Halloween Horrors
Halloween where it’s said that on the night of the 31st, the spirts of the dead return to visit the living and haunt their victims, it’s easy to imagine ghosts and evil spirits when you’re in bed and you hear something grumbling around above you in the loft. Is that a ghost, a hob goblin or something worse, a rat?
I don’t think it’s a monster from the netherworld come for some random once a year visit, most likely it’s just a mouse, moving around in the loft looking to build itself a nest to keep warm and cosy in, before the real onset of the cold, winter weather. But then that’s just me, a cold dispassionate pest controller who doesn’t believe in any of that nonsense.
Don't leave it too late to deal with pests
As we reach Halloween and head into autumn, our thoughts turn to winter and those long cold wet nights, we begin stockpiling wood or coal or arrange tasks like getting the boiler serviced to ensure that we’re kept comfortable and warm. And funnily enough, we’re not the only ones thinking ahead and preparing for winter, our rodent pests are all getting themselves ready for the cold weather and they too, want to be inside a nice warm home. And unfortunately that’s your home.
Winter migration of pests into homes and businesses
Winter comes quickly, once the autumn harvest has gone, either eaten or stashed away and hidden, our rodent pests are soon engaged in a race against time to find themselves somewhere warm. In addition to finding that lovely warm place to hole up in, gaining access to the insides of properties may inadvertently lead to finding a source of food, and this find may keep them going until the spring comes around again.
Rodents will be gnawing away at rotten woodwork, scratching at loose mortar joints and digging their way up from a hole in the drains, there’s a saying that all roads lead to Rome. In the rodent world at this time of year, all roads lead to home, and they are really desperate to find themselves a warm place for winter.
There are four different species of rodent pest in our area, and these are rats, mice, squirrels, and the edible dormouse: Glis glis and each animal has a different way of getting inside your home.
How do mice get inside of homes?
Mice can be tricky pests to deal with as they are highly capable climbers, any nearby shrub, tree or climbing plant may give these pests access to the roofline. Our roofs are designed to keep out rain and one feature for nearly every property is that the internal loft space allows air to blow through to keep the interior dry.
Sometimes the design of the roof or its age where tiles have shifted allow mice to slip through the gaps easily, a field mouse needs a hole which is the same size as your little finger to get through. When I look at nearly any roof, I can see entry points for mice, so keeping plants cut to a point below the roofline is vital in keeping mice out of your house.
As well as being able climbers they also have razor sharp teeth and when a modern plastic air brick comes up against a determined mouse, then the mouse will quickly become the winner and now, have an entrance to your cavity walls. The easiest thing to do is keep items stored away from the house, if you can clearly see all the air bricks around your property then the chances are mice won’t gnaw through them as they prefer to spend time hiding under some form of cover.
Likewise old rotten doorframes and door sills are all easily gnawed through, remove leaf litter than can sit up against the frames; the presence of wet leaves increases the chances of wood rot and again, provides cover for mice. A general tidy up of the garden, removing waste and putting items away is a good idea, the more barren and open an area, the less rodents will hang around.
What about rats, how do they get into our homes?
If mice can be tricky, then rats can be downright devious at gaining entrance to the insides of our properties because whereas mice are confined to the outside environment, rats are literally living beneath your feet. Rats use and live in the sewerage system, moving through the network of pipes to find food and where there’s old abandoned and dry sections, they can breed and sleep in these.
Rats will get inside the same ways that mice do, but with the added combination of using the sewers these are a common autumn / winter pest in our homes and businesses. What you can do is to take the same measures as with mice; lots of tidying up and leaf removal to keep the base of the property clear. Cut back vegetation that’s grown up towards the roof, yes, rats too are able climbers, and they have a great jumping ability.
If your house has an outside gulley, for those of you that do, it’s the grate by the kitchen that the waste from the sink, washing machine and dishwasher empties into. Well, these quickly clog with fallen leaves, and all that kitchen waste sits on top of the blockage attracting rats into feed, through a lack of general maintenance you’re bring rats right up to your property and occasionally, these drains cut back through the house travelling out to the main sewer. When this happens, rats will burrow through the soft wet earth and gain access to the cavity wall, so keeping this free from a build-up of debris through the autumn is a priority.
How do squirrels get inside our homes?
Have you noticed how large squirrels are? As cute as they appear they really are little horrors, they’re actually quite big chunky animals and they’re equipped with strong teeth and powerful jaw muscles; we can bite things quite hard, if you’ve been bitten by your toddler then you know just how hard! But squirrels leave us standing when it comes to power. Our bite force is measured in pounds per square inch (PSI) and we bite down at 500 PSI, the grey squirrel bites down at a whooping 7000 PSI and if that doesn’t impress you, the grizzly bear is also left standing at a mere 1200 PSI.
A squirrel’s teeth are its Number 1 tool, as they are primarily nut and seed eaters, they need hard teeth to break through these tough outer shells, in the wild they use their teeth to shred tree bark and soft layers of wood to create bedding, in the suburban environment they don’t need to do any of that. Because most house are built with a wooden or plastic feature to marry the roof to the walls and carry the rainwater system; the soffit and fascia boarding, squirrels simply gnaw their way inside and set up home.
Grey squirrels generally have two breeding seasons, one that starts early and can be as early as January but usually a little later like in March and the second season is mid to late summer, this means that if you’ve got squirrels already inside the loft that they’re staying for the winter. If you haven’t, then you may now find yourself with unexpected guests as around now, if mum doesn’t want her young hanging around anymore, she’ll drive them off.
My theory on this behaviour is that it’s all about food; if mum had a plentiful autumn and gathered up a lot of acorns, nuts and seeds then she’ll be happy to curl up with her young during these cold, lean months, but if this was a late litter or food is scarce this year, her survival instincts will be to push the young away so that she has the best chance of getting through the winter and breeding again come spring.
It really doesn’t matter what I think, because our cold weather runs through to March, and this is well into their first breeding season, and mum can’t risk last year’s offspring hanging around because of their omnivorous diet: put simply, the older children will eat the newborn ones. Nice.
Squirrels are equipped with long, sharp claws and with these they can simply run up the brickwork to the roof and onto the soffits, usually the design of the house has a chimney on the side and where this sits outside of the frame of the building this will be the route up to the roof. Alternatively, overhanging tree branches, climbing plants and ivy all act as aerial routes for the animals to get onto your roof. If you’re able to, get the saw out and cut back any branches that overhang or run up to the house, again squirrels can jump some distances and so you’d have to push back at least six feet, possibly nine.
Autumn pest control checklist to prevent things going bump in the night
It’s not all doom and gloom however, there are some simple steps that you can take to reduce your chance of having a pest problem this autumn.
• Rake up all the fallen leaves and place in the compost bin or Council recycling bin, because windblown leaves collect in corners and down the sides of buildings where we go outside far less during the winter, shrews and mice will be in this leaf litter looking for insects and they will find any holes and gaps in the walls of your property.
• Before those autumn storms roll in, it’s time to carry out any little jobs that you’ve been putting off when the weather was warmer; that broken roof tile or missing piece of fascia board, repair or replace these to help keep out squirrels out of the building, yes they can gnaw their way inside but it’s pointless leaving a defect that is just inviting them in.
• If your shed is like mine and an absolute mess it’s time to have a thorough sort out and this will give you a chance to check the integrity of the walls, sheds are prone to rot and every year I get call outs, where rats have found their way inside, they’ve eaten the grass seed out of the box and destroyed the patio furniture cushions to make nests in. Do you know that you can’t buy replacement cushions for expensive garden furniture? Its not worth the risk.
• Going back to the roof, clear out the gutters and any surface drains, if your property has a shared system which combines the drain from the kitchen its very common to find that this has become blocked, overflowed and this stinky greywater attracts rats. Fat, grease, and small pieces of food all smell and attract vermin, so unblock those drains and clean up any residue that’s overrun the edge of the drain with a degreasing solution to leave no trace.
• If you keep pet food or wild bird seed in your shed or garage, make sure that these containers are strong enough to withstand the teeth of rats or mice, otherwise you might find that its not just your friends your feeding. Strong plastic containers may work if they’ve got rounded corners, but I would recommend keeping food items in metal containers. Something like an old metal filing cabinet is ideal to keep animal feed in.
Autumn is generally a time of plenty before the cold, lean times of winter and these animals struggle, because they’re all scavengers to some degree they are always looking out for opportunity, a loose roof tile, a rotten wooden door frame, a plastic airbrick that covered in leaves all give these rodents time and opportunity to find their way into a warm, cosy place and who knows, they maybe food as well. The aim is to be pest free; a few small changes now could save you the expense, the hassle and the fear of having a rodent infestation, and if you hear noises, who you gonna call?
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