Like Insects rats and mice are that enter South Florida homes and business is essential for the same basic needs food, water and shelter this is why you rodent control in Miami. Rodents eat the same kinds of foods that most people eat. They will contaminate 10 times the food they eat with their urine, excrement droppings and hair. They can carry as many as 10 different types of diseases to include typhus, bubonic plague, Leptospirosis murine, spirochetal jaundice, rabies, ratbite fever, along with bacterial food poisoning.

Rodent Control Miami Pest Control

Many times rats will bite children while they sleep trying to get the bits of the food on the child that was not washed off before going to bed. Rats and mice will also start fires by chewing on matches and electrical wires in homes and businesses. Norway rats, roof rats and house mice are the most common rodent pests in need of control in Miami and South Florida.

Most Common Rodent Types

Norway Rats

In Miami Florida, Norway rats are most common along the sea coasts, canals and lakes. They will thrive in areas where garbage is not properly contained. Norway rats prefer to eat fresh meat, fish, and grain, however they can survive on one ounce per day of garbage from decayed food along with an ounce of water. Norway Rats can look for food and water 100-150 feet from their home.

Norway rats are known to be burrowers that dig in garbage and under buildings or concrete slabs. Burrowing or tunneling can cause damage by undermining the foundations of buildings, disfiguring landscape plantings, eroding banks of levees, and blocking sewer lines.

Norway rats are reddish-brown and heavy-set with a blunt muzzle. The tail is about as long as the both the head and body combined. Adults can weigh between 3/4 to 1 pound. Their droppings are about 3/4 of an inch long and capsule-shaped. Norway rats will live about 1 year and reach sexual maturity in 3-5 months. They will have between 8-12 young per litter and up to 7 litters per year, one female rat can give birth to as many as 84 young in her adult lifespan.

Roof Rats

Roof rats love to nest in attics, roof spaces, palm trees, and shrubs. They love to climb and nest off the ground. They are very destructive in attics, chewing on electrical wires and rafters. It is important to trim palms and trees away from the house to prevent roof rats from having access to your property. Roof rats prefer to eat vegetables, fruits and grains; but they can consume between 1/2 to 1 ounce per day of food from many sources. Roof rats must have water to survive, they consume an ounce per day and will look for food and water 100-150 feet from their nest.

Their colors will range from black to a grizzled gray to tan with a light belly. The tail is longer than the head and body combined. An adult can weigh from 1/2 to 1 pound. Excrement droppings are spindle-shaped and up to a 1/2 inch long. Roof rats will live about 1 year and reach sexual maturity in 3-5 months. They can have a total of 6-8 young per litter and up to 6 litters per year, an adult female can produce up to 48 young in her lifetime.

House Mice

House mice typically live outdoors in fields, occasionally come into homes and businesses in Miami and throughout South Florida. In houses and business, they typically live behind walls and in cabinets and furniture. Mice prefer to feed on grains but usually nibble at a wide range of foods. House mice require only 1/10 of an ounce of food and 1/20 of an ounce of water daily, they can survive on food alone if it has a high moisture content. House mice will travel between 10-30 feet from their nesting sites to find food and water.
House mice color ranges from brown to gray and the tail as long as its body. Adults will weigh about 1/2 ounce. Their excrement droppings are rod-shaped and about 1/8 inch long. House mice will live about 1 year and reach sexual maturity in about 6 weeks. They have between 5 and 6 young per litter and can have up to 8 litters per year, an adult mice can have up to 48 young in her lifetime.

Rodent Control and Exclusion

To help control rodents in Miami and South Florida you can implement the following Rodentproofing procedures:
Rodentproofing or rodent prevention is changing the structure of buildings in order to prevent entry of rats and mice. In considering rodentproofing, you must know the following.

• Rats can squeeze through a hole or crack 1/2 inch wide
• Mice can squeeze through a 1/4 inch wide hole or crack. If you can push a pencil though it a mouse can go through it too.
• Seal or caulk all openings on the exterior of the property.
• A rat can climb through the inside of vertical pipes 1 1/2 to 4 inches wide in diameter.
• A rat can climb the outside of any vertical pipe up to 3 inches wide in diameter.
• Rats can jump up vertically up to 36 inches.
• Rats can jump horizontally up to 48 inches across.
• A rat can jump 8 feet from a tree to a house from a branch that is 15 feet above the roof.
• Rodents can also enter homes through sewer pipes and through toilets.

 

Areas for rodentproofing are edges of doors, roof vents, windows, ventilation holes in foundations, exhaust fans, and eave vents, holes where pipes enter building.

Effective rodentproofing must block off all possible entry points where rodent can enter thru. Rodents will find breaks in the rodentproofing so frequent inspection are required and repair any breaks promptly. It will also be necessary to trap and eliminate the rodents trapped indoors due to rodentproofing.

Sanitation For Rodent Prevention

Good sanitation is a must factor in rodent control, the elimination of food, water, and harborage for rats and mice can reduce rodent populations quickly.

• How to implement good sanitation practices:
• Clean up garbage and rubbish.
• Properly dispose of garbage (garbage cans with tight fitting lids).
• Store foods properly (store foods and refuse indoors in covered, ratproof containers or in ratproof rooms).
• Store all pet food or bird seed in rodent proof containers.
• Remove nesting places (remove piles of wood, rubbish, trash, junk, boxes, and protected enclosures).
• Dry up sources of water. (air conditioning water, leaky fixture, remove tires, planter dishes.)
• Pick all fruits and vegetables from garden when ripe so rodents will not feed on them.

Sanitation practices must be implemented with consistency if rodent control is to be effective.

If you need an effective rat and mice removal and prevention service in Miami Contact Us.
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