EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Charles McMahon — who owns McMahon Exterminating near Theater Drive and Morgan Avenue — has told Eyewitness News some rules of thumb for keeping rodents away from the inside of structures.
The advice comes after authorities found an Evansville six-month-old who suffered a “near fatal event.”
“There’s a number of ways they can get into your house, so first investigation of the house is really important to determine how they’re getting in,” McMahon said.
McMahon and the business’s on-staff entomologist Brian Ranes says “exclusion work” is needed in a house to prevent what mice want — food, water and shelter.
McMahon tells us to keep garbage away from the home’s foundation and structure itself, to keep a lawn mowed and trimmed and to keep a garbage bin from overflowing to help from rodents entering homes.
“We often see them in the attic. If a person has an attached garage, we’ll see them there,” McMahon said. “You know, the garage’s door’s up for a period of time during the course of a day — rodents running in the garage.”
Mice can fit into quarter-inch sized cracks in a home’s foundation, while rats can fit into half-inch sized cracks.
Ranes says mice can find their way into attics and through solvents and downspouts to access a home.
McMahon says filling a crack with steel wool or with store-bought mortar mix could be enough to keep rodents from entering homes.
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