How to Get Rid of Rodents Around Apartments

This page is a general DIY article about rat and mouse infestations around apartment complexes. Throughout this article, apartment landlords will find links to effective pest control, professional products, and recommended steps to prevent and eliminate rodents in their apartment buildings.

Mice and rats are considered to be among the most common and exasperating pests for apartment landlords to handle. Rodents tend to thrive and adapt to multiple environments, especially ones that have confined spaces like wall insulation or air vents, a high amount of food content, such as crumbs or open packaging, and multiple points of entry, like pipes and plumbing.

Unfortunately, all these conditions can be found in apartment settings. Besides being able to travel easily to each apartment unit, these pests can increase their populations in as little as three weeks up to 5 to 10 times per year. It should be noted that treating rodents around the perimeter of your apartment building will not have a high success rate if one unit supports these pests' conditions.

Fortunately, rodent populations can be controlled by open and direct communication between you and your tenants and ensuring that preventative measures are taken to reduce rat and mice populations. By following this DIY guide, you will learn as a landlord how to ensure rodent activity and populations are decreased through our recommended products and steps.

Inspect Property For Rodent Activity

Apartment Managers will need to inspect properties for potential sites of rodent activity, as these are year-long pests. Typically, the fall and winter seasons may see an increase in mouse and rat populations due to decreases in warm temperatures and food sources. Once inside your building, these pests will quickly make themselves at home within your residents' furniture, kitchen, and bathroom areas.

Rodents can contort themselves into the smallest of openings, such as underneath door and window frames, pipes, chimneys, and cracks and voids in the exterior and interior of apartment walls. Complexes with rodent activity will contain oil rub marks along the walls, droppings, chewing or scratch marks along cardboard, paper, and fiber surfaces, walls, furniture, and cable wires.

All cracks and crevices should be sealed with copper mesh and caulk to prevent rodents and other types of pests from invading your complex. Copper mesh is suggested because rodents cannot easily chew away at the material without harming their teeth. You will also need to treat any sources of moisture, such as leaky pipes, as this is another attractant for rodents, cockroaches, and ants.

Monitor Regularly

Waiting for notice from your tenants can become a costly repair, as one sign of a rodent is usually an indication of a higher infestation. Instead of waiting for evidence from apartment renters, you should conduct regular inspections of the areas previously mentioned.

You may observe rodent droppings or place Solutions Rat and Mouse Glue Tray. This product is recommended for indoor spaces to lessen the chances of tenants and their pets from coming into contact with the glue. Solutions Rat and Mouse Glue Tray is a pre-baited trap that will capture numerous rodents and crawling pests like cockroaches before needing to be replaced. We recommend checking your traps every 2 to 3 business days and moving them if there has been no sign of pests in the traps.

Outdoor sites around dumpsters should be treated with bait products like Eratication Rodent Bait while inside a tamper-proof rodent station such as Solutions Rat and Mouse Bait Station. Remember that by law, most rodenticide bait products must be used with a tamper-resistant bait station. It should also be noted that using rodent bait inside an apartment complex can lead to the risk of the rodent dying within or underneath walls and insulation.

Before using or placing any rodent control products, you will need to wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), such as gloves. Wearing gloves while handling these products will mask your scent to rodents and help prevent them from scaring away from traps.

Remove Available Food Sources

While you cannot always inspect the amount of food debris and trash left inside apartment units, you can control the outside conditions of your apartment building. This can be done by keeping your outdoor trashcans and dumpsters sealed. Exposed trash is an enticing invitation for rodents, raccoons, and opossums.

Regularly walk around the perimeter of your property to ensure that no trash residue is left in the parking lot, the area surrounding the dumpster, or against the foundation. If these conditions cannot be maintained, it is recommended that you move your dumpsters several feet away from the apartment. Be prepared, as this is not a permanent solution without the aid of your tenants.

Apartment renters can perform their part by wiping down counter surfaces of crumbs or food residue, sealing trash bags and cans, and storing food in plastic containers. Outdoor trashcans should be cleared before becoming full, as this increases the amount of pest activity on your property.

Eliminate Overgrown Foliage

Rodents may also be attracted to your property due to the number of potential hiding spots. Overgrown shrubs, trees, and grass serve as hiding spots for rodents and insect pests. Rats and mice can travel across multiple surfaces with long tails and claws. These features help rodents like the Norway Rat travel across, extending tree branches to apartment buildings more efficiently.

Your landscaper may mow grasses with a height of 3 inches or more. For shrubs and tree branches, you will need to prune with light or heavy-duty pruners to cut the stems as close to the base of the plant. Avoid cutting into the tree's trunk to reduce the chances of stress and encourage continuous growth.

Key Takeaways

How to Rodent Proof Your Apartment Building

• Seal all cracks, crevices, and voids on the outside and inside of your apartment foundation, including the walls within the apartment unit, with copper mesh and caulk. Continually lay out Solutions Rat and Mouse Glue Tray, Eratication Rodent Bait, and Solutions Rat and Mouse Bait Station.

How Often Should Apartments Be Treated for Pests

• We recommend a daily inspection and treatment for rodent activity and signs, as one mouse or rat could suggest a larger infestation.

Preventing Rodent Infestations

• To prevent mouse and rat infestations, maintain cleaning habits, store food in plastic containers, and dispose of trash before bins become full. Continually inspect the property for cracks, crevices, overgrown foliage, and moisture issues and treat these areas within a quick time frame.