Category: Animal removal (Page 2 of 2)

How to get birds, squirrels, bats, raccoons, opossums and other animals out of your house.

Cleaning a Seattle crawl space with a vacuum

Dealing with Rodent Damaged Insulation in Seattle

September 14, 2021 / parkerecopest

Rats in the attic or crawl space are common problems Seattle homeowners know all too well. And as the cold Seattle winter sets in, these pesky critters are in search of a warm cozy place to nest. Don’t let rodents ruin your home. In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about rodent damaged insulation and effective pest-control

Replace Vs. Refresh your Rodent Damaged Insulation

In the wild, rodents, be it mice or rats, will seek soft fibers for their nests. And unfortunately, insulation found within our crawl spaces, walls, and attics appear to be their favorite nesting material. As a result, rats and mice can damage the insulation in your home by either collecting insulation fibers for a nest elsewhere or directly making a nest within the insulation itself.

Effective Rodent Control: Crawl Space and Attic Hygiene

Effective rodent control in your Seattle home is essential when it comes to preventing the spread of disease. The feces and urine produced by rodents accumulate over time, leading to an increased risk of spreading zoonotic diseases. According to the CDC rat infestation guide, rats and mice in Washington spread diseases (viral and bacterial) directly and indirectly. Some of these zoonotic diseases include:

Leptospirosis: which spreads through urine and waterways.
Hantavirus: is a virus that spreads through rodent urine and feces.
Salmonella: A bacteria that spread via the fecal-oral route.
Rat-Bite Fever: A bacterial disease that spreads through bites and scratches caused by rats. It can also spread through the oral-fecal route (i.e., consuming food or water contaminated by rats).

Do You Need to Replace Insulation After a Rodent Infestation?

replacing rodent damaged insulation in crawl space, Washington

Rats have damaged the insulation in your beautiful Seattle home. What do you do? Replace, refresh, or remove? We completely understand that removing and replacing insulation from your crawl space and attic is time-consuming and extremely expensive.

If the damage to the insulation is minimal, then our team at Park Eco Pest Control will choose to refresh the existing insulation material. Now, refreshing existing insulation simply entails that only sections (damaged) insulation are replaced. We only ever completely replace insulation from a crawl space or attic when the damage caused by rodents is extensive due to long-term uncontrolled rodent destruction, or if you’d like to increase the energy efficiency of your home.

How to Keep Rodents Out of Insulation in Seattle

Keeping rodents out of your crawl space, attic, and insulation will require some time and effort. And since these pesky critters pose a risk to human health, we recommend reaching out to a professional pest control service in Seattle for an initial first clean.

When it comes to cleaning and refreshing your damaged insulation, our team at Parker Eco Pest Control will:

Locate and seal up any holes, burrows, vents, and gaps that allow rats and mice to enter your crawl space.
Do some dirty work and safely remove all dead rats and mice from your crawl space or attic. We will even humanely remove any active nest sites present in your attic or crawl space.
Our Seattle pest-control team will most importantly remove and dispose of all rat feces and droppings present in the attic or crawl space.
Sanitize and disinfect the entire area with an eco-friendly, enzyme-based product that actually eats the organic material left by feces and urine. It leaves behind water and CO2 as an odorless, harmless bi-product.
Replace the vapor barrier in your crawl space if it’s damaged.
Finally, depending on the degree of damage and contamination, we will either refresh or replace the insulation.

Attic and Crawl Space Cleaning by Parker Eco Pest Control

Winter is on its way, and so are the rats! Getting a good rodent control regime is crucial in preventing rats and mice from damaging your insulation. Parker Eco Pest Control provides excellent and professional pest control services all the way from Seattle through to Marysville. So, talk to us today about rodent pest control and crawl space cleaning in Seattle.

Barn Owl Box: The Natural Rat Repellent in Seattle

August 7, 2021 / parkerecopest

Are you looking for natural rodent control methods? Well, let us introduce you to the power of the barn owl nest box. Keeping rats and mice out of your home and garden can be an incredibly tedious task. Often we find that rat control options such as rat bait aka rodenticides, only provide short-term control of rodents, not to mention that the toxic substances are incredibly cruel. But, what if we told you there’s a better way to keep the rodent population in your area at bay? In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about barn owl boxes as natural rodent control.

Here’s Why You Need a Barn Owl Nest Box

Barn owls are exceptional predators that often go unappreciated. These deadly hunters possess powerful vision and hearing, which allow them to track and kill prey quickly. But, perhaps the greatest feature of this predator is its appetite for rodents. Yes, that’s right! Barn owls love rats and mice, and in fact, in a single nesting season, a pair of barn owls can consume up to 30,000 rats.

Installing your Barn Owl Nest at Home

Installing a barn owl box for rodent control in Seattle home

For this natural rodent control method to work, you’ll need to make the nest box appealing to the barn owls. This might be a particularly tedious task if you live in a busy Seattle suburb. So, here are our top tips to consider when installing a barn owl nest in your backyard.

A Good-Sized Nest Box: Barn owls require adequate space to nest and grow their young. We recommend creating a nest box that is anywhere from 10 to 15 cubic feet. Entry holes into the nest box should be a minimum of 6 inches.
Keep it Attractive: Adding straw and untreated natural fibers in the box will encourage barn owls to begin nesting.
The Right Placement: Barn owls prefer to hunt rodents in big grassy open fields. As such, we recommend installing your barn owl nesting box with the opening facing a wide open space. An ideal position protects the entry hole from the wind while offering a great view of prey.
High Above: In the wild, barn owls nest high up on buildings, trees, or mountain cliffs. So, make sure to place your nest box at least 10 feet above the ground.

Don’t want to build a barn owl box yourself? Don’t worry we sell the perfect pre-made barn owl boxes that are sure to attract some owls to your property. Make sure you reach out to us to learn more!

Do Fake Owls Keep Rats Away?

Yes! Installing fake owls around your property can act as a great rat repellent. It’s a great little trick that works similarly as a scarecrow on a field, although they do become less effective over time as rats outsmart the decoy. That being said, it’s not the best natural rodent control method as it does not reduce the rodent population on your property like a real owl would.

3 Reasons for Humane Pest Control

Installing a barn owl nest box isn’t the only way to control your rodent problem. If you’re interested in learning more about natural rodent control methods in Seattle, check out our top tips.

Rodenticides kill animals slowly. Did you know that rat bait kills rodents slowly? These poisons result in coagulopathies, which means that the animal will die slowly from uncontrollable bleeding.
Rodenticides can harm your pets and owls: Rat bait toxicity is a common problem seen in companion animal medicine. It often occurs due to a dog or cat eating either the rat bait directly or eating way too many mice that have consumed rat bait. Wild animals like our American barn owl can also die from rat bait toxicity when they consume large amounts of poisoned rats or mice. So, keep your pets and wildlife safe by avoiding rodenticides.
Barn owls provide better long-term control: Barn owls that nest in your nest box will continue to nest on your property each season. It’s a great way to reduce the overall rodent population on your property and acts as a long-term rodent repellent.

Parker Eco Pest Control: Natural Rodent Control in Seattle

Controlling those pesky rodents is tricky! But, you don’t have to do it alone. At Parker Eco Pest Control, we proudly support customers who choose natural rodent control methods. We can help you create and install the perfect American barn owl nest box, so you don’t have to worry about getting the niggly details right. Correctly installing a nest box to suit the barn owls’ natural behavior is critical to ensure adequate rodent control. So, reach out to us today to learn more about finding and installing barn owl boxes for pest control in Seattle.

Mice or rodents in the attic? Your roof needs drip edge flashing

June 10, 2020 / Wesley Parker

One of the most common ways for rodents to enter an attic is through a gap between the shingles and the gutter. Gaps like this are extremely common in Washington State due to a quark in the residential building code. This gap, sometimes called a carpenter’s gap or construction gap, can be sealed off using a piece of metal flashing called a drip edge. This piece of metal is also known as gutter flashing or rake edge flashing.

How to check for drip edge flashing

If you’re stumped on how mice, rats, birds, or squirrels are getting into your attic, we highly recommend looking at the exterior of the roof line. If you have a hipped roof (shaped like a pyramid) you should check the entire perimeter. If you have a gabled roof you likely only need to check the two sides with gutters.

Slide your hand to the back of the gutter where it’s secured against the house. If you can fit your hand under the shingles it’s big enough for a rat to squeeze through. Remember, rats only need a gap the size of a quarter and mice only need a gap the size of a dime. Rodents usually leave signs on the areas they frequent the most. Look for chewing, greasy smears called rub marks, and of course droppings.

Drip edge wasn’t in Washington code until 2015

Washington State residential code only began requiring drip edge in 2015, meaning If your home was built in 2014 or earlier, there is a good chance you have a large gap running continuously around the perimeter of your roof. You can read the code yourself online.

Should you install drip edge flashing to seal the attic from rodents?

Yes, you should definitely install a drip edge (AKA gutter flashing) to seal out mice, rats, squirrels and birds. At a cost of $10 to $20 per foot installed, it’s fairly inexpensive and will save you money down the line compared to the cost of damage from an infestation.

In addition to blocking pests, drip edge flashing protects your house from wind and water dripping behind the shingles, hence the name “drip edge.” It’s a wise investment for any roof.

Getting rid of bats safely and legally

August 5, 2017 / Wesley Parker

Bats are a bit creepy and maybe even scary to your average city dweller, especially if they’re living in your attic. But it’s important to know that Washington State has strict laws to protect bats. Here’s why bats are actually awesome, and how to handle a bat infestation legally and safely.

Why are bats beneficial to your neighborhood?

A female bat can consume her entire body weight in insects in a single evening. Forget the citronella candle, just get some bats! Mosquitos, termites, and other much more serious pests are kept in check by a healthy bat population. It’s difficult to stress just how many more creepy crawlies would be in your house and biting you in your garden if bats suddenly disappeared.

Brown bats in an attic

Why are bats living in your attic?

Bats naturally seek out cavities in trees, caves and other places that protect them from light and predators. As our region densifies there are fewer natural spots for them to live. They begin seeking out attics, wells, and other manmade hidey-holes. You’re most likely to find bats living on the southern side of a building with full sun.

How do you get bats out of your attic?

First off let’s say that bats are not as harmful to your home as rats or mice. They don’t chew wires but their guano can be smelly and cause water damage to drywall.

While it may be tempting to close off the entry holes, you would likely be trapping the bat pups inside your attic. This is a recipe for a very stinky, and very cruel disaster. The safest, and legal option is coaxing them out on their own volition.

Note that these methods only work when the pups are mature enough to fly so you’ll have to wait until mid-August. That gives you a couple weeks to plan the bat siege…

Make some noise. Put a radio in your attic as close to their roosting site as possible
Use shop lights to make the space bright so they can’t get to sleep (preferably fluorescent bulbs since incandescent lights risk starting a fire)
Install a one-way door so bats can go out, but not back in
Put a bat box nearby to encourage these beneficial creatures to stay in the neighborhood
Close every entry point and use caulk for the most complete seal job possible

And don’t wait too long! Be sure to do a thorough exclusion job before October or you may be stuck with bats all winter. For more information on bats in Washington State check out the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s guide to living with wildlife.

If you have a bat problem or are interested in installing a bat box call our owner and head technician, Chris Parker at 800-326-1698.