There's a sound every homeowner in an older Illawarra house knows: the soft scurry across the ceiling, right about the time the nights start cooling off. Autumn and winter push rats and mice indoors looking for somewhere warm, and our older housing stock — with its gaps, vents and roof voids — gives them plenty of front doors to choose from.
I spend a lot of time in homes around Corrimal, Thirroul and the older parts of Wollongong, and the pattern is always the same. People reach for bait first. Bait has its place, but on its own it's treating the symptom. If you don't close the ways in, you're just running an all-you-can-eat buffet with a revolving door.
How small a gap are we talking?
This surprises people every time. A mouse can squeeze through a gap about the width of a pencil. A rat doesn't need much more than a 20-cent piece. In an older home, that means the ways in are everywhere once you start looking:
- Weep holes in the brickwork that have lost their covers.
- Roof gaps where the eaves meet the wall, or where a tile's slipped.
- Gaps around pipes under the kitchen and bathroom, and where services enter the house.
- Under doors — especially the garage door and any external door that's dropped over the years.
- Subfloor vents with broken or missing screens.
The pre-winter once-over
Before the cold really sets in, it's worth walking the outside of your house with fresh eyes. Look low and look up. Anywhere you can see light, daylight, or a gap you could poke a pencil into is a potential entry point. Steel wool packed into small gaps, proper weep-hole covers, and door seals go a long way. Keep tree branches trimmed back from the roofline too — roof rats are climbers and an overhanging branch is a highway.
While you're at it, take away the reasons they're interested: secure the chook feed and pet food, keep firewood off the ground and away from the walls, and clear out the junk piles in the shed and subfloor that make cosy nesting spots.
When to bring in a hand
If you're already hearing them in the roof, proofing alone won't clear the ones inside — and rodents don't sort themselves out. Worse, they gnaw, and chewed wiring is a genuine fire risk, so it's not something to leave for "later". This is where a proper job earns its keep: bait in tamper-resistant stations along the runs they actually use, trapping in the roof void for fast knock-down, and a proper look at how they're getting in so you know exactly what to seal.
Get on it early and a rodent problem is a quick fix. Leave it and it becomes a winter-long battle. If you're hearing the signs, give us a call and we'll get them out — and help you keep the next lot from following.
Need a hand with this in your home? Get a free quote or call 0430 007 651.