Pest control technicians explain that 90% of rodent activity happens in roof voids. A mouse squeezes through a hole the size of a 5-cent piece, a rat through a 20-cent piece. They describe inspection signs, treatment visits with warranty, and how to proof entry points.
Questions this video answers
In the roof void — the speakers say about 90% of activity is found there.
A hole the size of a 5 cent piece.
A hole the size of a 20 cent piece.
A residential property would have most of its activity when it comes to rodents coming from the roof void. So they typically sleep up there during the daytime, stay nice and warm and then they'll venture down during the night time. So that's when they come out into the kitchen, around looking for food scraps, that type of thing during the night. But the roof void is where you're going to find 90% of your activity. So that's where we want to investigate and target.
So in the roof void, we're looking for any signs of rodent activity. So a lot of droppings, evidence of them burrowing through the insulation. You very rarely find rodents in a roof void during an inspection. They're more scared of us than we are of them, so you very rarely see them in the roof void itself. Just evidence. So we found that evidence. We've implemented a treatment plan, we're going to come back next week, check it all over, offer the customer a warranty too. And then we've also done an inspection around the outside. So we've pointed out a few areas that we think that they may be getting in.
A mouse can fit through a hole the size of a 5 cent piece, so if they can get their head through a hole, they'll fit the rest of their body through. And a rat size of a 20 cent piece as big as that, a big rat will be able to fit through that. So they can contort their body to get through gaps that you don't think that they would be able to fit through. We're trying to prevent them from getting inside the house, so it's the simple little things of proofing up the areas that they're getting in. You notice this door, there's a big gap underneath it. It may not seem big enough to the naked eye for a mouse to get in, but a mouse can definitely.
Fit under that, not leaving food scraps around. So covering the bin at night time, perhaps even putting it away completely so that they're not attracting rodent activity. Another thing to help prevent rats from entering your home is have trees and shru cut back away from the roof, because if they can gain access to the roof, that's how they'll get inside the property. So that's one way we want to prevent them from getting inside your house.
