Author: Kurt Treftz, Cascade Pest Control
Learn About Cascade Rodent Control – Inspection, Treatment, Protection
Rats, mice, and rodents plague the Seattle region. So, it’s become a necessity for every home and business owner to rely on rodent control services to keep these pesky pests away.
Cascade Pest Control has 40 years of experience knowing where to look for rodents, their behavior, and how to prevent rats, mice, and rodents from nesting or entering any residential or commercial building.
Roofs and Rodent Access, Entrance, and Nesting
Roofs, whether residential or commercial, have places where rodents can enter and/or breed. Those places where varying roof angles meet create special problem areas, known as ‘roof adjoinments.’ Here, any small gaps left by the framing crew or the roofers will allow rats, specifically roof rats, squirrels and mice to enter and start nesting.
This video shows where/how roof adjoinments occur and can have easy opening to the attic. Once inside, rodents have access to your attic space and often breed there, causing damage to insulation and contaminating the area. We later explore the interior of roofs—the attic (see below).
Rodent Protection from Attic / Crawl Spaces
Attics and crawlspaces are a particular problem when it comes to rodents, especially when not properly sealed. In this video, we show how an unsecured crawlspace access panel can allow rats and mice to enter.
When rodents—either over time or from large numbers—trample your attic or crawlspace insulation it decreases the insulation’s R-value so that it’s doesn’t do its job keeping your home warm (or cool in the summer).
But the damage doesn’t stop there. We at Cascade Pest Control see many rodent-infested attics and many are seriously contaminated by rodent filth. Rats and mice can spread filth throughout an attic, or a substructure crawlspace. The filth is nasty and likely laden with bacteria. Our technicians are dedicated to doing this dirty work for you to ensure your home’s security.
What’s more, once rats or mice have access to your attic it’s a lesser matter for them to make their way through wiring or plumbing holes and again access to other parts of your home.
Cascade Initial Rodent Treatment
Cascade’s initial treatment starts with a rodent inspection to determine the type of rodent(s), the extent of the current rat or mouse infestation, probable access points, and likely sources of food. This is an extensive and dirty job.
We pay attention to help reduce and/or eliminate obvious sources of food. Sometimes this means advising you, the client, how to do things a little differently.
Your Cascade rodent control technician will also look for such things as tree limbs that touch the roof, allowing access to the upper reaches of the structure. Your technician will also look for hidden burrows…and possibly make suggestions to clear areas so rats or mice can’t hide.
Your Cascade Pest Control technician will go over these items with you. Next, he or she will set traps to initiate rodent control.
Traps are an important first step to help insure that rodents don’t die in inaccessible areas and create a foul odor. Your Cascade rodent control technician will often set these traps in attics, and/or crawlspaces, or sometimes within hard plastic enclosures to keep pets and children safe.
Your technician will evaluate to what extent rodent exclusion (also called rodent proofing)—building them out by sealing gaps and holes—is needed, and what it may cost to do so. Every house is different and the amount of rodent exclusion needed varies widely—from no additional cost to cases where some contracting is required to repair a roof or crawl access door.
All these efforts get your home or business underway to contain the rodent problem. It’s called an “initial rodent treatment” because it is the first step in starting a service that will, not just stop the current rat or mouse infestation, but continue to prevent and protect your property from future infestations as well.
Cascade’s Rodent ‘Inspect and Protect’ Service
After the Initial Rodent Service, your Cascade technician will check the traps set previously as well as check for new signs of rodent activity. And, as the rodent exclusion / proofing work as progressed, they will start to place bait in tamper-resistant bait stations at key points of the perimeter of your home or business. These bait stations are often anchored to further prevent tampering by dogs, raccoons and other pets or wild animals. The bait blocks are fastened on steel rods within the ‘station’ to further prevent any significant amount of bait spillage.
Each service your Cascade Pest Control certified technician will inspect these stations to determine rodent activity levels in the neighborhood. They will also check the viability of the bait replacing as needed, and then continue to inspect key locations for droppings or other signs of rats or mice. A periodic inspection of the crawlspace entrance and, preferably, an annual attic check are a must.
Whenever signs indicate that rodent populations are on the rise, or if you, our client, have noticed something, we carry out the extra measures needed for rodent control to keep you protected at no extra cost.
Call us: 888-989-8979 or Request a Quote online
