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Homeowners will believe they have a rodent problem when . . . .

they see one or two of these critters, and in most cases that is more than enough to get your family members or house mates pretty upset.

Usually, if you see one or two, that one running about is just the one that got caught scrambling — it’s the ones you don’t see that should be of concern to you.

If it is indeed just one or two, I would consider you a very lucky person. With that said I must admit, I don’t believe in luck.

Therefore, if you have just one mouse or rat then it is more likely that you brought it home as a hitchhiker or a neighbor is possibly battling the problem and this rodent is in fact the overflow.

We at General Exterminating provide both cleanout and maintenance services.

I find it somewhat amusing at times that I am told if I did the job properly and or my product worked then we wouldn’t have a rodent issue. Too often I hear: we shouldn’t have to pay to keep re-baiting these boxes month after month, why aren’t they gone?

Unfortunately, rodent control is just that, control. You pay to keep the bugs out each month or two but wonder why the rats (or mice) aren’t all dead.

Several reasons but here are just two:

1. Where did the problem originate?
2. Do they live exclusively within the treatment zone?

Rats for example may travel 100 yards from one living quarters to the next only too return after 2-4 weeks. With a range of that size you may be best served to keep bait stations on site with fresh bait at all times. Fresh bait? Yes, several conditions affect the bait and its attractiveness. Environmental conditions such as heat can cause many types of bait to begin to degrade. Wind will quite possibly blow dust & dirt into the station causing the bait to no longer be attractive to the target pest.

Also, rodent activity will result in the bait becoming soiled by urine thus causing others to avoid it all together. Here’s what too often occurs, we place bait stations for a fee and then agree to re-bait on a scheduled basis for a nominal fee. We begin to see control after 4 – weeks and the client says, the rats are gone so pick up your boxes. We do. Three months later they see a rat.

We get a call:

• (Office) This is Tom, how may I help you?
• (Client) You put black boxes around our house a few months ago and had rat poison in them. After about three months I told you to remove them since we no longer had a problem.
• (Office) Yes sir, we did.
• (Client) It didn’t work, I still have rats.
• (Office) We can certainly stop by and replace the boxes. Then the process starts all over again.

Have you ever looked close to the building when you’re walking into a large home improvement store or a warehouse store or even a restaurant? There are bait boxes at most all of them and they are continually baited.

Why? They can’t afford their customers to see a rodent scamper across the floor while you’re shopping or sitting down for a meal.