5 Signs of Rat or Mouse Infestation in Your House
Though nocturnal and sneaky, a rat or mouse leave certain physical evidence that they are around. Among these things are gnawed food packs, waste, scratching sounds, foul smell, to name a few.
We’ll be elaborating more about them in this guide so you can tell for sure that you have a rat or mouse in the house, or worse, a rodent infestation.
As soon as you find one of the signs for mouse infestation, you’d have to deal with them fast by hiring a pest control specialist or risk more danger to your health and home.
Without more delay, let’s proceed to our guide!
1) Gnawing Marks
One telltale sign of having rodents in the home is gnawed marks. These can be found on food packaging, burlap sacks, walls, electrical wires, and the like.
Because their teeth are constantly growing, rats or mice have to chew through an object to relieve them of their pain and keep their teeth strong.
Now, by the size and colour of the bite, you can tell a lot about the creature who did it.
If the bite size is large, it most likely belongs to a rat since it has a larger set of teeth than that of a mouse. If you found a smaller bite before, but recently you’ve sighted a bigger bite, then your house probably has a mouse and rat in it.
Also, newer bites tend to be lighter in colour, but as they age, they become darker in shade. Given this, you can probably tell how recently the biting occurred, although it would reliably help if you can compare two things with gnaw marks.
2) Foot and Tail Tracks
Rats and mice scurry about randomly at a house. If they stepped on flour or dusty ground, they will leave small footprints and long tail marks caused by dragging.
Common places where these furry pests infest include corners, baseboards, garbage bins, and close to food items.
This lets you know what they have been doing at your property. In some cases, they can even reveal to you from which point they enter or exit your house.
3) Droppings
A surer and nastier sign that there are rats or mice in your abode is their droppings. This leaves a very foul odour while contaminating your room, kitchen, or other areas in the home.
Different rat species leave varied shapes and sizes of droppings mostly along walls. A common mouse usually has 0.32 to 0.64cm droppings, whereas a roof or Norway rat leaves bigger-sized ones.
As they can look like a trail of dirt, you should check to see whether they are actually rodent droppings. They will also help you identify which type of mouse or rat you are dealing with and the next pest control action to take.
4) Scratching Noises
If you hear some sort of clumsy movement, silent squeaking, or scratching noises while you are in bed, that could be a sign that you have a mouse or rat in your house.
Rats and mice come out at night more than during the day to forage for food, comfort, and shelter by building nests.
In fact, you can even hear them digging and tunnelling behind your walls and beams if they’re not that hardy. Before your house gets damaged further by them, you have to do something about it.
5) Nest
Rats cleverly make use of what’s available to them. They can build nests quickly out of fabric, shredded paper, and dried plant matter so it’s essential to empty and clean your garbage cans all the time.
Besides that, they can multiply which will lead to a worse infestation problem. If this happens, there will certainly be more outward signs, such as droppings, unpleasant odour, gnawing damages, tracks, and noises.
In a nutshell, a clean and well-maintained house will lessen the chances for rat or mouse infestation to occur. And because a rat can be aggressive to deal with, as it can bite and jump high, especially when cornered, calling a rat exterminator is often the best solution for them.