How can a pest control company help with rodent control?
The presence of rats and mice on your property is not only unattractive, it poses a serious health risk to you, your family, your pets, and your employees. Rodents are able to transmit a broad range of dangerous diseases through their droppings and urine. They also contaminate food and other materials, and they love to gnaw through things such as wood floor joists and electrical cables, which can lead to fires or costly damage to your data lines.
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Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to prevent rodents from invading your home or business and to keep them from breeding, which can cause even more problems. One of the most important is keeping your property clean and free of crumbs, scraps, and other debris that can lure them in. It’s also a good idea to bring trash to the curb only on the day of pick-up, and to store it in sturdy containers with tight-fitting lids.
Another effective measure is to install traps or other exclusion measures indoors and out. For example, installing pipe collars where pipes enter the walls, door sweeps under doors, grates over drains, and screens over vents are all important. You can also close up rodent entrances by tamping down burrows in the soil and sealing any openings larger than 1/2 inch for rats or 1/4 inch for mice in exterior walls.
If you’re dealing with a rodent infestation, you should call your pest control company for help as soon as possible. Rodents reproduce quickly, and the longer you wait to take action, the more difficult it will be to get rid of them. Your Pest Control Expert will perform a thorough inspection of your premises to identify any nesting areas and potential entry points, and they’ll recommend the right combination of traps and baits to effectively control them.
It’s important to wear rubber or plastic gloves when handling dead rodents and their droppings. Be sure to thoroughly wash your hands when you’re finished. It’s also a good idea not to vacuum or sweep rodent droppings, urine, or nesting materials unless you use disinfectants or a commercial cleaning product that contains a registered biocide. You should also wear gloves if you’re handling spring traps. And always discard the double-bagged trap and dead rodent in a securely sealed outdoor garbage can. Biological control is a method of pest control that relies on the introduction and establishment of natural enemies (predators, parasitoids, or disease organisms) to suppress the numbers of potentially damaging pest insects. Suitable natural enemies must be found, studied, collected, and quarantined to eliminate any pathogens before they’re released, usually on a seasonal or inundative basis. It’s a complex, time-consuming process that requires careful attention to the biology of the target pest as well as to native insect populations. However, when it’s done correctly, biological control can reduce pest populations to manageable levels. It can also be cost-effective in the long run. This is why many municipalities require pest control companies to implement biological controls as part of their treatment programs.