Pest Library

Bats are most well-known for being the only mammals capable of actual flight. In our region, bats feed primarily on beetles, moths, mosquitoes, and other insects. They are eco-important species, helping to control populations of insects through their feeding habits. Like other predatory species, bats like to live in areas that offer them easy access to their prey.

Bats are most active when their insect prey is, from May thru October and at dawn and dusk. Backyards with lots of vegetation, trees, pools, standing water, and other water features are most attractive to bats. When bats are active in your yard, they will eventually make their way into your home. Our homes' attics, chimneys, and wall voids offer bats a safe daytime roosting spot. 

Keeping bats out of our homes is vital. Bats spread diseases, including rabies. While not every bat you encounter is infected with rabies, there is a possibility. Never try to trap or directly handle a bat; like other wild animals, bats retaliate by biting or scratching when threatened. Another health risk created by bats is the fungus that grows in bat droppings which can cause severe respiratory issues in people. It is also important to remember that if bats are moving to and from your home, so can other pests like mice and rats. Solving your bat problem will help you to maintain a home free of unwanted pests.

Avoid sharing your home with bats by implementing the following helpful prevention tips:

• Remove areas of standing water from your property that attract insects bats like to eat.

• Make sure all your home’s chimneys have caps on them.

• Repair damaged roof shingles and seal gaps in roof intersections.

• Install bat houses at the perimeter of your property to draw bats away from your home. 

If bats find a way into your home or you want to prevent their future presence, don’t hesitate to call. We will provide effective bat exclusion services to help you meet your goal of bat-free property. 

Mice are small rodents that can squeeze their bodies through tiny spaces; this makes it quite challenging to keep these pests out of our Kansas City or Charlotte homes. Mice are frequent visitors inside houses because they provide mice with their basic needs: food, water, and shelter. Mice use our structures as a place of respite, a safe place to raise their young, and a place to forage for food. Like people, these rodents are omnivores, and our kitchens and pantries offer them an all-they-can-eat buffet.

Once mice become comfortable inside our homes, they quickly take over (one female can produce 25 to 60 offspring in a year) and cause a lot of destruction. Mice, like all rodents, have continuously growing sharp front incisors that they keep from overgrowing by gnawing on objects that they can fit their teeth around. In our houses, mice and their teeth cause significant damage to wires, drywall, furniture, cabinets, food containers, and bedding. In addition to the damage they cause, mice carry many diseases and are a health risk. They spread diseases, bacteria, and allergens that make people ill.

Working with a professional to get rid of mice from your home is the fastest and easiest way to remove these pests and stop them from returning. The following tips will help you prevent mice from easily entering your home:

• Use silicone caulk or another material to seal cracks in your home’s foundation.

• Seal spaces around utilities entering your home.

• Make sure to replace torn or otherwise damaged roof shingles.

• Ensure that screens in windows and doors are secure and intact. 

In conjunction with the above tips, partner with Orange Mouse to ensure that mice won’t be able to infiltrate your home. We are here to solve your mouse problem; call today to learn more about mouse control in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Kansas.

There are two common types of mice that find their way onto your property and/or inside of your home or business, the house mouse and the field mouse. Below is some information about the stats identification and biology of mice.

Breeding Stats

• Breeding Season: Year round "when inside". 

• Breeding Life for Females: 6-10 Litters

• Gestation Period: 18-21 Days 

• Litter Size: 5-6

• Minimum Age Before Starting to Mate: 6-10 Weeks

• Weaning Age: 21 Days

Vitals

• Lifespan: 1-3 years (highly dependent on indoor or outdoor living conditions... Inside Longer, Outside Shorter)

• Heart: BPM "Beats Per Minute" widely range from 300-850 beats per minute. 

• Lung: RPM "Respirations Per Minute"

• Body Temperature: averages 100.6 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Identification

• Color: light brown to grey or black with lighter colored bellies. 

• Length of adult body: 2-1/2" to 3-3/4"

• Length of tail: 3-3/4"

• Adult Weight: 1/2oz-1.1 oz 

• Juvenile Weight: .2-.4oz

• Height of skull: 1/4" (6mm) <- "If their head can fit through it... so can the rest of them."

Behaviors & Characteristics

• Home Range Within a Building: 5-30ft.

• Prefers to rest and nest in dark isolated spaces.

Eating Habits

Similar to humans mice rely on the same sources of protein, carbohydrates, sugars and water sources to maintain health & survival. 

• Nuts & Seeds

• Fruits & Vegetables

• Candy & Sweets

Other Food Sources

• Carrion (Dead Animals, including their own)

• Various Bugs (Cock Roaches, Earth Worms, Crickets and ETC.)

Feces (droppings/poop) Facts & Identification

• House Mice feces is pretty easily identifiable

Disease Transmission

• Mice have the ability to carry several different diseases that can be transmitted via a bite, their fur touching a surface or through their droppings.

Control

There are 3 typical control types

1. Trapping

2. Baiting

3. Exclusion

Once mice become comfortable inside our homes, they quickly take over (one female can produce 25 to 60 offspring in a year) and cause a lot of destruction. Mice, like all rodents, have continuously growing sharp front incisors that they keep from overgrowing by gnawing on objects that they can fit their teeth around. In our houses, mice and their teeth cause significant damage to wires, drywall, furniture, cabinets, food containers, and bedding. In addition to the damage they cause, mice carry many diseases and are a health risk. They spread diseases, bacteria, and allergens that make people ill. Working with a professional to get rid of mice from your home is the fastest and easiest way to remove these pests and stop them from returning.

The following tips will help you prevent mice from easily entering your home:

• Use silicone caulk or another material to seal cracks in your home’s foundation.

• Seal spaces around utilities entering your home.

• Make sure to replace torn or otherwise damaged roof shingles.

• Ensure that screens in windows and doors are secure and intact. 

In conjunction with the above tips, partner with Orange Mouse to ensure that mice won’t be able to infiltrate your home. We are here to solve your mouse problem; call today to learn more about commercial pest control in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Kansas. 

Like mice, rats are one of the most common types of rodents to find their way into our houses. In our area you will find the Norway rat and the roof rat. The easiest way to tell adult mice from adult rats is by their size and tails. Rats are larger than mice and have thick, hairless, scaly tails. These rodents are intelligent creatures and, over time, have learned that wherever there are people, they can have their basic needs met. Food is the biggest thing to attract rats to our properties. They love to forage for food from fruit trees, trashcans, gardens, pet food, and chicken coops (eggs).

Along with taking advantage of our outdoor spaces, rats regularly enter our houses, garages, and other outbuildings. Our structures provide them with safe shelter and nesting sites, and our kitchens and pantries with reliable foraging sites. Sharing your home with rats is problematic for many reasons, including that they are disease vectors, carry dangerous parasites like fleas and ticks in their fur, and emit allergens that trigger allergies.

Disease Transmission

• Rats have the ability to carry several different diseases that can be transmitted via a bite, their fur touching a surface or through their droppings.

Rats are nocturnal and largely stay out of our sight; learning signs of a rat infestation is crucial in eliminating them as quickly as possible. Hearing running sounds behind walls, finding gnaw marks on furniture, trim, cabinets, holes in food containers, or spotting large rodent droppings in your home should alert you to a rat problem. 

Use the following tips to make your yard unappealing to rats. The fewer rats around your home, the fewer rats that will end up inside your home!

• Always keep tight-fitting lids on all trash cans.

• If you have fruit trees, regularly harvest their fruit and pick fallen fruit up off the ground. 

• Remove excess clutter and debris from your yard that offers rats harborage sites.

• Cut back shrubbery and tree branches from your home’s exterior that rats can use to access your home. 

• If you own pets or livestock, keep their food out of the easy reach of rats. Pick up uneaten food and store food in hard-sided containers with lids.

• If you own chickens, make sure their coops are secure.

Here at Orange Mouse, we understand how it feels to discover that your property has a rat problem. Trust us; it's not the end of the world! We offer safe solutions to protect the health of your family and friends. Whether you're a homeowner or the proprietor of a business, we have the expertise to remove rats.

We feature a procedure known as blocking and exclusion, which is locating and sealing any openings that rats use to get inside. You can also count on us for rat trapping and bait station services! Contact us today to learn more about how we can protect your property from rats. Emergency service is available!