Household Vermin - How to deal with mice and rats getting into the home?

My skin is still crawling guys! I have had the unfortunate experience of having a rat run across the floor of my kitchen and it took five years off of my lifespan. I know it's an irrational response but I tell you, I screamed when it happened. Little goober managed to spook me pretty good.

I'm used to the occasional mouse, usually when the winter is settingin, getting into the house but this was a RAT.

How do you deal with the reality of vermin getting into the house? How do you approach the issue? Are there permaculture solutions out there to consider?

My approach currently involves trying to understand how we got to the point of a rat entering the house. Traps, to me, deal with having intruders in the house but I would like to simply prevent intruders from entering.

I'm lucky enough that where the rat scurried seems to make sense of being the entrance into the house. Mysterious plaster crumbs had accumulated in the area and I did not realize that a hole had been created. I have temporarily blocked this hole and, fingers crossed, there has be no rat sightings nor rat sign found.

I believe I need to take the time this weekend looking for potential entrances and flag them for repair.

I'm a little disappointed that my dogs have been of zero help with this sudden intrusion. You'd think these pampered pooches would at least try to defend their home. We are going to have to have a talk about their role in this household!

Always a concern in areas that have lots of Nature's critters running around.   Keeping food sources in check is #1 control.     Putting dry goods in glass is much more effective than plastic tubs.  The critters you are concerned with can chew right through plastic.

Keeping doors closed and sealing up around them with galvanized tin is a proven effective maneuver as well.   6" tall galvanized tin.   Aluminum is no good.

Bait blocks in the cellar and attic and under the counters, also in closets.  Best to keep this stuff away from your' pets but it is effective.   The critters eat the stuff and then go outside seeking water.  They will die.  

Sticky trap paper and old fashioned "large size" mouse traps!   mmm.... peanut butter.   lol...

Don't be surprised if you look up at your' soffit and fascia of the house and see a hole or two.  These gangsters will crawl up the downspout and find a spot to enter into the attic.

Personally, my best defense is a Dog.   Surprise!  no cats... one of my hound dogs is so completely devoted to home security that she will "end" anything not invited into the home.    Cats are a great idea too, I just don't keep any as pets.

Just in case you missed it...     Removing any food source is #1.

I only deal with deer mice, not rats thankfully. Still, deer mice can carry hantavirus and they make an unholy, rancid mess.

When there's a bad year (population explosion) I take the fight to them outside the buildings. Removing cover, setting traps. Outside it's easy to deal with the carcasses. Inside, I have to do a complex wet cleanup.

A neighbour swears by the Victor "Super Pest Chaser," the one with three speakers. It keeps the squirrels out of his shed, where they mess up his truck camper and other equipmeht.

I like to use live traps.

I have not had that problem in many years though I used a product called "Tin Cat" and believe it is still on the market.

Basically a Tin Box with an entrance and no exit.

Traps baited with peanut butter.  Sorry, but the entrances of said rodents may never be found.  We've been looking forever with no luck.  The holes we have found were blocked with crumpled fly mesh.  The only thing left could be that they are entering through the roof, no obvious entrances to be found, but they do like to climb.  We resorted to baits when the blighters ate the wiring in the car (three times).  Baits wired into left over square tubing,caged over to discourage birds, and placed against the walls outside. The rats and mice don't like crossing open spaces for some reason.  Water sources removed, hiding places disturbed.  Fingers crossed.
Cats as useless as your dogs - ours used to bring in mice as "presents".

Many people are anti sticky traps for good reason. I have used them. The problem  is how long does the rodent suffer being stuck to the trap before a human discovers it.   When I have used them, I made rounds multiple times a day.

My most effective solution is a mix of baking soda and Jiffy Cornbread Mix.  More baking soda than Jiffy.  Be sure to change it out every couple of months. It looses its effectiveness over time.  I really am not confident if this is more human than sticky traps. But, at one point we (my Master Mouser and me) were catching 17+ mice a week. And every cupboard had mouse droppings. That has dropped to us catching less than one a month.

We had a sudden big infestation years ago in which rats were coming in through holes they dug under the foundation, chewed into flashing around the chimney, chewed through vent screens, and (the biggest source) chewed holes through the sewer pipes and were using the plumbing system as a highway.

So now, twice a year, I inspect every inch of the house, attic, crawlspace, foundation, plumbing, etc and plug up holes with 1/4" hardware cloth (adding another layer that overlaps to make the holes smaller if I see mice evidence), set electronic traps in attics and crawlspaces (they beep, so I can hear them), set tube snap traps in places I can check easily (they are more effective than regular snap traps), and fill tunnels under the foundation with concrete. We had a backflow valve installed in the plumbing and covered the flap with a thick layer of Flexseal (which they don't like to chew on for some reason). I put gravel all around the foundation of the building, so I can see holes easily if the gravel is disturbed (previously they were hiding holes in the middle of plants near the house and then tunneling under the foundation, they're smart, so no more plants next to the house).

It's a lot of work, but the massive infestation has not happened again since I declared war on them. Pros and cons with poison: it can hurt predatory animals (including raptors, snakes, cats, and dogs) and the rats/mice that don't get eaten will die in your walls (and it smells, and you have to cut open your walls to find them), so only use poison as a last resort for big infestations and be ready to cut holes in the wall.

We have to keep switching up our trap design and layouts because the mama rats will teach their babies to avoid the traps, so we make changes repeatedly to outsmart them. (They really are smart.)

Even if you lock up all your food and keep everything clean, they will try to nest in your building. If you have PEX pipes or other plastic pipes, they will chew through it to get water. They will eat crops, animal feed, seeds, wild foods, and animal feces outside or even at the neighbors house then come back in to nest and rest.

Your best bet, in my experience, is to plug up every hole and to be aware of possible new entrance points, and repeat.

I love animals. Had pet rodents. Even had a pet rat as a kid. But they were truly destroying my home, and it cost thousands to fix all the damage, and it was a huge health hazard.

Keep on it.

a couple, few of these can help.

Ideally, any cat brought onto a place with a view to rodent control should have been raised on a farm with a mom who was also a hunter, and left with her long enough for her to teach them how to do it effectively.  Without this, many cats simply see the rodents as toys rather than prey, and this is exacerbated by feeding them to excess.  Barn cats should get just enough food to keep them around and in good condition, and thus be encouraged to fend for themselves and make quick kills for food.