Homeowners need to take several steps to maintain their home’s integrity. One of the most important ones among them is keeping the premises free from rodents. Rodents i.e., rats and mice are small creatures. However, if you don’t do the needful to eradicate them, they can cause severe, irreversible damage to your property.
Ideally, you should hire pest control services to get rid of rodents as soon as you detect their presence. Don’t try home remedies or use repellents available on the market. They are usually of no use and will only give the rodents more time to grow their family. The section below will help you to learn more about the kinds of structural damage these tiny creatures can cause to your home.
Floods and Fires
Mice and rats are extremely fond of gnawing. What’s worse is that they tend to go after all kinds of materials when it comes to gnawing. They don’t even leave the electrical wires. They don’t stop just by chewing through the wire’s insulation. They even try to chew the metal parts. This often ends up triggering short circuits. If the situation is not managed well, a fire might also break.
It’s also common for rodents to go after water pipes. If they end up chewing holes in a pipe, water will start leaking out and leave your property at risk of having severe water damage. On the other hand, if these creatures chew on gas pipes, you might become a victim of a gas leak. Chewing on the sewage pipe can also have ill consequences for your home.
Damages Resulting from Nests
Nests usually don’t cause any structural hazard themselves. What causes the damage is the procedure rodents use for acquiring materials for building their nests. These small creatures tear through and chew items made of all possible kinds of materials including paper, insulation, wood, cloth, and plastic to gather resources for building their home.
Such actions of the rodents end up destroying the heating system and power setup of a home. The situation turns worse as these animals start multiplying and make more nests.
Damaged Ducts
Rodents often build their nests inside the cooling and heating ducts. If the rodents in your home have done something similar, you’ll soon experience a drop in the efficiency of the HVAC system in your home. This will not only make your interiors less comfortable to live in but will also expose you and other members of your family to a range of harmful bacteria and germs.
If you fail to get rid of the rodents quickly, they might cause serious damage to your home. Reversing those damages usually requires expensive repairs. What’s worse is that such issues are usually not covered by any insurance policy.
So, you should inspect your home for rodents at regular intervals. Look for rat droppings; they are the most common signs indicating the presence of rodents in a property. You can also hire professionals to check your home for rodents.