, poo and add a few (rodents multiply quickly).
If you’ve been in your home for some time, then you are likely aware if you have a critter problem or not. But things can change. Maybe your home now has a small hole that’s just inviting critters in. Did you know it only takes a 1/4th inch hole and bam critter city begins! And if you’re new to your home, well with weather changes often come surprises.
Ok enough talk about critters coming in, let’s talk about how to keep them OUT!
1: Best way to ensure you are safe is to hire a professional to come assess your house from top to bottom to ensure you don’t have any inviting holes or cracks that need to be fixed. You may not want to spend the money on a professional, but preventing and staying on top of it will likely cost you less than having to deal with aftermath of an invasion.
2: If you’ve had problems in the past, then be proactive and jump on it before the weather starts to cool and the critters start looking for warmth. We suggest using traps. You can choose from live traps or kill traps. Depends how you want to deal with the critter after it is caught, you choose dead or alive. There’s plenty of poisons out there but think about it, the critter ingests the poison and then wanders off to die. But you don’t know if they’ll wander in or out before they die. I don’t know about you, but the thought of dead critters in my home doesn’t sound appealing either.
3: You can also take a more natural approach. Peppermint and lemon essential oils have been said to be critter repellants. You are supposed to soak a cotton ball then stick it where you think the critters are getting in. We are all for natural methods, but stuffing holes with cotton balls doesn’t seem like the best idea to us. Although, it’d be a cheap way to “fix” those cracks and holes. (But seriously, we aren’t sure about this method) We’ll let someone more knowledgeable about oils and their uses cover this one for us.
Assess, protect, prevent. And when invasion happens-trap at the first sign!
So what should I be looking for you ask? First signs of rodent invasion include: things being chewed up such as woods and plastics, musky odors, scratching sounds in the walls, floor, ceilings and finally poo droppings.
We hope your home may be cozy and critter free.