California is a paradise in many ways. The beautiful weather, varied foliage and diverse wildlife make it a haven where people will spend millions just to have a little corner to call their own.
Unfortunately, humans and song birds are not the only ones who find California enchanting. Rodents of various varieties have discovered the wonders of the Golden State and established large populations that are unlikely to disappear any time soon.
Wherever these rodents go, disease and grime follow, as they smear their greasy bodies through the tiniest gaps and into basements, garages and cupboards.
If your home has been chosen as a base of operations for a rat colony, you may feel embarrassed and angry. You’re no slob, you get rid of your trash, you don’t leave food lying around. Why are they in your house and not your slovenly neighbor’s?
Well, the truth is, they probably are in your neighbor’s house too. But you don’t have to just tolerate their presence. With professional help from a Pasadena rat control service, your rodent problem can be a thing of the past.
Why Do I Have Rats?
Rats, much like people, have basic needs that have to be met. If those needs are unmet, they will go elsewhere to test their luck.
Rats Need Shelter
To begin with, rats have to have a place to get out of the worst of the weather. Whether the blazing heat of the California sun in summer, or the winter’s rains and wind, rats want to have a quiet place to build their nests and go about their business as they spread diseases and cause thousands of dollars in damage.
For this reason, at its basis, the first job of a pest control company that has been called in for a rodent infestation is exclusion. They will determine how the rats are entering your home and stop them. maybe there’s a little gap between the foundation and the sill plate, or a poorly fitted basement window, or a drain in the basement without a grate. Whatever it is, they will help you figure out and correct the problem.
Of course, once exclusion has been accomplished, the pest control company needs to get rid of the rats that are already inside. Don’t worry, we’re getting to that.
Rats Need Food
The next step of rodent control is to secure everything that a rat might eat. Do you have pets? Rodents will eat any animal feed you have, whether it’s for dogs, cats, guinea pigs, birds, or bearded dragons.
How about your pantry? Your pest control company will help you assess your pantry storage and establish new practices that will keep them from chewing into your cupboards and then into bags of flour or packages of pasta. The best rodent control services in Pasadena, CA will have great advice about making your home as inhospitable as possible from a rodent’s perspective.
Besides this, make sure your garbage can is rodent proof and gets properly closed every night.
Rats Need Safety
A rat that lives an uneventful life free of hazards and adventure is a happy rat. But take away their free access to the house and all the things they like to eat, and then get a Pasadena pest control company to start applying pressure by means of repellants, traps and (if necessary) poison, and suddenly your home will be a much less inviting place.
How Can I Make the Rats Go Away?
When you know why rodents choose to live where they do, it makes eliminating them fairly simple. If you can lock down your home so that the rats can no longer have their needs met, they will go somewhere else; then you will want to make your property less attractive and harder to access so that future rodent populations will not come to take their place. A pest control company can help you with every step of this process and ensure your success.
Get Rid of Attractants
As mentioned above, step one needs to be to make your property less attractive to the rodents. Securing your garbage, animal feed, and dry goods will go a long way toward making your home less of a haven.
However, if you have close neighbors in the Pasadena area, rodents will happily continue to live and breed in your home, and commute next door for things to eat. This is where professional rodent control services in Pasadena become crucial.
The Best Pest Control Services Will Help You With Rodent Proofing
An experienced pest control specialist will have seen cases similar to yours a hundred times in the past. They will know exactly where to look for gaps and openings that the rodents use, while you haven’t even realized they existed.
In addition to helping you tighten security, A Pasadena pest control company will have other means of discouraging and eliminating rodents from your property. They will probably set bait stations and traps inside your home, located according to their assessment of the rodent’s patterns of movement; they may also have naturally effective means of deterring rats in your landscaping, such as natural repellants derived from plant oils that are unpleasant for rats but don’t bother people or pets.
How Can I Stop Them From Coming Back?
Once you have had traps and bait stations checked a few times over the course of the next month or two, the pest control company will remove their equipment and declare your home pest free.
As long as your rodent proofing and security practices remain in place, your home will not be an attractive home for rodents, and they will go back to your neighbor’s dog kennel or wherever it was that they crawled from.
Creating A Rat-Free Lifestyle
So you’ve done it. You’ve called in a pest control professional, rodent proofed your home, and neatened up everything that a rodent might like to eat. How can we make sure that this need never be spoken of again?
As with many aspects of life, good habits are key. If you hope never to worry about rodents again, start by continuing the practices that allowed you to get rid of the problem in the first place: secure your dry goods and pet feed, clean up spills, be conscientious about garbage.
Keep your yard free of junk and debris, clean up pet waste, and have an eye to your home’s exterior. If there are any signs of chewing or other damage, the rodents may be trying to come back; be proactive in prevention and the cost can be kept very minimal.
Prevention is your best defense against having any further need for pest exterminators, so start today making the lifestyle changes that will create a rodent-free tomorrow. But always remember that even when life gets ahead of you, if the rodents come back, there are excellent rodent control services serving Pasadena, CA who will be ready to answer your call.
