Winter Rodent Control Tips for Des Moines, Omaha, and Kansas City Residents

When temperatures drop across the Midwest, rodents look for warm places to shelter from the cold. Often, they find their way into homes. If you’re thinking, “Um, no thanks,” we’re with you. Rodents are a common pest problem and can cause lots of trouble when they get inside. Let’s look at some helpful winter rodent control tips to help you keep rodents out. If it’s too late, and mice or rats have shown up in your home, contact Miller Pest & Termite for pest control in Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City, or elsewhere in our service area.

Why winter rodent control is essential

When mice or rats enter homes in winter or any time of year, they can impact health and damage property. Here are a few examples:

• They damage weatherproofing. This can allow the cold weather in and your expensive warm air out.
• Rodents can get into your attic and damage insulation and stored items. They chew on everything. Plus, they soil the areas they explore by leaving urine and fecal matter.
• They have a habit of gnawing on wires. This can lead to a house fire.
• Mice and rats get into stored foods and can contaminate them with germs and waste materials.
• They climb on surfaces and can leave invisible disease-causing organisms.

Identifying a rodent problem

If you hope to keep rodents out of your home this winter, you need to know how to detect rodent activity. You can use this knowledge to track a rodent problem and evaluate your efforts to keep them out. Signs of rodents include:

• Droppings: Rodent droppings are about the size of grains of rice. Fresh droppings are black, shiny, and moist.
• Urine: Rodents soak insulation and floorboards with their urine. They also make urine pillars out of soft materials and their urine.
• Black marks: Rodents leave black, greasy residue around entry holes and on baseboards, walls, pipes, and other surfaces.
• Holes: Rodents chew holes to enter homes and to move in and out of wall voids. Sealing holes can help you track activity.
• Noise: While rodents are “as quiet as a mouse,” you may hear them bumping or scraping inside your walls.
• Nests: Rodents create nests out of soft materials. These look like puffy balls made of cotton, clothing fibers, cushion stuffing, lint, insulation, and other soft things found in homes.

Make exclusion part of your winter rodent control

Rodents often enter homes in winter using cracks, gaps, and other openings. You can deter them by ensuring your weatherproofing is in good working condition and that you’ve sealed all potential rodent access points, including gaps around windows and doors and spaces around utility entrances.

Make food inaccessible

Mice and rats want to live close to food sources. They may move on if they get into your home and cannot find food to eat.

• Sanitation: Rodents eat crumbs off the floor and leftovers off dirty dishes. They’re not picky. Keep your home tidy to ensure it’s more resistant to rodent infestation.
• Proper food storage: Rodents chew through cardboard packaging. Storing food in airtight containers can keep food smells in and rodents out.
• Trash: Rodents get into trash cans to find meals. Make sure your kitchen trash is covered, and remove trash every couple of days to keep food from creating an odor that attracts rodents. Don’t let trash bags accumulate around your exterior trash cans; make sure they fit in the receptacle, and the lid can be closed.

Professional rodent control

What are the benefits of calling Miller Pest & Termite for rodent control? How do our local pest control experts help you keep rodents out?

• We offer one-time or ongoing rodent control.
• We perform detailed, professional inspections to locate activity and customize a rodent control plan.
• We alert you to conditions that could bring these pests indoors.
• We apply exclusions in key areas to deter rodents.
• We apply tamper-resistant bait stations around your exterior to control rodent populations if needed.
• We apply a multi-pronged rodent control strategy indoors to remove all the rodents present and prevent re-infestations. You never have to wonder if the rodents are gone.
• We provide a 100 % satisfaction guarantee.

Contact Miller Pest & Termite for help eliminating rodents this winter

Rodent infestations can make you sick and damage your property, and winter colds encourage them to enter your home. There is no time like the present to get rodent control. If you’d like a rodent-free home, contact us for targeted rodent control, or consider signing up for our ongoing home pest control plan, Miller Guard. Our team is ready to protect your home from insects and rodents all year. Contact us today for more information!