How Toledo Residents Can Keep Pests Out of Their Roofs and Homes

Maintaining the long life of your roof requires routine maintenance. However, despite your best efforts, pests like mice, squirrels, and insects can cause serious damage to your roof and the rest of your home. Many Ohio residents choose to deal with pest problems once they occur. However, taking the time to work on a few preventive measures can save you time, money, and stress. Use this as a guide to protect your roof from pest infestation.

1. Choose a Containment Method

There are three main methods of getting rid of unwanted pests in your home: poison, traps, and calling a professional to evict the offending animals. The first involves laying poison where animals tend to do the most damage to your roof from the inside: your attic. The main concern with poison is there’s no telling if an animal will die inside or outside your walls. If it’s the former, disposal becomes an issue.

For this reason, some people turn to live traps, where the outcome is clear. It can also be a more humane method, as you can release the offending pest into a local park, far away from your home. However, live traps have their own challenges: you have no idea how extensive the issue is in your home, and hence how many traps you need. This brings us to the final option:

Calling a professional is the most surefire way to get rid of your pest infestation, but it’s also the most expensive. Depending on the extent of the problem, you could be spending hundreds of dollars, even up to a thousand, to control an infestation of pests.

Each method has its positives and negatives. Because of the cost involved, more people choose a DIY approach for pest control. If you’re looking for a way to prevent further problems, try one of the following suggestions.

2. Seal Off All Entry Points

If you want to prevent rodents and other pests from invading your attic wreaking havoc on your roof, make sure there’s no place for them to get in. using a flashlight and a caulking gun, do a quick perimeter check and look for any areas of rot or holes large enough for an animal to squeeze through (keep in mind that many rodents, like mice, can get through holes the size of a dime). Use copper wire mesh to cover any holes and fill in any holes in your exterior walls.

3. Seal Off All Food Sources

In the fall rodents seek out food sources that will keep them sustained all winter long. By sealing all your food in hard, plastic containers, animals won’t be able to sniff them out and find a place to sleep for the season. Some other actionable tips: never leave food out on the counter, only put pet food down at mealtimes, and keep all trash in secure, sealed containers with lids.

4. Reconsider Your Foliage

Landscaping adds beauty and curb appeal to your home, but keep in mind that some kinds of plants provide the perfect ground cover for hiding rodents. Examples include ivy and pachysandra. These types of plants actually conceal pest activity so you might have no idea they’re sneaking through it to gain entry into your home. Cut back all your creeping foliage in the fall to prevent infestation and cut back on tree branches as well so rodents can’t make it onto your roof.

5. Install a Chimney Cap

Many homeowners don’t stop to consider one of the easiest points of entry for a rodent infestation: the chimney. This kind of infestation can be especially unfortunate, since animals can get stuck and die within the column, and you may not know until you begin to notice the smell. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix for this scenario: a chimney cap still provides plenty of ventilation, but also keeps rodents from sneaking through into your attic and rest of your home.

Toledo homeowners need to know that pest proofing a home can take some effort, but is well worth it. When inside your home, rodents and other pests can affect your air quality, chew through your home materials, and compromise the structural integrity of your roof. Take these simple steps to reduce your risk of pest infestation.