Getting Rid Of The Rodent Threat To Your Food Storage

There are many things that present threats to your food storage. One of the things that you will want to make sure you take care of is an invasion of rats or mice.

It is critically important for the safety and health of you and your family that you build up food storage in case there is a time when you cannot obtain food in any other way. Too many people have insufficient or poorly planned food storage.

However, once you have built up your food storage, it is important to consider the threats to it. If you do not take the time to do this, you may go to use your food in a time of need only to find out it has spoiled due to insects, rodents, or simply going past its sell by date.

This would make a disaster type situation even worse. One of the pests you will need to conscious control and make sure that it does not get into your food is rodents.

Rodents are mammals and as a result, they do not like the cold. Unfortunately, during the winter, the cold tends to drive them to invade our homes.

This not only presents a threat to any food storage you have, but it can also expose you to numerous illnesses, lice, fleas, ticks, and so forth. You will want to take steps to make sure that you and your family are not exposed to these dirty creatures by making sure that they stay out of your home and out of your pantry.

The first and most effective thing you can do to get rid of mice and rats is to clean your home. Rodents tend to like dirty areas that contain a lot of clutter because there are a lot of hiding spots.

In addition, they also like these areas because there tend to be left over morsels of food. Open food containers smell really good to them and will be very attractive to them if they are left out in the open.

After you have picked everything up, make sure you clean off all of the dust, dirt, and sticky residue from various things. Make sure that you actually sort and put away the piles of things instead of moving them from one corner to the next.

The mice will not go away if you do this. It is also important to sanitize the countertops, crevices, and corners. Do not limit this cleaning job to areas of the home that are commonly used.

To get rid of these pests, you will need to clean every inch of the house, including the garage, attic, and the basement. Oftentimes, rodents will make their nests in areas that are rarely cleaned such as the garage or attic and invade the kitchen from there.

You will not take care of the problem unless you address the cracks in these areas as well. By sealing up all of the cracks in your home, you will not only prevent rodents from invading it, but you will be able to make your home more energy efficient.

With fewer cracks, less heat and air conditioned air will be able to escape. This means you will have to spend less on heating and cooling your home.

The next thing you will want to do is clean the area where you store your trash. When rodents cannot get into the house, they often turn to your outdoor trash as a great source of food.

This area is also often cluttered and there are many places to hide. Mice and rates will be much less likely to invade your trash if you keep this area picked up and clean.

It is also a good idea to keep your trash away from your home so that the rats do not continue to try to invade your home. The smell of the trash will draw new rodents to your home and the problem will become worse and worse if you store it right next your home.

You can dampen the smell by making sure that you tightly tie your trash bags and close the lid completely on the trash cans. It is important that you do not simply put trash bags next to the trash can when it gets full because mice can eat through the bag to get to the food.

Another thing that you will want to consider doing is setting traps for these pests. There are a variety of different traps that you can set for these creatures.

Some are more effective than others. In addition, you can decide whether you want one that will kill the mouse or if you would like one that will simply trap it so you can let it go somewhere else.