Rodent control in Montana

Getting rid of rodents in Montana comes down to three things done together: working out whether you have rats or mice, placing secure bait stations or traps where they actually travel, and closing the gaps they use to get inside. Poison on its own buys you a few quiet weeks. Proofing is what keeps them out.

Where Montana's rodents come from

Montana has grown quickly, and many of its complexes and estates sit right up against open veld or a koppie. Field rodents have always lived in that grassland. Each time a new phase of building clears another section, some of them are pushed towards the nearest shelter, which is often a garage, a garden shed or a roof. The open ground that's left over keeps a steady population on the doorstep.

The second source is waste. Complexes put dozens of households' rubbish into one refuse area, and if the bins aren't lidded or the area isn't cleaned, it becomes a feeding station. Small shopping centres and takeaways have the same issue at the back door. Rodents are just one part of what we see locally, and the Montana pest control overview covers the rest.

Then there's the weather. Highveld winter nights get properly cold, and from about May, rodents that were content outside start looking for warmth. Our busiest months for rodent calls from the northern suburbs run from late autumn through to August.

Rats or mice? It changes the plan

Mice are small, curious and can squeeze through a gap the width of a pencil. They tend to stay close to food, so you'll find tiny droppings in the pantry, behind the stove and in kitchen drawers. Rats are bigger and more cautious. Roof rats climb and travel along walls and cables into the roof void, while brown rats burrow under paving and come in at ground level. A Montana home near open ground can have both.

We've written more on each: see rat control in Montana and our approach to mice in Montana homes.

What to look out for

• Droppings: rice-sized for mice, raisin-sized for rats
• Running or scratching overhead at night
• Gnawed irrigation pipes, cables, plastic bins or the corner of a garage door
• Holes under paving or along the base of a boundary wall facing the veld
• Shredded paper or insulation tucked into a corner of the garage
• Pet food that disappears overnight

Our process

We start with an inspection of the house, roof space, garage and garden, paying special attention to any boundary that faces open land. We then place lockable, tamper-resistant bait stations outside along the routes rodents use, where children and pets can't get at the bait. Inside, and especially in roof spaces, we prefer traps, and we use tracking powder where we need to confirm which way they're moving. Once activity drops, we walk you through the proofing: gaps around pipes and cables, garage door seals, weep holes, broken air bricks and roof edges where the fascia doesn't meet the tiles.

For complexes and estates, we'd rather service the whole site. Rodents don't stop at unit boundaries, and treating one house in a row of six usually just moves them next door. Businesses and bodies corporate can take a scheduled monitoring contract, with regular visits and a record of every station.

What people get wrong

The most common mistake is putting loose poison in the roof. The rodents carry it off and may die somewhere you can't reach, and nobody has dealt with the gap they came in through. A related one in new homes is assuming everything is sealed because the house is new. Builders often leave service entry points open, and garage doors on newer homes don't always sit flush with the floor.

A local tip for veld-facing properties

If your wall backs onto open veld, keep a clear, bare strip of a metre or so along the inside of it. Rodents dislike crossing open ground. Move wood piles, compost and dense planting away from that wall, and you take away the cover they use on the way in.

What does rodent control cost?

It depends on the property size, how many bait stations are needed, whether we're working in the roof and how many follow-up visits it takes. A townhouse with a few mice is a small job. A large estate home with a long veld boundary, or a complex refuse area that needs ongoing monitoring, costs more and is quoted to the site. If you've seen a single mouse once, a couple of snap traps may be enough, and we'll say so.

For more on preparing for the season, see our guide to rats and mice in summer. You'll find the wider picture on rodent control across Pretoria, and we also handle rodent problems in Lynnwood. We're SAPCA registered, with 25 years of rodent work behind us, and our 3-month guarantee means that if they come back in that time, so do we. Call 012 012 5526, or send a photo of what you've found on WhatsApp and we'll identify it for you.