What rodents damage.
Gnawing never stops because rodent teeth keep growing. They shred insulation for nests, strip wire coatings, and gnaw through plastic pipe, screens and drywall to open a path. A mouse chewing a cable can set off a short circuit.
Damage often hides in attics, wall voids and crawl spaces. Warning signs include flickering lights, tripped breakers, cold drafts from chewed ducts, torn screens and holes in drywall.
Safety before repair.
Leave chewed wiring alone. If lights flicker or an outlet runs warm, turn off the circuit when that is safe and phone an electrician. Damaged ducts may leak air and carry contaminants, and soaked insulation holds smell.
Common repairs.
| Damaged item. | Repair. | Who does it. |
|---|---|---|
| Attic insulation. | Remove soiled material and reinstall. | Our crew or an insulator. |
| Ducts and flex lines. | Patch or replace chewed sections. | Our crew or an HVAC trade. |
| Vent and crawl screens. | Replace with heavy hardware cloth. | Our crew. |
| Drywall holes. | Patch behind and finish. | Our crew or a drywall trade. |
| Wiring. | Replace and inspect. | A licensed electrician. |
We handle the rodent-specific parts and point you to the right trade for the rest.
Why repair comes last.
If animals can still get in, they will chew again. So the order runs inspection, trapping, sealing, cleanup, and finally repair, so repair money is not wasted.
Older and modern houses.
New Canaan has houses of many ages and styles, including mid-century modern designs. Some of those have flat roofs, large windows and unusual wall assemblies, so repairs may need extra care to match materials. Tell us the style and age of your house, and the technician plans accordingly.
Photos help.
Take pictures of any damage before it is moved, with a coin for scale if possible. Photos let us scope the work from the phone, and they help your insurer or electrician understand what happened.
Handling rodent waste with no dust in the air: what to do
The points below restate public CDC advice in plain words, and they hold even if you never hire anyone.
- Dust kicks up the moment dry waste is brushed, so put the soaking step before everything else.
- A garage, shed or attic closed up for a while needs air before you work in it, so open it and wait around half an hour.
- At minimum, you need rubber gloves while working and a good scrub when finished.
- Disinfect before you collect. Wet the waste fully and leave it roughly five minutes.
- Towels and debris belong in a sealed plastic bag headed for the regular trash, with hands guarded near any carcass.
- Fever, aches or breathing difficulty after contact with waste deserve a physician's attention. We make no claims about anyone's health.
Public guidelines this page relies on
Two kinds of source support this page, one for cleanup and one for poison rules. Both are listed below.
- EPA: rodenticide product limits: Which rodenticide products are restricted, and why some never reach store shelves.
- CDC: hantavirus prevention: Cutting down contact inside houses, sheds and cars, from the CDC hantavirus pages.
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