It’s easier to keep pests out than remove them from home

Have you experienced mysterious wet stains on ceilings, electrical and security wires chewed, or noise and activity in your attic or ceilings? If you have any of these symptoms, you may have unwanted guests living in your house.

Winter is a natural time for animals that normally live outside to seek warmth and shelter, and although it is nice to help our wild friends, many of them can cause damage or even disease.

Imagine that those stains on your ceilings may be urine from possums that have somehow gotten above the ceiling, the chewed electrical wires can be a fire hazard, and the noise in your attic may be squirrels or even rats nesting and breeding.

The solutions to pest infestations vary somewhat depending upon the animal. Keeping in mind that it is easier to keep animals out than to get them out once they are in, there are some basic things you can do to discourage wild animals from taking up residence in your home.

Seal all holes around your house: Walk around your house and examine your siding, roof overhangs, garage doors, and vents and chimneys that go through the roof. This is especially critical for mice and rats that can enter through holes as small as a quarter. You should seal all holes with wood or wire mesh. Install a spark arrestor cap on the top of your chimney

Inspect crawl space vents: Make sure there are good screens on your crawl space vents. Typically, insect screen is not enough to keep a rat or possum out. Install hardware cloth on the vents. Hardware cloth can be purchased at any hardware or home improvement store.

Trim all trees and shrubbery away from your house: Animals tend to be excellent climbers. They will use tree branches, vines or shrubbery growing close to the house to access entry points such as the fireplace chimney.

Make your home unwelcome: Even if they are not living in your house, animals will often choose piles of wood, stones or bricks for their homes. Any of these potential habitats should be moved as far away from your house as possible. Don’t leave bird or pet food in locations accessible to wild animals. Animals may slip under garage doors or enter through pet doors to eat the food stored there.

If you already have or think you have a wild animal infestation, you can attempt to remove the animal yourself. Use caution; wild animals can carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans, rabies being of the greatest concern.

After the animal leaves your house, raccoons and possums can be discouraged from coming back by spreading mothballs. For possums, leaving a light on in the nest area for a minimum of three days and nights will also discourage them from staying.

There are also a variety of traps for larger wild animals. Many of these traps will cause no harm to the animal but will allow you to relocate them away from your house. For mice and rats, there are numerous traps and poisons that can be used. Be careful in spreading poison if you have a household pet. You do not want your pet to eat the poison.

Especially in spring and summer make sure that there are no young animals in a nest or den before you seal up access. You do not want to trap an animal in the inside of your house.

For more ideas on keeping pests out of your house, visit the Humane Society of the United States Web site at www.hsus.org. If you are simply not up to or interested in removing the pests yourself, there are many professional services that can do it for you. Typically, these services are listed in the phone book. As with all contractors, you should check references and get more than one cost estimate for the work.