Photo Album: Pest Prevention Measures in Hazlet, NJ commercial building.

For many insects, after their long winter slumber, the warm weather of spring is nature’s alarm clock that triggers their new breeding cycle. Mice are also out and about looking for food and shelter for breeding. Most structures have enough gaps, crack, and openings for these pests to gain access. Mice only need about a 1/4” of space to enter a structure — about the diameter of a dime. If a mouse can poke its snout through an opening, the rest of its body will follow. And insect access points are even more challenging to identify since bugs need a few millimeters of space to squeeze inside a building.

Gap under door.

During a commercial inspection, I'm always focused on identifying potential insect and rodent entry points. Exclusion of pests from your building should be the first line of defense. Preventative exclusion of pests is far better than after-the-fact treatments and applications to remove an existing infestation. Common entry points are broken screens, eroded weatherstripping, exterior doors that don't fully form a seal when closed, and gaps around pipes and wires entering the building.

Open pipe

A building's entire exterior perimeter should be systematically and thoroughly inspected to identify and correct problems that could easily lead to an infestation. It is easy to overlook gaps and cracks that are tiny to us, but are wide-open entrances for insects and rodents.

Exclusion in open pipe

We sealed up this hole.

Rodent bait station placed here.

Mice can easily gain access to this building here.

Gap around pipes

What a great entry way for rodents.

Rodent exclusion in open area around pipes

There photos show some gaps in and outside of a recently inspected building that would have allowed insects to gain access and move freely about once inside. Now, with these openings identified and sealed. the likelihood that this business will be facing a pest infestation during the peak insect seasons of spring and summer is substantially reduced.

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