Handling Outdoor Rodent Problems

Many homeowners worry about rodents inside their home – and for good reason. Mice and rats can be destructive and carry a range of bacteria and disease. But if you have a yard, you could also find yourself dealing with outdoor rodent problems.

There’s a tendency to wonder if we can just leave those rats alone. Certainly, you cannot control all rats outside, especially not in NYC. But mice and rats outside of your property or in your yard are a cause for concern. Not only because they could still be spreading disease in close proximity to your home, but because the more rats find a home outside of your property, the more likely they will find their way indoors someday.

Ways to Get Rid of Rats Outdoors

Removing rats from the exterior of your property is slightly different than removing them from indoor spaces. Some of the same methods still work, but in other cases you will need a different approach.

Inside your home, you can use a process called exclusion to eliminate rats. Exclusion seals every possible entrance point so that rats can’t get in OR out, and then – using traps – we eliminate all the rodents inside of your property until there are none left.

Exclusion is still a useful strategy if you notice rats outdoors, because it can be used preventatively. But it still doesn’t reduce the exterior populations. Instead, some of the different ways that you can limit rodent populations in your yard is to:

• Keep Your Yard Clean – A clean yard will have fewer places for rodents to hide. This includes mowing lawns, raking up leaves, cutting back bushes and vines, and avoiding leaving trash or garbage bags around.
• Use Exclusion – Although you cannot use the same type of exclusion you would inside, there are still options for outdoor rodent exclusion. Depending on where mice or rats are nesting you can fence in gardens or cover them with steel mesh. You can install barriers around utility wires to keep pests from climbing on them and cut back tree branches so rodents cannot cross over them to get to your home.
• Remove Rat Burrows – Norway rats can live underground around homes in NYC. If you find they have dug out burrows, you can fill them in with soil or place a bit of steel wool inside for some extra protection.
• Set Rodent Traps – Traps can help catch mice and rats in your yard, but you should use caution when placing them outside as they can also catch other more beneficial animals. Depending on the number of rodents, traps alone might also not be effective because there are too many mice or rats and the traps outside are easily avoidable.

If you have noticed a large number of mice or rats outside, getting professional pest control can be a great preventative step to handle the problem before those rats can get inside. Rodent control services at 24 Hour Pest Control NYC can find where rats are living, set up bait stations, provide knowledge and advice for decreasing their populations and, perform rodent exclusion on your house to help prevent any outdoor rats from becoming an infestation. Get started with rat control in NYC by contacting us today.