Vital Strategies to Properly Rodent Proof Your Attic

Rodents are industrious creatures. Rats and mice are highly adept at getting inside and taking up residence in a home. Attics are particularly appealing nesting spaces for rodents of different types. White it’s all well and good to have an effective way to eliminate rodents if you end up with an infestation in your attic, the best course is to prevent these critters from taking up residence in the first place. Towards this important goal, there are some vital strategies you need to employ to properly rodent proof your attic and your home.

Inspect the Exterior of Your Home to Identify Problem Points

The first step in rodent proofing your attic is to perform a thorough, comprehensive inspection of the exterior your residence and the grounds around it. You need to be able to identify any and all potential passageways through rodents might be able to gain access to your attic.

In considering usable passages for rodents, think small. Indeed, think very small. A mouse can get through a space the size of a dime. A that can pass through a space the size of a quarter.

When thinking about possible entry points, you also need to bear in mind that mice, rats, squirrels, and other rodents are skilled at gnawing and chewing. Rodents can chew through a variety of materials including:

  • Wood
  • Brick
  • Sheetrock
  • Vinyl siding
  • Different roofing materials

After you undertake an initial inspection of the exterior of your home and the grounds around it, you need to make this type of examination a recurring and regular practice. Once you do an initial inspection and complete the process of eliminating any possible entry points for rodents into your attic, you will want to repeat the examination process every 30 to 60 days. No matter how complete your initial fortification efforts may be, the situation at your residence can change in short speed. In other words, new entryways into your home and attic may develop or be created by rodents after initial preventative measures have been taken.

Eliminate Entry Points to Your Attic

As noted a moment ago, rodents are industrious animals. This particularly is the case when they are intent on finding a place to nest. And, an attic provides an ideal nesting space from a rodent’s point of view. Consequently, a primary strategy you need to employ is to eliminate any and all potential entry points through which a mouse, rat, or other rodent can access your attic.

Key entry points that you need to focus on are those found in the walls and foundation of your residents. Even though some rats may elect to nest in the attic, they may initially make entrance into your home through a hole in an exterior wall or foundation of your home. The most reliable material that can be used to block holes along exterior walls or in the foundation is what is known as galvanized steel mesh. This is one type of material that rodents cannot gnaw through.

Defects or damage to the roof can also provide passage for rodents into your attic. This type of situation may necessitate replacement of roofing materials. It may also necessitate the blocking or holes in the wood under the roof shingles of other roofing material used at your home.

There are also rodents that will utilize trees close to a roof to gain access to your attic. Certain rats and mice climb trees and then get onto a residential roof and get into an attic. The strategy in this case is to cut back trees and keep limbs away from your residence and its roof.

A more ubiquitous strategy to keep rodents generally away from the interior residence, including the attic, is to create a ground-level barrier around your home. This can be accomplished by making certain that there are no bushes or shrub growing next to your residence. Create a sort of no-rodent zone around your house by placing a gravel ring at the perimeter of your house about two feet wide. Rodents are not apt to brave crossing such a line because they will feel unduly exposed.

Rodent Proofing Your Attic Following an Infestation

If you have had a rodent infestation at your home, you need to make sure you employ the same strategies set forth here to prevent a reoccurrence of the problem. You will also want to make certain that rodent droppings left behind because of an infestation need to be safely and thoroughly cleaned up. In order to accomplish this vital task appropriately and thoroughly you will need to consider seriously engaging the services of a professional rodent dropping cleaning company. By hiring a pro, you can rest easier knowing that rodent droppings associated with a previous infestation are fully remediated and eliminated from your home, together with potential dangerous germs that can be contained in rodent feces left behind in your home.