Rodent-proof Your House

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Appearance: 13 to 16 inches from head to tail, with a furless tail about 7 inches long, shorter than the body. Brown to gray, with paler undersides. The droppings are about three-quarter-inch long, found scattered along runs. Rear footprint is about 1½-inches long.

Active period: These rats emerge from burrows or nests just after dusk and generally travel on the ground, following established routes along the edge of a wall or building to an entry point. They prefer to build nests of paper, leaves, twigs or rags in any sheltered spot, often outdoors in woodpiles or other debris. They come indoors at night.

Favorite Foods: Omnivorous, eating any type of human food as well as carrion and small animals; require a water supply. Most likely to take bait from traps placed along normal travel routes, or near where a previous food supply has been removed. Good baits include peanut butter rolled in oats, birdseed or cheese.

Range: Usually travels less than 50 yards from nest or burrow, but may range farther to eat grain in fields; found throughout North America.

Behavior: Repetitive routes are evidenced by greasy stains on walls or trails of droppings. Uncontrolled populations quickly become dangerously high, especially in urban areas. Each year, females bear three to seven litters with six to 10 pups per litter. They are reproductively mature in three months.

Seal up, Trap up, Clean up!

Rodent Proofing

• Seal all cracks larger than one-fourth inch (the space needed for a mouse to slip through) with hardware cloth, metal sheeting or mortar.

• Trim back tree branches so none come within 6 feet of your roof.

• In barns and outbuildings, seal rooms where you keep feed or put feed in metal containers with tight-fitting lids.

• Keep the areas around your house, barn and outbuildings clean to reduce or eliminate rodent hangouts, such as old appliances, trash lumber, junk vehicles, open garbage cans or dense thickets of weeds. Allow a margin of mowed open space between buildings and nesting sites, such as a woodpile.

• Inside your house, stack stored goods off the floor, on pallets or shelves, and leave some open space along the base of all walls.

• Forget about using ultrasonic devices to deter rodents with high frequency sound. There is zero scientific evidence that they work. (And when a company you trust promotes them, challenge them to show you proof they work.)

Trapping Tips

• For bait, use peanut butter with rolled oats or attach sunflower seeds to the trigger plate with a hot glue gun.

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