Rodent Inspection in Houston, TX
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Rodent Damage in Houston, Texas
If you’ve ever dealt with a rodent infestation, you’ve also dealt with rodent damage. Rodents, such as rats and mice, are known to cause extensive property damage by chewing through just about anything they can get their paws on. From electrical wires to insulation to walls, there aren’t many objects that are considered to be off limits to rodents. Rats and mice chew on things to accomplish more than just feeding themselves. Have you ever stopped to wonder why that is? Continue reading to learn three of the main reasons why rodents chew so much.
Maintaining Their Incisors
Rodents have incisors—narrow teeth at the front of their mouth—that continuously grow. Without proper maintenance, these teeth can either grow into their brains or grow so long that they cannot get food into their mouths. Rats and mice must gnaw on things every day in order to prevent their teeth from growing out of control. Their constant chewing actually helps them to survive.
Creating Entrance Holes
It is in a rodent’s nature to explore its environment in search of food, shelter, and warmth. Because of this, they will do whatever they can to make their exploration easier and more successful. That is why it is common to see rats and mice chew holes through walls, floorboards, and roofs in an effort to find the perfect hiding/nesting spot.
Building Nests
Female rodents build nests out of just about anything they can find, including insulation, wood, electrical wires, paper, and fabric. They will chew through these things until they gather enough warm material to build a proper nest.
Rodent Risks
Rodent inspection in Houston, Texas is best left to the experts at Houston Jacob Home Inspection, LLC. Rats and mice are part of the rodent family and account for the most common and feared pest problem around the world. They are primarily nocturnal and while they have poor eyesight, they make up for it with exceptional hearing and rely almost entirely on their sense of smell to find food sources, shelter, and avoid predators. These small rodents commonly enter our homes, offices, restaurants, and other areas that can cause damage to structures, crops, and health risks to humans or pets. Rats and mice are generalists and feed on a wide variety of food sources. This wide range of foods includes seeds, fruit, stems, leaves, fungi, and various vertebrates and invertebrates. Rats and mice are not completely arboreal but will commonly spend much of their life off the ground in trees, shrubs, power lines, fences, rooftops, and attics. Rats reproduce quickly with most species having a gestation period of only a few weeks. With around a dozen young per liter and the ability to reproduce rapidly throughout the year, rodent populations can grow exponentially in a very short time frame.
Rats and mice leave behind urine and feces everywhere they travel which not only creates unsanitary conditions and major health risks, but it also creates rodent highways for other rats to follow. Rats and mice travel using their sense of smell. The scent trails left behind by other rats and mice are commonly traveled by new populations as they search for food, water, and shelter. Therefore, once you have had rodents in your home or office, you are always going to have rodents again, it is just a matter of when. The feces and urine left behind also creates significant health risks as these particles become dry they become airborne. Ingestion of these particulates can cause Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in humans and is a lethal threat in the United States. Rodents are also commonly known to carry and transmit multiple bacterial, fungal, viral, and parasitic pathogens than can cause Hemorrhagic Fever, Lassa Fever, Leptospirosis, Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis, Rat-Bite Fever, Salmonellosis, Tularemia, and even various plagues that have occurred throughout history due to the spread of rodents and the fleas that they carry.
The consistent gnawing of rats and mice along with their corrosive droppings cause millions of dollars in property damage annually in the US. Rodents are the leading cause of electrical fires in homes and businesses in Houston, Texas. Rodents also contaminate and trample the insulation in your home which decreases your home’s utility efficiency.
