Roof Rat & Mouse Control in Auburn, GA

Rodents in your Auburn home

Auburn has rodent pressure from two directions. On the farm side of the county line, hay, feed, brush and tall field grass support big populations of field and house mice, and those mice move toward garages, sheds and crawlspaces when the weather shifts or a field gets cut or graded. The roof rat comes from above: a slender, dark climber that runs fence lines, utility lines and tree limbs, then goes up brick or siding and into the attic. With mild Georgia winters, neither one has an off season.

How you tell them apart is mostly time of day and droppings. Rats and mice are active at night; squirrels are early-morning and late-afternoon animals. Droppings show you where they're traveling and nesting. Rodents chew wiring and insulation, contaminate food and stored items, and roof rats in the Southeast are associated with murine (flea-borne) typhus. Bait alone doesn't fix any of that. Sealing the openings does.

Roof rat, Norway rat or mouse?

Knowing which one you have changes where the pro looks. Roof rats are slim with long tails, climb well and nest high in attics and upper walls. Norway rats are heavier, dig burrows and stay low around foundations and crawlspaces. Mice are small and get in through tiny gaps at ground level, leaving droppings in cabinets, along baseboards and in garages. An Auburn house next to open land can have more than one at the same time.

Why fields and hay keep sending more

On a house near the county line, the population next door doesn't go away when you clear the ones inside. Pasture, hay storage, feed and brush on the farm side keep producing rodents, and every time a field gets mowed, cut for hay or graded for a new street, some of them move. The closest houses are the next stop. That's why an Auburn rodent job that only removes the animals inside tends to repeat. The house has to be closed up.

Trimming trees helps, but rodents climb brick

Cutting limbs back from the roof is good advice, but it doesn't stop rodents by itself. Roof rats climb brick, siding and downspouts without any tree at all, and on close-set newer streets they move between houses along fences and utility lines. On older core homes they often use the same loose vents and soffit gaps squirrels do. The real fix is finding every opening, high and low, and closing it.

Crawlspaces on older and newer homes

Many homes here are built over crawlspaces, and that's a favorite way in. A crawlspace vent with a rusted or torn screen, a gap where a pipe or line enters, or a loose access door lets mice and rats under the floor, and from there into the walls. Older core homes tend to have worn vent screens. Newer homes tend to have construction gaps around utilities that were never sealed. Both get closed with metal, which rodents can't chew.

Why bait alone keeps failing

Bait does nothing to stop new rodents from coming in, and with fields next door they will. It also causes a second problem: a poisoned rat often dies inside a wall or the attic, where you can't reach it, and the smell lasts for about two weeks. Sealing first, then trapping, avoids both problems. The openings are closed, and the rodents inside are removed where you can see them.

Health risks and cleanup

Rodent droppings and urine contaminate insulation, stored items and food, and rodents are tied to salmonella and other illnesses. Roof rats in the Southeast are associated with murine typhus, which spreads through their fleas. After the rodents are out and the house is sealed, the soiled areas should be cleaned. That doesn't always mean replacing all the insulation, so ask the pro to show you what's actually contaminated.