Which Products are Best to Plug Holes Where Pests are Entering Your Home?

If you have researched mouse removal or pest extermination on the internet you will find that nearly all of the experts agree on one thing – The best way to ensure that you don’t get mice is to never let them enter your home in the first place.  And the experts also agree that the best way to stop those pests from getting in is to plug any small holes and cracks in and around your home.  Where the advice differs is in their opinions on how to go about filling up those holes and cracks.  They offer several creative solutions:

The solutions are many because they aren’t asked to meet any specific criteria.  As the homeowner and do-it yourselfer, the solution you will choose is most likely based on a combination of things such as permanence and effectiveness, ease of installation, aesthetics and cost.  Of course each situation will differ, but overall, a product that can meet each of these criteria effectively, certainly is the best overall choice.  Take a look at how each of the hole plugging solutions offered by the “experts” meets the criteria you most certainly need for your personal pest prevention solution.

If you don’t have time to do it right then when will you have time to do it over?  This is a question you really need to ask yourself when trying to find a permanent means to keep pests from entering your home.  Mice, rats, and squirrels are all rodents, called so because the latin word rodentia means to gnaw, and these little buggers have a single pair of growing incisors that they keep short by gnawing.  They can, and will, chew through almost anything.  Using products like newspaper, towels, foam, duct tape, plastic, insulation, cardboard and caulk are all quick and handy but will be extremely temporary fixes.  In a very short time, perhaps even a day, rodents can chew through all of these and you will be back on the internet looking for another solution.  Steel wool, copper mesh, SOS pads and Xcluder are all products that can provide a permanent gnaw resistant, and therefore effective, solution for filling holes.

Regarding the criteria of aesthetically pleasing, often times the holes or gaps that you are trying to fill are not in the line of sight, or they are located behind something, or in a remote corner of the house or basement.  Therefore you may not be extremely concerned with how the hole/gap looks once it’s plugged.  However, some of the more effective fill products can react to moisture and then rust, leaving a very unsightly streak down the wall or around the area.  Also unsightly is a hole filled with a brightly colored plug that doesn’t blend well with the surrounding surfaces.   Xcluder does not rust or react to moisture, and it fits snugly into the hole or gap so it can do the job without drawing attention to the hole.

When it comes to cost and ease of installation, many of the products listed above would be best because they are practically free and require little effort to install.  But of course you want a cost effective solution, and as previously mentioned, these products don’t offer a solution, they offer a temporary fix at best, to your pest problem.  So of all the products discussed it now comes down to Xcluder and copper mesh as the best solutions.  Here is a short video which compares these two on both cost and ease of installation.

After reviewing all of the criteria it is now certainly clear that the most effective, eco-friendly, permanent, and easy to install method for your money is Xcluder Rodent and Pest Control.  To learn more about Xcluder or to purchase it for yourself go to buyxcluder.com.

It’s Spring – Tips to Xclude Your Home from Pests

Don’t you love the activity that spring brings? Everything awakens from its winter slumber and we can enjoy the beautiful landscapes and the arrival of the migratory birds and mammals as they make their way to their new summer habitat. Many species return to the exact area they nested the previous year. However some animals are going to arrive and find that where they nested last season is no longer an option, whether it’s due to deforestation, particularly removal of diseased and hollowed trees, new construction, or bad timing. So now is a great time to do a thorough check of the perimeter of your home for any damage that may have occurred during the winter months. Even the smallest maintenance issues such as a gap behind a shutter, a crack in an awning, a rotten piece of siding, or a loose piece of roofing, can become the new nesting home for a family of bats, birds, squirrels or stinging insects. It’s a lot more work, a lot more dangerous and potentially a lot more costly for you to get these pests out rather than simply Xclude them from entering, so some quick maintenance is the key.

Here are a few spring maintenance issues to look for and some helpful Xcluder tips to pest proof your home’s exterior.

1. Shutters – It is common for some bats to roost behind shutters. Just Google “bats behind shutters” and you’ll not only see how common it is but you will see the mess it can cause! We recently had an inquiry as to how Xcluder can be used to eliminate this activity.The answer is simple, just cut strips of Xcluder and tuck them into any of the gaps between the shutters and the house. The Xcluder will expand to fill the gap and the synthetic fibers in Xcluder give it an extra spring back that permanently holds it in place. And since Xcluder is made with rust-proof fibers you won’t find unsightly streaks running down the side of your home like you can get from using steel wool or copper fibers.
2. Holes or cracks in siding – Bees and other stinging insects nest in varied locations. A little hole or crack in your siding can allow them to get between the siding and your house and before you know it, you will have a flurry of bee activity in and out. Although bees are docile in their own right, they can pose a threat to you and your family if you try to disturb their nest. Filling those holes with small pieces of Xcluder before they arrive will force them to search for another nesting location.
3. Gaps between siding and cracks in soffit/fascia – House sparrows can be considered major pests in spring. They’ll make their nests just about anywhere and since they are such a small bird, even an opening as small as ¾ of an inch can become an entryway to their new nesting home. So you want to make sure that you check for gaps in your siding or cracks in your soffit or fascia. We are not suggesting that Xcluder is a permanent fix for these issues, but tucking small strips of Xcluder into these cracks, gaps and holes can certainly be a great pest deterrent until you are able to permanently replace or restore these problems.
4. Electrical boxes, light fixtures and anywhere that cables enter your home (such as gas, air conditioning, cable, electric) – Lots of birds, including those pesky sparrows we already discussed, enjoy making their nests on or around these areas. The constant flurry of nesting activity can break, loosen, or fray electrical wiring. When you combine that with the dried grasses, twigs, straw, paper, trash, and other plant life they use to build their nests it can become a fire hazard. Installing Xcluder is safe around fully sealed electrical conduit coming out of a wall, but if you believe pests have already caused some wire damage it is not recommended to use Xcluder around any open electrical sources or unbundled wires.

Bat Image: flickr/Zeusandhera
Cable Image:  flickr/John “Pathfinder” Lester

Consumer Tip: An Ounce of Prevention (aka Xcluder) Can Be The Cure to Stop a Wasp Invasion

We find great satisfaction in hearing how our products help customers solve their pest problems.  Below is an actual account of how a suburban mother was able to use Xcluder Rodent Control Fill Fabric to fix a persistent pest problem and take the “sting” out of her son’s play dates.

“At just the time when the neighborhood kids are beginning to regularly gather outside to enjoy the warmer weather I was reminded that I had some preventative maintenance to conduct.  For the past several years our basketball hoop has been taken over by large colonies of paper wasps and as you can imagine, they are not happy when their home is bothered by the constant pounding of the basketball against the backboard.   So every time the children would begin playing, the wasps would come out and protest, and every time the wasps would protest the children would come inside and protest to me.  My suggestions to “swish” and throw “nothing but net” did not provide the adequate solution.

Since I’m not a wasp whisperer, each year I have been forced to try to eliminate the problem using aerosol pesticides and/or foaming sprays.  This has never been a real solution for me though.  There are several tubes and hollowed areas for the wasps to nest, and I have never been able to quite get the sprays into all of the nooks and crannies where they reside.   Perhaps it’s partly due to the fact that I am not willing to get close enough to offer myself as a human sacrifice, or perhaps it’s because I’m a little hesitant to completely soak one of my son’s favorite toys with a poisonous and toxic spray.   My mother’s intuition tells me that just can’t be a good thing.

So last fall I swore I was going to eliminate this problem in the spring before it ever starts.  And to remind myself I used one of my favorite tools, my cell phone.  I set an alarm to go off in March to remind me to “Xclude the Basketball Bugs.”   Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and in this case I’m bound and determined to prove him right.

As you can see from the photo (above), my basketball goal is fairly typical as far as portable, adjustable backboard systems go.   There are several tubes in the back that allow you to adjust the height of the backboard, but perhaps in the hopes of cutting costs, the ends of the tubes are left raw, with no end caps.  The wasps really enjoy these tiny little areas.  If you look at the photo (at right), and look beyond the bolt you can see the little paper combs built up in the tube.

The other area that needed attention was the plastic casing that protects fingers from getting pinched in the rim spring.  Here is a picture of how the wasps took over that little bit of real estate.   Once I cleaned out that casing and all 8 tube openings I had quite the paper trail!

The DIY eXclusion part of this project took only a few minutes.  I took the roll that was included in my Xcluder Starter Kit and cut 8 one inch pieces.  The roll is four inches wide so I had eight 1”x4” pieces.  Since there are bolts running through the tubes, I simply tucked half the strip of Xcluder up one side of the bolt and then folded and tucked the other half around the other side.  Xcluder has a springy and flexible texture, so it fills in the emptiness and stays nice and secure.  It took me less than 10 minutes to complete the entire process.

The last part of my project was the plastic casing covering the spring.  For this area I cut several larger pieces of Xcluder and used double sided tape to adhere them to the casing. Then after snapping the casing into place I filled the gaps with Xcluder so there were no openings to be found.

So that’s it, a very simple eXclusion solution.  My son can now practice his basketball skills without being bothered and he shouldn’t come across any more “flying stingy things” until he encounters the New Orleans Hornets in his much anticipated NBA career.”

Installing Door Sweeps – An Easy Project to Eliminate Pests and Save You Money

We all know the main purpose of a door is as a point of entry for our friends, family and invited guests. But for most homeowners, the majority of the activity coming in and out of the door is unseen, unwanted, and potentially costly. However there is one easy DIY project that can eliminate these mysterious comings and goings and ultimately save you money and give you peace of mind.

Did you know that an attached garage is a revolving door for energy if it’s not sealed properly? In the wintertime, cold air is coming in and your expensive warm air is flowing out. And of course in the summertime it’s just the opposite. With the rapidly rising cost of energy, effectively sealing door openings is more important than ever. Most people assume that weather stripping around the door frame is really all they can do, however much of the energy lost is at the base and corners of the door and therefore an effective door sweep is of high importance. A reinforced door sweep, like the Xcluder Door Sweep will provide a very durable weather seal. The reinforced neoprene rubber conforms to the ground, therefore filling gaps that may occur due to shifting, or cracks on the threshold and/or on the garage floor. But any doorway entering the house is a potential source of energy inefficiency, so don’t stop at the large garage door. All doors entering into your home should have Xcluder sweeps installed. The sweeps will eliminate the drafts and subsequently turn into cost savings for you.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but energy may not be the only thing passing through your doors unbeknownst to you. A gap, crack, hole or opening of ¼ inch or larger can appear to be a welcome mat for mice, rats and insects to enter your home. Damaged or missing door sweeps are a very common entry point for rodents and pests. And once they arrive, like all unwanted house guests, it’s difficult to get them to leave. So prevention is the key and once again, an Xcluder Pest Control Door Sweep would be the right solution. The reinforced neoprene rubber that provides the tight seal for your energy savings is filled with an Xcluder’s patented rodent-proof fill fabric. This fill has sharp, coarse stainless steel wool fibers which are virtually impenetrable to rats, mice and insects so they are not able to gnaw through it like they can with a standard rubber sweep

So if you are interested in saving money and only want invited house guests then installing Xcluder Door Sweeps is the right project for you. They are available in a variety of lengths common to most door sizes and types. They feature a sturdy aluminum retainer and include stainless steel mounting screws and slotted screw holes for easy installation and easy adjustment. So with a few quick turns of a screw you can close the door on wasted energy and unwanted visitors. You can order Xcluder pest control door sweeps by visiting buyxluder.com.

Mouse Proof your Home, Business, & RV

Xcluder stops rodents before they get in saving you time, money and headaches.