Pests, Not Guests: How to Keep Mice, Rats, and Squirrels Out of Your Home

Hot Houston summers keep us anxiously waiting for beautiful fall weather and cool winter days when we welcome our most treasured guests into our homes for the holidays. But the cooler temperatures also welcome unwanted guests into our homes. Fall is when mice, rats, and squirrels make their way into the comfort of the warm, dark spaces in your house to escape the cold winter ahead.

The thought of mouse droppings on your Christmas platters is horrifying enough, but rodents in your home can have even more serious consequences: infestation, damage to your home that is fairly costly to fix, and diseases that put your family’s health at risk. Let’s take a look at how rodents infiltrate your home, what can happen if they do, and how to get rid of them and keep them out.

Mice and rats thrive in temperatures between 65°F and 80°F and can actually die from hypothermia if exposed to moderately cold temperatures for an extended period of time. Squirrels have a higher tolerance for colder temperatures but depend on warm enclosures and a high calorie diet for survival. So when it’s 40°F outside, your home is an ideal nesting place for rodents, complete with food and warm shelter. But how do they get in your house?

Squirrels chew holes above gutters and the corners of trim to get into your home. And you may not realize it, but there are also a number of holes outside your home that welcome rodents inside including chimneys, vents, gaps in siding, roof lines, and entry points for wires and pipes. Some mice and rats can even make it through a hole smaller than a quarter. They creep through these holes, crawl up the walls into the attic, and get all snug in their beds. Now, all they need are some sugar plums and holiday stockings to really make themselves at home— and ruin your entire holiday.

It’s the holiday season, and just like a scene from the Nutcracker, you have no other choice but to ward off the mice that infiltrate your home – along with all the other squatter rodents. Why? Mice, rats, and squirrels carry diseases that can cause both short term and long term illness. Bacteria such as salmonella and listeria found in urine, droppings, saliva, and nesting materials of mice and squirrels can potentially contaminate your home and food causing a range of nasty symptoms: fever, diarrhea, chills, stiffness, and nausea can last for days and sometimes even weeks.

More long term medical concerns include diseases like leptospirosis and lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV) from contact with rat secretions, and lyme disease from squirrels. Lyme disease can be debilitating with symptoms that include fatigue, cognitive impairment, joint pain, poor sleep, mood problems, muscle pain, and neurological complications that can last for more than six months. Leptospirosis and lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV) infections from rats can cause liver damage, kidney failure, pancreatitis, and in some rare cases, meningitis. Bites and scratches by rats can lead to rat-bite fever, which can cause short term flu-like symptoms and long term infection of the heart’s lining, spinal cord, brain, and the lungs, if left untreated. Just think: if rat fleas were blamed for the bubonic plague six hundred years ago, you probably want them out of your home immediately.

You may think the problem is isolated to your attic, but if these sneaky rodents were able to get into your attic, they will find a way to your kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, and other parts of your home.

Rodents, as small as they are, don’t seem like they are capable of doing much damage to your home. But in reality, these nibblers can contaminate your air ducts and chew holes through piping, which could lead to thousands of dollars in repairs. They can ruin your insulation, cause electrical shortages, and even burn your entire house down; if wire is exposed from rodents chewing on the sheath, and water or urine comes in contact with the wire, your wires could spark and cause a fire.

Rodents can also damage your car and appliances: rats chew through car wires; mice build nests in your appliances; and squirrels chew holes in the exterior of your home to create entry point. And as these rodents breed, your home becomes infested with more disease-carrying creatures. The damage can be exponential.

Speaking of breeding…

Rodents multiply at alarming rates. A family of 6 mice can grow to 50-60 mice in just 90 days. The gestation period of a common house mouse is just 19 days, 22 days for a roof rat, and 45 days for a squirrel. If you know there’s at least a couple of rodents in your home, you should try to remove them immediately; it probably won’t be long before your home is infestated.

One of the most telltale signs that you have rodents in your home is the scratching and running noise you hear, especially in the evening time when everyone is asleep and your home is quiet.