Cold weather is coming — and so are rodents. How to keep them out of your Kansas home

As the seasons change and the weather gets cooler, rodents across Kansas could be on the lookout for warmer locations and food, and your home might be the perfect place.

Not only are rodents a nuisance if they enter your home, but they also come some health risks, Sedgwick County epidemiologist Kaylee Hervey said.

“The biggest risk with rodents entering your home is really kind of the things they leave behind,” Hervey said. “You know, the feces that have the particles in it. And so when you’re cleaning, trying to clean up and you stir up dust or you know, you’ve got something sitting around your home and you haven’t touched it in a while, and you open it and all that dust just kind of comes up into your face.

“You can breathe that in and that can cause all kinds of health problems,” she noted.

Two illnesses commonly associated with rodents are hantavirus, which Hervey said isn’t as big of a problem in the Wichita area, and salmonella.

According to the American Lung Association, common symptoms of hantavirus are a fever higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit, nausea, vomiting, a cough and difficulty breathing. If you think you have hantavirus, the association said you should seek medical care as soon as possible, especially if you live in an area with a high rodent population.

Symptoms of salmonella include stomach cramps, vomiting, chills, headache and fever, according to the Mayo Clinic. You should seek medical care if the symptoms last more than a few days, lead to a high fever and blood in the stool or if you get dehydrated.

The Mayo Clinic said medical care is especially recommended if the patient is an infant, child, older adult or has a compromised immune system.

Hervey said salmonella and similar diseases are commonly contracted when people don’t clean properly.

“If you don’t wear gloves, don’t wash your hands after touching things, just like any other thing, you touch it, your hand gets contaminated and then you know, you touch your face or eat or do something and you can get things like salmonella,” she said.

How to prevent rodents from entering your Kansas home

According to the National Pest Management Association, Kansas is entering “peak rodent season.”

Mice are one of the most common mammals in the U.S., according to the NPMA. It’s estimated mice enter about 21 million homes in the country every year, with their peak season being from October to February. They typically set up shop near a food source.

Norway rats are found throughout the country, while roof rats are usually found in coastal states and the southern third of the country, the NPMA says. Norway rats can usually be found in garbage piles or underneath concrete slabs. In houses, they usually settle in basements and attics, as well as other undisturbed places.

The best way to prevent the spread of disease is to prevent rodents from entering your home in the first place.

The county promotes three basic steps regarding rodent prevention: seal up, trap up and clean up.

“The biggest thing you can do is seal up holes inside your house and outside your house to prevent rodents from getting,” Hervey said. “So you want to look for gaps and holes in your walls or areas they can get in, because they can get in really tiny holes.”

Once those spots are identified, you should seal them up using tools like caulk or steel wool. You should also seal any food in your home, which can attract the same unwanted visitors.

“Plastic containers with tight lids work really well,” Hervey said.

The next step is to clean your house of any clutter, especially outdoors.

“You don’t want wood piles or things up against your house because that’s, you know, a perfect environment for them,” Hervey said.

Clearing up around the yard can also help you deter other unwanted visitors this fall, like spiders around your wood pile or in the garage.

If you think rodents are already living in your home, you can call an exterminator or set up traps. There are several humane catch-and-release rodent trap options.

Hervey said the county does not recommend using any kind of rat poison, especially if you have animals in the home. Pets can also ingest the poison, which then causes health issues.