Why more rats and mice are being seen in Atlantic Canada, and what you can do about it

We’re definitely seeing an increase in rats and mice, so rodents in general across all of Atlantic Canada. There can be lots of different reasons when you’re talking about animal populations. There’s always more than one factor. It could be seasonality, things that are happening. It might be, you know, a reduction in predators. It could be a whole myriad of things. But one thing is certain that in Atlantic Canada we are growing in population, the human population. And as we do that, we start creating more and more buildings. We’re clearing forests. We are. Upending earth and ground where this is their habitat and as such we’re dislodging them and so that may not necessarily be that there’s more of them, but we are seeing more of them. So in terms of trying to prevent them in the 1st place, we look at the the main factors that are attracting them to a building and that would be food and water, shelter. Those are the three main things that that rodents need to survive. The first step is always exclusion. What can we do to get them from coming into the building in the first place? If they’re in the building then we may need to go to some sort of a trapping program. But a rodenticide is always the last resort and there could be many factors as to what is causing a community to see an overall increase. I mean a community is made-up of individual residents, so they do have a responsibility themselves, but if it is a a more community at large problem, they should reach out to their local Township or city, whatever council is there to bring it to their attention. And then there may be some strategizing at that point on what can the community as a whole do to help in or decrease the the rodent populations. I think probably one thing to recommend to people is if they do have rodents, first of all reach out to professional pest control company. And secondly, if you’re looking to clean up any of the droppings, make sure that you’re following some proper procedures because there are possibilities of contracting disease or pathogens through the droppings in urine. So the cleanup part of it should also be taken by somebody who is a professional or at least get the advice from a professional on how to do it. We’re always concerned when we see any sort of past trending in an upward direction. You know what’s causing that? What can we do? How is it affecting people?