Getting Ready for Rodent Season in Newark

Every fall, as the nights cool, Newark’s rats and mice start looking for a warm place to spend the winter, and the city’s old buildings give them plenty of ways in. A little work in early autumn keeps them out of yours.

Why fall is the turn

Norway rats and house mice are active all year in Newark, but fall is when the pressure indoors spikes. As outdoor food thins and the temperature drops, rodents that were living in the yards, alleys, sewers and vacant lots start pushing into basements, cellars and wall voids for warmth and food. The first cold snap is often when a homeowner who had no rodents all summer suddenly hears them in the walls.

Getting ahead of that means doing the exclusion work before the weather turns, in early fall, rather than trapping through the winter after they are already in.

Seal the building

Rodents enter through gaps most people never look at. Mice need only a hole the width of a pencil; rats need a bit more. Walk the foundation and look at the gap where gas, water and sewer lines pass through the wall, the basement windows, the door sweeps on the cellar and the back door, the corners under the porch and steps, and any crack in an old foundation. Close them with steel wool, hardware cloth and mortar rather than foam or caulk, which a rodent chews through in a night.

Pay special attention to the sewer lateral and the floor drains, because in Newark that is a common rat route up from below. A cracked lateral or an open floor drain is an open door.

Cut the food and shelter

Rodents stay where there is something to eat and somewhere to hide. Keep trash in cans with tight lids, clean up birdseed and dog waste, do not leave pet food out, and pull ivy, woodpiles and clutter back from the foundation where rodents nest and travel unseen. In a yard that borders an alley or a vacant lot, this matters even more, because that is where the pressure comes from.

The shared-building problem

In a two or three-family house, or an apartment building, rodents travel through the shared cellar and the party walls, so sealing your unit while the common basement stays open just moves them next door. Fall prevention in a multi-family Newark building really means addressing the whole building, the common foundation, the shared drains and the cellar, not one apartment. If you rent, this is the moment to ask the landlord to seal the common areas before winter.

References

• City of Newark, health and community wellness
• CDC, rodent prevention and control

Have this problem now? Call 973-548-0440 and describe it.