Why October is Prime Time for Rodents: How to Protect Your Home

Dealing with a pest infestation in your home is a universally unpleasant experience. However, keeping your living space free from rats and mice is important for many reasons.

Pests and their droppings spread diseases such as salmonella, rat-bite fever, jaundice, trichinosis, and even the deadly hantavirus. It’s particularly dangerous if they’re able to get into the food in your house. They also damage your home by burrowing into foundations and walls, making holes in the wall, chewing through wires, and pulling out insulation for nesting material.

Plus, it’s just plain unpleasant to have to live with the idea of rats or insects living in your walls. And since rodents are prolific breeders, even a small infestation can quickly grow beyond your control.

While keeping homes free of rodents and other pests including mice is truly a year-round priority, it’s particularly important during the rodent peak season. If you’re not sure when that is, worry not.

When is Peak Rodent Season

Rodents are most active and likely to invade your house during the fall months. As temperatures cool in October and November, rodents end their breeding season and start searching for shelter to pass the winter. Human dwellings, with their heat, insulation, and stores of food, make for enticing winter shelters.

This “rodent prime time” will end when spring arrives. As the ground thaws and plants bloom, food becomes more available. Warmer temperatures and abundant natural sources of food will draw rats and mice back outside in late March or May.

How to Keep Your Home Pest-Free

Look Out for Entry Points

Be on the lookout for cracks, holes, or gaps in your home. Common entrypoints include doorjams, foundations, windowsills, and entrypoints for pipes and cables. Seal any gaps with caulk or steel wool. Use doorsweeps to close the space under the door.

Remove Yard Debris

Bushes and piles of wood, sticks, or brush are enticing summer homes for rodents. Trim any tree branches and landscaping back from your home and clear all garden debris immediately. If you have a wood-burning fireplace, keep your woodpile 30 feet from the dwelling and elevated, if possible.

Securely Store Food

Keeping your home clean will go a long way to preventing rodents. Clean up spills and crumbs immediately and store pet food in a sealed container at night. Store food in metal, glass, or heavy-duty plastic. Rodents will chew through flimsy packaging like paper, cardboard, and thin plastics.

Keep Trash in Closed Bins

Any trash bins you keep outside must have a lid and seals tightly and ideally made from metal or thick, heavy-duty plastic. Always bag your trash and immediately put it in the big – don’t leave trash bags out unattended. Regularly wash and sanitize your bins, indoor and outdoor, to stop unpleasant odors that attract pests.

When to Call Pest Control

As a homeowner or renter, you need to be on a constant lookout for signs of rodent activity. If you see these common signs of pest activity, it’s time to call an exterminator for your South Caolina home.

Gnawing on walls and flooring
Holes chewed or dug into walls, windowsills, or the foundation
Rat or mouse droppings in or around your home
Scratching sounds in the wall
Increased rodent activity directly around your house
Oily marks from rodent traffic rubbed onto walls or floors
Piles of shredded paper, fabric, or insulation
Chewed food packaging

This guide should have covered the peak season for rodents, and how to keep your house rate and mouse-free, and when you should call your rodent control Columbia, SC.

October is prime time for rats and mice, so it’s vital you’re prepared. Follow the steps above to keep rodents out of your home. If you do see signs of rodent activity, call a qualified pest control service right away to safely and effectively remove the infestation.

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Scott Baber: Senior Managing editor

Manages incoming enquiries and advertising. Based in London and very sporty. Worked news and sports desks in local paper after graduating.

Email Scott@MarkMeets.com