Mice and rats are survival experts, easily breaking in through the tiniest holes to nest, find food and reproduce. See what makes these problem rodents so successful. The answers may surprise you.
For details on how to eliminate and prevent rodent infestations, see our recent post.
We receive a substantial increase in calls about mice and rat infestations starting in the fall and lasting through February. The reason is simple: mice and rats seek refuge from the cold by entering warm homes, attics, garages, and offices. Once rodents discover a cozy spot, they tend to nest – often within walls and near a food source.
Rats and mice can carry diseases, cause property damage and create fire hazards by chewing through electrical wires. Rodents spotted in hotels, restaurants and other businesses can create social media nightmares when customers rate their experiences online. Plus, mice and rats can attract insects and natural predators: snakes. These pests rapidly multiply, so quick rodent control is critical. Female mice can produce 10 to 12 pups per month – and their offspring are ready to reproduce within two months.
Mice and rats can transmit a variety of diseases, including Hantavirus, salmonellosis, leptospirosis, tularemia, and even Lyme disease. Disease risk increases by coming into contact with a dead carcass, or the rodent’s urine and feces. To reduce the risk of disease transmission, we recommend calling a professional to handle a rodent problem and related cleanup.
Preventing rodent infestations begins with sanitation and sealing up entry points. Your home or office will be less appealing to rodents if they cannot find an easy meal. Start by cleaning up spilled food and securing any easy-to-access food items in and around your home. In commercial kitchen areas, clean up all food and food residue every day. In your home, store pantry items in airtight containers and keep pet food areas clean. In businesses, schools and other facilities, limit eating to designated dining areas and encourage employees to not store food overnight in offices and classrooms. Outdoors, store trash and pet food in sealed containers. If you must set bagged trash out on trash pick-up day, do not leave trash sitting out any longer than necessary.
Cracks, holes or gaps in walls and around windows, doors, vents, and roofs create ideal access points for mice and rats. Mice can enter through holes that are 0.25 inches or more in diameter. Regularly inspect your property to identify potential entryways. Fill the larger cracks or holes with plaster, mortar, sheet metal or hardware cloth. Block smaller holes with caulk or copper wire. Rats are also known to enter buildings by diving and swimming up through broken drainage pipes. Fixing damaged drainage pipes not only prevents rodents from entering, but also helps water drain properly.
Determining if you have a rat or mouse problem is typically easy. Often, you will actually see a rodent (usually at night, since mice and rats are nocturnal) or find droppings. Mice and rats prefer to remain along the edges of walls, counters, and other surfaces and typically are found in open spaces. Look for droppings along baseboards or in cupboards – even in moist areas like under the sink. You may also notice chew marks on plastic, metal, cardboard and even stone items in your home. You might also find a rat or mouse nest in a box or other enclosed area. These nests typically are made from shredded foam and other material. At night, you may hear rodents moving around in the walls or hear their high-pitched squeaks.
If you see one mouse does it mean you have many? That is hard to say without conducting an inspection. While an individual mouse or rat can find its way into a house or office, they are social pests and typically do not live in isolation.
To reduce the risk of disease transmission, we recommend using a pest control professional to eliminate any mouse or rat problem. Even if you are able to find and eliminate the individual rodents on your own, cleaning up their carcasses and droppings is risky. Pest control professionals understand rodent habits and behaviors and know how to select the right methods, placements, and techniques to eliminate the problem and prevent future infestations.
The most common way to eliminate mice and rats is the use of traps that are baited with peanut butter or another appealing snack. Snap traps come in different sizes and work by snapping shut on a rodent when it steps on the trigger. Live traps use ramps to trap rodents safely in a small box or cage for future release. While these traps are most humane, releasing live rodents may not eliminate the problem and most people do not want the unpleasant task of destroying them. Glue traps capture but do not destroy the rodents, and must be checked frequently to prevent suffering.
Another treatment is rodent baits. We recommend the use of mouse and rat baits only by professionals. These treatments are sometimes used outdoors, but can create risk if used indoors. Rodents sometimes carry the bait to areas where people and pets may come in contact. Rodents that ingest the bait indoors may die within the walls, creating a foul smell that is difficult to remove. If overused, rodents may become immune to baits. To determine the most sensible and effective option to eliminate your unique rodent problem, contact a pest control professional.
Getting rid of mice that have infested your house is not as easy as the internet might sometimes have you believe. Many do-it-yourself (DIY) treatments and “quick and easy” methods treat the symptoms of an infestation and will only temporarily fix the situation. The mice might come back, possibly in greater numbers than before, and you will have wasted time and money. Instead, call a professional who can guarantee results and expertly prevent future infestations.
Catching a mouse infestation early can be difficult because mice are nocturnal by nature, so you will rarely see them out in the daytime. However, the earlier the signs are recognized, the easier it will be to solve the problem. If you see even a few mouse droppings, you know you have a problem.
Mice can also be the cause of unexplained holes or tears in clothing, insulation, and fabric – all materials mice use to build their nests. Other signs include strange scratching noises in the walls at night and grease marks caused by the bodies of the mice as they repeatedly brush against the walls, floors and skirting boards along their regular routes. If you see any of these signs in your house, it is important that you address your mouse problem immediately.
Mice reproduce at an extremely fast rate, so a few mice in your house can turn into a full-scale infestation in just a few months. One female mouse can produce as many as 10 litters (of 10-12 pups each) in one year. Those young are born within 20 days after mating and are capable of reproduction within two months, meaning that two mice can turn into 72 in only 4 months.
Mice present a danger by chewing through electrical wires and creating hidden fire hazards in your home. They can also destroy expensive furniture by building nests, and damage clothing by shredding it for bedding material.
Most importantly, mice can carry diseases. In the past century alone, more than 10 million people have died from rodent-borne diseases. Rodents can harbor a wide range of parasites, such as mites and ticks, which often carry lethal pathogens. They can also directly transmit deadly germs excreted in their urine and feces. House mice are also a prevalent cause of asthma and allergies. Studies show that as many as 25% of homes have enough mouse allergens to worsen asthma symptoms.
There are several types of traps and baits available to get rid of mice, although we recommend calling a professional to reduce the risk of disease transmission and to get rid of the mice more effectively. Disposing of mice can pose a hazard, as diseases such as Hantavirus can be transmitted from the bodies of mice themselves – alive or dead. A pest control professional knows the best types of treatment for your unique situation. Also important, a professional who understands mouse behavior will know the best placements for the traps or bait. Many people prefer to call a pest control professional simply to avoid the unsettling task of getting rid of mice.
Snap traps are what we usually think of when we think of mouse traps. A snap trap uses a spring-loaded bar that swings down when a mouse touches the trip, which is baited with peanut butter or another snack. Some mice learn how to beat snap traps by eating the bait without stepping on the trip. Snap traps are often placed in open locations throughout the home, including in kitchens and under desks. For homes with children or pets, snap traps create risk of small fingers or snouts getting trapped. Snap traps must be monitored and disposed of whenever a mouse triggers the trap.
Live traps humanely capture mice in a container until they can be released elsewhere. Like snap traps, these mouse traps are baited with food. These traps must be monitored closely. When the traps work, the mice must be released promptly to reduce dehydration or stress. Although live traps are more humane, they aren’t always effective. Mice have powerful homing instincts. Some mice, once released near your home, will simply come right back.
Glue traps are the least humane mouse traps. A glue trap simply holds a mouse by its legs until its elimination and disposal. Many people do not like to use these traps because of the difficult task of killing the captured mice. These traps present a greater risk of disease transmission because of the elimination process.
Mouse bait is also available but generally, is intended for outdoor use. If you bait mice indoors, you could end up with a terrible smell trapped inside your walls. Plus, mouse bait can be unsafe for other animals including domestic predators like cats and dogs, and wild predators like hawks and owls.
Protect your home from a mouse infestation through prevention. By eliminating potential food sources and sealing up small entryways, you can help prevent mice from nesting in your home during the cold months. Mice can squeeze through gaps as small as ¼” around, which makes identifying possible entryways a tedious task. We recommend you call a pest control professional who is skilled in mouse exclusion techniques to seal up your home and protect it from intrusion.
Although there is disagreement whether the stink bug invasion will be better or worse than usual this year, now is definitely the time of year to be on the lookout. As the weather begins to cool down, stink bugs will invade homes searching for warm places to hide. The number of adult bugs overwintering increased 60% in late 2012 according to the USDA. If this is any indication, it is reasonable to expect an uptick of stink bugs this fall. An infested home could easily have hundreds or even thousands of stink bugs hiding in the walls, which makes getting rid of stink bugs difficult.
The extent of a stink bug infestation can vary greatly even between houses in the same area. The USDA is current studying stink bug behavior patterns, and specifically how stink bugs determine which houses to invade. The USDA is seeking volunteers primarily from Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia to help catalog stink bug patterns in our area. Anyone who is willing to count the stink bugs in their house for a month is invited to participate. To volunteer for the study, contact Tracy Leskey by sending an email to tracy.leskey@ars.usda.gov.
After bees hibernate for the winter, it is no surprise that they are awake and extremely active during the summer months. For humans, however, getting stung by a bee can ruin a beautiful summer day, or in the case of allergy, turn it into a medical emergency. About 2 million Americans have allergies to the venom of stinging insects, so a person’s first bee sting can often be extremely frightening due to the element of the unknown. For these reasons, it is important to take precautions whenever you are outside and in an area that is prone to bees.
To avoid attracting bees to your person, steer clear of anything that might cause a bee to mistake you for the flowers where it gathers its pollen. This includes wearing bright colors such as yellow or red, putting on heavily scented lotions or shampoos, and especially being in close proximity to anything with a floral pattern. Bees use their sense of smell when locating flowers to pollinate, as well as being attracted to bright colors by their pollination instincts. Shiny things can also serve as a homing beacon to bees, along with anything that would light up under a black light because bees can see in the ultraviolet range.
Always wear shoes when walking in grassy areas, as bees will be startled and more likely to sting if you accidentally step on or near them, so shoes can provide a first layer of protection. Long pants are also a good idea if you know you will be walking in high grass or areas populated by ground bees. Bees have also been proven to have a lower threshold for stinging people with hats on because hair reminds them of furry animals who are likely to steal their honey. Insect repellent, especially one that contains DEET, can also deter bees from approaching you, as well as protecting from a variety other insects including mosquitoes.
In the event that the preventative measures are not effective and you are approached by a bee, there are still many ways to avoid getting stung, since it is purely a defensive action of the part of the bee. If you are not perceived as a threat, they will not sting, so do not swat at them or make any sudden movement. Instead, hold extremely still and wait for them to move on or back away extremely slowly. You can also try blowing gently on the bee, which will encourage it to move on while not startling it.
If bees are a common occurrence near your home, there is most likely a nest nearby. In the event that you find a bee or wasp nest in your yard, contact someone to remove it. Do not try to remove the nest yourself, as serious injury may occur.
Some days as a Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s employee are more exciting than others, as demonstrated by our team out in Springfield, who recently discovered baby raccoons in a house under renovation. They were called out by the homeowners, who had been hearing noises coming from inside the walls and rightly assumed it was some sort of wildlife. They made the right choice in calling for professionals because our team found raccoons in a wall void and had to use special wildlife gloves to handle the wild creatures.
The raccoons were extremely young, so our team waited two days for their mother to return, before concluding that the babies had been abandoned. It was only at this point that we removed the raccoons for relocation. Our team took care of them, feeding them dog food and using any other resources available to us. After some research, we were able to deliver them to a woman in Lorton, VA who specializes in rescued raccoons and will care for them until they are able to survive on their own, at which point she will release them into the wild.
Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s Pest Control is committed to the humane treatment and removal of wildlife, utilizing live traps and one-way doors to safely remove nuisance animals without harming them. If you have a wildlife problem in your home, we can relocate the creatures and employ exclusion techniques to keep them from coming back.
Everyone loves to hate mosquitoes. They seem to be everywhere this summer and leave behind bites that itch like crazy. Even worse, mosquitoes can transmit the West Nile Virus from birds to people.
While many people assume mosquitoes are attracted to the aroma of blood, in fact, they are drawn to the carbon dioxide that we exhale. Therefore, the harder you breathe, the more attractive you are to mosquitoes. You are also more attractive to mosquitoes when you’ve been drinking alcohol. People with smelly feet and women who are pregnant are also at great risk of mosquito bites.
To prevent mosquito infestations in your yard, we recommend removing any source of standing, stagnant water such as in gutters, bird baths, and even trash cans. Professional mosquito treatments can help keep the mosquitoes at bay, and enable you to enjoy more time outdoors.
The best personal precaution against mosquitoes is to use a mosquito repellant. DEET is a popular repellent ingredient that has been proven to be effective. It is approved for people of all ages, although for children the EPA recommends using only products with certain percentages of DEET.
When shopping for a mosquito repellant, make sure to look for the EPA registration number on the package. Registered repellants have been fully reviewed for safety and efficacy. Repellants with natural active ingredients like peppermint oil, citronella, and cedar oil are not registered by the EPA. Unfortunately, this means their effectiveness is untested. Find more information and search for registered insect repellents on the EPA website.
Even if you take all the precautions, no repellant is 100% effective, which means you still may suffer bites. If you do get bitten, don’t scratch! Instead, apply a hydrocortisone cream, calamine lotion or even a homemade paste of equal parts water and dry meat tenderizer. You may apply this several times a day until the itching fades. If a cream is not effective, try holding an ice pack to the affected area for a few minutes to reduce inflammation and itching.
Did you know that the all the termites on earth outweigh all the humans on Earth? In the big fight against termites, Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s is leading the way by using advanced technology to help find and destroy these home‐destroying pests.
Termites cause $5 billion in home damage every year in the U.S., and much of that damage goes unnoticed until it’s too late because it often occurs inside walls or in other areas that aren’t usually
visible. Obviously we can’t start drilling and knocking out walls every time we do a termite inspection. Instead, we use high-tech inspection cameras to look inside the parts of your home you don’t normally see.
The cameras themselves are very tiny, and are mounted on long, flexible arms that can wind around obstructions and into hard-to-reach areas. Our inspection cameras also help find rodents or other critters that sometimes get trapped in walls.
Too much moisture and dampness in your home puts you at risk for pests, termite damage, mold, mildew and a host of other issues. The US Environmental Protection Agency, American Lung Association and American Medical Association recommend maintaining relative humidity levels of 50% or less in your home.
We use moisture monitors to determine specific moisture levels and find areas where termites are likely to attack. This picture shows a moisture reading in a home infested by termites. The first indication of termites is the appearance of tiny pinholes that the pests drilled in the wall for access. Our moisture meter verified that humidity levels are high (53%) in this part of the wall, which makes this area conducive to termite activity.
Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s also uses moisture monitors when encapsulating dirt crawl spaces or basements to protect the homes from mold, mildew and other dampness‐related problems. Our trained technicians use these electronic moisture meters to help find problem spots and monitor the success of the job.
Thermal cameras take pictures that show temperatures – hot or cold areas – inside of walls. Since termites and most pests give off heat, it’s easy to spot them through thermal photography. As you can see, we even took a photo of Cricket, our K-9 bed bug detection expert, relaxing after a bed bug inspection.
Our inspectors often use thermal cameras to find areas of pest activity that would not be visible otherwise. The two pictures below show hidden termite activity behind the wall in a client’s house. We had mounted a termite bait box on the wall and used infra-red photography to monitor the treatment’s effectiveness. The photo shows heavy termite activity behind the wall near the bait box, which means the bait was definitely doing its job of attracting and killing the termites.
Our inspectors also use thermal imaging cameras to find birds, squirrels or other critters in your walls. We can also use the cameras to show you the cold spots in your walls where insulation is lacking, and assess if you have crawl space encapsulation needs. Our inspectors may not be super heroes, but with cameras like this they practically have x‐ray vision.
This spring is cicada season, where a swarm of these large, winged, red-eyed insects is descending on the mid-Atlantic region. Here at Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s, we’re very familiar with cicadas… but since they only come to visit every 17 years, you may not be. So we sat down with one to ask a few questions.
Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s: Welcome to Metro DC! Can you give us a little background on yourself and where you’re from?
Cicada: Thanks! I’ve really been enjoying my time here. My family and I have been seeing the whole region, from the Carolinas up to as far north as Connecticut, and we’re really loving the warmer weather. We’re originally from underground, so this is quite a change.
Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s: You’re from underground?
Cicada: That’s right. We’ve been living underground since about 1996 after we were born from eggs in trees. So we’ve spent the last 17 years killing time in the dark and feeding off of tree roots. It’s nice to see daylight finally! A lot has changed since ’96 though. All my clothes are out of style.
Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s: Some people have asked—aren’t there usually cicadas around? Why is this year special?
Cicada: Oh, sure there are annual cicada gatherings, but those are a different type… our more common cousins. They don’t have our gorgeous big red eyes, either. We’re from a group called “Brood II,” and not to toot our own horn, but the red-eyed broods like us are a little more special.
Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s: So, what are your plans while you’re here?
Cicada: Well, we only have a few weeks, so we’ve got a lot to do on a pretty tight timeline. When we come up out of the ground, we’re just nymphs, so our first order of business is to get to a tree or shrub usually. After that, we shed our exoskeletons… kind of like putting on a new outfit, before we head out on the town for our main objective: finding a mate. Mostly while we’re here, we’ll be flying around and singing to attract other cicadas. But we’re pretty disappointed the Washington Monument is closed to visitors right now. The last red-eyed brood that came to this area, back in 2004, kept telling us it was a “can’t miss” attraction.
Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s: That’s too bad. So, don’t take this the wrong way, but a lot of humans are kind of anxious about you cicadas blanketing the region. What would you like to say to them?
Cicada: “We come in peace.” Just kidding, I know it can get annoying to have guests overstay their welcome. But hey, we’re harmless, we don’t bite, we’re only here a few weeks, and you won’t see more of us until the next brood, probably in 2021. So let’s enjoy the short time we have together! And listen, we really are sorry about leaving all our exoskeletons lying around your yards and sidewalks.
Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s: How about your singing? That really seems to get on peoples’ nerves.
Cicada: What do you expect, we’re 17 years old… nobody likes teenagers’ music!
Every spring, unsuspecting homeowners discover that termites are destroying their homes. The damage caused by termites nationwide adds up to billions of dollars each year. In one case, a homeowner found termites in a book in their living room. The termites had eaten through the home’s foundation, wall, and bookshelf. The repair costs, including replacing parts of the foundation, added up to over $10,000.
Termites are attracted to a food supply of soft wood like firewood, lumber and other building materials. Protect your home from hungry termites by eliminating the temptations.
The best way to prevent termite damage is through regular monitoring and inspection. We offer one-time termite inspections, or free termite inspections for customers who have our year-round pest protection plus plan.
If you’re at all concerned that you might have an infestation, give us a call today to schedule a termite inspection and discuss your options.
