Rodent Control FAQs

Strong smells like peppermint oil, ammonia and mothballs get recommended everywhere, and rats mostly just avoid the exact spot for a day or two and go around it. No scent seals a foundation or removes a burrow. Smells are not a control method. Sealing entry points and removing food sources are.

Three things together: no entry, no food, no cover. Sealed foundations and vents, garbage in cans with tight lids and no pet food or bird seed at ground level, and brush and woodpiles moved off the foundation. Skip any one of the three and rats treat the other two as a challenge. Our exclusion page covers the entry part.

It is a rule of thumb, not a law. If you set traps and catch nothing for about five days while signs also stop, the active mice are likely cleared. The catch is that empty traps can also mean the mice are avoiding them. We judge a house clear by sealed entry points plus no fresh droppings, not by a calendar alone.

Droppings decide it fastest. Mouse droppings look like grains of rice with pointed ends. Rat droppings are raisin-sized or bigger. Burrows outside mean rats. Runways in attic insulation usually mean mice. We put the full comparison in the mice vs rats guide.

Usually. Mice live in groups, travel set routes, and breed fast indoors. One sighting in daylight often means the hidden population is big enough that some are being pushed out. An inspection sizes it honestly instead of guessing.

They deserve respect. Never sweep or vacuum them dry, because that puts dust in the air. Spray with disinfectant until soaked, let it sit, wipe up with gloves on, and wash your hands. Heavy attic contamination is a different scale of job. That is what our cleanup service is for.

Because your house is the warmest, driest shelter on the street and October is moving season. Outdoor food runs out, nights turn cold, and mice test every foundation they pass. The gaps were there all summer. Fall is just when they get used. The winter guide is built around beating that rush.

Part of it. The county baits qualifying owner-occupied homes of four units or fewer at no charge and takes complaints about problem properties. It does not cover apartments, businesses, indoor work, sealing or cleanup. Full details in the county program guide.

The work is designed the other way. Traps go in voids and stations. Sealing fills holes that should not be there. The one exception is a carcass deep in a wall, where a small drywall opening is sometimes the only route. We explain before anything like that happens, and it is the rare case, not the routine one.

Outside, in locked tamper-resistant stations, where the situation fits, mainly for rat populations. Inside a house we lead with trapping, because poisoned rodents die in walls. Any use of bait at your property gets explained before it happens, including where stations sit.

Seal the door corners, which is where garage doors always gap, move bird seed and pet food into sealed bins, and get stored boxes off the floor and away from the walls. Garages are the front door of most ranch house mouse problems in the suburbs.

Once, in passing, near garbage day, can be a commuter. Note it and watch for burrows, droppings and repeats. A rat in daylight more than once, burrow holes, or any sign near the foundation is the point to call for rat control instead of watching.