The last thing you want to see while searching for the chips is a mouse scurrying by in the cupboard. But unfortunately, even the most clever creatures get caught running along the floorboards or cupboards of your home from time to time. As frightening as it may be to see one, rodents bringing diseases into your home should be more concerning. Healthy Homes Exterminating can help with our proven mice and rat control measures. We tackle mice and rat infestations in the Green County region.
What Types of Rodents Live in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma is home to the common house mouse and two types of rats: the Roof rat and the Norway rat. Don’t let the innocuous names fool you; these small rodents are capable of causing a great deal of damage. A house mouse is smaller than a rat with a pointed muzzle and can be gray or brown. A Norway rate is about 12-18 inches long, including the tail with a blunted muzzle. Roof rats are smaller and measure about six to eight inches with a pointed nose and large eyes.
Are Rodents Dangerous?
Rodents are dangerous and can cause a great deal of expensive damage, so you need a rodent control solution if you suspect they have invaded your home. For example, the Tulsa Health Department estimates that rats are responsible for 5-25% of all fires caused by gnawed electrical wiring. Mice and rats will gnaw through almost everything, including food, property, and your actual housing materials, such as drywall, pipes, flooring, cables, insulation, and wires. They destroy your belongings and food, but they also contaminate everything they touch or leave feces on.
In addition, rats and mice are known to spread over 30+ diseases. They can transmit a wide range of conditions to humans and their pets via their urine, saliva, and feces which they leave behind on almost everything they touch. The most common diseases they spread include leptospirosis, Murine Typhus, LCMV, Salmonella, and hantavirus. Therefore, proper rodent control is essential to keep your family and pets safe, and a professional should be called the moment you suspect a rodent in the house. According to the CDC, diseases from rats and mice can spread to people directly through the handling of rodents; contact with rodent feces, urine, or saliva (such as through breathing in air or eating food that is contaminated with rodent waste); or rodent bites. Rodents can also carry mites, ticks, or fleas that can be vectored to spread diseases between rodents and people. Many diseases do not cause any noticeable illnesses in mice and rats, so you cannot determine whether a rodent is carrying a disease by simply looking at it.
Will Rodents Leave On Their Own?
It would be nice if rodents were seasonal pests, but unfortunately, once they find a home in your house, they will not leave. Rats burrow into dark corners, storage, clothes, and cupboards and will stay until they either die of natural causes or you have them removed via effective pest control. Unfortunately, your home is the perfect temperature and feeding trough for mice and rats, and they repopulate quickly. So while you may only see one at a time, where there is one mouse or rat, it is a safe bet there are many more.
How To Control Mice And Rats?
The best method for controlling mice and rats is commercial-grade baits. However, rodents are known for their appetite and constant search for a food source. That’s why baits are so effective. Traps may be useful if the mice or rats already have a continuous food source. Sometimes using a liquid rodent poison as a water source can be effective if they have a food source but no water source.
Always remember that poisons should be out of the reach of children and pets in locked and labeled containers. Healthy Homes Exterminating utilizes a variety of mice and rat control measures to keep rodents out of your home. We take great pleasure in serving rodents their eviction notice and go to great lengths to make sure your home stays rodent-free.
In extreme cases, it may also be necessary to include exclusion practices by means of sealing off all entry points. This may mean caulking, mechanical, and installing manufactured exclusion devices.
We use a combination of top-rated commercial baits and devices to control mice inside your home. Every home or business is different, and that’s why there is no one treatment that fixes all mice and rat problems. Instead, each structure is given a custom treatment.
Can You Prevent Rats And Mice?
Healthy Homes Exterminating does offer outdoor rodent control to reduce the number of rodents that live outside your home. We focus our efforts on sealing holes and preventing mice or rats from entering your home. Given there are no natural boundaries, it would be foolish to guarantee that we can remove rodents from your yard, but what we can do is control their ability to enter your home.
If You Have Questions Please Call Us.
If you think that you have a rodent issue, call Healthy Homes Exterminating right away so we can set up a rodent control treatment. The sooner we get into your home, the quicker we can control rats and mice before they have a chance to burrow in and repopulate. In addition, the longer you wait, the more time rodents have to destroy your property and belongings. Contact Healthy Homes Exterminating to schedule your inspection and treatment.