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The most common rodents to invade your home around the Birmingham, Alabama area are roof rats, Norway rats and mice. For rodent protection, Dave’s Pest Control thoroughly inspects your home for vulnerabilities where rats and mice can gain entry. These entry points should eventually be sealed up through exclusion work such as the use of mesh screens and foam sealants. We also provide this type of exclusion work. It’s important to not rodent proof your home, in some cases, until your current rodent infestation is under control.  Doing so may increase your chances of rats or mice dying inside your home. Dave's Pest Control offers exclusion protection that seals up any and all entry ways that insects, snakes, or rodents could use to invade your home, using metal screens around crawlspaces, breathing holes, attic gables, and sealing other holes with copper screens and a foam sealant. 

Rodents have been the blame in years past for spreading many diseases, such as salmonellosis, rabies and rat-bite fever.  Just like dogs and cats, rats also have fleas.  We have treated many large flea infestations in the Birmingham, AL area and found that they were caused by rats being in the home. Rodents ruin large amounts of food every year through contact, feces and urine.  Rodents can also cause house fires when chewing on electrical wires.  The most common rodent to infest your crawlspace or basement is the Norway rat.  Their coloring ranges from reddish to grayish brown.  The Norway rat has a blunt nose and small ears, with a tail shorter than the head and body.  Large numbers of Norway rats breed in the spring and fall, however, they do breed all year long.  Female Norway rats give birth to a liter of 8-12 babies only 22 days after mating, and can birth over 20 babies per year.  Norway rats are most active at dusk and just before dawn, and they can travel more than 200 feet everyday in search for food and water.  Roof rats are slightly smaller than Norway rats, with blackish coloring.  They have large ears and a pointed nose with tail that is longer than the length of their body.  Roof rats can also travel over 200 feet in search of food and water.  Roof rats most commonly infest attics.  The mouse has large ears and a tail as long as the length of the head and the body combined.  Exclusion for mice is more extensive because of their tiny body size.  Mice give birth to a liter of 4-7 babies only 19 days after mating.  Mice can travel more than 30 feet in search of food, and they mainly feed at night, with heaviest activity occurring at dusk and just before dawn. 

Rodents are always looking for shelter whether it’s digging holes in your yard or eating their way into your house.  A rodent family does not discriminate!  Just because you might keep a clean house does not guarantee you will be left alone. Rodents want our air conditioning in the summer and our heat in the winter, so it is not a bad idea to have rodent proofing on your house before you are infested.  Our methods of pest control for rodents include snap traps, glue boards and most importantly bait boxes.  These bait boxes are used for mice and rats and are placed at the area where rodents are entering your home. We have a variety of bait box sizes to place inconspicuously in and around your home. These bait boxes have a child proof lock and made of a strong material so they are safe around your pets. No animal larger than a rat will be able to get inside these boxes and the bait is secured so it can’t fall out even if larger animals mess with it. When roof rats, Norway rats, or mice feed on this bait it takes around 3 days to eliminate the problem. Rodents will usually die outside which eliminates the issue of a bad smell. This bait is designed to only kill the animal that directly eats the bait.  If the dead rodent is eaten by any animal such as a cat or dog there are no worries, for the bait is metabolized and cannot bring harm.