Pests We Treat - Rodents find way into Belmar, NJ home

A commercial property in Belmar, NJ that I service on behalf of Cowleys, contacted me after someone on their staff discovered mouse droppings inside the building by their back door. They were understandably concerned about a rodent infestation and the severity of the problem, and wanted a professional option about what preventative steps could be taken to resolve the infestation, and more importantly, to stop further rodent entry.  

I immediately stopped by to conduct an inspection and locate the access points for these animals. Mice can squeeze through an opening the size of a dime. The general rule is that if a mouse can poke its nose through an opening, the rest of its body will follow. I started near the droppings, and found a small opening around the door trim as a possible entry point. Of course, an opening that looks small to us, can be more than enough from the perspective of a mouse! I then took my inspection to the building’s exterior. It didn’t take long for me to find several openings where rodents could be entering. Upon closer inspection, I found some proof-positive evidence: There were mouse droppings inside openings that lead straight inside the building. this was a definite entry point that needed to be sealed.

To exclude mice from gaining any further access through these openings, I first used a gnaw-proof copper mesh. Although mice must gnaw to sand down their ever-growing incisors, they cannot handle this rough, unforgiving mesh on their teeth. If the mice can’t make a quick entry where there was an opening, they will divert to different areas. If your building’s foundation is a solid barrier with no easy access points, they’ll move to some other building. After the copper mesh was in place, I wanted to add extra assurance that mice could not enter, so I applied an expandable foam that locked everything in place. These openings were now permanently sealed and any foraging mice would be out of luck to use these points of access again. 

With the entry points sealed, I placed a few “tin cat” traps by the interior areas as a precaution. These low-profile non-poisonous non-lethal “bait, trap, and release” traps are a great way to monitor the size of the population without dealing with smelling insect-attracting rodent carcasses. We use these traps as a monitoring tool to determine whether we were successful in locating all of the rodent access points. I’m looking forward to the follow-up in two weeks to reinspect and determine whether mice are still able to gain inside access. I’m extremely confident that between the sealing of these holes and the placement of the traps, indoor mouse activity will drop down to nothing for this customer and this infestation will be completely resolved.