Five Easy Ways To Keep Rodents Out Of Your Austin Home

Rodents are more than a standard nuisance pest. Some pests destroy property. Some spread disease. Mice and rats reliably do both, and once an infestation settles into a house, it drags down your quality of life fast. The good news is that keeping them out mostly comes down to a handful of habits and an afternoon with a caulk gun.

About Rodents

Mice and rats are the rodents Austin homes deal with most. The house mouse runs small, about three inches long, with grayish fur and a head that looks small for its body. Rats are the heavier machinery: bigger, blockier heads and thick, scaly tails. The Norway rat, also called the sewer rat, is a fixture of nearly every city on earth, Austin included. Look for brownish-black fur and a body around eight inches long.

Telling them apart matters less than acting on either. Both come inside for the same three things: reliable food, water, and shelter. Your garbage bin is an all-night buffet and your attic is prime nesting real estate. Our rodent identification page has the full field guide.

Five Ways To Prevent Rodents

Start by making your property less worth visiting:

1. Clean up. Wipe counters and tables, sweep and vacuum, and do not leave dirty dishes sitting in the sink. Food scraps and spills are exactly what draws them.
2. Take out the trash. Keep bins sealed and as far from the house as practical. Rats chew through sturdy plastic, so metal cans are worth considering.
3. Use stronger storage. Pantry food in glass or metal containers stays protected. Plastic bags and cardboard do not slow a rodent down.
4. Do some yard work. Clear firewood stacks, leaf piles, and accumulated clutter, and keep shrubs trimmed back so nothing touches the house.
5. Go natural. Rats and mice dislike the smell of mint, so planting some around the property can help deter them. A cat on patrol never hurts either.

Five Ways To Keep Rodents Out

Prevention lowers the draw. Exclusion closes the doors. Rodents are determined explorers, and the numbers are humbling: a mouse fits through a hole the size of a nickel, and most rats only need a three-quarter-inch opening. Walk your property with that in mind:

1. Check the exterior. Inspect the foundation, electrical junctions, plumbing penetrations, doors, and windows for gaps and openings.
2. Check inside too. Look for small holes around pipes and cables, at the fireplace, around doors, and in the corners where floors meet walls.
3. Stuff small openings with steel wool. Then lock it in place with silicone caulk. Steel wool is one of the few materials rodents will not chew through.
4. Patch the bigger holes. Metal lath or mesh screen handles larger gaps, and a solid metal plate works too. Non-metal patches just become the next thing they chew.
5. Replace worn weather-stripping. Sometimes the entry point is simply the gap under your front door. Check every exterior door and refresh anything that has flattened out.

Not sure whether they are already inside? Our post on whether rodents are a year-round problem in Austin covers the infestation signs to check for.

And if an infestation has already taken hold, exclusion alone will not solve it. At Accurate Termite & Pest Control we eliminate the rodent problem first, then help you keep it from coming back. Get in touch with our rodent control team or call (512) 267-0812 today.