With so many DIY bait, poison, and trap solutions available in stores today, some people may wonder why they would ever need to call a professional for rodent removal. However, there are some household jobs that are best left to highly trained and specialized professionals for effectiveness and safety, and mouse and rat control is one of them.

Here’s a look at how exterminators actually get rid of mice and rats to create a safer and more comfortable home for you.

A Thorough Survey of Potential Entry Points

The first step in a professional exterminator’s job is to do a thorough inspection of your home to find the places where mice and rats can get in. This process begins outside to search for holes and cracks. Exterminators also check for gaps around doors, windows, and damaged areas of a home’s foundation.

Sealing Off Holes and Crevices

Once the entry points have been identified, it’s time for an exterminator to seal them up so that more rodents can’t get inside. This sealing process may involve many different materials based on the hole, such as wire mesh, hardware cloth, and sheet metal. Professionals know to avoid sealing holes with materials that rodents can chew through, such as caulk, wood, or plastic.

Strategically Placing Deterrents

Professional exterminators know the best places to strategically place traps around a home and whether glue, snap, or live-capture traps will be most effective in these places. They also place bait stations to lure rodents away from your home and kill rodents when they access the poisoned food contained inside.

In severe situations, an exterminator may need to fumigate a home as a last-resort measure to get rid of rats and mice. The chemicals involved in fumigation can be dangerous and should only be handled by a professional.

Follow-Up in Rodent-Prone Areas

Rodent deterrents aren’t set-it-and-forget-it measures, and follow-up is needed after setting them to assess changes in rodent activity. This is because mice and rats reproduce quickly and also so that rat control strategies can be adjusted as needed. Some New Jersey homes require ongoing professional extermination services about once per month.

Planning for Preventative Tactics

A good exterminator will not only help you get rid of mice and rats but also prevent them from coming back in the future. This is done through ongoing monitoring of cracks and holes and by tracking common rodent travel routes to be proactive about controlling pests. Good exterminators will also provide you with daily tips and tricks that you can do to keep your home mouse-free even after their services have concluded.

Who to Trust with Your Professional Extermination Needs

For affordable, prompt, and effective mouse and rat control in Northern New Jersey, Precise Termite & Pest Control is the name to know. We employ only the very best professional exterminators in the industry who are highly skilled and truly care about solving your rodent problems. To see what we mean, request your free inspection today!

Having a rodent in the house is always unsettling – from the sounds of scurrying feet to the chewed-through food wrappers and the droppings you find left behind. But mice and rats can pose even more serious problems if they are infected with a disease called hantavirus.

Here’s what New Jersey homeowners should know about hantavirus and how to protect their families from this potentially deadly disease.

What Is Hantavirus?

Hantavirus is a type of virus that is caused by rodents and that can affect humans. There are actually multiple types of hantaviruses that affect different parts of the world. People in the U.S. started becoming more concerned about hantavirus in the 1990s when there was an outbreak in the Four Corners region of the Southwest. Hantavirus is common in rural, forested, and farm areas, but it also occurs in houses and barns where rodents seek shelter.

Transmission and Common Hantavirus Symptoms

In our area, the most common human disease caused by hantavirus mice is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. This condition occurs when people breathe in air where infected rodents exist and have left behind urine, feces, or saliva. Hantavirus is usually spread through airborne transmission, although rodents may also spread the disease to humans through a bite, touching contaminated surfaces, or eating contaminated food too.

Hantavirus symptoms can begin anywhere from one to eight weeks after you are exposed to the disease. Most people report their first symptoms as muscle aches, fever, and fatigue. Diarrhea, vomiting, chills, and headaches are also common in the early days of exposure. After those first few days, shortness of breath and coughing begin. This is a potential fatally disease with a mortality rate of 38%.

Types of Rodents That Carry Hantavirus

Each type of hantavirus is caused by a specific rodent and commonly spread through saliva, feces, and urine. In the U.S., the most common type of hantavirus is caused by deer mice. Other rodents that are known to carry hantavirus include cotton rats, rice rats, and white-footed mice.

Keep Your Home Free of Hantavirus Mice

The best way to prevent the spread of hantavirus in your home is to eliminate your exposure to mice and rats. It is always a smart idea to keep all food in rodent-proof containers and seal up holes that could allow rodents to enter your home. Also, clear debris from around the foundation of your home that could be used as nesting material.

Traps can provide temporary solutions for rodent control, but your best line of defense in preventing a hantavirus infection is to consult a professional exterminator to inspect your home for rodent activity. We are committed to keeping your home rodent-free and helping you prevent the spread of disease in New Jersey, so contact us today to learn more.

When it comes to animals that hibernate, most people think of bears and bats. But what about rodents? You may be seeing fewer rodents these days now that the temperatures are cooler, but does that mean that rodents are hibernating too?

This article answers the question, “Do mice hibernate?”, and also explains how mice infestations can cause big issues in the winter months.

Where Mice Go in Winter

The short answer to this question is no, mice do not hibernate in the winter. In fact, mice are actually quite active during the winter months as they continually search for warm places (like your house) to live, escape predators, and forage for food.

Mice don’t particularly like cold weather though, so they look for tiny cracks and crevices in houses to sneak inside and enjoy some warmth and any food scraps left out. Mice that do not find their way indoors in the winter typically burrow into the ground to stay warm.

Damage Caused by Mice in Winter

Just because you don’t see as many mice during the winter doesn’t mean they aren’t actively causing damage. Mice are notorious for chewing through insulation that you need in the winter to stay warm in your home. They also chew through wires, which puts your home at risk of fires. When mice tear through packages of food in your pantry, they leave behind saliva and fecal droppings that can make you sick, especially during the winter months when your immune system is already working on overdrive to keep you feeling well.

Signs of Mice in the Winter

Mice droppings are telltale signs that you have an infestation problem during the winter. You’ll often see droppings on countertops and on the floor of the kitchen because mouse activity is often greatest near a food source.

You might also notice that packaged goods in the pantry have been gnawed through or even see chew marks on wood fixtures in your home, such as furniture or doorframe trim. Scurrying sounds in your ceiling, especially at night when mice are very active, are other signs that it’s time to call Precise Termite and Pest Control.

How to Keep Your Home Mice-Free During Winter

If you suspect a mouse problem in your home, it’s best to call a professional exterminator as soon as possible before they reproduce or spread out to other areas of your home. There are plenty of DIY mouse traps but these often only kill the mice that are already in the house but do not prevent new mice from entering where the previous ones already did.

Precise Termite and Pest Control offers same-day mice removal services and is prepared to handle any mouse situation – large or small. Contact us at 866-971-2847 to have us come out and inspect your mice situation free of charge so that you can enjoy cozy winter days at home without sharing your space with unwanted rodents.

There are few things more unsettling than knowing that you are sharing your beautiful home with rats. Rats are among the most common pests that take up residence in New Jersey households, yet many homeowners don’t fully understand what it means to have a rat problem.

From the experts at Precise Termite and Pest Control, here are the most important things to know about rats and rat removal.

Where Do Rats Settle in a Home?

Because of rats’ size and ability to squeeze through tight spaces, these pests can live in many different parts of your home. They are commonly found behind walls, in attics, in crawl spaces, and behind appliances. They seek shelter in the winter to escape the cold and find reliable sources of food, such as your kitchen pantry. With just one phone call, we can handle your rats in attic removal needs.

Diseases Rats Can Carry

Like mice, rats can carry and spread numerous diseases that put your family and pets at risk. These diseases are most commonly spread by direct contact with the rodent, which is why pest control is best left to the professionals at Precise Termite and Pest Control. Disease risks include hantavirus, leptospirosis, plague, salmonellosis, tularemia, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.

How Rats Put Your Home at Risk

In addition to the health risks, rats can also compromise the structure and safety of your home and cause significant damage. They can chew through wires, wood, and furniture to get to places they want to nest and live. They destroy insulation by tunneling through it inside walls and in attics, and they can cause electrical appliances to short-circuit and create fires because of damaged wiring.

Differences Between Mice and Rats

Mice and rats may resemble each other, but there are distinct differences between the two pests and how they behave. Mice are typically smaller, have furry tails, and weigh less than rats. Rats are larger, produce fewer fecal droppings per day, and leave grease marks on surfaces they touch.

Rat Removal Techniques

Fortunately, Precise Termite and Pest Control specializes in both mice and rat removal to reduce your risks and help you feel safe and comfortable in your own home. Depending on the location of the rats in your home and the severity of the infestation, we may use professional traps or set up bait stations to draw rats away from your home.

Proactive Rat Prevention

Just as important as rat removal is rat prevention, which is why we make it a priority to rid your home of what rats would need to survive in the future. Effective prevention strategies include storing food (including pet food) in sealed containers, removing clutter from unused spaces of your home, and trimming shrubs and bushes around your home.

How to Find Rat Removal Near Me

If you’ve been looking for professional and affordable rat removal near me, then search no more, because Precise Termite and Pest Control has been keeping Northern New Jersey pest-free for over 30 years. We offer free inspections to learn more about your rat removal needs, so contact us at the first signs of rat activity at 866-971-2847.

Especially when our weather turns cold and snowy here in New Jersey, mice love to migrate from the outdoors to inside our homes. However, it’s not just houses that are susceptible to mice problems because garages are particularly attractive to mice as well.

Here are some expert tips for how to remove mice from a garage and when it’s time to call a professional for help with this type of mice infestation.

Signs of Mice in Your Garage

Signs that you may have mice in your garage include seeing mice fecal droppings, especially in corners and under workbenches and cabinets where mice like to hide. You may also smell the musky odor of mice urine in your garage and notice gnawed holes that are about the size of a dime.

A pest control expert is able to tell the difference between mice and rats based on a rodent’s size and appearance. Mice are smaller, have large floppy ears, and leave between 40 and 100 droppings per day. On the other hand, rats are larger, weigh about twice as much as mice, produce fewer droppings per day, and often leave grease marks on surfaces they touch.

What Is Considered to Be an Infestation?

If your mice problem seems minor at first, you might wonder if the number of mice you have in your garage is really a big deal or would even be considered an infestation. If only one or two mice have entered your garage, this isn’t necessarily called an infestation, but a small mice problem can quickly escalate into a large one.

Mice often build nests in garages to give birth and take care of their babies. Keep in mind that mice typically have about five to 12 babies per litter. Mice also begin breeding as young as eight weeks old, so you could quickly have an infestation on your hands if you don’t address the signs of mice in your garage as early as possible.

Preventing Mice in Your Garage

Many homeowners are quick to set mousetraps all around their garage and hope they deter mice from taking up residence here. However, this is not an effective preventative strategy because mice will continue to come back despite the traps, causing damage and leaving their diseased droppings behind.

Instead, focus your attention on potential access points in your garage to determine where mice are coming in from and seal up those places properly. Also, don’t leave food or trash in your garage that could attract mice and keep them coming back for more sustenance during the winter.

When to Call a Pest Control Company for a Mice Problem

Since mice can reproduce and create an infestation situation so quickly, it is recommended to call your local pest control company at the first signs of mouse presence in your garage. We will perform a free inspection of your garage and surrounding areas to identify problem areas and come up with a solution to get rid of your mice and keep them away.

Precise Termite & Pest Control is just a phone call away, so contact us at 866-971-2847 for a mice-free garage.