Be vigilant to Prevent Rodents in Commercial Facility in Brick, NJ

Temperatures continue to drop as we approach the coldest months of the year. When it comes to winter pest infestations, one of my major concerns when servicing my commercial accounts, is rodent activity. Mice are notorious overwintering pests, that is, they seek harborage in warm places, like our heated homes and buildings, to escape the cold, and they are relentless in finding entry points in homes and commercial buildings. During my routine servicing inspection of one of our commercial accounts, I am always on “high alert” for potential mice entry points. It doesn’t take much for a pest control technician to overlook them and your inspections have to be thorough and methodical. What appears as a tiny crack for us, is a huge tunnel for them. A mouse can squeeze through an opening as small as the diameter of a dime. During this inspection, I happened to find a huge opening where plumbing came up from the basement into the kitchen. There are often gaps around pipes and it is a common way for mice to enter homes and buildings as well as move around inside once they are there. This particular opening was more than enough for any mouse.

With my commercial accounts, like this one in Brick, NJ, it is important to keep management in the loop, and I always let them know my findings and recommendations to resolve the infestation. I placed a call into management to confirm that they would want me to seal up the openings. In the interim, I treated the areas of concern by placing glue boards around the openings. With the glue boards in place, any rodent that comes up from beneath will be in for a sticky surprise. The glue boards that are set are pre-baited and non-poisonous. using them as monitors of pest activity is a great way to identify a problem early on before the infestation spreads. Glue boards are my eyes between visits. They tell me is a rodent has entered the structure as well as the direction it is traveling once inside. I’ll wait for management to confirm that they want me to seal the openings, but in the interim, these glue boards will help me determine the level of rodent activity that we are dealing with.