PETALUMA — Richard Estrada: One of the things we recommend for homeowners is to walk around your home on a regular basis and identify any openings around your home that could be allowing rodents to enter. So typically you can take the size of your pinkie or even your index finger and probe around. If there are any openings that are the size of your pinky or your index, most likely a small rat or a mouse can enter.
The other thing that you want to utilize is a good flashlight. As you walk around your home, this will reveal to you where all those openings are and then should there be any openings instead of just filling them with steel wool, we recommend using quarter inch galvanized hardware, cloth. This will keep rodents out. They will not be able to chew or poke through it.
And as you walk around your home, take a look at the screen vents. These allow your home to be able to breathe underneath the home. And oftentimes these will be damaged. So if you see these damaged, then you can replace these just by picking these up at the hardware.