While Ratatouille or Jerry in Tom & Jerry may have made you laugh for their cute and humorous demeanors, rats and mice in the real world are an unpleasant lot. They can wreck your home or business establishment, spread serious diseases, encourage other pests like rat snakes into the house, they even gnaw on electrical wires hence exposing the building to a fire hazards and are generally a tremendous nuisance.

These are enough reasons for anyone to be keen on keeping these unwanted visitors out and away from their homes and businesses.

Mouse proofing is the most humane, effective, safe and natural way of rodent control. Mouse proofing is preventive and cost and time effective in dealing with damages caused by rodent infestation. Rats and mice infestation is known to be prevalent during the fall and early winter seasons because they are always looking to find warm cozy places to spend the cold winter. As fall approaches in Toronto, the following tips will help you keep mice away from your building; Keep Your Home Clean.

This is the first basic step in mouse proofing. Proper and high standards of hygiene should be observed from inside the house to the yard outside because cleanliness, apart from being godliness, discourages influx of mice into your home. Taking the garbage out and regular vacuuming is not enough; trim hedges and indoor plants, and general hygienic measures you deem necessary around your building. Do regular inspection of your signs of nests, burrows or other signs of infestation and get rid of them before they claim turf. Avoid leaving dirty utensils lying around, discard food waste properly and if you have pets, clean after them (left-over food and feces) right away. Avoid keeping unnecessary junk empty cartons, cardboards, books, etc. inside your home or business. Seal Up.

This involves sealing up every possible rodent entry point in the house; cracks, eves, window and doorsill gaps, ventilation gaps, etc. This should be a bit rigorous as a rat can enter through a 14 inch  diameter opening. Sealing up will involve caulking your windows, cementing up cracks on floors, copper mesh screening openings, cap chimneys and other openings, and install kick plate along the bottom of doors. Windows and doors should be weather stripped to keep inside warm and mice out.

Vertical pipes running up the building aid in rodent entry and they should be fitted with rodent metal guards or alternatively, they pipes can be painted a few feet off the ground with high gloss clear paint that are slippery and this will prevent any ascend. This also goes for brick and stone houses that offer a courteous grip for rodents to climb on. Seek Professional Assistance.

It is advisable to seek professional help if all the above efforts do not eliminate your mouse problem. There are professional exterminators in and around Toronto City who have expertise in rodent and pest control and are always happy to extend their professional assistance.