I first started in the pest control industry in 2012. I have done everything from rural agricultural pest management, to government contracts, to commercial, to residential. From termites, to restoration/cleanup work, to bed bugs, to solving the craziest rodent infestations you’ve ever seen. This post is not written by ai, so please excuse any typos. I am a pest control technician not a writer, but we have the experience that you need to help you solve your rodent issues.
Here are 3 reasons why crawlspace restoration and attic restoration are so important to controlling a rodent infestation – especially in the Portland area where there is so much rodent pressure around the city.
1). Pheromones… no one really talks about them, but they are the reason why rodents, and other pests, continually enter through the same entryway, walk along the same pipe or board, or wire, follow the exact same path to the food source and back, etc. Pheromones are a massive contributor to rodent re-infestations. And guess where the pheromones are in the highest concentration? You guessed it – your attic and crawlspace; anywhere that rats, mice, or squirrels have been urinating, nesting, reproducing, storing food, etc.
If you can eliminate large quantities of pheromones (which is what rodent restoration is designed to do), AND you can properly seal off the entry points into the structure (which is what rodent exclusion is designed to do), then your rodent problem is well on its way to becoming a thing of the past.
Many of the compounds in our homes like fiberglass, plastic sheeting, sheetrock, etc. are not “organic” materials, so when a mouse urinates all over the plastic vapor barrier under the home there is no way for that urine/droppings (and the subsequent pheromones) to easily decompose or break down. If a cat poops outside, there are microbes in the soil that go to work immediately to begin breaking it down. If a rat makes 1,000 droppings all through your insulation, those microbes do not exist in a meaningful way up in an attic or down in a crawlspace, and so the disease carrying droppings simply sit there waiting to be disturbed and kicked up into the air system of the home. This is the issue that our restoration team seeks to solve – get the contaminates and pheromones out of the crawlspace/attic space, and get the space bio-sanitized.
Aside from the massive health risks associated with rodent infestations, there is also a high re-infestation risk due to the high pheromone concentrations.
2). Urine/Droppings… we discussed this a bit previously but it deserves it own line item. Let’s be real for a moment – nearly all of the older homes in Portland have some level of rodent activity in the crawlspace, basement, or attic. I will not sit and list out all of the dozens of diseased that are carried in mouse urine, and rat droppings (especially in high concentrations of them), but I want to introduce a concept that our team talks a good deal about which is called the “stack effect”. Basically the stack effect is when hot air rises in a home (say a downstairs dining room), and then air gets pulled from any available sources outside of that room in order to fill the void (think of a vacuum). Do you know where a large % of the easily accessible interior air comes from? Your crawlspace. This is particularly true in homes that are poorly insulated. So as hot air rises your interior rooms slowly fill with mixed air from your crawlspace (and other sources). If you have high concentrations of urine/droppings in your crawlspace or attic, you’re simply asking to have that air mix into the air system of the home interior. Also… like I mentioned above: PHEROMONES.
3). Removal of nest
This is also an underrated topic that many people don’t talk about. If you are able to completely remove 90-100% of the most likely areas where rodents are nesting in your home (i.e. your insulation and under your vapor barrier) it makes it SO much easier to control and clear rodent infestations. This is especially true with house mice who can have multiple different autonomous nests in a single structure, eating different food sources. Removing and replacing the insulation and vapor barrier is just the safest bet to ensuring that your infestation truly gets cleared.
If you are at your wits end with rodents and need some backup – give our office a call and schedule a free onsite inspection at 503-985-6523. Our team is happy to help with rodent exclusion, wildlife eviction, and crawlspace/attic cleanup services.
