Is Your Crawl Space Healthy?

Did you know that the air that you breathe is directly linked to your crawl space?  In fact, about 40% of the air in your home rises from the crawl space.  With this fact alone, it is easy to see why a healthy crawl space is important.  Unfortunately, the crawl space is a pretty neglected place and most people have never even seen it or had it inspected.  This can mean that a lot of harmful activity can be going on without you even knowing it.

If you want to have someone check out your crawl space, be sure to check out our brand new website at:  http://www.newleafcrawlspace.com/.  We are offering free crawl space inspections with digital photo's.  If we do find something that is in need of attention, we have the expertise to fix it!  We specialize in complete crawl space restoration and custom drainage solutions.  Regardless of what issue you face, be sure to give us a call!  We can make your crawl space healthy again.

We are located in Vancouver, Washington and serve all of the SW Washington and Portland Metro area and offer same day or next day service.

Get Your Home Ready To Avoid Fall/Winter Pests!

Maybe your summer was like mine and went by way too quickly.  It is still warm out here in the Portland, Oregon area, but within about a week or so, things will start to cool.  As we all pack up our things and go inside to avoid the coming cold, some pests are looking to do the same thing and it is important that you prepare your home to keep them out.  Here are some common pests that you will see more of in the winter and ways to avoid them.

Spiders

I think that this might be the worse year for spiders that I can remember.  I have had more phone calls for spiders this month then I had all of last year!  Much of this has to do with the mild winter that we had last year.  The spider population managed to gut it out and survive far better then in past years and now we are feeling the effects of it.

There are a few things that you can do to keep spiders out of your home.  First, if you have shrubs close to your home that are touching the structure, you should trim them back.  First, this gives shelter to all kinds of insects and where insects are, spiders will follow to get a free meal.  Also, think about winterizing your home by installing weather stripping and door sweeps.  This will not only keep the cold out, but also the spiders.

Rodents

Rats and mice are by far the most troublesome winter pest.  They do a good job of getting access to your crawl space and nest in your nice, warm insulation without you even knowing about it.  The problem is that this can create a contaminated crawl space and may require you to consider doing a costly crawl space restoration if it gets out of hand.

There are some simple preventative measures that you can take that will go a really long way.  First, do a quick walk around your home and check the foundation vent screens.  Are they all intact?  Are there any gaps where rodents can get in?  I cannot tell you how much money you could save just by plugging up holes in your vent screens.  Many times, your cable guy will come in and punch out a screen to run a wire and just leave a gaping hole for rodents to enter.  You can repair these using screen mesh and some screws (this is better aesthetically if you do this from inside the crawl space, not outside).  But, if you want to go the easy route, you can just put one of those foam inserts that are designed to insulate your vent screens during the winter.

Lastly, you can look for burrowing holes.  As a rule of thumb, look for golf ball size holes (mice) and tennis ball size holes (rats).  If you do see burrow holes, I would caution you from covering them up.  This might cause the rodents to be trapped and die under your home.  My recommendation is going to be self serving, but I recommend you call New Leaf Pest Control to take care of the problem first and then cover the holes.

If you do these simple steps, you can go a long way in eliminating pest problems during the fall and winter.  If you need some help or just have a few questions, we would be pleased to take your call!

How To Prevent Rodents Getting In Your Home This Winter

Rodent Prevention Ideas

As the warm day begin to be fewer and fewer and our cold, wet winter months quickly approach, we start to see fewer bugs in our industry.  However, the rodents are just getting started and there are several things that you can do to avoid having to call us later on.  Here are some simple rodent prevention tips:

1- Eliminate food sources
Probably the best way to get your home overrun with rodents quickly is to give them easy access to a food source. Of course this is not intentional, but many people make this mistake.  For example, if you are feeding birds with a bird feeder or even a squirrel feeder, you are inviting mice to your home.  Rodents are drawn to these areas to pick up all the scraps that fall on the ground. Another less obvious food source is a composter.  Believe it or not, a rat eats pretty healthy food like fruits and vegetables and will often find these scraps here.  If you are willing to take your chances and continue to have these in your yard, at least be aware of it and clean up as much as you can.  You can even have bird feeders that have large plates underneath to stop scraps from falling.

2- Check for missing screens
Rodents love your crawl space and really want to get in.  It provides them with an ideal environment to be safe, create a nest and start a huge family.  Whenever I walk up to a house and see one of their foundation vent screens out, I can almost guarantee that the crawl space has rodents (or worse even worse, raccoons, cats, etc).  These vent screens can be a little tricky to repair correctly.  To make it look nice, you want to reattach the screen from inside the crawl space and nobody likes to go into their crawl space (especially when you know there are rodents down there).  A good temporary solution would be to insert a foam cover inside the broken screen.  You can purchase these at just about any large hardware store and they are pretty universal in size.

3- Look for digging around your foundation
Like I said, rodents really love your crawl space and badly want to get in.  By doing a quick walk around your perimeter you can see if they are trying to burrow their way in.  This of course would not be much of a preventative measure because if you are seeing burrowing, you probably already have rodents, but you can prevent it from getting worse.  What you are looking for are quarter sized holes for mice and larger holes for rats.  If you do see them, you might not want to just cover them up.  This can cause them to die under your home, so doing a rodent treatment might be necessary at this point.

If you are having rodent issues in your home currently, please feel free to call our pest control company.  If not, be sure to do your best to avoid it!