Insulation means consistent room temperatures and energy savings. However, it also provides a cozy lair for rats and other rodents who pose sanitation issues to your home. If you would like your insulation in Little Rock, AR to continue performing its usual job and not become a haven for creatures, here is how you can keep rats and mice out of it:
- Close access points: Rats enter your home through access points. These can include places where your siding is starting to separate, new holes and even cracks that are a quarter of an inch wide. Pay especially close attention around utility pipes and wires. Rats can crawl into any space where they can fit their heads, so do not overlook even the smallest breaches.
- Be familiar with mesh and caulk: Some access points can be blocked with mesh covers, but other places require caulk and quick-drying concrete. The latter is the most recommended because rats cannot remove it once you install it, unlike mesh, which can be breached with enough rodent ingenuity. If you need to close an access point near the attic or on an upper story, your best bet is mesh.
- Deprive them of food sources: If you leave dog food or cat food easily accessible or clean your kitchen rarely, you are leaving rats a banquet that will encourage them to break into your home and nest in your insulation. Unsecured garbage cans are also five-star restaurants for rats. Another food source that often grows rat populations is bird seed and squirrel feeders, so clean those up when they spill. Removing the food incentive can reduce the odds of infestation.
- Maintain your landscaping: Keeping your foliage at least 18 inches away from your home will also discourage rats. The critters do not like being observed, so if they can enter your home in a sneaky way, they are more likely to do it. Rats will also use foliage to gain access to your attic, bedrooms and other rooms on the upper stories of your home. Unless you want to search every square inch of your home for an access point, give rats fewer options to find them.
- Use locking boxes: Access to clothes and paper in your attic also provides ready nesting material for rats. The more material they have for building their new homes, the more they will want to stick around in your home and have babies. Invest in sealable containers when you store items in your attic rather than rely on cardboard boxes. You really do not want to pull down that box of winter clothes one day only to find a very bad surprise.
If you discover a rat infestation, contact an exterminator as soon as possible. Once that is taken care of, contact a contractor to see if there is damage to the insulation or other structures in your home. Depending on how long the rats have lived there, you could require further repair efforts.
When you need contractors with significant experience with insulation in Little Rock, AR, contact Harris Insulation. We can restore insulation after a rodent infestation and offer free estimates before we begin work.