Want to keep your business free from a mouse or rat infestation? Follow our guide for 8 simple tips to keep your commercial space clean and pest-free!
Many people working in warehousing and distribution facilities have had to deal with mouse or rat infestations at some point. These rodents can cause serious damage to stored inventory and
vehicles, not to mention the risk their urine and droppings pose to workers who could be exposed to them.
A case study also shows that warehouse managers of the food industry often struggle with rodent control during
full-fledged infestations that can lead to large-scale damage to incoming shipments.
Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to minimise the chances that you’ll encounter a mouse or rat
problem in your warehouse, vehicle fleet, or storage facility. Here are 8 methods to help you get started.
How Can Severe Rodent Infestations Cause Damage In Warehouses?
Even though mice and rats prefer to feed on cereals and grains, they chew on everything. They can gnaw and nibble at any stored item in your warehouse, whether it’s cloth or
cardboard pieces. These rodents can also chew through the electrical wires and cause fire hazards in the warehouse.
They are the carriers of several contagious diseases that cause
fatal health hazards among warehouse workers. Not to mention, keeping the mouse or rat infestation under control can be quite
troublesome because of their fast life cycle and high birth rates. The high breeding speed of these
rodents makes monitoring them hard, and one or two that get overlooked can cause major infestations.
8 Ways To Keep Mice And Rats Out Of Warehouse
1. Locate And Get Rid Of Current Infestations
Regularly check the containers and boxes of each shipment for holes and mice or rat droppings to determine the location of the current infestation. The shape, size, and
amount of the droppings can help you understand the rodent population. Once you locate the current infestation, you can use bait stations to draw out the rodents.
It’s best to use small food items as bait to attract rats or mice. And follow the gnaw marks and droppings to place the tamper-resistant bait stations in the nesting places of these pests.
However, if you have a severe rat problem and baiting isn’t working, you can set traps, such as snap-style mouse traps, to kill the rodents.
2. Seal All Openings
Mice and rats enter spaces as small as a nickel and wreak havoc inside the warehouse. That’s why check every nook and corner, including the warehouse cracks and crevices, to seal them.
Carefully seal all the automatic doors, windows, warehouse vents, pipelines, and other entry points. It’s best to use durable material, such as caulk or steel wool, to seal the
potential openings and keep out these rodents to avoid a rodent infestation in your warehouse.
3. Check The Outdoor Landscape
If you have trees and creepers growing outside the warehouse building, they offer easy access to rats, mice, and other pests inside the warehouse. Creepers almost act like ladders for rats and
mice to climb the walls and enter the building.
Fruit trees are also known to attract these rodents. So, cut and trim all plants and trees surrounding the warehouse to prevent the rodents from accessing easy entry points.
Additionally, eliminate garbage cans and old wooden logs because they act as nesting places for rats and mice. You can significantly reduce the risk of rodent infestations inside the warehouse by eliminating these entry points.
4. Sufficient Storage Room
The warehouse needs ample storage space, so keep plenty of room between the storage units to walk through them and look for pest damage. More space will make it difficult for these rodents to
cause a full-fledged mouse or rat infestation.
Furthermore, with ample room between the storage units, it’ll take more time for the rodents to move from one unit to another and enter important warehouse areas.
5. Rotate Storage
Move old containers and boxes from time to time to reduce the chances of rodents creating nesting
spots inside these storage units. Constantly moving and rotating the storage items will also prevent the pests from hiding in dark and untouched corners of the warehouse buildings.
6. Practice Cleanliness
Ensure the entire facility is spick and span, and train the employees to maintain a neat and clean
environment inside the warehouse. It’ll make regular inspections much more convenient, and you can
easily identify tell-tale signs to trap rodents. Also, avoid cluttering or letting the trash pile up because these are where rodents are usually most active.
7. Eliminate Food Sources
Rats and mice have excellent olfactory senses and easily smell even the smallest food crumbs. It’s best to
have a separate cafeteria building where the warehouse workers can eat to eliminate the risks of leaving out any food that can attract these rodents.
8. Contact Warehouse Pest Control
If you face difficulties in dealing with these rodents, hire any professional pest control service that is
well-experienced in keeping pest infestations under control in a warehouse.
Maintain a Rodent-Free Warehouse
Sometimes, the best way to prevent a major problem is to take simple steps to minimise the chances that it will occur in the first place. With these tips, you’ll be able to keep any rodents out of
your warehouse, promoting peace of mind as you manage your business and carry out your day-to-day operations.
Rodent problems don’t usually come with a quick-fix, one-stop solution and require multiple techniques. That’s why it’s a great idea to hire
professional pest control services when solving the rodent problem in a vast area like a warehouse. Professional pest control technicians can work with warehouse managers on the best steps for
mice and rodent prevention.
Our team here at GC Pest Control has been working hard to ensure that our customers have peace of mind when it comes to keeping mice and rats out of
their warehouses by providing them with the best possible solution available today. We also use advanced tools and techniques to eliminate these rodents and prevent property damage.
If you’re interested in learning more about tips and other pest-proofing systems that will keep pests at bay for good, browse our blog
section.